Chapter Nine
Kettah knew she should be scared as hell, knew she should have run so fast and so far that Maverick wouldn’t have been able to find her, but even that thought was ludicrous, because she knew there was no place on this planet that she could hide from her mate. A low warning growl left him, and she instinctively took a step back. The massive lion that stood just a few feet from her, with only a small table separating them, eyed her like it was starving and she was the last steak on earth. He wanted her to run, had told her to do just that in that distorted, rough timbre of his right before he shifted in front of her. Yes, that was what she should be doing, not standing here admiring the beauty of his animal. But it was hard not to, because Maverick in human form was gorgeous, but seeing him in his wild and untamed glory was ethereal. He was three times larger than a lion found out in the wilderness, but even for a shifter that wasn’t normal. Maverick was clearly a breed all his own. The glow of his golden eyes, one that were trained on her every movement, and the thick, dark brown colored mane that wrapped around his massive head, made him beautiful but ominous all in the same breath. He could easily snap her neck with little force, pounce on her from the other side of the room before she even made one step, yet he seemed to be waiting for her to make a move. Yes, he is, Kettah, because he is a predator, and you are his prey. He growled again, and a gush of wetness spilled from her. Her Pallas’s cat rose up, grew excited over the purely alpha male that was only feet from her, and wanted whatever he had to give. This was dangerous on so many levels, yet she was transfixed. Another rumble, but this time he started pacing back and forth, keeping his sight trained right on her. She could practically hear the words he was thinking: “Run for me, little cat. Make me chase you.”
The scent that came from him was one of desire, extreme need, and possession. This lion wanted her, needed to claim her, mark her, and do that all right now. When he lowered his upper body to the ground and his tail started swishing back and forth, a sign that he meant to attack, she snapped into action. She might want this on some primal level, but that didn’t mean she could handle whatever these beast wanted to give to her. She ran as fast and as hard as she could down the short hallway, but she didn’t hear him behind her. Right when she reached the door she saw him spring into action. This was a game to him, a sexual game, and he was coming right for her. She pushed the door open and sprinted toward the closet. He had shown her how to work the latch on it and how to lock and secure it safely from the inside. But just as she gripped onto the handle of the closet the bedroom door slammed against the wall. The scent of him came to her like a warm, arousing blanket, and she spun around. He watched her from the entryway. She could see a large hole where the handle had crashed into the wall when he slammed the door open. He was too close, and he wanted her to try to get to the safety of the secret door, because that meant the game wasn’t quite over yet. As if she had spoken those words aloud he stalked forward. This was no longer a run to get away from him, but a game that he had started, and one she was more than willing to go along with until it finished with him on top of her. Right now her cat was taking control, putting everything else on the backburner and only focusing on right here, right now.
She edged toward the bed, not knowing exactly how this would end, but certainly having some very explicit images coming to mind. The sexual tension that had been brewing between them since their first encounter had reached its breaking point. He stalked forward, his eyes trained right on her, and his tail moving back and forth at an astounding rate. Both of them breathed heavily, and when he growled again, the sound spearing right to her clit, she moved swiftly. Trying to move away from him, she felt like a gazelle in the wild, and Maverick was chasing her. The blood rushed through her veins, as well as a good dose of endorphins and adrenaline. This little “dance” they were doing seemed so primitive, but God was it making her feel like she’d explode with eroticism. He tackled her from behind, but before she slammed into the floor he flipped them so he was the one taking the brunt of the force and she was now sprawled in top of him. But that act of submission was short-lived, because seconds later he moved so that she was the one underneath him now. He was so big, so muscular, that she couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe as he pressed more of his weight into her, making her very aware that he was the one in control. His nose was so close to her face, and a few of his whiskers tickled her face, but all that accomplished was to make her wetter. She should tell him to stop, knew he would if she did, but Kettah wasn’t about to stop anything. In fact, she said the complete opposite of what was smart.