RAPHAEL lifted a brow.

Christ. Did she actually think he had furry parts when he was in this form?

Then he bleakly reminded himself that while every kiss, every soft moan as he plunged deep inside her, was branded on his mind, she had only flashes of memory.

The thought stirred a startling compulsion to repeat the performance.

To fuck her so long and so thoroughly she would never, ever be able to forget his touch.

To mark her so no other man would ever dare lay a finger on her.

Mine.

He swallowed a low snarl. Dammit. He'd been chosen as a diplomat because he was one of the Pantera capable of controlling his emotions.

How did this female manage to destroy that restraint?

"Yes, I'm part beast," he said dryly. "And before you try to peek, I don't have animal parts when I'm in human form."

With a remarkable courage, considering all she'd been through over the past few hours, she met his gaze, determined to learn the truth.

"I assume that means you have more than one form?"

"When I'm on my native soil I can shift."

"Shift?" She blinked. "Like a werewolf?"

He made a sound of disgust. "No, I'm a puma, not a mangy dog."

She slowly absorbed his words, her face pale. "How?"

Raphael hesitated, battling against his instinctive urge to ignore her question.

Over the past fifty years the already elusive Pantera had become increasingly isolated, sensing they were in danger but unable to pinpoint the precise threat.

Only those individuals necessary for survival of their race actually left the Wildlands and they remained incognito except to a rare few, trusted humans. Well, and the politicians who had the power to screw with their homeland.

But even as he struggled against his training, he knew deep in his gut that this woman was innocent.

He would have been able to sense if she were lying to him.

She truly had no idea what Pantera were or that the child she carried was supposed to be an impossible dream.

"You'll have to discuss the subject with our philosophers if you want an exhaustive explanation," he at last answered. "But the short story is that the Wildlands possess a magic that created my distant ancestors."

She frowned. "Turning them into pumas?"

"Giving them the ability to shift into animal form. It's still hotly debated whether they could have chosen any animal and settled on pumas since they were the most lethal predator capable of surviving in the bayous, or if it was the only form the magic allowed."

Her face paled another shade, emphasizing her fragile beauty. "What else can you do?"

Feeling a jab of regret, Raphael loosened his grip on her wrists, skimming his hands down her bare arms.

This had to be difficult for her.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to make it any easier.

"Like humans, we each have our own talents."

She shivered with growing excitement, but her expression remained hard with suspicion.

"That's...evasive."

His concentration was shattered by the feel of her satin skin beneath his fingertips, the cat inside him stirring with restless hunger.

It didn't understand this need to talk.

It wanted to pounce. Devour. To mate with this female who was warm and wet beneath him.

"We're a secretive race."

"No shit," she breathed. "Why?"

"We have our reasons."

Her eyes darkened as his hands traced her shoulders before heading down the line of her collarbone, her own concentration obviously beginning to fracture.

"Just tell me, is one of your talents seducing humans?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"We produce a pheromone that can be an aphrodisiac," he said, not surprised when her eyes widened and she wildly grasped for the excuse to explain her violent arousal whenever he touched her.

"I knew it," she rasped.

He shook his head. "Ashe, that's not what happened between us."

"You just said-"

"I said it's possible to produce a pheromone, but believe me I had no need to do anything," he said, his voice thickening as his dick began to throb with an insistent craving. "You walked into the bar and the air combusted between us."

He could hear her heart miss a beat as her nipples hardened into tiny nubs of temptation.

"So you're saying I caught sight of you and instantly climbed into the nearest bed?"

She tried for scorn, but there was no missing the dilation of her pupils and the scent of her arousal.

He sucked in a deep breath, savoring her sweet scent. "I don't have an explanation beyond the fact that we saw one another, the mating heat hit, and not a force on this earth could have kept me from claiming you."

"Mating heat?"

"When a female Pantera is fertile she-"

"Don't." She pressed a hand over his mouth, a complex tangle of emotions rippling over her delicate features. "I'm not Pantera."

"No," he swiftly agreed. "And even if you were, I should have been able to control myself. I might have the soul of an animal, but I'm still human."

She studied his somber expression, searching for the truth. "Did you truly make me forget?"

Raphael forced himself to meet her gaze. He wasn't proud that he'd used his power to scrub her mind.

But the bald truth was that he'd been as shocked as she was by the intensity of his desire for her. And while he'd had sex with any number of human females, he'd never lost control like he had that night.

He couldn't be entirely certain that he hadn't given away the fact he wasn't a normal lover.

Now he knew that his little stunt was only going to complicate their already fucked-up relationship.

"I have the ability to cloud your memories," he reluctantly admitted.

She stiffened beneath him. "You can manipulate my mind?"

"No," he growled. "I can only...urge you not to remember. It's a small trick that has allowed my people to keep our presence hidden from most of the world."

He could feel her stiffen beneath him. "That's what you call it? A small trick?" she snapped, her eyes flashing with midnight fire. "I thought I was going crazy when I went to the doctor and he told me I was pregnant. Then I started getting flashes of memories. It terrified me. I didn't know if they were real or if they were fragments of a growing insanity."

"I'm sorry," he said.

And he was. The thought of causing this woman one second of pain was abhorrent. But as he slowly began to accept that the child she carried was no trick, that she was actually pregnant with his babe, he couldn't regret that he'd given into his primitive urges.

To have this woman as his mate, and a child to call his own...

It filled him with a fierce happiness he never expected.

Her lips flattened. "That's all you have to say? I'm sorry?"

His gaze lingered on her mouth, his cock twitching as his cat reached the end of its patience.

"It shouldn't have been possible."

"The memories?"

"The memories or the pregnancy."

"You used protection?"

"No." His gaze returned to meet the challenge in her eyes, once again struck by her courage. Most humans, male or female, would be cowering in fear. But not his beautiful Ashe. His cat preened with pride. "I'm incapable of catching or carrying human diseases so you were in no danger. And there's never been a human female impregnated by a Pantera."

"Never?"

"Not one in recent memory."

Her eyes widened. "Then maybe this baby isn't yours."

"Ashe-"

"You said yourself you screwed with my memories. Maybe I left you and had sex with some other man..." She gave a small scream as his teeth sank into her neck. Not hard enough to break the skin, but with enough force to claim his ownership. "Shit, Raphael," she gasped, her nails digging into his shoulders as she squirmed beneath him.

Not in pain.

But pure excitement.

"No other man has touched you," he snarled, his nose pressed against her skin as he breathed deep of her scent, seeking to calm his animal.

She shivered, her head pressing into the pillow to arch her neck in unconscious invitation.

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because you're mine." He soothed his bite mark with tender kisses before heading downward. "You even taste like you're mine," he murmured, trailing his tongue down to the tip of her nipple.

Ashe moaned, her fingers shoving into his hair. "What does that mean?" she demanded.

"You taste of sunshine," he whispered, his tongue continuing to tease the hard nub, "and rich, fertile earth, and magic. You taste of home."

Her eyes squeezed shut, a flush staining her cheeks. "What are you doing to me?"

"Nothing you don't want, ma chere," he promised, his lips tracing a gentle path of kisses to her stomach. "Mine," he murmured, his superior senses already able to detect the tiny babe in her womb.

Whispering a soft hello, he shoved himself off the bed, ridding himself of his clothes with a minimum of fuss, relishing the sensation of her avid gaze taking in the hard muscles of his naked body and the tattoo on his upper chest. He paused, taking a heartbeat to simply appreciate the sight of Ashe stretched across the mattress, her slender body painted in silver moonlight and her dark hair spilled across the sheet.

Like an exquisite sacrifice to the gods.

Then, placing a knee on the edge of the bed, he bent down to kiss the sensitive arch of her foot before nibbling each tiny toe.

She gave a choked groan as he slowly explored up her calf, relishing the intoxicating smell of her arousal perfuming the air.

With a low groan she restlessly stirred on the sheets, and Raphael grasped her hips, holding her still.

He intended to feast on her, making her scream with pleasure before he was done.

Giving her a punishing nip, he worked his way upward, spreading her legs as his cat gave a low snarl of anticipation.

"Raphael." Her fingers clenched in his hair as his tongue discovered her moist heat.

He slid his hands beneath her hips, finding the perfect angle before returning to his single-minded task.

Lapping at her cream, Raphael savored her sweetness, dipping his tongue into her tight little passage.

Holy hell. Her taste was intoxicating. Better than the finest wine.

He stroked back to the top of her clit, finding her tiny bundle of pleasure to suck between his lips.

Her hips bucked upward, her hands tugging at his hair as her moans became shortened pants.

He could taste her nearing climax on his tongue, making his cock twitch in protest.

As tempting as it might be to stroke her to completion, he needed more.

He wanted to look her in the eye as he thrust deep inside her, completing the most intimate connection possible between lovers.

With a last, lingering lap of his tongue, Raphael surged upward, claiming her mouth in a kiss of stark hunger. He would never have his fill of her.

Never.

Her legs wrapped instinctively around his waist in a silent offering and Raphael gave a rough groan. He was quivering with the need to slam his cock into her, pounding them both to a swift, satisfying climax, but he was acutely conscious that she was far more fragile than a Pantera female.

He had to be careful.

Peering deep into her dazed eyes, he pressed the head of his cock at her entrance, halting to appreciate the sensation of her moist flesh wrapped around his crown.

Oh, hell. He could come just like this, it felt so good.

Beneath him, Ashe whimpered, her nails digging into his upper arms as she struggled to tug him closer.

"Why are you stopping?" she pleaded. "I need you."

"Easy, ma chere," he murmured. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't...oh god..."

She lifted her hips, taking another inch of his throbbing erection inside her. They both groaned, the air spiced with the musky scent of his cat who was dangerously close to the surface.

This was a Pantera at his most primitive, stripped of the layer of civilization that gave him the appearance of being human.

He slid his hands beneath her shoulder blades, lowering his head to claim her lips even as he thrust forward and claimed her with his steel-hard erection.

With him buried to the hilt, they clutched at one another, the pleasure rolling over them in searing waves.

"You have enthralled me," he breathed as he slowly pulled out of her to surge back with a roll of his hips. She gave a startled gasp that was choked off as the swelling excitement held them in sexual thrall. "I am yours."

Scattering kisses over her damp face, he drove himself into her heat, keeping the pace relentless, but gentle. Man, he wanted this to last all night, but already he could feel the building pressure of his orgasm. Burying his face in the curve of her neck, his fingers flexed against her back, his nails unconsciously digging into her tender flesh.

He was lost.

Lost in the overwhelming sensation of her pussy clenched tight and hot around his surging cock.

Continuing his relentless pace, he waited for her to tense beneath him, the sound of her thundering heartbeat echoing inside him with a pagan rhythm.

Still it wasn't until she gave a soft cry of release that he unleashed his cat, unknowingly using his claws to slice through her skin, marking her on a most primal level.

With one last thrust he buried himself until his balls were flush against her ass and allowed his climax to smash into him with mind-numbing force.

God. Damn.

Was the world still spinning? It felt as if it must have come to a shuddering, cataclysmic halt.

Raising his head, he studied Ashe's sated expression, a smile of smug satisfaction curving his lips.

The scent of lust and his personal musk was thick in the air, along with...

Blood?

With a stunned sense of disbelief, he turned to the side, rolling her over so he could inspect the scratches that marred the satin skin of her upper back.

Marks made by claws, not human nails.

They weren't deep, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would leave four silver lines on each shoulder that would forever claim her as his mate.

No. It wasn't possible.

A Pantera couldn't shift unless they were in the Wildlands.

Their eyes glowed in the dark, or when their emotions were aroused, and they produced a musk that was directly connected to their cats. But they couldn't actually change body parts.

So what the hell had just happened?