Into the Night [Into the Heart 2] Read online

  Sharp teeth grazed her calf, warning her to stay put. His tail whipped her ass a second later, then again when she didn't lie down fast enough. Trina's thighs quivered. The muscles beneath them bunched and relaxed, teasing her clit to orgasm as he whipped her again and again.

  She couldn't think beyond the fire burning her ass, the pressure swelling her pussy. She was barely aware that she pumped his furry sac, that each time she squeezed too hard, she received an extra hard stroke over her ass. Mounting pleasure controlled her fingers, milking him without mercy, silently demanding more punishment.

  She dared lower and found his barbed erection. She didn't know whether she feared it penetrating her or craved the connection so badly, she'd die if she didn't have him soon. A snarl ripped from his throat. He reared up, tumbling her to her back. Glowing eyes hovered over her. Her breasts shook with every breath, and she watched his gaze drift toward them. He wedged himself between her legs like he was settling down for a good meal, and she was it.

  He rubbed his nose into her navel and then rasped his tongue up her body and over one nipple.

  Trina cried out and clamped her hands over his soft ears. Her hips moved of their own volition, rocking against his furry chest. He licked her other nipple, then moved lower. Eyes wide, she watched him aim for her clit.

  He sniffed, setting off yet another gush of wetness. Golden eyes glanced up at her. He wasn't asking permission. His tail whipped over his shoulder and flicked her hard nipples. She moaned and lifted her breasts for more. He nuzzled into her pussy, like he planned to fuck her with his nose. Then she felt it—his rough tongue teasing at her anus.

  Trina froze. Images of that barbed penis plundering her ass overwhelmed her. His low growl wiggled through her. With his nose against her clit, tongue licking her anus ... She was going to come! She was going to...

  He jerked free at the worst possible moment, leaving her hovering on the edge. Trina grabbed for him and earned another snarl. He nudged her hip hard. The order was clear. He wanted her facedown.

  God, was he going to fuck her? Heaven help her, she wanted him to.

  He nudged again and added a slap of his paw. Trina rolled to her stomach and lifted her hips. She dug her fingers into the cool grass and waited. His hot breath tickled her thighs.

  What would it be like to be possessed by this powerful cat? What did it say about her that she wanted it so badly?

  Front paws came down at either side of her. He was big enough she wouldn't have to bear his weight when he mounted her. The thought made her gasp. She closed her eyes and felt long fingers curl around her hips.

  Fingers! He'd shifted into his human form! Trina opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder. Wyatt pressed her back into place. His thighs wedged between hers, feeling as hot and delicious as they had in jaguar form. She heard him pull in a deep breath. One hand still clutched her hip. The other brushed over her stomach. A thick erection raked her slit. Leaning over her, he rubbed the head against her clit with his fingers, then shifted backward and plunged into her cunt.

  Trina shoved her hands beneath her and rose to all fours. She'd had more than her share of cocks, but this ... She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, but she could damn well feel, and it felt damn good. Hard. Hot. Thick. Long. Demanding.

  He dropped his fingers over her clit and rolled them around the slippery nub. Trina moaned and pivoted into him. He answered with one of those growls that warned a beast still lurked beneath the surface. He slammed another stroke into her. The slap of their bodies echoed through the trees.

  "Do it,” she hissed out through clenched teeth.

  Wyatt leaned over her until his lips almost touched her ear. “You don't order me, woman.” Teeth seized her shoulder, yanking her climax front and center.

  Trina thrashed with the force of her orgasm. Wyatt pounded her into the ground, fucking her with an intensity she'd never dreamed existed. Fucking her until a second orgasm left her limp and gasping. Then he plunged deep, flooding her with his cum.

  She lay beneath the weight of his body, his pants for breath equaling hers. This was mating—raw and alive. Hot enough to have scorched their bed of grass and sear what remained of her soul for all eternity. No wonder Ka-ra had loved him so.

  Wyatt shoved to his knees. “Leave. Now. I don't want to see you back here again. If this were the old days, we would have killed an outsider."

  Trina rolled over to face him. “Then there are some blessings to being civilized, aren't there?” All she wanted to do was cup his face, kiss the sternness from his mouth, and melt in his arms.

  "There's nothing here for you, Trina,” he said. “You'd be wise to forget this ever happened."

  She stared into his eyes, still glowing from his recent shift from jaguar form. “There are many things I've done in life that I'd like to forget, Wyatt,” she said softly. “This isn't one of them."

  He took his time standing. Before he reached his full height, his body shimmered, and he was the lord of the jungle once more. He hovered over her, but Trina refused to be intimidated and continued to meet his steady gaze. He huffed, gave her his back, flicked his tail down her body, and returned to his clan.

  Trina watched their black forms become one with the night. She blinked away an unexpected rush of tears. What had she expected? That they would welcome her with open arms? She knew better than that. Trina might have housed Ka-ra's soul for a brief period of time, but they knew, and she knew, that she wasn't Ka-ra.

  But, God, how she wished she was.

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  Chapter Two

  "Have you lost your mind?” Joaquin smacked the heel of his hand against Wyatt's head.

  They'd barely left Trina's sight when Joaquin shifted and barred the way. At least Joaquin had the courtesy to let the rest of their group put a little more distance between them before confronting him.

  El-ian had no choice but to take his Wyatt form and deal with the rebuke—a chewing out he clearly deserved. Joaquin wasn't just his best friend, he was like a brother. Someone whose opinion mattered to him ... and he'd let him down. Wyatt wished he had an excuse for his lapse.

  "I was trying to scare her into leaving. Things got out of hand.” He toyed with the blades of grass with his bare toes.

  "Out of hand?” Joaquin's voice might have been low, but there was no mistaking the shout within it. “You wantonly seduced her, then shifted right before her eyes and fucked her!"

  Wyatt rubbed at the ache growing between his eyes. Another ache blossomed below his waist at the thought of her. She'd been like flame in his arms; consuming what little common sense he had remaining. He didn't understand it any more that Joaquin did. And that wasn't the worst of it.

  He still wanted her.

  "You compromised us, Wyatt. The woman is an opportunist. You've said so yourself. This time, it won't work to our advantage.” Joaquin flung his arms out. “How long do you think it'll be before she's blackmailing us for her silence, or selling our secrets to the tabloids?"

  Wyatt lifted his chin and stared into the darkness. His gaze immediately honed in on the sleek jaguar shadows. “She's known what we were for six months and hasn't said a word."

  Though even he himself knew that didn't mean she wouldn't. Trina Tate had a fierce reputation in the archaeology world. Her knowledge in the field of Maya archaeology was without question, as was her aggressiveness. The woman never cared who she stepped on in her climb up the ladder. Wyatt had been inclined to treat the characteristic as an annoyance, since she'd gotten excellent results for the Braden Institute in the past. But if she'd turned her sights on him and his shape-shifting, or his friends...

  Joaquin's muscles relaxed with his heavy sigh. “I'd hoped she wouldn't have retained memories from that experience."

  It was a foolish wish, and they both knew it. Something as powerful and unique as what she'd experienced would stay in her mind forever. One didn't watch men shape-shift into jaguars and possess the soul of anot
her person, then toss it all off as an “oh, well.” A few might have been able to rationalize it as a lucid dream, and by the time they might suspect it wasn't, Wyatt and his jungle cats would have been long gone, with nothing left for them to retrace. But Trina had known most of the members of the clan in their human form before embarking on the trip to the Yucatán, and knew how to find them now. What it all meant, why she was allowed to know of their existence, only the mercurial gods knew.

  "If she remembers, the others who were on that expedition do as well. I know the Garners aren't a threat, but Jeremy—"

  "You know we have him under control and constant watch."

  Joaquin's grunt gave his opinion on that matter. “Why do you suppose she's been watching us?” Out of the corner of his eye, Wyatt noticed Joaquin's own gaze went to the grass blades, as if the answer rested under their feet.

  "I don't know.” Wyatt shrugged and returned to his vigil, seeking out their clan in the dark, making sure they were safe. “Curiosity?” Though the look in her eyes had said something else entirely.

  For that brief span of time he'd been with her, Trina had actually seemed ... vulnerable. The animal in him had sensed prey and attacked. The man in him had sensed more and couldn't resist. It'd been all he could do to force himself to walk away after just one fuck, when all he wanted to do was drag her back to his condo and fuck her some more. The temptation to run after her made him rigid.

  "In any event, it doesn't look like you managed to frighten her away. In fact, I don't think she's budged an inch since you walked off.” Joaquin's nostrils flared with the sharp breath that yanked his head up. “God, I can still smell her."

  Wyatt could, too. On his skin, becoming a deeper part of him he couldn't explain. It was so tempting to go back there and fuck her again, feel her body suck him inside.

  "So now what? I hate this walking-on-eggshells feeling, always having to look over our shoulders,” Joaquin said.

  "I can handle Trina Tate."

  Joaquin snickered. “It never ceases to amaze me that someone in so high and influential a position as you are can be so utterly clueless. I would have thought you realized long ago there's no handling a woman. They handle us. And this one already has you by the balls."

  Considering the erection Wyatt sported, he couldn't deny the accusation. Even a snarl would have Joaquin rolling in laughter. However...

  "That would be the voice of experience talking?"

  Joaquin returned a sad smile. “Yes, it is."

  Not the response Wyatt was looking for, and it made him feel bad for throwing the taunt in Joaquin's face.

  "You'd think after all our years together I would have Carmen figured out by now.” He shook his head. “She continues to baffle, frustrate, and aggravate me. I don't know what she wants."

  Wyatt cocked an eyebrow his way. “You know damn well what Carmen wants.” She wanted the alpha female rank, despite the fact it had been unofficially hers for centuries. But she'd become desperate for the ranking in the last six months, pushing Joaquin to challenge Wyatt at every turn.

  "Do you want it, too?” Wyatt suspected not, since Joaquin never crossed that final line.

  Joaquin shook his head, an action so subtle, Wyatt might have missed it if he hadn't been looking. Joaquin took his turn, staring into the night.

  "Though I might not have agreed with some of your decisions, or you with mine, I've been very satisfied with the roles we've had all these years. I thought she was, too. We've worked together as a team, sharing the burden, knowing each of us had the other's back. I've no desire to take on all that responsibility unless I have to. But lately Carmen..."

  Joaquin closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. Emotion poured off the man. Wyatt's heart hurt from the impact. He felt his eyes tearing up in sympathy.

  He rested a hand on Joaquin's shoulder. “We've shared everything and never once minced words. What's wrong?"

  Joaquin pulled in a breath, eyes blinking against the sheen of unshed tears. “She wants a child. Now. The miscarriage, her sisters dying ... Our bodies aren't cooperating. She's desperate ... frantic. We've been to doctors. One said nothing's wrong, and we have to be patient. Another said medical records after the attack showed she was never pregnant in the first place. Yet another made the mistake of telling Carmen she was no longer a spring chicken."

  Wyatt cringed. His people might age at a snail's pace and seem frozen in the mid-thirties range for humans, but they were all sensitive to the years they'd put behind them. If Carmen or Rose didn't reproduce soon, their species would be extinct.

  "He's lucky she didn't take his head off.” One swipe of those long claws of hers would have done the trick.

  "She was furious. Carmen calls them quacks and thinks they aren't qualified to evaluate our species. She's been determined in the past, focused despite any grief or anger. But with this ... I'd swear she's insane."

  They'd all worried about that. It had taken nearly a week after her rescue from the wildfire for her to recognize any of them. A fire on one side, attacking mountain lion on the other, both sisters dead, the baby they'd all longed for gone ... Who wouldn't have retreated from reality? She'd eventually rallied, but Wyatt couldn't say her mind had ever healed.

  "Now she's convinced that only the true alpha female can reproduce,” Joaquin said through clenched teeth. “She says it's coded into our DNA or some shit."

  And so her push for Joaquin to usurp his place. Wyatt sighed, suddenly weary. “Then we'll make her the alpha female."

  "We've spent centuries battling our enemies. I'm not fighting you, Wyatt. We've suffered enough loss. We don't need more."

  "Isn't that what this new tug-of-war is already doing? Tearing us apart?"

  "True.” Joaquin's shoulders sagged. “I swear, she's a stranger to me. She refuses to mindspeak with me, with any of us. When I try, I get nothing back from her. Not even so much as a scowl. Nothing. She's shut herself off from me ... from all of us. It's like she's a stranger. Her memory also isn't what it used to be.” A mournful tone entered his voice. “I think the fire pushed her over the edge."

  Carmen had come close to losing her life then, too. On the surface her wounds had healed, but Wyatt knew the scars they left behind marked her inside as much as they did out. Of course she'd be desperate now for a child. Their mortality was looming ever closer. It was a wonder they all hadn't lost their minds over the devastation brought upon their people.

  Only thirteen of them remained out of thousands of their kind.

  Wyatt squeezed Joaquin's shoulder and dropped his hand. “Then let's pull her back in. She needs reassurance. She needs structure. Carmen might not be herself right now, but she deserves a little extra consideration for all she's done. If acknowledging her role as alpha female to the others will do that...” Wyatt shrugged. “How can that hurt?"

  Joaquin's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “You're going to crown her queen?"

  No one needed sensitive hearing to catch those words. They not only shot to the trees, they rebounded a couple of times for good measure.

  Wyatt lifted his palms, trying to calm his friend. “She'll be our queen. We'll be corulers."

  "Of what? Thirteen people?” Joaquin's chortle was louder still. “How much more ostentatious can you get? Good God, Wyatt, you are living in the past. Open your eyes. We're disappearing. One by one, we're falling; soon, there will be none of us left."

  Teeth clenched, Wyatt shoved his face close to Joaquin's. Too close. Battle erections nudged each other. Neither man backed away.

  "Don't you think I know that?” Wyatt snapped. “I'm trying to help you help her. Or do you really want to keep living this way? If this eases her mind, what does it matter? We can explain it to the others later. It could help her rebond with the clan. Calm her worries. Give you, all of us, a little peace."

  "Very well.” Joaquin put a little distance between them. “How do you want to do this?"

  A norma
l ceremony would have the king and his queen mate in human form on an altar. They hadn't had normal in centuries, and the altar, if it still existed, was buried in the Yucatán jungle.

  "We'll do it tonight. The three of us at the same time. Here. Right now."

  "Quick? Before you change your mind?"

  Wyatt matched Joaquin's smirk. “Something like that. We know how unpredictable a female in heat can be."

  Sadness washed over Joaquin's face. “If only it were as simple as her being in heat.” He pulled in a breath. “Watch her claws, my friend. They've come out at the most inopportune times lately. I'd hate to see us become casualties of our good intentions."

  Wyatt chuckled. “I doubt she'd do any lethal damage."

  "The old Carmen, no. But this Carmen?” Joaquin shook his head. “Don't turn your back for a second. Keep one of her wrists locked in your grip at all times. I'll worry about the other one.” He walked off without another word.

  Wyatt's erection deflated, and worry assailed him. How could he have allowed himself to become so complacent? Just because they'd eliminated one threat didn't mean there weren't others. He rubbed the back of his neck. He'd been too self-absorbed with keeping things together these last six months to notice any problems from within.

  He broke into a trot to catch up to Joaquin and snagged his arm to halt him. “Is she Carmen? Or is it one of them? A skinwalker."

  Joaquin placed his hand over Wyatt's. “If it weren't her, you know we'd all have been killed by now ... or worse."

  Wyatt didn't need to look into Joaquin's mind to know the memories of the past horrors those words brought to life. They were always just below the surface, waiting to haunt them.

  "The skinwalkers are gone, my friend,” Joaquin reminded him. “We destroyed them. Every. Last. One. Those soulless creatures will never steal another person's life."