Page 21 of Lera of Lunos
Tye’s cock had still been throbbing when he’d shifted and beheld the terrified female. With the next heartbeat, the realization of what he’d nearly done ripped open his soul.
“Upset that Shade wouldn’t take me off your hands?” Lera’s voice pierced the cave’s mossy air, the hurt in her chocolate eyes going beyond her bloodied clothes. Scratched and ruffled and unsteady, the lass still managed to look beautiful. Her long auburn hair tumbled loose over her shoulders, her soft lips pink from being bitten, her eyes large and dark against her pale face. Stars, between Lera’s curves and personality alone, she was gorgeous no matter what she was doing.
Realizing that what Lera was doing presently was striding toward the cave exit, Tye stepped into her path. “You would have been safer and more comfortable with—”
“Where I’m comfortable is not for you to decide.” Lera bumped Tye’s injured shoulder with her own as she walked past. “I can accept a tiger’s instincts. But you trying to bait Shade into ripping you to ribbons to avoid spending a night with me is a whole other matter.”
“Lera!” Tye’s throat tightened, the realization of how she’d taken the conversation just now penetrating his skull. Except now was minutes too late. The lass had already cleared the cave mouth and was currently picking her way up the trail that Shade had disappeared on not long ago. “Wait. Lera, that wasn’t what I meant at all.”
She quickened her pace.
A few more steps and there would be no turning back, Tye could feel it. And the very thought of losing his Lilac Girl sent terror racing along his spine. “Lera!” He ran after her, his long legs covering the distance easily. Once at her back, Tye tossed all wisdom and prudence to the wind and threw his arms around the lass, pulling her against him.
The soft warmth of her small form filled a bleeding void in his chest.
She elbowed him in the ribs. Hard. Bloody Coal and his bloody training.
“Let me go.” Lera enunciated each word.
Tye turned her around, capturing her fury-filled gaze. “No.” He lifted his chin. “Stars know there are a plethora of reasons for you to walk away from me, but this one isn’t on the damn list. So either pick a better one or—”
Lera punched him. Right on his shoulder, sending knives of pain tearing through his left side. As she pulled back her hand for the next strike, Tye grabbed her wrist mid-motion, met her blazing gaze, and captured her mouth with his own, carnal need consuming his whole body.
Lera yanked her hand against Tye’s restraining hold even as her mouth opened to his demand. The scent of her arousal struck him as hard as lightning, hardening him instantly, and the harder she fought, the more heavily her wet scent filled the air. Spurred on, Tye’s tongue claimed Lera’s mouth, plunging deep into her warmth to possess each inch, each fiber. This close, Tye felt the bounding beats of Lera’s heart, his own drumming hard in harmony.
Pulling back, Tye gripped Lera’s chin with his free hand, studying her face. The girl’s lips were swollen from the kiss, the scents of arousal and fury, of need and hurt, all mixing together into a bouquet ofher.
“I’ve been here before.” The words Tye never wanted to say tumbled recklessly from his mouth. Leralynn could have any piece of his soul that she wished. And if she wanted none of it, Tye needed to know that too. “I injured my family, I injured my tiger, and now I’ve injured you. I asked Shade to take you because I’m infinitely better at creating problems than fixing them. And because...” He drew a breath, held it, and exhaled slowly before speaking. “Something is happening that I do not understand. Something I want to keep you safe from.”
Lera studied him, her large, intelligent eyes piercing through his chest right to his heart. “What is happening?”
“My tiger is... rising, demanding more of my attention. He should have torn you apart, lass. I truly have no awareness of the beast. Or at least, I didn’t until...” He brushed his thumb over her lips, savoring their softness. “Until you. Somehow, my tiger knew you were vital to me, felt it so strongly that he letmeknow. It was the first time we’d communicated at all since I tried to murder the beast in colthood.”
Lera froze, her attention so focused on Tye that his heart stuttered. After a moment, her body softened, her willingness to grant Tye another chance as precious as a winter fire. “Tell me,” she said quietly. “All of it. No lying or brushing me off this time, Tye.”
Releasing her, he walked back to the cave, hearing her light steps behind him, and lowered himself to the floor. He held out his hand, a tourniquet around his heart easing when the lass took it. Allowed him to gather her close and savor the heat of her body as he confessed the truth to which he’d never given voice before. Not even to his quint brothers.
“The bond between a shifter’s fae and animal forms is sacred, but it takes a great deal of time to develop, especially during the colt years. That is when the shifting matures from a blind instinct to a partnership.”
“But yours never progressed beyond instinct,” Lera said, her sweet voice vibrating against his chest. “Did something happen to you?”
Tye’s body tightened, the question hitting the center of his heart. “No. Maybe if something had, all that followed would not be my fault. But no. Everything that happened was my own doing.” He sighed, his heart racing even as he knew it was too late to retreat. “I wanted to train in flex. I had a talent for the sport, was drunk on the thrill of it. On the possibilities it could offer. My family is... well, the opposite of River’s. My flex victories were going to change our fortune.”
Tye closed his eyes, the cheering of phantom crowds filling his ears. “Once I set my mind on it, training became my entire world—and nothing that interfered with it could be permitted. Including the changes my body needed to make to mature.” He swallowed, feeling words rise up his throat that he could never take back. “The first time I shifted, I missed practice because of that bloody tiger. And I knew it would get worse—that the animal would keep stealing my time, that the shifting would affect my finely tuned muscles and magic. The tiger threatened my future glory, and that meant war.”
“A war on yourself?” Lera said.
Tye shrugged one shoulder. “On what my body was becoming. I couldn’t be a shifteranda realm champion in flex. So I tried to sever the bond. Herbs, magics, anything and everything. Some of it effective, all of it dangerous. I failed to kill the tiger entirely, but I did a damn good job of mangling the bond beyond recognition. Retarding my body’s changes long enough to win the championships. By the time I matured, I’d spent too little time in the feline form to even keep my own awareness.”
Lera brushed her fingers over Tye’s chest, hesitating on his pounding heart. He shivered lightly. “Did anyone else know?”
“My coaches, but they were willing to help me suppress my tiger. I was too bloody talented. When my family started to suspect... well, I learned to lie convincingly.”
Lera frowned. “You do all that and then get drunk the evening before the Realm Championship? That makes little sense.”
A humorless chuckle escaped Tye’s chest. “As the level at which I competed increased, so did the... incidents. A bought judge here, a faulty bar there. Unfortunately for my opponents, I could outperform them nonetheless. But when my path brought me head to head with the prince of Blaze, things escalated.” Taking Lera’s fingers, Tye brought them up to feel his brow, where an indent in the bone could still be felt beneath a small scar. “I received this by way of incentive to fumble a landing. Another time, a broken rib was a message to miss a target.”
“So you started to lose?” she said softly. “To stay safe, you had to lose.”
