Page 195 of The Queen’s Shadow

His voice was low and dark. I stared up at him, understanding the warning for what it was. He was a panther, he was hard coded to chase things that ran, and ambush prey from behind. I had inadvertently been pushing every single one of his predatory instincts. He seemed to have managed to get a hold of himself, but I wondered with a shiver what would have happened if I had continued to struggle.

I wasn’t strong enough to come against him right now. Playing cat and mouse with the king of the panther shifters was a deadly game, one I knew I wouldn’t win. Not in my current state.

“Tell me that you understand.” He demanded quietly. He hadn’t released me, and he was so close that I could feel his breath on my lips.

I nodded, unable to speak, considering my heart seemed to have lodged itself in my throat.

“Good,” he breathed. He buried his face into the side of my neck and inhaled deeply, before running the rough stubble on his chin up my throat as if he were marking me with his scent. I forced myself not to struggle or pull away at the possessive nature of his behaviour, not wanting to trigger him again. Finally, he pressed a long, firm kiss into my temple and released me, taking a step back.

I rubbed my wrists and glared at him but said nothing. I had a feeling I needed to learn more about shifters and what made them tick. What the hell was that weird face rub thing he had just done?

“There’s someone I want you to meet.” He said casually, as if he hadn’t just pinned me to the wall and threatened to hunt me down.

“If I say I’m not up for visitors, are you going to throw me against the wall and rub your face on me again?” I asked dryly, and he smirked at me, his golden eyes shining with amusement.

“I might rub more than just my face on you if you make me do it a second time.” He purred and I rolled my eyes.

“You’re disgusting.”

“You like it.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then why do you smell like arousal and adrenaline?”

“I do not smell like arousal!” I scoffed, appalled. He just chuckled and shot me a dark look. “Get changed and come out to meet Koda. Say hi for fifteen minutes, then I’ll let you come back in here to mope and continue to feel sorry for yourself or do whatever else it is you do in here all day.”

“You’re such a fucking asshole, you know that? Most people wouldn’t talk to someone who’s been through what I’ve been through the way you are.” I snapped. He just shrugged and turned to leave.

“I’m not most people, and neither are you.” He said easily, opening the door before glancing back at me. “Come say hi for fifteen minutes, Kasha. Please.”

I met his eyes and could see that it was really important to him for me to meet this Koda person.

And Origin spare me… For some reason I couldn’t seem to say no to the shifter when he said please.

Rycon

Fuck! That female was going to be the death of me…

I had almost lost all control when she had tried to push me off her. It had triggered the need to hunt, and all I wanted to do was drop her in the middle of a field, arm her with a blade and tell her to fucking run.

I paused in the hallway before heading back to the kitchen, trying to force back the raging hard-on that was currently tenting my jeans. I knew I needed to be careful with her. She didn’t have her magick, she was malnourished, and traumatized. I couldn’t push her too hard. But I hadn’t been lying. She had smelled like arousal, and the moment I picked up that scent on her, I had nearly lost all fucking sense.

I had marked her with my scent, which I had been dying to do for days, but that one small mark wasn’t enough. I wanted her to be drowning in me. I wanted every single shifter that crossed paths with her to smell me on her so thoroughly, that there was no doubt in their minds who she belonged to… especially with so many outsiders coming to Olkuyrbe the next couple of days.

My instincts were screaming at me to make a claim. When she did shit like turn her back on me, or try to run away, she had no idea how triggering and difficult it was to beat back the beast in my chest that demanded either blood or submission.

Luckily, I had more control over my beast than most, so I had been able to disentangle myself from her without causing too much damage, but it had been close.

If and when she was ready to leave Rhoan House, my instincts were only going to get worse. It was going to be difficult for me to watch her interact with other males while I still hadn’t been able to properly mark her as mine. I was going to be insufferable, and she wasn’t going to like it.

I bit back the snarl that threatened to escape my throat at the thought of her even speaking to another male and resisted the urge to put my fist through the wall for what felt like the thousandth time since I had brought her here.

Fuck. This was going to be a rough couple of weeks.

Once I had managed to get a grip on myself, I made my way into the kitchen to find Koda and Rhyalla laughing and catching up. Rhyalla had poured Koda a large shot of Cachaça and she handed one to me as I entered the kitchen.

“How is she?” Rhyalla asked, and I sighed, slumping down into one of the chairs next to Koda.