Page 36 of Savage Mates
And claiming.
For a few seconds, a vacuum formed around me. There was no other sound. No other scent. Nothing on the horizon but the reality of what I sensed deep within my soul.
Mate.
“What is it?”Zeus asked as if he hadn’t caught a hint of her scent. His eyes were already glowing as the need spread deep within his loins.
“Smell the air around us.”
He stared at me quizzically, but another shift in the breeze allowed him to do so with little effort.
“What is that?”he asked as if didn’t know the answer. His disbelief was annoying.
Titus moved even closer, swinging his head as he peered down at her. When he looked me in the eye again, I knew the second the realization had settled in.
“You know the answer. You feel it deep within your bones. She’s our mate.”
This time, Zeus didn’t argue, but every muscle in his massive body tensed.“How is that possible? She’s human.”
“How is it possible we shift into humans ourselves?”I countered.“How is it possible we can communicate? Or that we hunger like a man while being a lion?”We’d stopped trying to figure out how we’d become the monsters we were. Right now, it didn’t matter. Only the human did.
Our mate.
My hunger roared to the surface, the same primal need I’d felt the first time I’d laid eyes on her.
Titus dragged his tongue across her cheek.“The taste is sweet. Just like her scent. But whatever drug she was given isn’t just about keeping her knocked out. Something is wrong. I can taste it on my tongue.”
Instantly, I snarled, wishing I’d taken more time killing the bastard who’d hurt her. I nuzzled against her neck, able to sense Titus was correct.“We need to take her back to the camp. We need to heal her. There is no other choice.”I swung my head from one to the other. This wasn’t about getting their approval. This would happen.
I moved away, keeping my eyes locked on her as I began to shift. In the beginning when I’d been forced to transition into a human, the anguish had nearly killed me. Bones breaking, Fur fading as skin formed, stretching over malformed muscles. I’d cried out in agony, but also from the kind of fear that had threatened to cripple me. A king of a pride.
Now shifting took seconds and minimal pain. Once I was in my human form, I rose onto two feet. As I’d felt before, I was fully aroused, the need for her overwhelming.
Already, my lion was scratching just below the surface, restless and angry he’d been driven back into the shadows. But it was necessary.
To protect.
And to lay claim to our mate.
The weapon she’d been holding had slipped from her hand. I picked it up, shaking my head as I tried to determine why she’d be armed unless she’d had ill intent in mind. But she’d had her chance to use it and chose to demand the lions, her lions, remained unharmed. I chuckled at her possessiveness. Perhaps she’d felt the same sense of connection before we had. After pulling out the ammunition, I returned both to her bag.
I gathered her into my arms, pressing her tightly against my chest. Soft murmurs escaped her luscious lips, the draw to her now becoming even more powerful than before.
As I headed into the jungle with Titus and Zeus following, all I could hear was the rapid thudding of my heart and the soft, shallow breathing of a female that had already captured a part of me I’d thought impossible.
My beast.
“How is that even possible, Thor?” Gabriel asked, confronting me exactly as Zeus had done earlier.
“I don’t have all the answers, Gabriel. Let me ask you this. How is possible Conall mated with the female lion who accompanied us while being taken to this… paradise?” The bastards who’d used us as their lab rats had graciously dropped off two pure female lions when we’d been dumped here. From what I’d overheard, the plan of forcing mating with a shifter and a pure lion had already been in the works.
After the laboratory had been destroyed, members of the company arrested, several loyal scientists had taken it upon themselves to hide or destroy the additional evidence of just how advanced their experiments had been. Many more new lifeforms had been created than anyone outside of the laboratory had realized.
He glared at me, shaking his head. “Because we’re lions, not humans.”
I threw out my arms, laughing in his face. “Why don’t you try looking in a mirror, Gabe? You enjoy remaining in human form. You do so more and more as of late.”
Which was true. And the desire to be more human in nature had inflicted the majority of our small population. Often including myself. Yes, I still enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, foraging for food in the rich environment the island offered, but my soul still belonged to my lion.
