Page 52 of Magic Hunted
“I’ll have someone clean up the mess,” the female said, indicating some stains on Ashir’s pants.
He brushed off the stew and smiled at the woman. A stunned expression washed over her face. I knew exactly what it was like being under the full attention of the alpha. My panther rose to her feet, a snarl ready on her lips as instant jealousy speared through me. Ashir’s eyes snapped to me, his lips morphing from a smile to a smirk. He knew exactly what my panther felt.
“He’ll make a great warrior one day with his fearlessness,” Ashir said.
The female bustled away, a tinge to her cheeks. Ashir collected another bowl and brought them over, plus extras the cook handed him. Then Ashir sat opposite all three of us. “Something your panther wishes to say to me?” His brow lifted and the shadow of his smirk still played on his lips. He knew she was on the verge of ripping the female’s eyes out for looking at her mate with such awe. That was reserved only for her. It was so wrong. Ashir could look at who he wanted to, but the wild thing inside me was still fully justified. Ashir was her mate and she would protect him however she saw fit.
My panther growled under her breath, happy the other female wasn’t near him anymore but still put out that her mate had showed attention to anyone but her. I straightened my spine and dipped my spoon into the stew, ignoring the both of them.
“She’s fine.” My voice was tight. A sound like a chuckle had my focus swerving to Savvas but when I looked he stuffed a spoonful of stew into his mouth.
I turned to Dias, who quickly said, “Is that bread I see?” He pointed to slabs of freshly baked rolls set on a nearby table and my stomach nearly jumped out of my body. “I think that’s a yes.”
He jumped from the seat and brought back a bowl as well as a smaller plate with yellow blobs. “Is that…butter?” I said, my mouth instantly watering. “My mother used to make butter from goat’s milk.”
“She did?” Ashir said, handing me a roll and knife and setting the bowl of butter under my nose. I knew a tactic when I saw one, but there was also no way I would pass up fresh rolls and butter, moaning as melted buttery goodness coated my taste buds.
“Gods. She’s making that noise again,” Savvas said.
“You’re making it very hard to keep my panther in line, magic,” Dias said.
Ashir simply handed me another roll because one would never be enough and dug his own spoon into his bowl. “What else did your parents make?”
My mind immediately filled with trays of fruits and baked bread my mother would make. The fresh meat my fathers would spit roast over hot coals all afternoon. I’d never questioned why we lived as we did. I was happy. Fulfilled. The heavy sense of loss ballooned in the emptiness inside me. “My parents were good to me.”
Until the time they sacrificed themselves for something they’d kept well-hidden from me. My eyes snapped open, taking me away from the image of their dead bodies and pools of blood to see Savvas’ hand wrapped around mine. He smiled and the image faded almost immediately. “Where did you live? We know most shifters in Titan’s territory, and to say you came as a surprise is an understatement.”
The strict rule I had about keeping everything an absolute secret made every muscle in my body stiffen, but his hand squeezed and he kept his gaze tangled with mine. There was no hidden agenda. No deception. But there was curiosity. Care. Interest. Truth.
“We lived on the…outskirts.” My parents had gone to great lengths to keep me hidden. It had taken me days, weeks, to traverse the jungle to find Titan’s stronghold when I was little. After… “My fathers kept us well-hidden.”
“I have no doubt about that. Well enough to keep off the panthers’ radar,” Dias said.
As paranoid as Titan was, he used the panther shifters as personal guard dogs. He sent them out on regular patrols to sniff out trespassers. That was why he’d sent the alphas to track me after I’d fallen into the river. Even miles downstream and waterlogged, they would have found my body.
I nodded. “My fathers were the best at what they did.” They’d also taught me how to hide and stay hidden. How to cover my tracks. How to walk soundlessly and leave no trace where I’d been. It had been a game when I was a child. Skills that still served me well.
My mother had taught me her lessons too. Perhaps the one that had saved my skin more times that I could count. “They taught me how to blend into the environment. How to sense danger. To tell lies from truth.”
And that was the thing, wasn’t it? Because deep down, no matter how hard I looked for it, there was no sense of deception from the alphas. No lie in their bodies. Their words. The way they treated me. I didn’t need a bond to see that.
“They made you the perfect panther,” Dias said. His eyes glowed as his panther rose below the surface. Just enough to tell me his panther approved of mine. Just enough for me to feel the soft fur of my panther as she rose to her feet and padded toward her mate without any hesitation. She accepted them fully. She turned her head and huffed at me before withdrawing back into the darkness. She didn’t fight me as she normally did. She offered no rebuff, but it was her acceptance that made me move restlessly on the bench, an omen prickling under my skin.
I pushed my now-empty bowl away. My stomach was full. I was clean, dry and wearing suitable clothing. My eyelids drooped as I watched the alphas talk to each other. Ashir chuckled at something Dias said. Savvas murmured something, causing Dias to roll his eyes. Ashir’s hand brushed my arm. Savvas reached to hold my hand. Dias’ gaze burned when he glanced at me. Always checking. Always watching.
My eyelids were too heavy to keep open. I slipped into the soft temptation of drowsiness and jostled against a chest. My eyes remained closed, sleep taking me under again.
I drifted awake, surrounded by warmth and velvet skin against mine. I was back in our room in Shanyirra’s hut, the alphas surrounding me in sleep in the huge soft bed. Dias’ muscular arm banded over my waist, my back tight against his bare chest. My head was tucked into Savvas’ neck where I full-body curled against him. Ashir’s hand curved across my thigh, his arm thrown over Savvas where he slept behind.
None of the warning bells that usually sounded like an earth-shattering claxon alarm had so much as hiccupped from the moment I’d fallen asleep in the eating hall. I’d slept through them bringing me back here. There was no telling how long I’d been sleeping, but it was long enough for me to be refreshed. My panther purred in the back of my mind, harmonizing with my human mind. I felt…safe. As safe as I did when I was a child and understood nothing of the world.
And that was more dangerous than anything because I wasn’t that child any more. I’d experienced the dangers of the world and these alphas were the most dangerous of all.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Savvas blinked awake with a drowsy flutter of his eyelids. Silken wings fluttered in my chest when a slow smile spread across his full lips. His hair was tousled, a curl tumbling over his eye that my fingers itched to trace. “Good morning, my heart.”
I nearly choked on the breath stuck in my throat as he leaned down. Slowly. His gaze never left my face. His lips hovered above mine, a hair’s width between us. Waiting for me to kiss him. My lips ticked with my heartbeat as a languid heat unfurled deep within me. I spread my palm on his chest, feeling the steady rhythm beneath my touch. I tilted my chin, leaned into him and fused our lips together.
