"Liar!"

"Excuse me?" Xavier didn't spare her a glance, though he wanted to. Shit, he always wanted to. After all, she looked hot. Jeans, tank, smooth, tanned skin with a light sheen of sweat. His tongue twitched inside his mouth at the image, at the yearning to taste her salty skin. But he had to set his position, make sure he could see if and when someone returned to that cabin.

"You said no trees, and look at this," she said behind him.

Crouched inside the shelter of a massive fallen cypress, Xavier shrugged. "No climbing was needed." He narrowed his eyes at the screened porch a couple hundred yards away. "We're protected here. We can see everything, and no one can see us."

"We could be protected inside one of those cabins bracketing our camera owner."

Xavier glanced over his shoulder. Damn, she looked beautiful. Edible. "You looking for some comfort on this mission, Hunter?" he asked.

Her lips twitched. "No," she returned haughtily, the leaves of the cypress overhead traveling back and forth across her back. "I'm just saying there are options..."

"Like carpet and walls and indoor plumbing?"

She shook her head. "You're such a guy."

"Damn right," he said, then growled softly. "Wait, what does that mean?"

She laughed. "With what you have between your legs, you don't need indoor plumbing. Us females...well, let's just say it's an awkward act without it. Out of our fur, at any rate. "

He laughed with her. "I can ask if there are any vacancies here. Hell, maybe I'll just kick out some nice couple celebrating their mating night if it would please you."

She sobered suddenly, and her expression went soft, sensual. Even her tone was far more tantalizing than teasing. "You want to please me?"

Christ, she made him insane. His hands curled into fists, and a low, husky growl exited his throat. "Don't act so surprised, Hunter. I may be a closed book when it comes to sharing feelings and all that sappy bullshit, but don't pretend you don't know how affected I am by you. How my body twitches and hardens and sweats every fucking moment you're around. Pleasing you?" He laughed darkly. "It's on my mind constantly."

Her breathing quickened, making her cheeks flush and her spectacular chest rise and fall.

"Well, you're not the only one," she said, her eyes pinned to his.

"What do you mean?"

A slow, sexy grin played about her lips. "Pleasing me is on my mind constantly, too."

"You!" With a fierce growl, Xavier forgot everything-where he was, why he was there-and leapt on top of her, forcing her to her back on the soft moss. Snarling down at her, he rasped, "You...Dammit...You..."

She gazed up at him, breathing so hard, she could hardly get the word, "What?" out of her mouth.

"You make me crazy," he growled.

She raked her hands up his chest. "Good."

"You make me hungry," he continued, his eyes narrowed slits as he ground his hips, his hard cock, against her sex.

"Finally," she uttered, grinning, her hands moving down, over his stomach toward his hips.

He groaned, knowing where she was headed. "You make me...God, Amalie..."

"What, Xavier? Tell me. Please, tell me."

"You make me so fucking happy."

The words were out of his mouth before he could take them back. Not that he wanted to. They were true. He'd never felt anything close to this with anyone. He wanted her. Not just a night-or three-of hot, mindless fucking. No. He wanted her.

Amalie's hands froze near his hipbones and her eyes searched his. Within their incredible green depths, he saw her heart. Saw how she felt about him. How she'd always felt about him. And if he wasn't mistaken, he saw his own heart reflected there, too.

Suddenly, her face broke with a grin, and she whispered, "By the way, I don't think anyone would be having their mating night here."

"Why not?" he asked, his hands cupping her face. Her soft, beautiful face.

"It's just not very romantic. The swamp, the bugs."

He ran his thumb across her lower lip. "You sure you're a Hunter, Amalie?"

Her soft, sexy laughter went straight to his dick. "All I'm saying is that when you mate, or marry as the humans say, you want that first night to be special."

His expression grew serious and he leaned down and kissed her lower lip. "No bugs?" he whispered.

She nodded, lifting her chin instinctively. "Preferably."

He kissed her top lip, then swiped it gently with his tongue. "No swamp?"

"If one can help it," she said breathlessly, her arms wrapping around his waist.

Heat surged up from her skin into his and he stifled a groan. "What if one can't help it?"

Her eyes cut to his mouth and she licked her lips. "Xavier..."

"Because I don't think I can help it. I don't think I want to, Hunter."

She smiled softly, sweetly. "That's 'Beautiful' to you."

"Yes, it is." He kissed her, a kiss that conveyed his hunger and his need, but there was so much more. More he had to say. The one vital thing that would change everything between them. He pulled back and forced her gaze to lock with his. "I want you, Amalie."

She arched her back and purred, "Then have me."

His cock felt so hard it was painful. "It's your first mating."

"I know," she thrust her hips up, ground her sex against him brazenly. "I want it to be with you. I've always wanted it to be with you."

Pain and pleasure battled within him. "I want that too. Fuck..."

"Then take it," she said harshly, desperately.

"Here? Now?"

"Do you care where we are?" she demanded. "Do you care who sees us right now?" She cursed. "Do you care if everything is put on hold for however long we need? However long it takes for this to happen between us?"

"Fuck no. Fuck. No." His mouth was so dry. He needed her, her heat, her saliva, her cream. He didn't give a shit about where they were, but he needed her to understand something. He needed her to know what he was asking of her. "Amalie, I won't take it unless I can keep it."

Her eyes widened, a flash of confusion moving through them. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." He rose up, his eyes pinned to hers, but his fingers moving to the waistband of her jeans. "I want you. But not for a night or three." He flicked the button, eased down the zipper. "I want you always, forever, until the Wildlands are no longer filled with magic and we are dust that a new species calls their home."

For a moment, all Xavier heard was her rapid breathing and the sounds of the water and the wind through the cypress.

"I love you, Amalie," he said in a hoarse, desperate voice. "Fuck, Beautiful, I always have. I don't care about anything or anyone. Not anymore-not ever."

Tears sprang to her eyes, turning them a shocking leaf green in the light of fading sun.

"I love you, too," she uttered. "But you know that. You've always known."

He nodded. "Tell me," he nearly begged. "Tell me before I die of longing. Tell me before I strip you bare and taste you, fuck you, claim you. Tell me I'm yours and you're mine."

"Are you sure?" she said as he pulled down her underwear and jeans and tossed them aside. "Forever is-"

"What I want more than anything in the world, Beautiful," he said, easing her tank over her head and her bra from her shoulders. "There's nothing, no one, who can stop this, can stop me from claiming you." His eyes flipped up to lock on hers. "Except you."

Shock barreled through Xavier as Amalie grasped both sides of his T-shirt and ripped it up the center. The sounded echoed across the bayou, but he barely heard it. Her words next drowned out everything else.

"Mate me, Xavier," she said, her eyes flashing. "Mate me for life."

She had the black fabric off his body in seconds and was working his jeans down his hips before he had time to register her movement. Once he did though, he was like a male possessed, growling, taking over, his jeans off and discarded, and his head between her thighs.

The liquid heat that hit his tongue made come leak from his cock. She tasted like heaven, like honey, and he licked her over and over, nothing gentle, nothing sweet. Fuck no. Right now, he just wanted to eat her. And if the way her hips were jacking up, pumping hungrily against his mouth, was any indicator, she liked his slight roughness, his need to consume her.

"Oh god, Xavier," she said on a moan. "I can't...it's too much."

Damn right. It was all too much. But so what? They both needed this, needed each other. More was good. More made her buck and groan. More made her pussy so wet and warm and soft, he couldn't wait to get inside her.

Her fingers plunged into his hair, her nails digging into his scalp as he tongued her deep, then pulled out and suckled her clit.

"You're making me crazy," she whispered, then gasped as he pressed his tongue against her and jerked his head up and down.

Xavier felt her violent shudder beneath his mouth, coming hard and intense against his tongue. His entire body went up in flames as her juices rushed him. He lapped at her, drank her up, but left enough wet heat to coat her pussy walls and make his thrust easy and pleasurable.

With one last possessive suckle to her swollen clit, he rose over her, catching his weight on his elbows, holding his position so they were face to face. Breathing heavily, her eyes filled with heat and deep desire, Amalie wrapped her legs around his waist, arched her back and brazenly and seductively licked him from chin to nose.

"Mmm," she uttered, her eyes lifting to his. "I taste good on you."

Xavier, the male, died.

While the animal within him flared to the surface of his skin and took hold, took control. His cock poised at her entrance, the head hard and wet with pre-come, he growled. "Mine."

She nodded. "Yours."

And he pushed inside her.

* * *

He was deep.

Breathstealingly deep.

Every thick, hard inch, was deliciously impaled inside her, all the way to her womb, and nothing-nothing-had ever felt so amazing. There was no pain, just a wondrous full feeling. God, they were truly made for each other. She'd known the first time she'd seen him. Too young to understand the bond, the connection, it had surfaced as a lust and a hope for the future.

But now, now as he started moving inside of her, claiming her with his body as he looked down into her eyes, connected with her, she understood the true symmetry of love. Him and Her. Even in their puma forms, they would know this bond, feel this bond.

"I love this," he rasped, nipping at her lips as he thrust gently inside of her, getting her body ready for the intense, possessive thrusts to come.

After all, he was a Pantera male. They could fuck gently, of course. But it was only a matter of time before they went wild, attacked, demanded, their animal nature ruling their sex drive.

And being a Pantera female, Mal couldn't wait.

"I love being inside of you," he continued, dropping his head, taking one hard nipple into his mouth and suckling it deep. To her gasp, the rush of wet heat inside her pussy, he growled. "Kissing you, sucking your sweet, pink tits. Feeling you go tight and hot around my cock whenever I do."

His words, uttered against her breast, his breath teasing her wet nipple, made Mal feel like she was going to come again. She fought against it. She wanted to come with him this second time.

Then he look up and smiled. "And shit, Beautiful, I just love you."

Mal didn't know if it was the words, his voice, or how his ice blue eyes had melted into lazy, erotic pools of emotional blue, but she couldn't stop herself. Her Hunter strength kicked in, and she pressed her hands to his hips, eased his cock out of her, and flipped to her belly.

"Fuck me now," she demanded, coming up on her hands and knees. "Fuck me hard and deep until we both come. Outside, under the sky, near the bayou. This is how you should claim me, and how I should be taken. My pussy-both the one who purrs for you, and the one you're looking at right now-need it."

Xavier didn't say a word. Maybe he couldn't. Maybe his animal was right there, hissing and snapping and snarling near the surface of his skin, just as hers was. But it was no more than a second before she felt him behind her, his thick, stone-hard cock pressed at her entrance.

His thrust wasn't gentle this time.

Thank. Fucking. Christ.

He knew what she wanted, and he was giving it to her. Gripping her hips, he rode her hard, working her so deep she moaned and keened and circled her hips trying to feel him from every angle. Shock waves of pleasure moved through her. How could something so primal feel so good? So beyond amazing. She wanted to cry and scream and laugh and warn him to never stop. That as mates she would demand he fuck her every day and every night for the rest of her life. But she didn't have the voice. He'd stripped her bare in too many ways to count.

And then she felt it. The thing-the amazing, magical thing she'd only heard about from her Pantera female friends. The sign of a true mating. She felt his claws against the skin of her hip, and as he pounded into her, and she stretched around him, he marked her. She cried out, from pain, from pleasure, and from the absolute wonder of having a long-realized dream come true.

"I love you, Amalie," he said on a fierce growl.

He drove up into her, so deep she gasped, then reached around to palm her drenched pussy. With one pinch to her clit, Mal came, spasming around his cock as her body went wild and uncontrolled, and a rush of hot seed filled her sex.