“You know it, Cub,” Aristide said with a playful growl, reaching over to tousle the boy’s hair.
“We’ll talk about that later, honey,” Kat said, feeling slightly embarrassed. Aristide had been so kind, so amazing to her, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was put him on the spot. “Right now, I want you to come inside and get some sleep.”
“But it’s morning,” Noah whined. “I’m not tired.”
“Who’s hungry?” Xavier called, loping up to meet them. He enveloped Aristide in a hug, and slapped his back a few times. “Damn. It’s good to see you, brother.”
“You, too,” Aristide said.
“I’m hungry,” Noah called out. “I’m pretty sure I could eat a whale.”
“A whale?” Xavier repeated, his blue eyes going wide. “That’s some serious fish food, little cub.”
“Whales aren’t fish, they’re mammals.”
Both Aristide and Xavier laughed, and the former ruffled Noah’s hair again. Kat wished the moment could go on for hours, days… The jokes, the love, the family. How could she have ever written such things about such a wonderful place? She would fix it. Even if she had to deal with Marco. She owed everyone here, Aristide most of all, a good story. A true love letter to the Wildlands.
“Come on, ya’ll,” Xavier said, dropping an arm over Aristide’s shoulders. “Let’s go to my place and see if Mal’s back. Find out what’s happened and where we stand while we stuff our faces.”
“Yippee!” Noah screamed, making everyone laugh again.
Aristide turned to Kat and gave her look so intense, so hot, it sent shivers of desire through her. But his voice remained as cool as the air around them. “No one’s going to be able to sleep anytime soon. There’s much to talk about, and much to celebrate.” His eyes burned into her. “Right?”
She nodded. “Right.” She wasn’t sure what he meant. If he was just talking about their small party. Or her. And him. Either way, she had to find out.
“Did I say how much I missed you?” Kat said in between kisses as she and Noah walked down the street next to the two grown Pantera males.
Noah giggled. “Yes. But I already knew.”
“You did?”
“Ari told me.”
Kat glanced over at the man, the male—the guy she was so desperately falling for. He was walking side by side with Xavier, but his eyes were pinned on her.
“When he came and found me in that mean man’s house,” Noah continued. “He told me how much you love me and that you missed me and that if I just trusted him, he’d bring me to you.”
Tears pricked Kat’s eyes. “I’m so glad we both trusted him, baby.”
As she hugged her boy closer, she felt Aristide’s hand at her back, guiding her, protecting her, treating her with such care as they all walked together through town.
A few hours later, Aristide led Kat into the house. His house. His family’s house. A house that craved, and deserved, to have happiness again. For so long, it had been just him and Amalie. But now, Aristide was hoping for a fresh start with two humans he knew in his guts he didn’t want to live without.
He closed the door and eased Katherine into his arms. She melted into him at once. Noah had been having so much fun at Mal and Xavier’s place, he’d refused to leave. After eating more than a boy twice his size—maybe he had a touch of the Pantera in him?—Xavier had pulled him into a game he was creating on the computer. Noah had begged to stay for another hour. Which was a perfect amount of time for what Aristide had planned for his mother.
“Ashe’s cub is well and safe,” he said, gazing down at her, his puma purring inside his chest. The feel of her against him was making his body roar to life. “And your boy is well and safe, and will never have to fear that monster again.” He raised a brow. “But what about you, Katherine? Do you feel safe? Here, with me?”
Her eyes sparkled with undeniable happiness as she gazed up at him. “I feel so much more than that, Ari.”
A low, hungry growl escaped his throat. “Oh, I love when you call me that.”
She grinned. “Then I’ll always call you that.”
Always. Yes, he liked that.
“Do you think the Pantera would allow Noah and I to stay for a little while?” she asked, a touch of her contentment, her happiness, stolen by a momentary thread of concern.
Aristide lifted one eyebrow. “Only mated humans can live in the Wildlands, darlin’.”
It was as if her entire world came tumbling down in that moment, in that stupid comment, and Aristide felt like a giant asshole for chiding her. “Katherine, I’m sorry.”
“No. No.” She shook her head and tried to ease herself away from him. “That’s okay. I understand. We can go this afternoon.”
Oh, shit. He was not doing this well. Holding her close, he allowed his puma a moment of possessiveness with a soft snarl. Then he held her gaze. “Listen to me, Katherine Burke. And listen well. Right now I ache for you so badly I can barely contain it. I need to touch you. I need to kiss you. Christ, I need to feel what it’s like to be inside of you. So deep, we both lose our minds and our breath.”
She stared up at him confused. “I don’t understand.”
“But first you need to know how I feel,” he continued, his strong jaw tight and his eyes flashing black fire. “I want you. Here. With me. Forever. I want to mate you. I want to wake up every morning to your face, and have you fall asleep in my arms every night.”
Her mouth dropped open and she stilled. “I want that, too. Oh, Ari, I want that more than anything. But are you sure? I’m not a Pantera female.”
“You are my female,” he said roughly, bending down and scooping her up in his arms. “And I’m taking you to our room and to our bed to make sure you understand that fact.”
“Our room,” she repeated. “Our bed?”
“Fuck, yes, Katherine Burke. Our everything.”
He felt her shiver in his arms, knew that right then her nipples were getting hard. He licked his lips. “Noah can have the room you’ve been staying in,” he decreed, moving swiftly down the hall. “Unless he hates the flowers. I’m not too into the flowers myself. So maybe we could fix it up together, him and me.”
“Aristide?”
He stopped just inside the bedroom and turned to look at her. She was so beautiful. Her cheeks flushed with desire. Her eyes wide with desire, and a need for reassurance from him.
“You do want this?” he asked savagely. “Say you want this, that you want me. Because I want you and Noah more than anything. I know what you said about him not having a father, but it’s not right. He needs that. And…I need him.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and she nodded. “Yes, Ari. All of it. A million times, yes.”
It was all he needed to hear. He stretched her out on the bed, then started undressing her. First her shoes, then her skirt and top, his eyes never leaving hers. But when she was completely naked before him, he drew back and allowed his gaze move over her, explore, covet. Oh, she took his breath away. Pale, long limbs, narrow waist, lightly muscled arms, full breasts with edible nipples that seemed to call to him.
“Mine,” he growled, feeling his male self collide with his puma.
“Then take me, Ari,” she said passionately, her arms outstretched. “I need you. I need you inside me. I’ve never wanted anything more.”
Aristide wanted hours to explore every inch of her, kiss every peak and valley, lick every drop of sweet cream from her nearly shaved pussy. But when she spread her legs wide and showed him just how slick and pink she was, he couldn’t be contained any longer. After all, they had tonight and tomorrow, and forever, to explore.
Aristide quickly stripped, then growled softly at her as her eyes dropped to his heavy shaft. “See something you like?”
She smiled wickedly. “Oh, Ari, so many things. But right now, I need you over me, inside me, against me.”
He was on the bed in seconds, had her thighs spread a few inches wider and his cock sliding home before she said another word. Liquid heat enveloped him, and when she wrapped her legs around his waist and arched her back, he thrust into her so deep, she gasped. He dropped his head and captured her mouth, taking her gasps and her groans into his lungs. It was perfect, like fine wine.
“My Katherine,” he whispered against her lips, moving inside of her, claiming her, taking her all the way to the brink of climax. “My life, my family, my love.”
And when she cried out and exploded around him, Aristide went with her. Followed her over the edge and into a new and wonderful life for them both.
EPILOGUE
The small cabin on the isolated island in the Wildlands was surrounded by heavy flora, and a perilous swamp that had claimed a few unwary Pantera over the years. It was used to imprison those who had done the Pantera wrong, and those who couldn’t control their cats any longer. Hiss belonged to the former group. The wrongdoers and the traitors.
Standing over the cot that only days ago had hosted the evil Shakpi, Hiss wondered at his future. Should he give up? Give in, break with this life and move on to the next? Or should he fight to free himself? Was it important that the ones who imprisoned him now knew why he had turned against them? That it was their own treachery, their callous disregard for his family—and shit, for three of their own—that had brought this about?