When Angels Fall (14 page)

Blood surged into his mouth. Hot, salty, and honey sweet. She moaned, a throaty sound that had him thrusting against her despite the onlookers.
He
released his teeth from her neck, licked the bite mark in a slow draw of his tongue.
Leaning close, he
whispered into her ear so no
one else could hear.
“
It
’
s better if you hate me
.
”

She whipped her head around,
eyes narrowing at his comment, or maybe it was the blood he felt dripping from his chin. The feline, spurred on by the taste of her blood, the scent of her fear and her arousal, strayed dangerously close to the surface. They locked gazes.
He ran two fingers through the slick rivulets
of blood running down her neck
.

He held his
stained
finger up, turned so the Pard could see.
“
She is blood, she is Pard.
”
His
gaze touched on every person, lingered on
Mark and then
James before stopping on hers. He looked at her, spoke to everyone else.
“
She is mine.
”

One by one, the Pard came forward and licked her blood from his fingers
, pardoning her for striking the Alpha
.
As they passed, he caught a hint of respect in some of their eyes. The ritual filled him with something he hadn
’
t expected.
Contentment.

Mark
shuffled forward,
hesitated
. T
ension between them crackled.
“
Lick,
”
Peter ordered.

The man
’
s jaw clenched. Despite the dirty stain of boot tread on Mark
’
s neck, Peter knew there would be trouble.

“
She isn
’
t your fuck toy,
”
Mark said.
“
Greg loved her,
he
would have never treated her the way you are.
She is a gift from God and you—
”

Another rolling bark of laughter left
Peter
, and Mark immediately closed his mouth. Peter
wiped imaginary tears from his eyes
, couldn
’
t wait to finish the man
’
s sentence
.
“
I what? Defiled her? She was hardly a virgin when I got there and quite
the willing participant.
”
He
dropped his bloodied hand, stepped forward
. He towered over the other man, dominating him both physically and mentally
.
“
Greg was a lousy Alpha who did nothing for
this
Pard. Things will change with me in control, I can promise you that. I
’
ve been going over the accounts all day. Many of you are struggling to get by, living in run-down homes and eating scraps. The Pard should be flourishing
;
instead it
’
s swirling down the shitter.
”

He pressed a finger into Mark
’
s chest, shoved him back a foot, and then advanced.
“
You
’
ve got a choice
. Twenty years ago, I didn
’
t have one. I won
’
t take
away
your options like my father
did me.
You only have to say the words.
”

Mark bared his blunt teeth,
hissed,
“
Peter Marx, I challenge you.
”

Peter
let
the anticipation
fill
his eyes.
“
I was hoping you
’
d say that.
”

“
No fighting
,
”
Eva said, step
ped
between them.

Peter shook his head, picked her up by the shoulders
. Setting her behind him, away from Mark, he grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger
.
“
This is his choice, Eva. He wants to fight for your soiled honor
;
it
’
s sweet
,
really.
”

Before she could protest, h
e drew her up and slant
ed his mouth over hers
. She tried to pull back, to strike his chest, but he held tight. His tongue pressed between her lips, and when she bit him, he grabbed her ass
. A rolling bolt of lust clenched his stomach, sent his heart racing. He
growled agains
t her mouth, plundered, pulled away only when he felt he
’
d thoroughly proven his point.
“
Next time it won
’
t be my tongue
I shove into your mouth
.
”

Her lips parted
, but
he
put a finger against
the moist, swollen
flesh
.
“
I
’
d watch that mouth of yours.
I
’
d hate to have to shut you up. I don
’
t think you
’
d like my choice of methods.
”
His eyes darkened with lust.
“
Not in public at least.
”

Her fists balled at her sides and, for a moment, he wondered if she
’
d try to hit him again. She blew out a breath, glared.
“
You
’
re an asshole.
”

He smiled, the charming one, and kissed her one last time.
“
I know. Now, go be a good little girl and keep my chair warm. That stone looks cold.
”
Patting her on the ass, he pushed her toward the Alpha
’
s chair. His chair. His rightful place. This was where he belonged. Too bad he didn
’
t plan on sticking around after he
’
d killed Greg
’
s murderer.

Chapter Eight

Eva pulled her lower lip between her teeth, bit down
. She
’
d hoped the pain would break her out of her trance. For the life
of
her, she couldn
’
t look away from Peter
’
s hands. They were large and strong, the fingers long and thick. Masculine. Right now, those hands were doing their best to undress.
Oblivious to the freezing temperature or the ice under their bare feet, Peter and Mark stripped.

The entire Pard could have gotten naked and she wouldn
’
t have cared.
She only had eyes for the Alpha. He gripped his charcoal sweater at the hem, slowly pulled it over his head. The muscles in his powerful arms bulged, a reminder of how he
’
d looked on top of her, his entire body flexing with each erotic thrust. She recalled the way he
’
d held her, one flexed forearm braced against the slick shower wall next to her head. His other hand had gripped her thigh, wrapped it around his narrow waist so he could
pump
into her with deep, long strokes.

The words whispered
in the shower, against her throat, resurfaced.
“
Please...
”
He
’
d sounded so desperate.

Heat gathered low in her stomach, spread like melted caramel
.

Damn it, she
hated him. Against her better j
udgment, she raised an appreciative eyebrow at the sight of his naked chest bathed in a brief showing of moonlight through the broken clouds. Beneath a soft pelt of dark, curly hair, his flat nipples hardened from the icy temperature. Was it so horribly wrong to imagine herself closing her mouth over the male circles, sucking them into her mouth? How would he respond if she closed her teeth around one and bit? She closed her eyes. Not going to happen. He
’
d lied
to
, manipulated
,
and humiliated her. Worse yet, he
’
d enjoyed it.

The hair on his chest tapered into a line, creating a trail straight down the center of his washboard abs. He might be an asshole, and she might hate his ever-loving guts, but he put men around the world to shame when it came to looks. Peter turned, exposing his long, lean back. She bit down on her lip
again
, the only thing stifling her gasp. Scores of scratch marks marred the perfection of his skin, damning evidence of her night in Peter
’
s bed.

He kicked away his jeans and rested his hands on his
straight
hips, his obscenely hard cock jut
ting up toward his belly button
.
With the confidence of a stallion, h
e strutted in front of the crowd. From across the clearing, she caught the women and men staring. Twin circles of heat colored Becca
’
s cheeks. Barely eighteen, Mark
’
s younger sister quickly found a riveting spot on the snow-covered ground, anything to keep from having to look at his naked form.
Eva might have laughed if her
own
face hadn
’
t bloomed equally red.

The air crackled. A wave of heat emanated from the two shifters, easing the
chill in the air
.

Both men dropped to the ground. Their backs bowed, lengthened. Fur rippled from skin like water flowing over a rock. Their legs and arms took a new shape, stretching to accommodate the snow leopard intertwined with their souls.

In the blink of an eye, the
transformation
was over
. The change was seamless, as graceful as it had
been when Peter had stepped in front of her
truck. The leopards circled each other and
,
just as he had this morning, Peter took her breath away. Every step sent muscles rippling in his hindquarters. His long tail whipped the air, slashing back and forth
.
Peter was the larger feline, outweighing Mark by more than seventy pounds.

She glanced at Mark, appraised and compared. He was the darkest cat in the Pard, his gr
a
y coat reminding her of dirty snow after the town
’
s plow pushed the last of the spring snow off the road. Like Peter, ringed spots of black on brown covered him from head to tail.

He was beautiful, but nothing compared to Peter
’
s pure white coat and penetrating green eyes.

Without warning, Mark lunged, teeth bared and dangerous. Peter lifted a large paw and smashed it against Mark
’
s advancing bite. The smaller cat crashed to the ground, his body thudding against the trampled snow. An involuntary gasp ripped from her chest. The Alpha went directly for the throat, teeth slicing into fur and holding.

Surely, Peter wouldn
’
t kill Mark, not with so few snow leopards left in existence. Movement from another cat in the Pard caught her eye.
Only s
econds passed, too few for her to shout out a warning. David, Mark
’
s best friend, stripped and shifted mid
-
jump. He lunged protectively at the fighting pair.

Peter
needed no warning
. He
released
Mark, twisted and raked claws across David
’
s side before the other cat could even get close. Blood welled in the feline
’
s black and white peppered fur and then dripped bright red to the snowy ground. She cried out, putting a hand over her mouth. She wanted to yell at them to stop, to scream she wanted no one hurt. No one, including Peter.

Peter
’
s black-tipped ears flattened against his head, and he crouched low, baring dripping fangs. His tail twitched back and forth, jerky and restless. He hissed, the noise a warning their fight would no longer be a wrestling match. Blood. Peter looked pissed. Her stomach clenched, sickness welling.

In feline form, David and Peter ran at each other, biting and clawing, blood their only objective. Hisses and growls erupted as the two cats tangled in a ball of fur. Over and over, the Alpha gained the upper hand and pinned the smaller cat to the ground. Peter held him until he stilled, and then let go, only to have Mark leap on his back, teeth scrambling for purchase into fur and flesh.

Her leopard defended against both Mark and David, who fought with the intent to kill, but Peter never went beyond a demand for submission with his teeth in their neck.

Peter held Mark down, growled in warning. David changed tactics, sank teeth into Peter
’
s hindquarter and ripped. The Alpha let go of Mark with a snarl. Blood leaked from the open gashes, and when he went to step forward, his leg gave out. Smelling weakness, Mark scrambled to his paws and lunged for Peter
’
s throat.

“
No,
”
she cried out, stepping forward. James grabbed her elbow in an iron grip and pulled her against his chest, whispering in her ear,
“
It
’
s for the best. It
’
ll be over soon.
”

She pushed from his embrace and looked up at him. Her mouth fell open in shock at the serious expression on his face. No death was for the best, not Peter
’
s, not Mark
’
s, not David
’
s. No one
sh
ould die for her
“
soiled honor.
”
What had Peter done to earn such hatred from James?

The sick sound of flesh tearing behind her shoved her thoughts to the back of her mind. A feline yowled, the pained noise drawing a tear from the corner of her eye. Something gurgled, blood and oxygen mixing, someone
’
s throat torn out. Another tear fell. Becca screamed, her distinctive voice carrying across the clearing, echoing what everyone feared. James grabbed for her
again, but she pushed him away, her heart in her throat, her lungs paralyzed with fear.
Not Peter
. Turning, she gazed at the blood
coating the ground and the felines locked together. White on top of gray. Peter shook his head, skin ripped, arcs of crimson spraying into the air. Eva
’
s stomach pitched and her vision went dark. She was going to faint.