Prince of Flight (7 page)

You’ve already fallen for him
.

She tried to make a move for the door, but her gut clenched, heat racing over her as nausea rose quickly. Her entire body racked with pain and she whimpered, unsure what was happening to her.

Warm, strong arms wrapped around her waist, drawing her back against a frame she had already come to recognize as Keonae’s. The pain, the wave of sickness, all of it washed away from her almost instantaneously with his touch.

He put his mouth to her ear. “Who threatened you?”

“W-what?” she questioned, her mind unable to follow as her body sparked with desire for him. She might burn alive if he didn’t make love to her and soon.

“I felt your fear, your pain,” he said, his voice low, deep, menacing, yet she didn’t fear him. He’d never harm her. She knew that deep in her bones. Another sure fact hit her—he would have her and she would never be the same. Neither would he.

She was a mess he didn’t need. The darkness that followed her around would catch up to her. It always did, and Keonae would be in its crosshairs. She didn’t want that.

Didn’t want him hurt. Not because she couldn’t control the magnetic pull to him. She couldn’t seem to get one foot to move in front of the other so that she could step out of his grasp. He felt so good. So right.

Running her hands over his arms, Lark closed her eyes briefly, enjoying his touch. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d allowed another to comfort her in such a way. “No one threatened me.”

“But I felt your pain.”

Felt my pain?

She turned her head, looking over her shoulder at him, and he eased a hand up, just under her left breast. Her nipples tightened to diamond-like points and she shook with wanton desire for him. She’d managed to control her attraction to him for nearly a month. Why was she suddenly having issues?

Stop touching him.

Hell, stop being touched by him.

Her body ignored her mind’s ravings. It wanted him to touch her more intimately and it wanted less clothing between them. She writhed against his form, the feel of his erection digging at her backside. A growl of masculine triumph came from him and she bent her head awkwardly, unconcerned with how uncomfortable the action was.
 

His lips grazed hers and fire shot through her body, giving her the answers she’d sought. The reason why she was having such a hard time resisting him all of a sudden. As her gaze eased over his lips, it all became crystal clear. They’d kissed and it had apparently weakened her resolve to him. For some reason, the action had left her a mind-numbed sex addict with a singular focus.

Him.

“Keonae?” asked Sachin, his voice off. “Is all well?”

Keonae jerked her tighter against his frame. “She is trying to make me believe so, yet I felt her pain, old friend. I felt her fear as if it were my own.”

Lark tried to focus on what he was saying, but she couldn’t, not with him touching her. Stirrings of lust guided her actions as she continued to rub her body against his. It was animalistic and she couldn’t find it in herself to care. She laid her head back against him, noticing how perfectly they fit together. It was as if they were made for one another.

He jerked her tight to him, his hips thrusting against her backside, leaving no room for doubt. He was as turned on as she was. And nothing on the man was small by anyone’s standards.

She gulped.

He growled again, nipping at her ear. “I want to be in you,
ta’konima
.”
 

The men all sounded shocked by whatever Keonae had just said to her. She was too caught up in the lust to pay it much mind.

“Oh shit,” said Rossi, his voice barely there. “This is big. What do we do?”

“For now, assure he does not do anything foolish,” said Lazar. “He is still being driven by testosterone from the human boys threatening her. In this state, he could cause her harm without meaning to.”

“I vote you grab him,” said Rossi, a note of concern in his voice. “I like my body parts attached.”

“Ever the brave one,” said Lazar mockingly.

Sachin stepped closer and Lark became vaguely aware that Lazar and Rossi were on the other side, as if they were all flanking Keonae, preparing to do battle of some sort.

Sachin lifted his hands. “Keonae, look at me. I believe mating heat as well as warrior ways of old have you in their grasp.”

“This is not good,” said Rossi, clucking his tongue. “Not good at all.”

“Give her to me slowly,” pressed Sachin, his hands up. “We only wish to see to her safety.”

Keonae growled and she understood the warning he was giving his friends. If they tried to take her from him, he’d react with violence. He’d already shown her there was far more to him than she’d thought. Her mild-mannered biker had a temper and the juice to back it up. There had been enough violence already. No more needed to occur. Not over her.

She turned in his arms, his hand twisting her t-shirt as she went. She touched the sides of his face. “Keonae?”

He trembled under her touch. “Who threatened you,
ta’konima
?”

“Ta whata?” she questioned, unable to look away from his penetrating gaze.

“I stand by my first oh shit,” said Rossi.

“Now who sounds local?” asked Sachin.

Rossi grunted. “Is she
his
?”

Lazar stepped closer, lifting his hands in a sign he meant no harm. “I would say so, yes.”

Keonae squeezed her tighter to him.

She gasped. He was hurting her, but he shouldn’t have been able to. She wasn’t like other women. No. Far from it. “Stop coming closer. You’re making him worse.”

The men froze.

“Keonae, you’re hurting me.”

His grip was iron-clad. She tried to pry free, but that only served to make him tighten his already tight grip.

“Ouch.”

His gaze snapped to her and he blinked, coming out of whatever hold he’d been under. He released her quickly and took a step back. “Lark, I didn’t mean to.”

She remained in place, watching him closer, a sinking feeling coming over her. He shouldn’t have been able to keep her in place. He shouldn’t have been able to inflict pain on her. Yet he’d done both with ease. The only people in her life who could do something similar weren’t really people at all. They were monsters. “
How
did you hurt me?”

Puzzled, he simply stared at her. “I held you too tightly.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” she said, easing closer to him. She looked him up and down, noting his size, how incredibly fit he was—how fit they all were. It was there, niggling at the back of her mind, so close yet just out of reach for her.

Think, Lark.

All of her instincts kicked in and the hair on the back of her neck rose as she began to put the pieces together at an alarming rate where she’d been blind to them before. She wasn’t a fool. She knew there was more to the world than most humans understood. She knew very little was as it normally appeared to be, yet she’d had blinders on with Keonae for weeks. She’d let her pull to him outweigh her better judgment.

His inhuman strength, their accents, their ability to drink in such quantities without seeming affected in the least, and their sometimes strange speech patterns. Not to mention their size.

Giants.

How could she have missed it all when her life depended on her being alert? She’d never missed signs before. She always recognized the demons that hunted her.

Always.

But not with him.

Not with Keonae.

“I know
what
you did. What I don’t understand is
how
you could hurt me. How did you have enough strength to cause me pain, Keonae? What are you? Are you something more than human?” she asked, desperate for him to dispel what she was fast beginning to believe was true.

He was one of them.

The bird men.

He shook his head. “I do not understand.”

Lazar sniffed the air and gasped. “Smell. It is so faint it almost isn’t there.”
 

Sachin took a deep breath and his gaze snapped to her. “You are as we are? You are of the bird shifters?”

Lark’s heart sank and she took a giant step back from them. She was an idiot and her stupidity would cost her life in the end. “I’m nothing like any of you.”

She turned to run, but Keonae caught her, lifting her effortlessly, holding her to him. “Let go of me!”

“Lark?” he asked, sounding hurt and perplexed.

She didn’t struggle, even though she knew she could put up a good fight. She’d done so many times in her life with the birdmen. How had she let him get so close to her? Why hadn’t she noticed he was different? More to the point, why wasn’t she terrified of him?

Why do I want him to fuck me?

Sachin eased closer slowly. “Old friend, she is as we are. Do you smell it on her? It is so faint I would have missed it had Lazar not caught it.”

Rossi gasped. “Cursed Magaious, she’s a shifter?”

“Yes, bring down the wrath of the bird gods upon us for taking their names in vain,” snapped Sachin. “That is sure to make it all better.”

“What? I slept on a hard stone floor, have had nearly no sleep, and my wife may or may not let me in our bed again because I impregnated her. To top off my day, I find out my brother’s woman is a bird shifter masquerading as a human.”

Keonae lifted her high off her feet. “She is no such thing. Stand back.”

Sachin remained in place. He did his best to appear as though he was no threat. “We mean her no harm, Keonae. She is afraid
of us
. Do you sense that upon her?

“She was hurt and in pain,” he said, sounding bewildered. His pain reached through her, as if it were hers, as he’d described happening to him on her account only moments before.

It broke her heart. He was no threat to her. She understood that. She lowered her head and confessed to him. “I was thinking of running away. Of taking off and leaving without telling you goodbye. The idea of leaving you hurt me, Keon. It made my body ache. You felt that. My fear of leaving you.”

He tightened his hold on her and she whimpered. He released her and she faced him, seeing the hurt evident on his face. “You wished to run from me?”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” she said honestly. Her thoughts were scrambled. “I can’t help the way I feel about you, and all of this was so intense all of a sudden. Then I started to worry about them finding me again and what they’d do to you.” She snorted. “I didn’t know you were one of them. You don’t smell like them to me, so I didn’t recognize it on you—and I think the little bits I did see, I chose to ignore because I’m attracted to you. I’ve never been attracted to one before. Ever. Normally, they make me want to vomit. They smell of death, evil, rotting flesh. They’re monsters.”

He just watched her, saying nothing, the pain still showing.

“What others?” asked Sachin.

“Perhaps my kind,” said Lazar. “The falcons have been known to be viewed as monsters.”

She glanced at him. “No. You smell sweet to me. Almost
too
sweet, but sweet all the same. Well, not Keon. He doesn’t smell sickly sweet to me. He smells perfect. They don’t smell sweet at all. They smell like road kill. I’m not great with scents like they are. It takes me longer to smell things.”

“I know not what roadkill is,” said Sachin.

Rossi gasped. “She’s talking about vultures. Lucy made the same comment when I came home after looking into a recent attack. I had engaged with a vulture, getting his blood on me, and upon my arrival home, Lucy said I smelled like roadkill to her.”

All the men stepped closer to her, and Keonae didn’t look like he was planning to attack them. He still looked hurt by her confession she’d been thinking of leaving him.

“Keonae, I thought about going, about taking off, but the minute I took one step toward that door with the intent of vanishing, everything on me hurt, and I thought I was going to be sick. You touched me then and it all went away.”

Sachin rubbed his chin. “Your pull to him is great?”

She nodded.

“As is his to you,” said Sachin, still worrying his jawline.

“True mates?” asked Lazar, sounding concerned.

Rossi nodded. “I’d wager yes. We could also consult the Oracle. Though, I have my suspicions it enjoys toying with us all.”

She shook her head. “What are you all talking about?”

Sachin offered a reassuring look. “We believe you may be created for Keonae. His match in every way. The woman he is destined to be with. The woman he will sire children with.”

Chapter Seven

Keonae looked upon Lark, the need to wrap his arms around her and spank her at war within him. How dare she think to run out on him! Did she not understand the pull he had to her? The craving he could not seem to sate?

He glanced to Sachin, thinking on what he’d said. Keonae’s eyes widened. He took a giant step back. “She cannot be.”

Sachin grinned. “We all suffer the same reaction, old friend. Denial simply wastes time you could be spent loving her. Would you rather not be in bed, filling her with your young ones?”

“You would be an expert on denying your feelings for your mate,” said Rossi. “And on little ones. You have how many now?”