Feral Magic Read Online Free Page B

stared at each other.
    "By my honor, lady," he said, and for the first time she heard inflection in his tone.  Weariness.
    He didn't appear tired, more like battle ready.
    Of course an alpha cat wouldn't show any weakness.  Nor would a human commander.  Huh.
    She didn't particularly like warriors or soldiers.  One of those, her Ross, had already died and left a big hole in her heart.
    Then he bowed, slowly and deeply, inclining his torso from the waist...and dropping his head so he didn't meet her eyes.  Nearly vulnerable – like she could take him out if she had a shotgun within reach and she was fast enough, or could whip up a magic spell and fling it at him, or turn into a tiger herself  – though she saw that he protected the baby with his arms and body.   So if she did attack, Favel would not be hurt.  And she'd already proven that she'd watch over the child.
    She let a breath sift out, and actually enjoyed seeing the muscles play under all that lovely skin as he straightened.  "Come in," she said, and stepped into the enclosed porch.  She even turned her back on him.  She'd have to give him her bed, the one in the guest room was a three-quarter and far too short for him.
    Not that she'd gotten much sleep the night before, but some of her questions as to what to do with the baby-cub had been answered.  The unnamed jaguar man could take care of him.
    She just had to deal with him.  Big problem.
    He stepped into the porch, holding Favel and his pack.  When he closed the door, the space seemed much smaller.  She smelled him...a not unpleasant astringent odor.  Moving into the kitchen, she said, "So you're a stranger in a strange land."
    "That is so," he replied, then Can you speak this way? he asked mentally.
    She winced at the loudness of his telepathic sending and answered in words.  "Yes, I can hear you when you speak that way.  Speaking mind-to-mind is also extremely rare here, I think.  At least I haven't heard anyone admit to telepathy."
    "I will have to hide much of myself, then," the man said.
    Gazing up at him, she nodded.  "If you mean that you'll have to remain human all of the time, you're right."
    "What?  All of the time?"
    "Absolutely."  She eyed him.  He was even bigger up close, but not as lean as Ross had been.
    This time the tingles she was getting weren't anything like fear, more like pheromones.  She liked the way he smelled, she liked the way his carved muscles looked in the dim light.  She liked his purple eyes.  Extremely compelling.  Though they weren't touching each other, her skin – her entire body – seemed sensitized to him.  Fascinating male to complement her female, and she became abruptly aware she hadn't had a lover in a long time.
    Her pulse had picked up beat and felt like it was humming approval of the man under her skin.  Her body, at least, seemed to have mourned enough for Ross.  A pang of grief, ending quickly.
    She'd let him in without much thought.  Was she still so careless of herself after all her loss?  Something to reconsider.  But she'd always been a sucker for cats.
    *~*~*
    Dak followed the woman through the house – a tiny place for a klatch, but the smells of the building told him that only she and the cats lived here – large for one person, and why did she live alone?  That, of course, was a cultural question that he could not guess the answer to, and could not ask, in case he offended her.
    She was exotically beautiful, with pale skin and hair the color of his favorite golden honey.  Her eyes matched the sky outside in blueness.  He inhaled her scent of sweet woman and honey.  His mouth watered as he yearned to taste her and find out what unique spices might coat his tongue.
    Each step taxed his body.  All the portal hopping, the bad wounds from one of those horrible metal vehicles, the healing and little sleep and no food – not to mention the worry about Favel – combined to make him as weary as if he'd fought duels all day