The Jaguar's Arranged Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Read Online Free Page B

because her brother had come to see him, to essentially propose for her?
    Beric gazed at the other guard, who immediately returned to his post at the gate. “Would you like a tour?” he asked, holding out his hand.
    “Would you like me to drop to one knee?” she countered.
    His lips quirked and settled into a lopsided smile. “Only if you want to. I don’t have a ring for you.”
    “I don’t have one for you either.” She tossed her red hair over her shoulder.
    Beric’s laugh was deep and warming, and she found herself laughing too.
    “No ring, but I do have this.” Beric reached into his pants pocket—the slacks hung low on his hips she realized—and removed a silver chain. On it was a charm, a white rose. “Not red like blood, but I saw it yesterday, and it made me think of you.”
    “You don’t even know me.” She touched the charm but didn’t take the necklace. Did he think he could buy her with gifts? But she had come to him, not the other way around.
    Could he want more from her than just a means to protect his pack? The thought terrified her. She hadn’t thought through what exactly it meant to marry Beric, what it meant she would be giving up, but now she was beginning to think about what it could have been like to marry someone she loved.
    “You don’t know me either, but you’re willing to marry me so that our packs might have a chance against the Brutal Claws. So, yeah, I don’t know you, but I do know you care about your people, and that means enough to me.” He held up the necklace. “May I?”
    A moment passed before she turned around and lifted her hair. After he clasped the necklace on, his hands rested on her shoulders for a moment, his fingers touching bare skin. Her tank top allowed for the skin-to-skin contact, and her shoulders felt aflame from his touch. It wasn’t a caress, and it was over almost as soon as it started, and she found herself wishing he had touched her longer.
    Miera swallowed hard before turning around. His eyes were yellow with flecks of gold, his lines hard but not too severe, his nose carved as if from stone. Beric was a rather handsome man, made even more so by the slight scar near his left eye. Without thinking first, she reached up and touched it. “How did that happen?”
    “A battle.” He shrugged. “A long time ago. I have a few other scars, too.”
    She lifted her tank top to show a two-inch line near her belly button. “My skin’s far from perfect too.”
    Maybe that was being a little forward, but the man was engaged to her. He’d see her naked soon enough. She hadn’t thought about sex when she had put forward the idea of wedding the heir of the Teal Warriors, but now the prospect of having heirs with this hunk of a were-jaguar wasn’t something she’d object to. At least he was good looking. If she couldn’t marry for love, maybe it would be easier to settle marrying for lust.
    “If I point out all of mine, we’ll be here all day.” He moved closer to her.
    Her breathing grew ragged. She was tall, but he towered over her. Miera looked up into his eyes and licked her lips. Was he going to kiss her? She wanted him to. Wanted to feel if his muscles were as hard as they looked, wanted to feel if his hair was as soft as it looked, wanted to feel—
    But he only reached for her hand. “A tour?”
    “Where does it end?” she asked boldly.
    Beric stared down at her. “Wherever you like.” His eyes… she could gaze into them and be lost.
    Unnerved by how much her body wanted him, she turned away, subtly—hopefully—increasing the space between them but still holding his hand. “Lead the way.”
    He pointed out various buildings—their cafeteria, their school, the church, the houses, a warehouse, the barracks.
    “Barracks?” she questioned.
    “Once we reach ten years old, we start training. We know various forms of martial arts and how to use firearms. We also learn survival tactics as well.”
    “A slash at the right spot or a