Feral Craving (21 page)

The high that overcame him rushed up, and feeling with the
pleasure of a thousand orgasms, he leaned his head back, arched his back and
growled out with erotic pleasure. His whole body shook, the arousal so high his
cock pulsed with a thousand beats in his pants.

He shifted and pounced on the other demon, completed the
same task and surged with satisfaction to the connection with his beast. Basked
in it.

The branch snapping behind gave him a clue he was no longer
alone. He rounded on the sound, and both he and his demon took in Mackenzie
standing before him. His body was so jacked and ready to claim her that it
physically hurt to keep himself in place.

She held out her hand, wide eyes skimming over his body. He
reached for her, tried to not take offense to the wince that coated her
features. His hand wrapped around hers, and he glanced down, saw the pulsing
tattoos that resembled ones very similar to the skin on the two disappearing
bodies at his feet.

A quick tug brought her body up to his, and they fit
together like two halves of a puzzle. Bari dipped his head, heard the low growling
rumbling from his chest but more so felt each and every damn inch of her curvy
body molded to him.

He could take her here.

He actually intended to.

However, a rush of panic flowed through him as voices
closed in on their direction. He wasn’t a fool, knew the only reason they had
bested these two was because of the element of surprise. He pulled on her arm
and started to run, his original plan lost in the blowing breeze as he just
wanted to get them as far from the approaching clan as fast as possible.

Bari heard the rush of water and slowed his steps as the
cliffs loomed ahead. He stopped as they cleared the forest’s edge, the long
stretch of water in front of them providing no shelter from what approached.
His eyes glanced at the current strong pull of the river, and he knew a few
miles down there was a large, raging waterfall, which might not be the death of
them, but would certainly injure them.

He closed his eyes and let the nature of the forest try to
calm him. He sensed the air still around them, heard the owls stop their hoots,
footsteps ceased from animals around them, and the wind stopped brushing past.
He took in the complete silence of the forest. It was almost as if the forest
waited for his action, a response from the two of them, one he wasn’t really
certain he could provide to anyone.

Mackenzie shifted away from him, and he
turned to glance at her. With shoulders hunched inward as if that slight move
would offer her a measure of protection, he frowned and looked down at his
still pulsing skin. The blue coloring hadn’t faded at all. He waited for what
seemed like forever for her to turn and when she did, the look upon her face
flayed him straight to his heart.

“Mac … I would never hurt you. Don’t you know that?” The
look of disbelief in his words, in him, that she wore, caused his soul to
scream like a wounded animal. He knew she was distrustful; hell, how could she
not be after he left her so many years ago? But it still hurt him, to the point
of physical pain, that she so readily believed him capable of harming her.

He took a step forward only to see Mackenzie take a
retreating one. For everything that had gone on, the danger still surrounding
them, he felt his temper loosen at the situation and more importantly at her
ready belief he would allow harm to come to her. He released her hand and paced
in a tight circle, struggling to not lash out in anger as he latched onto his
own hurt. Taking a deep breath, he released it on a sigh before leveling his
gaze to Mackenzie’s, and moved so quickly she didn’t have time to back away
from him. His lips hovered inches from hers as he cupped the back of her neck
and crushed his mouth against hers. He kissed her with the ferocity of his
anger, his hurt and the long kept desire he held from her during the years of
their separation. His blood pounded in his ears as he ravaged her lips, and his
tongue pressed against the seam of her lips, demanding entrance. For a moment,
he thought she would deny him until her lips parted and allowed him access. His
tongue melded with hers, stroking and tangling before pulling back, their
breathing ragged.

“It pains me, more than you will ever understand or
realize, to think you really believe I would harm you.” He dropped his hand
from her neck and turned, walking into the forest and its shadows, giving her
the out to get free of him. He had taken only a few steps in when he allowed
the hurt to cocoon him, his goodbye to Mackenzie all he had left.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Mackenzie stood there frozen, her entire body reeling in
shock as she watched Bari walk away. Her hand lifted as he stepped into the
forest and touched on her lips, which were swollen from his searing kiss.
Never, in all her time, did she think such a touch between two melting mouths
could provide such heat, such pleasure, and such comfort all at once. With the
acts of intimacy in her world so few and far between, she had never known,
never thought of what it would feel like to take such a kiss. She thought she’d
never want to experience it with him again, but now that she had another taste
of it, the exquisite taste of Bari, she wanted and craved more. Her tongue
darted out, and he assailed her senses again, filling her mouth with such a
musky taste that it reminded her of cinnamon, of the woods, of cider, all
wrapped up to define and identify him as a savage male. She blinked once, twice
before she realized she had been standing on the edge of the shore, staring off
at nothing in particular while everything was walking away from her. Hope
filled her chest to the point where it felt as though it would combust, and
springing into action, she launched herself forward, running off in the
direction her best friend for so long had walked in.

“Bari!” She yelled his name over and over, and suddenly all
sounds invaded her senses as if a switch turned back on. She heard the roaring
waterfall, animals scampering around in the forest, and the wind knocking the
leaves and limbs together on the trees, caressing the life that filled the
forest. “Bari!” Her legs moved faster, her body emitting such raw pain as she
burst into the forest.

As she ran around a tree, she stopped as he turned toward
her and felt his pain as if it were her own. She walked up to him with caution,
her legs wobbling beneath her body with fear such as she had never experienced
before. If he turned from her now she would have no reason to live, nothing to
care for and no one to love. It was then she realized, as she fell to her knees
in front of him, bowing her head down in shame as a wave of raw anguish pushed
through her, that she loved this male as she had never loved anyone. He
completed her entire world, had been her sole source of comfort for so long,
and while the emotion was not a new one, she only had been able to identify
what it was now as he turned from her.

“Bari…” His name choked out of her mouth, the sound
strangled with pain and apology. She didn’t know what to say, only understood
as she reached and gripped his pant leg that she was lost without him, in her
own little dark world. Without him no light existed, nothing to mark her path
on the road to her future, and without Bari around, she would return to such a
bleak state that she would cease to live. While her body and mind were her own,
Bari was her soul, and she had no idea how to live or love, to care or comfort,
to exist or thrive without the man standing above her.

He knelt on one knee and rested his hands on her shoulders,
pulling her upright and into the cage of his arms. He sat holding her to him,
and her hands gripped at his shirt as if he would let go.

“Hey now, Mackenzie, I’m not going anywhere unless you want
me to go.” Bari rose to his feet, tugging her up with him. “We need to move and
as much as I would love to stand here with you tucked in my arms, it’s not the
best shelter for us.” He peered down into her eyes, and then reached to tuck a
stray strand of hair that broke loose from the braid she wore it in behind her
ear.

Tucking one of her hands into his, they proceeded forward,
following the line of the forest along the bank of the river. The rushing sound
of water increased as they crested a steep grade to see the head of the
waterfall pulsed water over a sharp drop that extended down for several meters
to crash against a rocky pool before the river continued on.

“Stay the course?” She looked to Bari to guide them.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “This is a dangerous
track to take but one I’m familiar with. The ledges on the cliffs are small so
step carefully and only where I do.”

Giving his hand a squeeze, she followed him as they started
making their way down the side. At one point he had to release her hand, and
she slid down over a rock until her feet touched the small ledge and then used
her grip on the rocks to slowly lower herself down even more.

“Follow my moves, Mac, and whatever you do, don’t assume a
ledge is strong enough to hold your weight. These rocks can slip at times under
the slightest movement so keep your weight centered in your hands on two
separate rocks.”

Moving down the cliff seemed to take hours and as they
reached the bottom, she finally let out a deep breath. They turned from one
task completed and he led them forward, winding through trails and thick trees,
in what seemed to be a track along the edge of the river. The challenge still
remained that they needed to cover so many miles in such a short amount of time
and a ton of obstacles in their way, including the ones she knew still hunted
them.

She was starting to put together pieces of the puzzle and
somehow realized this all related to whatever change Bari was going through.
The thought should scare her, but it didn’t. She wondered briefly if she had
finally lost her mind, because accepting this shouldn’t be so easy.

As they started to move up a steady incline, she saw both
of their breaths puffing condensed air the farther they got up the mountain,
the cooler the air became. There would be plenty of caves to camp out in
overnight and with how hard the snow storms hit up here, she knew they would
have to take shelter, rather than risk being turned into ice cubes. Glancing
over at Bari as he held back a branch for her to pass, she wondered what he was
thinking, thought back on all they had been through and wondered if things
would ever be okay between them. She loved him; that much she was aware of and
could admit, and even though she hadn’t told him, it still didn’t take away
from the amount of love she had. He had been so quiet since they met the falls
a few miles back, and she couldn’t help but wonder just what was going on in
that head of his. Did he regret being here with her? Was he thinking on the
same things as she? Or did he blame her for getting into this situation? She
could only wonder and couldn’t seem to get the words to form and come out of
her mouth, despite wanting to do so, so very much.

****

Cool air seeped into his body and nestled down into his
bones. Their race ran a higher body temperature due to the advanced nature of
their physical make up, but it was no protection against the elements if
exposed too long. Following Mackenzie, he had been deep in thought for the
majority of the trip, grunting short replies as he navigated, not expanding
much upon that as he mentally tried to digest everything that occurred.
Stopping behind her at the yawning cavern that was housed in the side of one of
the steep grades, he allowed his senses to flare out into the dark hole to
judge its safety.

He moved inside, finding the cave to be clear of all but
the most menial animals and insects. Bari dropped down to seat himself on the
earthen floor, exhaustion pawing at his body.

He felt her studying his face even as she tried to do so
without his knowledge and wondered what she searched for. He turned to look at
her and openly traced her features. She’d seen him at his worst, and he knew
she saw what he was to become. He didn’t understand what was going on with his
kind back in the woods, why they were tracking him but at last, he had figured
out the familiar touch of the demons.

It was his father’s touch.

One that shouldn’t be possible, one that didn’t belong.

Wasn’t he just a hypocrite? No wonder Mackenzie didn’t know
whether to trust him—he was a walking contradiction.

“Bari...” Mackenzie visibly struggled for words, her face
scrunching up and her eyes darting around. “There’s no other place I’d rather
be, than right here with you. There’s no other place I’d rather go, than where
you walk. If anything, I’ve been searching for you for the past nine years.
I’ve felt bereft without you, as if I lost a piece of myself somewhere. I don’t
know exactly what’s in your heart with where you want to be, Bari, but I’m
exactly where I’d like to be. Well … the coast of a nice warm island or my home
wouldn’t hurt.” A forced laugh came out of her, the sound so loud in the quiet
cave. Her eyes cast down as she finished speaking and looked so damn
vulnerable.

“I don’t know what you want to do, Bari, but all I want is
for you to be safe. If you wish to return to what you were doing before you got
hurt, then that’s okay too. I don’t expect you to stay with me just because we
have a child together. We’ve had one for eight years, and now that you’re home,
it doesn’t change any of it. I also understand you’re dealing with something
new; hell, it’s new to me too, and I don’t know what to think about it. But I’m
sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable earlier.” Her eyes still didn’t meet
his, and he struggled to let her finish rather than pull her into his arms like
he wanted to do. “I’m going to go find some hot springs to wash up. There
should be some deeper in this mountain.”