Beast Within (9 page)

Tribal security shot up the van as the gunman who had shot
their co-workers tried to escape. The gunman slumped over the steering wheel,
half his head gone.

Dylan gathered Haley close to him while a naked Hawksky
snapped orders at tribal security. A woman calmly handed Hawksky a blanket,
then one to Dylan while a doctor began to examine Haley.

“Pickle?”

“Holding you, Hildy.”

“You did it.”

“I did what I could to help you. Hawksky and tribal security
got the rest of the assholes who were trying to kidnap you.”

To his relief, she opened her eyes, then scolded. “Not that,
pickle head. You. You shifted to the jaguarondi and back again.”

“I had to let the jaguarondi out to keep my mate from harm.
Fortunately, I had a good teacher help me learn how to do it.”

The doctor demanded Haley’s attention. After checking her
eyes, he declared she had a mild concussion, suggested bed rest for twenty-four
hours and to contact him if she started seeing double or got dizzy.

In the high roller’s suite assigned to them by Hawksky,
Dylan watched his mate waking up after a nap. When she opened her eyes and
smiled at him, he felt his heart contract with love.

“How many of me do you see?”

“Just one. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad.
If you had a twin, I could double my pleasure. Maybe one of your brothers?”

Dylan ran his index finger down her straight nose to touch
her lips. “Forget that. I’m not sharing my mate.” He slid his hand under the
sheet to cup her breast and tweaked her nipple. “Are you dizzy? Lightheaded?”

“Only if you keep doing that.”

Dylan kissed her with all the tenderness that filled his
soul. Her mouth opened and took him with a sweetness he knew he needed in his
life forever. For a moment, the fear of losing her to those thugs returned. But
it didn’t happen. She was here, warm, naked and cuddly beside him.

He moved his mouth down her throat to her full, enchanting
breasts. He suckled one, then the other while her hands fisted in his hair. He
finger-combed through her thatch to discover she was already wet for him.

While she recovered from the mild concussion, they needed to
take it slow and easy. In fact, a down and dirty bang wasn’t what he wanted
this time anyway. This time he wanted to make love to her with quiet
thankfulness she was part of his life.

He rubbed her pussy while he worshiped her breasts. She
spread her legs to give him more access and her moisture drenched his fingers.
He inserted one finger, then a second to inflame the knot that gave her joy.

Her orgasm started. Her body shook and he swallowed her glad
cries while their tongues encircled and stroked each other in their joined
mouths. She rode his hand over the crest.

Her body eased into relaxation. Slowly, he entered her
heated, slick passage that welcomed him like a glove on a cold winter’s day.
There he waited, content for the moment for them to be joined.

When he started to move, she tightened her legs around him
to draw him in deeper. She joined the rhythm he started.

Their unhurried pace gave them time to treasure the taste of
skin, the texture of muscles, the solid strength of bones. They felt the kiss
of their bodies meeting and sliding off each other. Their souls joined in the
glitter of tears of happiness because they’d found the other half of their
being.

When their passion began to crest, Dylan once again sank his
teeth into his mate’s shoulder, but this time held the wildcat back from
breaking skin. Intensifying his ecstasy, Haley locked her mouth on his
shoulder, pulling his skin and muscle into her mouth. She broke skin the way he
had the first time. The pleasure-pain pushed his control over his jaguarondi.
But he held firm and contented the wildcat with the taste of her skin as he suckled
the now healing bite he’d left before.

Arms and legs locked around each other, their mouths fused
to the other’s shoulders, they drove each other to the final frenzy. He emptied
into her, triggering her ride to the top and over. Dylan answered her call of
joy with his own hoarse growl.

When the crescendo eased, Dylan rolled to his side. Haley
smiled at him and put her hand against the slightly bleeding mark she had left
on him. He placed his hand on his mark on her, now oozing a bit again.

Dylan looked at her and she nodded. They each licked the
marks they left. Their mouths joined, the iron tang of each other commingling
with their tongues.

“Your blood is my blood,” Dylan told her while holding his
hand once again on her shoulder, stopping the slight bleeding.

“As mine is yours,” Haley answered, applying pressure to the
skin she’d bitten open.

“My mate.”

“My mate,” she answered.

A knock on the door broke into their quiet bonding. They
each grabbed guns off the bedside tables. Haley peered through a thin opening
between the curtains while Dylan checked the peephole.

“Hawksky,” he told Haley. He caught the robe she tossed him.
He noted she hadn’t put the safety on the gun she held either as she tucked her
hand and gun into the pocket of her robe. Dylan shrugged on the robe and
cautiously opened the door with the security chain still on.

“I’m alone.”

Dylan eased open the door and double-checked the hallway as
he let Hawksky into the room.

“How are your officers?” he asked Hawksky after he activated
his gun’s safety. His mate, he realized, was quite as trusting but kept her
hand on her gun in the pocket.

“One of them is in the hospital with a concussion from the
bullet that grazed his scalp. The other has already been treated and released.
Her husbands are trying to talk her into taking a desk job.”

“If she’s anything like Haley, they can forget that idea.”

“She was my instructor in dirty fighting in the Amazons.”
Haley yawned and leaned against Dylan. She finally pulled out the gun and
thumbed the safety before putting it back in her pocket. He put his arm around
her, tucking her tightly to his side. As much as he admired Hildy’s strength
and courage, he hoped he never had to see her fighting for her life again.
Still it was a comfort to know she could not only take care of herself, but
watch his back when he went after the group who messed with him. He controlled
the wildcat now, but he resented he had been forced to literally become his
inner beast.

Hawksky frowned at Haley. “You’re supposed to be in bed. You
have a concussion. She’s supposed to have bed rest.” Now his glare went to
Dylan. “Not bouncing and banging.”

Dylan just grinned at Hawksky. “My mate, not yours. Ever try
to stop a member of the Hellcat Battlion of the Amazons from bouncing and
banging if she wants to?”

“Fat chance of that,” Hawksky said with a grin. “One of my
junior wives was in Haley’s unit. Several of our women were or are Amazons.
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least to be voted out as chief someday to one of
them.”

“I don’t know how they put up with you. You’re
overprotective, El. That’s why I don’t want to be one of your wives.”

“The offer remains open, Haley.”

“No way in hell are you marrying him,” Dylan growled.
“You’re my mate. If you want the big girly wedding and party, we’ll do it all
legally, but you’re my mate.”

“And you’re my mate. But, yeah, I do want the girly wedding
with all the hoopla at some point.” She kissed him and Dylan once again drowned
in the taste of her. “Not exactly the girly vision I had of a proposal, but it works.”

“I love you, Hildy. Even if I am an ass about doing the
proposal thing. I’ll do it to your specifications later.”

“After the Davis Mountains trip,” Haley suggested. “I love
you too, wildcat.”

As they kissed again, Hawksky cleared his throat. “I think
it’s time for me to leave.” He put his hand on the doorknob.

“Wait, El.” After one more peck on Dylan’s lips, Haley
asked, “What’s going to happen to the predators who grabbed me?”

“We don’t have to worry about them. Those who didn’t die
immediately must have had suicide capsules. They were dead before the medics
had a chance to treat them for their wounds.”

“Any charges being brought against Dylan?”

“What charges would those be? My officers and a bunch of
tourists here to play craps, poker and the slots saw nothing but a wild
jaguarondi and a hawk attacking some turds with guns who were trying to kidnap
a lady.”

“Good,” Haley nodded at Hawksky.

“Do either of you know who the turds were? The van has no
prints and was stolen from San Antonio two days ago.”

“I have an idea,” Dylan said, “but you’ll never be able to
track them.”

“You don’t know my tribe. We can track anything. But as long
as they stay off our land, I don’t give a damn. How do you know who they were?”

“I think they’re after me and were capturing Haley to get to
me.”

“My people and I will protect you as long as you’re on our
land. Are you going to stay? If you do, we’ll keep them off our land. Flying
bullets upset the marks at the casino.”

“Thanks, but we have to leave. They may have reinforcements
coming.”

“They won’t breach our barriers again. We’ll get you both
out and on your way in the morning. We have ways of getting people out without
outsiders being the wiser. Nice to meet you, Dylan. Haley, if you decide to
drop this wildcat, the Most Senior Wife has instructed me to tender an offer to
you as Junior-to-Senior Wife.”

“No, thanks. I’m going to be with Dylan for a long time.
We’re going to take care of something for him in the Davis Mountains, then I’ll
drag him off to meet my family.”

“Sweetheart, just wait until you meet
my
family.”

“Go back to bed and
try to
get some rest, you two.”

Hawksky shut the door to the suite. Dylan and Haley stumbled
back to bed eager to once again explore each other’s bodies.

When they exhausted themselves, Haley snuggled against
Dylan’s chest. She started to drift to sleep when she heard a rumbling. A
slight vibration fluttered Dylan’s chest under her cheek.

“Dylan, wake up. You pickle head, you snore.”

“Not snoring, wasn’t asleep,” Dylan said, cuddling her close
to him. “I’m happy. Did some internet research. Kept wondering what caused the
sound I made while watching you sleep. Small wildcats make a chuffle when they
breathe out. It’s as close as I can get to a purr. And I plan to be purring
happily with you for the rest of my life.

The author welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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