Hakan Severin (14 page)

“Oh, Taylor…”

Dammit, she didn’t want pity. She really didn’t. She was good now, strong, capable. She just needed to live in a world without Edgar.

“Here’s the problem,” she concluded. “He refuses to believe we’re over. He said I’m his forever, until the day we die. I made a statement of harassment to the police, but that’s all I could do. Not that a restraining order would matter. He has friends everywhere. And I realized I didn’t have friends anywhere.”

Before Ashe could say anything, the door opened and a man entered. He was tall and gorgeous, had long, golden hair, and Taylor instantly recognized him. From the newspaper. This was Raphael. He went straight to Ashe and gave her a kiss.

“
Ma chère
, I didn’t know you were here today.” He leaned down and gave the baby a kiss, too. “Are you taking your repast, my little one?”

Surprisingly, unexpectedly, the words and the action brought tears to Taylor’s eyes. That… Oh, that was how a real man treated his partner. With gentleness, affection, vulnerability. Ashe was a very lucky woman.

After giving his baby one more kiss on the head, Raphael went and sat on the edge of the desk. He acknowledged Taylor, then turned his gaze back to his mate as if he’d forgotten something. “
Ma chère
, didn’t you say Soyala had a check-up at ten?”

“I cancelled it.” Ashe gave him a very pointed look. “Rescheduled it.”

He returned the look with one of his own. “Perhaps Miss Taylor would like to speak to me alone.”

Ashe smiled. It was a coy, almost wicked smile. “I don’t think so. And I want to hear what you’re going to say to her.”

“Ashe—” he began.

She cut him off. “Not happening, Raph. Taylor here needs a friend, and I’m it.”

Taylor turned to her.
Are you sure? Are you sure you want to take this on? Take me on?
she asked her silently. Ashe gave her a brilliant smile.

“Friend?” Raphael repeated, his brows lifting.

“That’s right,” Ashe said. “Now, go ahead. Get all Diplomatic Faction on me. You know I love it.”

Raphael stared at her, his lips turning up at the corners, his eyes filled with an obvious love. Finally, he sighed, beat—happy. “You are so beautiful like that,
ma chère
. Our cub at your breast.”

She grinned back at him. “Our first cub.”

A low growl vibrated in his throat and his eyes flashed gold fire. Then, seeming to remember where he was and with whom, he turned back to Taylor. “I apologize, Miss Taylor.”

Taylor smiled too, shook her head. “It’s fine.” Actually it was more than fine. It was a reminder that strong, confident men loved strong, confident women.

“I have to ask,” Raphael began, his expression wary. “Did Séverin hurt you?”

“No. No, not at all.” The passion in her voice was obvious. Not just to herself, but to both Ashe and Raphael. “What I mean is that he protected me. It was raining heavily and I was…lost.” The leader of the diplomats didn’t need all the details.

“Oh, thank the Goddess,” he muttered. “That would’ve been a nightmare. Human hurt or killed in the Wildlands. I can see the headlines now. See the angry humans at our borders. It’s just the press we need.”

“Raph,” Ashe scolded.

“What?”

“Insensitive much?”

He grimaced, turned back to Taylor. “Once again, my apologies, Miss Taylor—”

“It’s okay, and please, call me Taylor.” She smiled softly. “Listen, I know I’m putting you in an awkward position. This isn’t something you normally deal with. I get that. I really do. I’m just asking that you make an exception this once.”

“It’s not that simple, Taylor,” Raphael told her. “I wish it were. I gather you’re in trouble. But we’d need more than my okay on something like that. And as a species, we’re in the middle of dealing with—”

“Raph,” Ashe broke in, taking her now-sleeping baby off her breast and covering herself. “There is a man outside our border who wants to hurt her. Will stop at nothing to hurt her.” Dark eyebrows lifted over sharp brown eyes. “You would send her back to that?”

The Pantera leader sighed. “I would not want that,
ma chère
. Of course. Any male who puts his hands on a female in anger deserves nothing less than death. But we are already accused of being barbarians. Beast Men. What if this human male tells the press we took his mate?”

“I am not his mate!” Taylor exclaimed, then pulled herself back. “I belong to no one but myself.” She crumpled a little. “I’m so sorry I’m bringing my problems here. Edgar could very well do that. Make a huge stink. He’s powerful, and with the clinic where he works having just burned down, he’s become even less rational than—”

“What did you say?” Raphael moved closer to her.

Taylor stilled. “That he’s becoming irrational—”

“No. About the clinic burning down.”

A sudden commotion erupted outside Raphael’s office. Loud voices intermixed with the sounds of desks crashing to the floor and lamps breaking. Taylor knew those sounds. Knew what came after those sounds—in her world, anyway. She fought down her body’s reaction to it as the door burst open and Séverin, the massive gold puma cat, stalked in.

***

Woman
.

My woman.

Fear in her blood.

At me? No. She would not fear me. I am the one who cares for her. Must be the Suit.

He narrowed his gaze on the puma before him, silver eyes to gold, and growled. Raphael had shifted into his cat quickly, and was poised in front of his mate, snarling a graphic warning.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Ashe hissed in a fiery whisper. “If either one of you wake this baby, you’re going to have to deal with me.”

Baby?

Cub.

Oh, yes, he had heard of the little one being born. A miracle, she was called by the Pantera. And perhaps she was. Séverin knew nothing of that. Cared nothing for that. The goal of creating new life, a new species, had been his daily nightmare before escaping and coming to the Wildlands. Needles and blood, endless samples of his piss and semen…

But though he didn’t care for creating the kind of life that lay in the female’s arms, he cared even less for frightening it. He drew back, sheathed his claws and sat.

For several long moments, Raphael paced in front of his female. No doubt deciding if he trusted Séverin. But with one look from the woman he shifted back into human form, into his fancy clothes and faced Séverin.

“What the hell are you doing, bursting in here?” Raphael demanded. “The woman—Taylor—is already living in fear! Goddess only knows what more damage you did, keeping her caged in your fucking treehouse—”

“Raph,” Ashe uttered in warning as Séverin’s lip curled.

He looked at her and nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry,
ma chère
. I won’t curse in front of our cub.”

“It’s not the cursing,” she said. “Soyala doesn’t have a clue about that yet, and frankly with this pack she might have to get used to it. It’s the yelling.”

“I wasn’t afraid,” Taylor burst out. “And I wasn’t caged.”

Séverin turned his gaze on her. She was looking at him too, her green eyes as soft as a caress.

“In fact,” she added. “I haven’t felt that safe in a long time.” She smiled shyly at him. “Even waking up next to all the naked male flesh.”

A rumble of pleasure moved through Séverin’s chest. No, she didn’t fear him.

“What did you say?” Raphael asked her. “You saw him naked?”

Taylor’s cheeks flushed. It was beautiful, the rush of blood to her skin, Séverin thought. It made her eyes bright, like emeralds in the sun.

“Nothing happened,” she stumbled on, turning her attention back to the Suit. “It’s just how he was when I woke up. Not in his cat form anymore. I’m sure that’s normal.” She looked at Ashe for clarification. “Right?”

“No,” the woman said. “That’s impossible, Taylor.”

“What do you mean?”

“Séverin hasn’t been out of his puma form since he came to the Wildlands a decade ago,” Raphael said. His gaze flickered Séverin’s way. “None of us know where he came from or what happened to him before he got here. None of us know what he looks like, what he sounds like. In fact, we don’t even know his real name. Or if he had one. The elders gave him—”

“Séverin,” she uttered, turning to look at him.

Confusion.

But softness.

She wants to know more.

She wants to know everything.

But can I give her that?

Trust her with that?

A human.

His fur bristled at the idea as Raphael explained, “Because it sounds like ‘save.’ To the elders, he was saved.”

Taylor stared at him for long seconds, her eyes running over his cat’s face. Then she spoke softly, but clearly. “He has silver eyes, like the puma—but with flecks of pale blue. Like the sky just before dawn. And long hair. Not as long as yours, Raphael, but thick like yours and the color of caramel. He’s tall, with the body of a marble statue. And when he allows himself to smile, it’s like the whole world lights up.”

The room grew very quiet at her description, and Séverin felt strange inside his muscles and blood.

Her words.

How she saw me as a male.

My eyes? My smile?

Had I smiled?

I barely know what a smile is. And yet I smiled at her?

“Séverin,” Raphael began, breaking into his thoughts. “If you showed yourself to her, would you do the same with us? Let us know you?”

The question was like a punch to the gut. So many years in his nest, wishing, wondering if he could shed his fur and allow the male inside him a little freedom. The fear of being that vulnerable made Séverin turn and give the Suit a hard look. Whatever had happened this morning, it was an anomaly. Waking up beside Taylor in his male form—feeling the hungers of a male, the desires. It wasn’t a change he had made consciously. He shook his massive head.

No.

Raphael sighed. “It’s a prison you choose to live in, brother. In your mind and heart. We pose no threat to you. We only want you to be part of the community, know your family, your kind. Come to the clinic, let the Nurturers help you. Let them draw you out of your cat.”

Séverin gave the male a snarl of defiance.

Never.

Never go back to the clinic.

I am free.

“Stubborn.” Raphael gave him a pointed look. “We can’t have you hijacking humans. No matter if they believe themselves safe in your company.”

Séverin had had enough. He was growing more and more uneasy here, in town, under many watchful, curious eyes. He needed the air, the space, his nest.

And her
.

He padded over to Taylor and began to rub his head and muzzle against her side. Then he opened his jaws and closed them gently around her hand. She pulled in a breath, but didn’t resist him.

“Shit,” Raphael uttered behind them. “He marked her.”

“You’re going to have a hard time forcing her to leave now,
mon chèr
,” Ashe remarked dryly.

“Taylor?” Raphael asked.

She glanced up at him.

“That clinic you said burned down? Was it called The Haymore Center?”

Her mouth dropped open. “How did you know that?”

Sighing, Raphael turned to his mate, a look passing between them. “She’s not going anywhere.”

The trip back into the bayou was very different than the trip Taylor had taken into town several hours earlier. The latter had been on foot, and she’d been scared and worried and guilty about leaving the male who’d helped her. Now, with the sun bright and warm overhead, relief and excitement coursed through her. And her manner of transport? The strong, muscular, fur-lined back of a very beautiful, very fast puma.

Her pulse jumped as he raced through the thick, wet undergrowth, dodging bushes and cypress. She leaned in further, tightening her grip around his neck. He made a sound, something hungry, yet contented in his throat, and quickened his pace. Thoughts and questions zinged through Taylor’s mind. Was this real? Was she passed out somewhere? Dreaming this? Not only had she made it to the Wildlands—but she was being hosted, for lack of a better word, by the one being her heart seemed to trust. Maybe because he was like her. Running…hiding, from a past etched with pain.

“Thank you.” She whispered the words in his ear. Two words that encompassed so much.

He growled back at her and sped up.

Granted, she didn’t know what was going to happen from here. Raphael had allowed her to stay because he believed she might have some information about The Haymore Center. Which was baffling. Why would the Pantera be interested in a random fertility Regardless, Taylor was pretty sure she was going to disappoint him. And when she did…he might make her leave. But for now, she and Séverin were going back to the treehouse. And for the first time in so long—in her heart and her guts—she felt safe. With him, she was safe.