Shakpi shook her head. “I won’t return to the prison.”
“Let’s go home,” the female voice gently urged.
The lean face softened with a yearning that came from the very soul.
“Home? You swear?”
“Yes, Shakpi. It’s time.”
Chayton’s body trembled and then collapsed as the dark shadow of Shakpi’s spirit left The Shaman’s body to join with her sister.
Barely capable of standing, Lian dropped to his knees, instinctively reaching to feel for Chayton’s pulse before he glanced up at the mist that now shimmered with a dazzling display of color.
“You’re leaving?”
He felt something like the brush of a finger over his swollen cheek, offering a warmth that seared away the most grievous of his injuries.
“It’s for the best, my child.”
“But you just returned.”
His heart twisted with regret. To be surrounded by her gentle glory was going to be a memory he would never forget.
“I’ve been here, Lian, just as I always will be,” she promised in musical tones. “The Wildlands are a part of me.” There was another burst of color from the mist. “And a part of Shakpi. Life and death. Night and day.”
He battled the darkness that was threatening. Even with Opela’s healing he remained painfully weakened from his battle.
“What about the magic?” he demanded, unable to believe their struggles were over.
“It’s in the land and in you, but the source now rests in the child.” There was a hint of warning in her voice. “Guard her well.”
“Yes,” he murmured, a sense of pleasure filling his heart as the scent of lemons surrounded him.
A second later, Sage was kneeling beside him, her arm wrapping around his shoulders.
The mist began to fade, but before it completely disappeared, Opela’s voice whispered on the breeze.
“Welcome home, Sage.”
Chapter 8
The private room at the back of the clinic that was reserved for patients who were hurt, but capable of healing on their own, was big enough to hold a large, comfortable bed and two leather seats for visitors.
It wasn’t, however, large enough to contain a dozen full-grown Pantera who were determined to fuss over the man who was lying on the mattress with his ribs bandaged and healing herbs rubbed onto the burns that marred his upper arm.
Sage hovered next to the heavy walnut headboard, needing to be near Lian, but understanding his family were anxious to assure themselves he was going to make a full recovery.
Enduring the avalanche of concern for nearly an hour, Lian at last reached his breaking point when his grandmother decided she would comb and braid his hair.
“That’s it. Everyone out,” he roared, pointing to the door. There was a shocked silence as the visitors stared at Lian with wide eyes, then with a sudden smile Lian’s father was firmly ushering the crowd out of the room. Prepared to follow, Sage had barely moved when slender fingers wrapped around her wrist. “Not you,” Lian growled. “You stay.”
She arched her brows, hiding her flare of relief.
When she’d seen Lian kneeling on the ground with his face swollen and covered in blood she’d been terrified he was dying.
Even now she felt compelled to reach out and brush her fingers down his cheek to convince herself he was alive and well.
“Bossy,” she murmured.
“Frustrated,” he corrected. Pulling up the sheet that covered his naked body he sent her a smile of smoldering invitation. “Join me.”
Her heart jolted with instant arousal. Just being near Lian was enough to make her pulse race and her stomach clench with excitement.
To have a full view of all that bronzed deliciousness…
It was enough to make any female tingle in anticipation.
But she hadn’t forgotten that he’d just had the shit beat out of him by a crazed goddess.
The last thing she wanted was for him to interrupt his healing.
“You’re hurt,” she forced herself to say.
He shrugged. “I’ll feel better once I have my mate next to me.”
Her breath caught at his blunt words. “Mate?”
He studied her pale face, his body tensing as he searched for her reaction.
“Does that frighten you?”
Barely aware she was moving, Sage crawled onto the bed and allowed Lian to wrap her in his waiting arms.
It wasn’t just that she sensed his need to feel her pressed against him, but his question had touched her most vulnerable nerve.
She was frightened.
Not at the thought of being this man’s mate.
Every part of her desperately longed to believe that they were destined to be together.
But she’d been taught that she couldn’t depend on love. Not when it could be so easily snatched away.
Trust wasn’t easy for her to offer.
“How can you be sure?” she demanded, burrowing against his warm body as his intoxicating musk saturated her senses. “You barely know me.”
His hand slid beneath her sweatshirt to stroke a soothing path up and down her back.
“My cat decided the moment he saw you,” he told her, his lips brushing her temple. “The human side wasn’t far behind.”
Her fingers unconsciously stroked over the hard muscles of his chest, seeking reassurance in his solid strength.
“What if you grow tired of me?”
“Tired?” Lian gave an unexpected chuckle, tugging the sweatshirt over her head and tossing it onto the floor. “Impossible.”
“Lian—”
Her words were forgotten as Lian methodically stripped away the rest of her clothes with heart-jolting impatience.
“No, it truly is impossible,” he assured her, his tone absent as his gaze surveyed her naked body with a hungry urgency. “Pantera mate for life. There will never be another for me.”
Sage felt her pussy clench in need, the damp heat filling the air with the scent of her arousal.
She struggled to concentrate on her point.
She did have a point, didn’t she?
She groaned as his fingers skimmed down her stomach, heading for the aching void between her legs.
“I’m not Pantera.” She managed to grasp the unraveling threads of her argument.
“You belong to us.” His lips nuzzled over her cheek to the corner of her mouth. “To me.”
He lifted his head to reveal eyes that glowed with the raw need of his cat.
The same need that was churning through her.
“Belong?” she tried to chide, only to have the word come out as a groan.
He nipped her lower lip. “Just as I belong to you.” He kissed her with a slow, thorough brand of possession. “Forever.” He nibbled a path of destruction down the curve of her neck. “Stay, Dr. Parker. Be my mate and our Shaman.”
She braced herself for another surge of fear, but instead, a sense of…rightness settled in her heart.
Lian wasn’t her parents.
He was loyal and supportive, and lethally charming.
Precisely the sort of male to teach an aging spinster how to enjoy her life.
Sage, however, wasn’t yet entirely convinced she was a mystical Shaman.
“I don’t even know what a Shaman is supposed to do,” she protested.
His finger slid between her slick folds, a smile of satisfaction curving his lips as she instinctively lifted her hips in response to his intimate caress.
“Each has their own skills,” he explained. “But most have been able to sense the faction of a newborn Pantera.”
“Faction?” The question came out as a squeak as his finger slid into her tight channel, sending shockwaves of pleasure through her body.
His teeth toyed with the lobe of her ear, the hard length of his cock pressed against her hip.
“If they’re destined to be a Hunter or a Diplomat or a Healer.”
That sounded…
His thumb found her sensitive clit, circling it with teasing strokes.
“Oh.”
“They can also decipher messages from the ancestors.”
He kissed his way to the curve of her breast, latching onto the aching tip with an urgency that made her whimper.
“Lian.” Sage threaded her fingers through the dark strands of his hair.
“Hmm?”
Her back arched, bliss shuddering through her as his finger thrust in and out of her body with a growing insistence.
“We’re having a conversation.”
He lifted his head, his bronzed features tight with the strain of leashing his desire.
“The only thing I want to discuss is our mating.”
A rueful smile curved her lips.
For years she’d hidden away from the world, trying to hide her abilities as if they were something shameful.
It’d taken a puma shifter to teach her that her gifts were special.
And so was she.
“You’re pushing,” she teased, lifting her head to steal a quick kiss.
His eyes were molten gold as he stared down at her with a somber expression.
“I know,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. “I’ve claimed your body. Let me claim your heart, Dr. Parker.”
She framed his beautiful face in her hands, smiling with sheer joy.
“You already have.”
Heat licked over her skin as the power of his cat blasted through the air.
“Is that a yes?” he growled.
Sage didn’t hesitate.
She’d felt alone her entire life.
Now she not only had a mate, but an entire family who were anxious to make her feel at home.
“That’s a definite yes.”