Page 8 of Magic Hunted
My knees snapped backwards, and I skidded on the damp earth when I came to a stop in a pile of misshapen bones. Fingers elongated and claws retracted to become chipped fingernails as my snout contracted back into my face. Fur drew in, leaving smooth skin. All I could do was pant through a wall of agony as I came to my senses.
Perspiration slicked my skin but my muscles twisted with cold. The ground was damp beneath me while my alphas’ bodies—No! I couldn’t think of them asmyalphas. They werethealphas. I would make no claim on them—sprawled on top of me to stop me from running away again.
“You could have done that gently, Ashir!” Savvas said.
“Let me go,” I panted struggling beneath their weight, but it was hopeless. They were too heavy and persistent to budge. I was their prize, and they weren’t going to let me go easily. Not now they’d chased me through the jungle and brought me down.
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell us why you keep running. You know we won’t hurt you. We’re your mates,” Ashir said, pressing his chest over my bare back. My brain stuttered at the feel of his hot, hard muscles, of being touched at all, and three naked men pinning me down was too much too soon. Panic warred with misguided arousal.
“You hunted me on Titan’s orders. I’d be stupid not to run,” I hissed.
“If I could take that back, please know that I would,” Ashir said, his words low and filled with regret. “We’ll never hand you over now.”
“Not that we were going to anyway,” Savvas muttered.
I knew they wouldn’t but that only made the knowing worse. “Sorry if I don’t trust you.” I bucked my hips, aiming to extricate myself from beneath their collective weight, but they set themselves more firmly on me.
“We’re mates now. Feel us through the bond and you’ll see.” Savvas’ gentle voice almost made me relax. Almost, but I had to deny the bond before it had a chance to take root.
A part of me—a stupid blind part—yearned to give into the bond. I hadn’t considered how I’d feel when my mates touched me. It was a concept I understood existed, but now I felt its potency, it was a different thing altogether. I had to resist, for all of us.
I swallowed the thickness in my throat and imagined my dead parents; all dead because of their bond and the grimoire that compelled them to keep it safe. I would not suffer their fate.
“Titan will make you take me back if you don’t let me go no matter what we are to each other,” I said.
I sensed their soul-lights pulsing behind the bond barrier. Red, orange and yellow swirling and eager to merge with mine. To be bonded, laid bare and used for the sake of the grimoire. They should take me back to Titan for the protection of their pack and themselves. Now they were trying to protect me, just like my fathers. This was a nightmare I’d done my best to avoid.
I gritted my teeth and kept my soul-light back when it tried to reach for them. I had to keep myself away from them. Every shifter wanted to find and bond to their mate—chosen for them before birth by fate. The completion would bind our souls. But then they would know me. Know what Titan had ordered me to do. Their souls would be tarnished with my sins, too great for me to be clean. I wouldn’t hand them the burden of my soul.
“We’ll take you somewhere safe before it comes to that. We’ve kept many secrets from him and know how to work around him,” Ashir said.
I was Titan’s best spy. I knew their secrets. What Titan had forced them to do, just like he did every underling in his territory. I’d worked in the background helping them in whatever capacity I could without being seen. Saving a young panther from notice here. Allowed extra food to be passed to the panther shifters there. I’d told Titan only what he needed to hear, not that the alphas could possibly know that. And they never would. Helping an innocent panther shifter was one thing, but Titan’s best spy as a mate was another. It was best I keep my secrets for both our sakes. They would never forgive me for my past and I could never let them get close to me because of the grimoire.
I tried to ignore their warm skin pressing against me, their hard muscles the perfect complement to my curves. “If you let me go now, there will be no lie. Tell him you saw me running into the wastelands and were too late to catch me. He won’t detect a lie because it won’t be one. Think of your pack.”
“Then none of us will go back to him,” Savvas said.
My panther, the animal I’d never felt before, purred at the thought of her mates running at her side, filling me with warmth and comfort. She had no right to tell me what to feel or influence my reaction. She was a creature of instinct, with no concept of what she was asking.
I licked dry lips, fighting the signals in my brain to relax under them. To welcome them into my arms and let them sink into my body. I had to remember it was basic biology guiding me, and manipulated biology at that. I couldn’t give in to the promise of what they could mean to be. “He’ll start killing them if you don’t return. You can’t let that happen.”
“Our pack will protect you because you’re ours.” Dias whispered in my ear, and that was exactly what I was afraid of.
I shivered at the determination in his tone. They would put me above them. Above their pack. Just like my parents sacrificed themselves for the sake of the grimoire.
“Listen to our brother. He speaks for every member of our pack. For us,” Savvas skimmed his fingers down my arm and my nipples beaded. A fuse lit, burning from my breasts to my clit. Thank the gods I was chest down in the dirt. Goosebumps skittered over my skin, heat trailing in their wake.
They weren’t going to listen to reason because the bond played no part in logic, and I wouldn’t listen to a bond where the grimoire had any part to play in it.
“Titan sent you after me for a reason. He…spelled me to think I was your mate,” I said. There was a heartbeat of shock. A pause where I was victorious and sick simultaneously, but I’d do anything to push them away. If they knew the truth, they’d think it wouldn’t matter. They’d be happy to protect their mate.
“Why would he do that?” Savvas asked.
“He wants you under his power. Why else would he send you to track someone like me? If you bond with me, he’ll have total control over you,” I said.
“Why did he throw you from the castle and have us trek through the jungle to retrieve you? That’s quite dramatic, don’t you think? He could have merely made us touch you back at the stronghold,” Ashir growled.
“It was a trick to manipulate you. To make you think you rescued me from danger. It calls to alphas to protect their mate. Why else would he send you after me? Why not his human army? Or his preferred cadre?” I said, thinking fast.
