Did you call them?

"Not intentionally."

Show-offs. He bumped her hip with his head. I feel your melancholy.

"I'm fine." She backed up to where the sand was no longer wet, and sat. The panther sat beside her, then lay at her side, resting his sleek black head in her lap. There was something about him, a tenseness, that didn't feel right.

She stroked his head. "You're in pain."

It's nothing. Just another gift from Ancreta.

"Tell me about it. Please?"

The panther made a sound in her head that was almost a sigh. When my brothers shift, they experience an incredible rush. A joy. I've heard them talk about it a hundred times. Even when they're not in their animals, they're able to communicate with their beasts. They feel their emotions and hear their growls and roars in their heads. They're one with their animals in a way I've never been, thanks to Ancreta. All shifting has ever brought me is pain.

"Do the others know?"

Only Vhyper. If Lyon knew, he might take me off draden-hunting duty, and I'd hate that. Because even though I feel constant pain when I'm in my animal, it eases something inside me. I need to be able to shift and to run. It's part of me now.

She stroked his neck, over and over. "I have to try to help you, Paenther. We have to convince Lyon to unbind my magic."

We'll get your magic unbound. I refuse to watch you go through another cutting like that. Once you've done what you can to heal me, I'm leaving for the mountains. I'm not leaving Vhyper there any longer than I have to. He never deserted me, and I won't desert him.

"What do you mean? When didn't he desert you?"

The cat shifted its head, resting his chin on her thigh. As his emerald eyes looked up at her, he told her about Vhyper and Frederick. About how badly Vhyper took Frederick's death at Ancreta's hand.

That night, Vhyper shifted into his snake. He shouldn't have been able to without the radiance and Feral magic, but the vipers have always been different.

"They have poison, don't they?"

They do. In the old days, before the rise of the Daemons and the subsequent war that ended most Therian and Mage magic, the vipers were the bad boys of the Therian world. They were the outcasts. The villains. Now there is only ever one with the ability to shift, and he's a Feral Warrior. Vhyper is one of the finest I've ever known. The real Vhyper, anyway.

When he shifted that night in Ancreta's dungeon, he shrank his size until he was barely bigger than a worm and escaped unseen. After months of captivity and torture, he was out of there. Free. But instead of taking off to find Feral House as he should have done, he mounted a one-man rescue. Of me. He should have gone to find the Ferals and come back with the might of the shape-shifters behind him, but he didn't know where Feral House was and didn't know how long it would take. Travel was slow in those days, especially in winter, which it was. He was afraid they'd move me, and he'd lose me.

Vhyper risked his freedom, his life, to get me out of there. And succeeded. Now he's the one trapped. I can't leave him in there. I have to save him as he saved me.

Skye stroked his fur. "I'm going to help you, Paenther. I'm going to heal you, I swear it. Then I'll do whatever I can to help you free him."

The panther rose onto his haunches and leaned forward to lick her cheek. Thank you, Beauty, but I'm not letting you get anywhere near that cavern again. My men and I will get him out.

"I don't think you'll make it through the warding of that mountain without me to guide you."

We'll see. I've promised to keep you safe, little witch. That's a promise I mean to keep.

"I know." She buried her face in his fur and loved him.

Help me shift.

"You'll be naked."

He chuckled in her head. A naked man on the beach will draw a lot less attention than a black panther. There's no one out here to see, either way. I need to kiss you, Beauty. It won't wait.

His words brought tears to her eyes. She did as he asked, and a moment later, the man was beside her, pulling her onto his lap and into his arms.

Paenther pulled Skye tight against him as he sat naked in the sand. The night was clear, the moon dancing over the waves as the soft roar of surf melded with the hard beating of his heart. Need poured through him as he slanted his mouth over that of the woman in his lap, kissing her thoroughly, tasting her, inhaling her sweet scent of violets. The need to touch her, to be close to her, was becoming a craving he couldn't fight. Goddess, what was she doing to him? The more time he spent with her, the more he needed her. And not just sexually. Touching her was becoming as important to him as breathing.

As she wrapped her arms around his neck, he reached beneath her sweater and covered her breast, neatly tucked into a lacy bra. He growled, low, not liking the feel of anything between them.

With a light tug, he pulled off her sweater and tossed it aside, then followed with her bra. Her skin glowed in the moonlight like mother-of-pearl, drawing his gaze...and his mouth. He bent his head and closed his lips over her shoulder. She tasted of forests and raindrops and sweetness, and she stirred emotions inside him he'd never felt for anyone.

Her fingers went through his hair. "Aren't you worried about draden?" she asked softly.

"I'll shift if I have to," he murmured, then slid his tongue along the line of her shoulder and slowly up her neck, drawing a gasp and a hard shiver from her. Skye was in no danger from the little fiends - they rarely attacked Mage. And he had a fiery need to make love to this woman beneath the stars.

His hand closed over one perfect breast, her nipple tight and hard as it grazed his palm, sending need coiling low inside him. Curving one hand beneath her knees and the other at her back, he turned her until he was cradling her in his arms.

Skye laughed and slid one arm behind his neck. "What are you doing?"

He met her gaze with his hunger, he was certain, written all over his face. "This." Lifting her, he brought her breast straight to his mouth. He groaned from the sheer sweetness of her flesh as he closed his lips around her and suckled. He flicked his tongue across her nipple, over and over again until her fingers dug into his neck where she held on, and into his scalp, where she held him tight against her until she was moaning with pleasure.

With a last tug on her breast, he lowered her back to his lap, gazing at the damp, swollen flesh with satisfaction. He looked down at her, at her small, sexy smile.

"You're even more beautiful in the moonlight," he said softly. "I didn't think it was possible."

Her smile widened and turned shy. "So are you, my warrior. I want you inside me."

"There's nowhere I'd rather be." He kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth as he laid her on the soft sand and stroked her body, his hand sliding down her torso, to bump up against her jeans. "These have got to go."

But as he rose to his knees to unfasten her belt, she sat up, her hand sliding over his arm.

"Paenther..."

His movements stilled at the uncertain tone in her voice. She was watching him with raw need, but something more.

"What, Beauty?"

Slowly, she reached for him, cupping his erection in her cool palm. He sucked in a breath at the exquisite pleasure of her touch.

"In the cavern...you wouldn't let me kiss you here. Yet you brought me so much pleasure when you kissed me down there. Is it different for a man?"

So innocent. He stroked her head and met her gaze. "It's no different. It can be an incredibly erotic feeling...when it's done by the right person, in the right way. Ancreta used to force my arousal like that. Bad memories, I'm afraid."

Yet even as he said the words, the truth, the thought of Skye's mouth, replacing the perfect touch of her hand, nearly brought him to release.

He stared into her eyes, cupping her cheek. "You are the right person, Beauty. If you want to..."

Her eyes searched his. "I don't know how to do it in the right way. I've never done it at all."

"There's no wrong way. Whatever pleases you. But first, I want you naked, little witch." He kissed her, then set about unfastening her belt. "You're wearing far too many clothes."

Paenther moved between her legs and pulled off her jeans and panties, tossing them onto the pile, his gaze fixing hungrily on the sweet flesh between her legs. But she closed her knees and rose, pressing her hands to his shoulders.

"My turn."

He could have overpowered her in an instant, but he rather liked the touch of bossiness in her tone.

"Lie down for me, Paenther. Please?"

He did, lying back on the cool, damp sand, watching her as she knelt beside him and studied his cock as if unsure where to begin. His body thrummed with anticipation, throbbing with desire. His chest tightened until he thought it might explode from the pressure of his feelings for her.

Her hand closed around him. Then slowly, so slowly, she lowered her face. Her tongue flicked out, marking him with a fast, damp lick across the tip of his head, tearing a groan from his throat.

She watched him, their gazes locked as she held him upright, opened her mouth...

He froze, suddenly struggling not to grab himself out of her hand and push her away.

She saw and released him. "I'm sorry."

Paenther sat up and grabbed her shoulders as she started to lean away. "No. Don't stop. But I think I'll sit up while you do it."

She nodded, understanding in her eyes. Being on his back brought it all back too clearly.

Once again, she slowly lowered her face to his lap, but this time she didn't stop. As he slid his fingers into her hair, he felt her damp mouth close around his cock. His eyes nearly rolled back into his head at the unbelievable pleasure.

"Ah, Skye, that's good."

She tongued him, sucked on him, driving a desperate need to touch her in return. His hand slid down her silken back until his palm cupped her rear, kneading and flexing into the soft flesh. Then his fingers slid into the crack between her cheeks and down until he found her heat.

As she twirled her tongue around his head, he shoved two fingers deep inside her, eliciting a deep sensual moan from her throat.

His other hand slid into her hair, holding her, caressing her. Loving her.

Her damp mouth began to suck on him, riding his length until he thought he was going to lose it.

Goddess, but he had to be inside her.

He pulled his fingers out of her and lifted her face.

"Enough, Beauty. I need to be in you."

With a soft smile, she lay back on the sand, opening her arms and her body to him. The moonlight lit her face, setting her eyes to sparkling, tightening a band around his chest.

Skye reached for him. "Love me, Paenther."

He stared down at her. "I do." And he knew it was true. Against all odds, against everything he'd ever thought possible, he'd fallen in love with a Mage witch.

He fell into her arms and cradled her face. "I love you, Skye."

She stared at him, tears and joy flooding her eyes. "I love you, too. So very much."

Her words stroked his heart, filling him with warmth and rightness. Holding her with his gaze, he entered her body, sliding his length into her tight, wet sheath, fitting together two halves of a whole.

She was his. And yet there were a dozen reasons she could never be.

He pushed the dark thoughts aside as she wrapped herself around him. Over and over, he slid inside her, then most of the way out, then deep inside her again. Faster and faster, he drove them both as Skye met him, thrust for thrust, groaning, her body straining right along with his.

She came on a cry of joy, and he followed her over, spilling his seed in a moment of such perfection, he wasn't certain it would ever be matched.

But as he kissed her and pulled out of her, reality pressed in, threatening to steal this one brief moment of happiness.

They returned to the beach house without any sign of draden, showered, and fell into bed, exhausted. A short while later, Paenther woke to the sound of Skye's distress.

He held her close in the bed, her body curled around his, her head tucked beneath his chin. As he stroked her back, her trembling slowly eased.

"Birik again?" he asked softly.

"Yes."

He felt so damned helpless. He'd promised to keep her safe, but in those dreams, Birik hurt her, and there was nothing he could do about it. All he wanted to do was keep her safe - lock her within the walls of Feral House, where no one would ever hurt her again.

But Feral House was the one place she could never stay. No Mage witch would ever be welcome there, he knew that.

He kissed the top of her head, her soft hair brushing his chin. She pulled back and looked up at him with love in her eyes. Within that love, he saw a raw, desperate hope for the future. A future he was all too afraid would never be theirs.

Chapter Nineteen

Skye clung to Paenther's hand as she accompanied him up the front walk of Feral House, her heart warm and full with a fragile joy.

Paenther loved her.

The entire trip home, he'd held her hand, refusing to let go, filling her with happiness and hope beyond anything she'd ever thought possible. There was so much at stake still, and the other Feral Warriors still distrusted her, but Paenther would bring them around. She had to believe.

Because he loved her. And she loved him so much in return, she ached from it.

They were nearly to the front steps when the door burst open. Paenther grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back as Tighe ran out the door, Delaney close behind him.

"Jag and Foxx found a pair of Mage." Tighe paused at the base of the steps. "They called for backup."

"Where?"