Panther Magic Read Online Free Page A

though the ground fell
away from them, and Kate barely suppressed a shriek, when Arran swept her up in
his arms. Air rushed by, and Kate got the distinct impression she really didn’t
want to see what the hell was going on. Besides, the whole experience was far
too discombobulating as it was.
    She sensed Zeb moving in next to
her, when Arran put her back on her feet, and when she felt the warmth of the
stage lights on her skin, she opened her eyes.
    Arran was speaking now, some
mumbo jumbo about an offering to the panthers, but she wasn’t even listening,
too caught up in the expression in Zeb’s eyes, as he looked at her. She
couldn’t put it down to a trick of the light now, as his gaze bled from molten
chocolate to glowing soft yellow, and the air shimmered around him. Arran
pulled her back and out of the way, and with another dramatic sequence of
music, flash lighting, and yet more smoke Zeb
disappeared. Her scream died in her throat, when a snarling black panther
appeared in his place, and the audience erupted into raucous applause.
    ****
    Zeb crouched low and snarled his
freedom. It felt good to be back in panther form, and his beast damn near
purred at being this close to his mate. Her scent drove his animal wild. He
wanted nothing more than to wrap himself around the human, lick and bite her
fragrant skin, and sink his teeth into her flesh to cement this bond between
them.
    Arran watched their mate warily
for her reaction, while maintaining a fixed smile for the benefit of their
audience, as he ran through his practiced spiel. Zeb, too, bowed and ran
circles round his brother and their mate, as per their act. They were
performers after all, and the show had to go on, but, boy, how he wished they
would all just bugger off and leave him alone with Kate. Well, Kate and Arran.
    It had been something of a shock
to them both when they realized that their animals had chosen her. While deep
down they’d always known it was a possibility that they would end up mated to
the same woman, the reality of the depths of their feelings, the instant need
to connect and protect this one precious person they were meant to be with had
floored them both.
    Little was known about the
mysterious mating bond, thanks to the council’s less than ethical mating
practices, but with fertility rates declining sharply, attitudes were changing.
With the killing of the original shifter in charge of the Mating Project, the
abhorrent practice of mating young shifter females to eligible males had been
mostly abandoned, and a team of scientists was working on getting to the bottom
of the shifter community’s fertility problems. As pure blood panthers, Arran
and Zeb were all too aware of the need to procreate, but being males they’d had
much more freedom to do as they chose, and having always been fascinated by
magic from an early age, had chosen to pursue a career in entertainment.
    It had taken them out of the
council’s influence, and perhaps more importantly, eventual success and the
fame that came with it, meant they were safe from this having to mate nonsense.
The brothers had taken full advantage of the willing female pussy on offer, and
had shared plenty of women, co-topped yet more willing submissives, yet one
sniff of Kate’s scent in that swimming pool and everything had changed in an
instant.
    However, Kate was human, and the
fact that she seemed to find their profession abhorrent complicated things
somewhat. So, while Zeb had been all for throwing her over his shoulder and
dragging her off caveman style, the more cautious Arran had been the voice of
reason.
    “ Let’s invite her to the show, so she can see for
herself, and go from there.”
    It seemed a sensible enough plan,
even if the wait to see her again had been killing both of them. If they’d
thought their instant reaction to the human had been an aberration, they were
soon cured of the notion. Both men had scented her the minute she’d sat down in
her seat, looking as