Saving the Beast (9 page)

He’d heard of the fever from his uncle. He still didn’t understand all of it, but he did know the only shifters who recovered were those with mates. There was something released into the blood when shifters mated that combated the virus. That same hormone was what shifters shared with their mates through their saliva that allowed their mates to develop enhanced senses and the ability to heal faster.

Diane giggled again, and Zane felt a hot surge of lust. Did she have any idea what she was inviting? Not that she had any chance of denying him, now. How had she figured out she was his mate? He’d thought he’d hid it from her, but here she was, declaring herself to be exactly what she was. His. And her acceptance would enable him to fight what raged inside him. Only through her would he once more become fully integrated with is beast. No more fighting for dominance or control. He would be at peace again. Beast and man united as one.

He knew Kenzie was the one who’d brought Diane to him. He’d smelled her when he’d caught the ripe scent of his mate. The animal had chosen to follow Kenzie, to ensure she meant no harm to their mate. Only when the beast was satisfied had they turned back to find Diane. He could still detect Kenzie on the gear that surrounded them. He wanted to punish her for the danger she’d placed his mate in just as much as he wanted to thank her for bringing the one he needed to him. He also knew Kenzie would stay where she’d moved, watching and ensuring Zane and his mate were safe.

He would owe her for this. He couldn’t imagine Tah had been okay with the two of them heading out and searching for him alone, and he wasn’t picking up on any of the others close by. What had Kenzie done to get Diane here? How was he going to fix it if she’d defied a direct order from Tah?

Diane’s laughter drew his attention back to her. Her long blonde hair was coming free from her braid. He wanted it long and loose around her shoulders. He wanted to run his fingers through it, inhale the sweet smell that was uniquely Diane. He wanted to feel it draped over his chest and tickling his thighs while he buried his cock in her throat. He growled and it rumbled up out of the mouth of the beast.

He felt the shift of the beast’s attention from their mate to the thoughts Zane sought to share. No more fighting. Their minds merged, each focused on one thing. Claiming Diane. Zane let his imagination run wild, envisioning Diane naked beneath him, his cock buried deep in the wet grip of her pussy. He wanted to taste her skin, to sink so deep beneath it that she became a part of him, joined permanently with him and the beast. He wanted to see his bite mar the perfection of her neck—a primal claiming that defied anyone to ever touch the woman who belonged to him and only him.

The beast lifted his head and gave a hiss and growl, calling his intentions out in warning to any animal that dared enter his space. He did it again, this time letting the man know he was on board with the claiming of their mate.

“Shhh,” Diane crooned, running her hands over the panther with no fear. His mate had found her courage, and it made his chest swell with pride. “I’m right here, Zane,” she whispered, nuzzling her nose into the beast’s fur. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere without you.”

He felt it the moment his beast found peace and stilled inside him. It was as if a switch flipped and all that had been holding Zane trapped within was gone. The fire in his blood still raged, but the animal was no longer fighting. The growl of the cat was replaced with the groan of the man as Zane shifted into his human skin for the first time since being hit with a needle in the basement storage room by Dillon, the young shifter who’d come with Lydia Blane. The man would pay for what he’d stolen from Zane and Diane—time for gentleness and seduction.

“Diane,” he grunted. He shuffled as much as his control would allow him. He was sprawled naked across her, his weight pinning her to the ground beneath him.

She moved, her hands frantically touching him. His face, his shoulders, his chest and down his sides. Soft fingers stroking fire across his skin and igniting lust already at explosive levels. It took every ounce of will he held to keep his hands planted beside her, holding his body mere inches from hers.

“You’re here,” she sobbed. “I was so worried about you. I thought you were gone. I thought I’d lost you before I even had you.”

He shoved up, pushing himself farther away from her. He was panting with the effort required. Then she grabbed him, capturing his shoulders and pulling him back down to her.

“Don’t go,” she begged softly, and her voice was ripe with fear. “Don’t leave me. I want to be your mate. I want everything. I want it all with you.”

Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? He was trying to give himself time to temper the beast. He wasn’t walking away. He couldn’t. Not with the sweet smell of her need filling his senses. He’d been searching for a gentleness that eluded him.

“Zane,” she pleaded and lifted up into him.

He felt the soft stroke of her tongue over his neck and any control he’d deluded himself into believing he might possess disappeared. She moaned against his skin and undulated beneath him. He felt the tight points of her nipples, felt the heat of her sex against his thigh and was lost. Need tore through him. He heard her gasp as their gazes finally collided and held and knew his eyes were glowing with the primal ferocity that roared in his body.

“Mine,” he growled, lowering his head and skimming his elongated canines over the soft skin of her throat.

She whimpered, but it wasn’t fear he smelled rolling off her. It was lust and need.

“Mine,” he told her again.

“Yes,” she groaned in agreement. “Yours. All yours.”

And she sealed her fate.

“I’m going to claim you, Diane. I’m going to strip you naked, spread your legs and fuck you until neither of us can move. I’m going to take you hard and fast. I’m going to take you slow and easy. I’m going to fuck you, make love to you then fuck you again. My cock will feel the slick walls of your pussy and the velvet smoothness of your lips. I’ll mark you in every way I can. God help us if this isn’t what you wanted because I can’t stop. The need for you sets my blood on fire even more than the fever does.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I want all of you, any way I can have you.”

“From this moment on, you belong to me and only me. No other man will ever touch you or I will tear him apart with my bare hands. Your joy will become my joy just as your pain will be my pain. Do you understand this?”

Diane nodded, but he sensed something, an uncertainty.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“I’m to be yours. What about you? Will you be mine?”

He smiled, letting her see the full brunt of what he felt on his face. “My dear, sweet mate, I’ve been yours since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I knew the first time I saw you that you were my mate. No other woman will ever hold me as you do.”

“Oh, Zane,” she sighed and gave a sniffle.

It hurt him that he couldn’t be gentle, but there was no help for it. Between the feral fever and the delicious scent of heat her body gave off, there was no hope of reining himself in.

“I want you naked, as quickly as you can strip. Do you understand me?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“But first,” he murmured and ran his finger across her neck to her chin, exposing the spot he wanted. “You are mine,” he proclaimed and lowered his head, biting deep and mixing his salvia with her blood.

Diane cried out, passion filling her voice as she crested into orgasm beneath him. He’d heard the bite of a mate could do that.

When the fever eased, the mixture of his saliva in her blood would bring about other changes for them. They’d be linked, sharing emotions with one another, connecting in a way only true mates could. Diane moaned as she trembled from the pleasure she’d found with his marking of her. He released her and inhaled deeply, brushing his nose against her skin. His mate was ready.

“Naked,” he commanded as he reluctantly lifted his head. “Now.”

Chapter Six

Diane could only stare up at Zane, lost once more in his glowing yellow eyes. She’d felt him penetrate her skin with his teeth and should have cried out in pain. Instead, she’d found herself gasping with fierce longing as she’d exploded in an orgasm that hadn’t brought relief. She wanted him, and his bite only made the need stronger. She was hot and wet with it, her nipples aching for his touch.

“Now!” Zane ordered again but there was no way she could comply.

Her fingers refused to move from his skin, even to undress herself.

He pierced her with the intensity of his gaze. One long finger skimmed down her cheek, and she shuddered as desire rippled through her womb. He went back on his knees and pulled her up with him. He pushed at her jacket, shoving it down her arms then off. His breath panted between his lips, which were curled back from his teeth.

He ripped her shirt over her head and tossed it aside. Then his hands were on her flesh, smoothing over her shoulders before sliding lower to caress the bare skin of her stomach. Her breath caught and her breasts swelled, pushing against the lace cups of her bra.

“Clothes.” He grunted the word out. “Did you bring more for yourself?”

She nodded. “Yes, for both of us.”

“Good,” he said. He held out one finger, the tip bearing the lethal claw of his panther. He sliced through the front material of her bra, splitting the cups apart. Using both hands, he shoved the fabric aside to expose her pale flesh to his gaze.

His sharp intake of breath had her glancing down, trying to see herself as he did. Full breasts crowned with dark-pink nipples that strained toward him in tight points. She wanted to feel his mouth there, to have him suck and nip them.

“Zane!” She cried his name as he held himself still above her, just staring at her naked breasts.

His gaze held such conflict when he met hers. “I’m going to take you, Diane. Tell me you want me. Tell me you want this.”

She’d wanted romance—muted lights, silk sheets and whispered words of love. Instead, she was going to get hard, hot need in a tent in the middle of the woods.

“I want this,” she answered, and she wasn’t lying. Soft words weren’t required after all. Not now. Now was the time for a claiming that would assure her Zane was hers.

Finally, she could move. She dropped her hands to the button and zipper on her jeans and unfastened them, forcing the material wide. She lifted her hips and shimmied them and her panties over her hips to her thighs. Zane gave her a shove backwards and took over. He jerked her clothes the rest of the way until they caught on her boots.

“I don’t have spare boots,” she blurted, afraid he might use his claws to shred them instead of taking them off.

With a growl, he untied them and pulled them from her feet along with her socks. Then he tugged her jeans and panties down her legs and off. He inhaled deeply and a soft rumble began in his chest. He licked his lips as he stared at her.

“I’m going to taste you,” he vowed and shifted until his broad shoulders rested between her sprawled thighs. One hand landed across her stomach, pinning her in place. She felt the other slide through her wet folds and rim her opening.

“Ahhh!” she cried out as he thrust his finger deep, penetrating her and making her need burn higher.

“So wet,” he crooned. “So hot. You’ll burn me alive.”

He dropped his head and trailed his tongue along the same path his fingers had taken. He flicked his tongue in and out of her folds, meshing with his finger where it fucked her then skirting back up and over her swollen clitoris.

“Mhmm,” he groaned and that was all the warning she got before he wrapped his lips around the bundle of nerves and sucked greedily at it.

“Oh, God!” she panted, reaching down to fist her hands in his hair. She pulled up her knees, widening her thighs and pressing her pussy closer to his mouth. Never had anything felt like this. “Zane!”

“I’m going to make you come on my fingers and suck every drop of it up,” he promised, lifting his head and licking his lips. Then he bent down and set about doing just that.

Diane was swept up in Zane’s touch. His tongue and fingers worked her lust into a fiery inferno that had her feeling as if she was going to implode with the force tightening her womb. She tried to hold back, but he gave her no quarter. His worked his tongue over her clit, tapping it then sucking it then rubbing it again. One finger became two, and he crooked them inside so they rubbed her walls and hit a spot deep inside her that had her clenching her teeth and thrashing her head.

Her belly was in knots. She couldn’t take any more.

“Stop,” she begged. “Zane. I can’t.”

She met his gaze over the length of her body and shivered at the carnality on his face.

“Stop holding it in,” he ordered. “Let go and let me taste you. Now!”

He flattened his tongue against her clitoris and increased the thrusting of his fingers.

“Zane!” His name was a wail as the knot ripped free in a flash of fire, spilling heat from her center out to all her limbs. She felt as if she’d been thrown into the sky, as if she were soaring somewhere high above where her body remained. Shivers coursed through her when she finally came back down. She felt the soft flick of Zane’s tongue between her thighs, licking her release from her skin. In between, he planted kisses against her.

“I can’t hold back much longer,” he said in a voice hardened by the control he seemed to be exerting. “I need to fuck you.”

She took a breath and knew she would never be able to deny him anything.

“Take me,” she implored. “Fuck me.”

He rose from between her thighs, lifting one of her legs with him. His gaze met hers and his nostrils flared as he seemed to fight to gain control.

“You’re in heat. My cock may seem different. I don’t want you to be afraid.”

She could see the battle between need and concern reflected in his gaze.

“I know,” she assured him. “Abby told me what happened with Tah when she was in heat. I’m not afraid.”