Page 28 of Pleasured by the Panther (The Monstrum Kindred)

KORRATH

Korrath stood in the Docking Bay , his fists clenched at his sides, watching the shuttle rise from the platform.

The Taurus Monstrum sat at the controls, broad shoulders hunched with concentration as the small craft lifted towards the atmosphere shield in the ceiling.

A moment later, the shuttle cleared the shield and shot into the blackness of space—carrying Miranda away from him.

His chest ached as though someone had driven a blade straight through it. He had faced battles…wounds…even death before as a warrior, but nothing had ever hollowed him out like this.

I should have waited. I shouldn’t have called her when I knew her daughter was in the middle of such a seminal life event.

The thought circled endlessly in his mind, a carrion bird picking his bones clean. He should have waited for another Draft …another chance. But General Drafts only came once a year. The moment had been too perfect—the Dream Sharing too vivid…too undeniable.

He had seen Miranda’s face every night in his sleep… felt her presence like a ghost in his arms—her scent lingering on the edge of memory. After so long, he hadn’t believed he could endure another season of emptiness without trying to reach her.

And yet, in his haste, he had wounded her.

Korrath dragged a hand down his face, his claws biting into his jaw.

“Mother of Life , help me,” he muttered, voice hoarse. “ I never wanted to hurt her. Never .”

But what choice had he had? He had no legal standing to call her directly.

Her name wasn’t in the Draft . She was past the human age of eligibility, overlooked by the system.

The only loophole—the only thread he could tug—was Hanna .

Calling the daughter had been the only way to bring Miranda close enough to touch…

close enough that he could show her how they belonged together.

Now he wondered if it had cost him everything.

He bowed his head, remembering the fire of her body wrapped around his cock…the way her soft curves had yielded to his touch…the sound of her moaning his name like a prayer.

He remembered her laughter too—the spark of challenge in her eyes—the warmth of her smile when she wasn’t holding herself back.

My Mature Elite , he thought bitterly. That was what she was—her Second Heat had confirmed it. She was at the height of her power…her fertility…her beauty. And she was his . His fate…his dream…his mate.

But she had walked away.

“Will I ever see you again, lovely one?” he whispered into the vast, empty Docking Bay . His voice echoed off the steel and vine-grown walls, swallowed whole by the great ship around him, and the silence that answered was crushing.

Korrath straightened slowly, his jaw clenched, his heart a heavy weight in his chest. He could not undo what had been done. All he could do now was wait, and hope that the Goddess —or Miranda herself—would one day grant him another chance.

Until then, he would live with the hollow ache in his heart that she had left behind.