Southern Shifters: Scents and Scentability (Kindle Worlds Novella) (7 page)

Her childhood flashed across his mental landscape. The little girl who read studiously, and studied religiously. Her first microscope. An experiment with flowers. She raced in a meadow. She knelt in a creek. An argument with an older male—
a teacher
, he thought. A dark room, sweat slicking her brow as she sorted a dozen thoughts, isolating different voices. The ache of stretching herself across a thousand miles to find a single mind.

So many images, yet he devoured them all. He wanted to know everything, and she gave it all to him, even as his memories permeated her, as her body and mind milked him. He surrendered them to her, and his cat roared.
Theirs
. She was his. Growing up in the mountains. Learning to hunt with his mother. The day his mother sent him to find land of his own. When thoughts of his first lover escaped, he wanted to halt them. Then cool mental fingers stroked his mind.

Mine…
she whispered, and he understood. Everything he was, all of his experiences, they were hers as hers were his. Her blood flowed into his mouth and he stopped fighting the information. His mountain home. Her laboratory. His exodus from Afghanistan to the strangeness of the Americas and a foreign Clan. Her triumph over discovering the first pheromone enhanced perfume. His first runs through the mountains they currently pleasured themselves in. Her first sighting of him.

The worry, the pains, the pleasures—all of them twined together until their length of their lives braided fully. Finally, he released the mark and laved the wound he’d created. With a shudder, she collapsed and he followed her down.

Mine.
His cat roared again before stretching from within his soul to rest with a paw on hers.

Always.
So perfect in her surrender, she opened tear-drenched lashes to look at him. Her cheek lay against the pillow and her hair spread out in glorious disarray.

Yes, they’d broken laws. Broken orders. Bennett didn’t give a damn. He’d take apart the world to keep her.

Together.
The assertion promised him she had his back, and laughter spread through him. Pure joy. She giggled and her sex flexed around him with the sound. His blood rushed south, and he began to grow within her once more. No, they weren’t done pleasuring her.

Far from it.

The world could wait until he’d pounded his scent into her. Everyone could wait. Darcy was his and, by all the gods, he would damn well keep her.

T
he next three
days passed in a haze of sex, food, fire, and more sex. She knew they’d slept some, but nothing seemed to ease the pressure of need she experienced every time she glanced at him, save for his touch. They could bank the fire, but it always roared back to life.

Sore in a very pleasant way, she’d learned what he enjoyed. His absolute dedication to her needs demanded she return like with like, though he never asked. From what she learned when their minds bonded, he never would. Bennett truly believed his singular goal was her safety, her pleasure, her care and he would delay any gratification until he’d given her all.

“You’re my mate,” he rumbled next to her. His sleep-darkened voice was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. “It is my privilege and my pleasure.”

Rolling onto her side, she propped her head on her hand. Spreading her fingers against his chest, she began to stroke his skin as she savored the silkiness of the fine pelt. It covered him everywhere, and his slow, thrumming purr served as her reward. “I’m never going to get tired of hearing you purr.”

Flattening her palm over his heart, she let the sound vibrate through her. “We love you,” he told her, simple and direct. An inescapable truth, and one she echoed in her heart.

“I love you both.” The leopard and the man were both same and different. The cat, she’d learned, had very basic and direct needs. It was also more demanding the man. She’d wanted to see him run in the snow, but neither had cared for her being out in the storm. When she’d tried to put on her jacket and head out regardless, the cat blocked her path and nothing she said would dissuade him.

The man relented the night before, leading her on a moonlit stroll through the snow and shifting so she could play with him. It had been a magical moment. When he covered her hand with his, she sighed.

Fingers of light stretched across their bed. He always slept wrapped around her, though often, when she woke, she sprawled across him with her head tucked against his shoulder. He’d told her he was a tactile creature, and he’d meant it.

“I wish it was still snowing.” Reality sat heavily on her.

“Two days ago you said you were tired of all the snow.” He settled his grip on her hip, half-petting, half-holding her to him. The possessiveness in his touch always marveled her, much as the way she needed him surprised her. “You’re my mate. I need you the same way. It shouldn’t surprise you.”

“I’m not a big fan of people.”

“I’m not people.” The growl underscoring his words made her giggle.

Pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth, she murmured. “No, you’re not. I’ve never wanted or needed anyone the way I do you. It’s—heart wrenching and beautiful and I can’t seem to quantify it.”

“My little scientist wants to pave her reality with theory and proof?” He rolled her over and pressed his erection against her. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she exulted in the way her body softened. No matter when or where he touched her, she was always ready for him. It stunned her.

“I feel you,” she whispered, running her hands down his back to pet the hard, chiseled muscles across his glutes. “I know you love me. I know you want me.”

With a gentle push, he eased inside of her, and they both hissed until he filled her. The sensations were equal parts tenderness and ragged need. “Then why are you so surprised each time we touch?” Beneath his question lived another one.
Why do you doubt my affection?

“I don’t,” she rushed to assure him, petting with her hands and her words as she flexed her legs against him. The lift ground their pelvises together, increasing the pressure on her clit and sending little detonations of pleasure through her system. “I promise you, I don’t doubt.”
I don’t want to ever get used to this feeling. I love the way you fill me. I adore how new it is.
It seemed a romantic cliché, but she’d felt more her than she’d ever been before. No fear, no pressure, just—wonderful.

Then his mouth fused with hers as he pounded into her. On the cusp of her orgasm, she groaned and bit his shoulder. The move inspired him and he sank his teeth into the injury. The hint of pain extended her bliss and their minds merged. Another thing she never wanted to take for granted—his mind offered her a playground of sorts, an open expanse as wild and fierce as the man possessing her body. In his mind, she could feel his cat purring against her and twining around her.

It was home. A place she’d never really understood. He was her home.

Long after they collapsed together spent from their passion, he laved his tongue against the mark and murmured. “You should know, I’m extremely territorial.”

“No, really?” Her response earned a soft laugh from him.

“You have no idea.” The dark promise kissing the words stole another piece of her heart. She did have some idea. The way he viewed her, how he touched and held her, he communicated on every level how precious she was. The sunshine filled the whole cabin by the time she roused enough to rise. Her lover—her mate—continued to cuddle against her and he tugged her back when she would have left their bed. “Stay.” His eyes hadn’t opened, and his low growl was as much a plea as a demand.

“I need a shower, and we both need to eat…and then I should work.”

Behind her, he stiffened and she sensed his sleeping mind woke with a pounce. Wrapping a hand around her wrist, he stroked his thumb against the rapidly fading burn on her forearm. “No more testing on yourself.”
Inflexible command.

“It’s how I test some of the pheromones. I know my scent, so I can check the reaction to my skin…”

“No.”

“Bennett, I have…”

“No.”

Pursing her lips, she wiggled until he allowed her to roll over and face him. “Is this that territorial thing?”

“You hurt yourself.” He’d been pretty pissed the first morning when he’d discovered the burn. Angry when she’d explained the test. Furious when she’d told him she planned to complete the work. Then, he’d let it all go—or so she thought.

Testing a theory, she pursed her lips then asked. “Are you angry because I am still going to complete the scent eraser or that I tested it on myself?”

“Only a little on the first,” he admitted. The tenseness in his jaw reflected in the single tick of a muscle. “But it is your desire to create, to explore and experiment. I am not sure I care for why your Clan wants such a thing, but I will not force you to act against your conscience there.”

The tremendous respect in the statement, even as she heard his underlying concern, filled her eyes with tears. “And testing on myself?”

“Can hurt you, so you may not do that.” Not even an ounce of hesitation, and she grinned. “If you must test it, then you will apply it to me, and it can burn my skin.”

“No.” Her resolve hadn’t wavered on the subject either. “You are not a lab rat.”

“No, I am lab leopard and only for you.” A second dazzling gift—his pure trust. “If you must test it, then you will test it on me.”

Not testing it would hamper any scientific breakthroughs, so she needed to find a compromise to protect the integrity of the work while conceding to their wishes. Blood samples might work—or plants. Some plants had exceptionally distinctive scents. The pH factor, however, wouldn’t match. Not as it would with sentient beings. Still, it would be a place to start. Perhaps animal scat would give them another opportunity.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Bennett gathered her to him and rose suddenly. He strode off the bed, carrying her as if she were no heavier than a doll. Blinking at him, she raised her brows. “Where are we going?”

“To shower. Continue to puzzle through your solution while I bathe us. You’ll have about ten minutes before I plan to break your concentration.”

Damn cat lied, he only gave her nine.

R
oaming the rock face
, Bennett extended his claws for balance. Something was off on his mountain. Though the territory around the cabin wasn’t technically his, for as long as he and his mate occupied the area, he treated it as such. He couldn’t put his finger on what was out of place. After several days of storming on and off again, the weather had turned brighter. The sun shone with more regularity, and he and his mate had fallen into a pleasurable rhythm.

Her work completed her. She needed to spend time in her laboratory. So he woke with her in his arms every morning, they cuddled, laughed, made love and then showered. Afterward, he cooked them breakfast. She’d attempted to prepare a meal for them one day to disastrous effect. It wasn’t that she lacked skill, as she seemed incredibly competent in every area. Yet after two weeks of delirious mating with the brilliant woman, he’d discovered her mind never turned off except when he pleasured her. The demands he placed on her pliant body allowed her keen mind to relax.

A purr rumbled through him. Shutting off her ability to think filled him and his cat with enormous pride. They learned something new about her every day, and he’d begun to embrace her concept of never wanting to be
used
to each other. Still, she needed time to work. More often than not, she reported failures with her subsequent tests. He’d brought her all manner of samples to test the scent eliminator on, and escorted her when she insisted on hiking through the snow.

Her softness and scientific demeanor should never be mistaken for weakness. A flaw, he believed, her Council saw in her. Through little comments she made, he detected a hint of self-recrimination for letting them think her incapable of certain actions. She didn’t want to fight, and he had zero problem with her lack of interest in violence, spy craft or any of the other jobs one with her powerful telepathy could engage in. She
wanted
to be a scientist. She wanted to test her theories and bring her ideas from conception to fruition. Bennett would defend her right to do all of the above unto his death.

So what the hell was bothering him? His tail lashed once as he stalked forward. The precipice he traversed sat at a higher elevation from the cabin, the wooden structure as easily spotted at his distance, but nothing disturbed the snowy landscape around it. The only tracks came from her walk yesterday and his coming and going. Switching his attention to the valley below, he scanned the trail for anything resembling movement.

After five weeks of hunting, he sometimes had to go farther afield to find game for them. It didn’t bother him. His speed and accuracy made short work of the trips. In fact, he was supposed to be hunting at the moment, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of something being
off.

Darcy?
The quiet mental call was all he required to gain her attention.

Hmm?
Distraction deepened the elongated syllable. An image of the microscope flashed against his consciousness and a molecular interaction of some type. The only reason he understood the last part came from her mind.

I will be gone a little longer than expected. I want to try and snag a deer unless you have a specific request.

No immediate response was forthcoming; her attention already returned to her work. Amused, but still wary, he added,
Stay in the cabin until I return.

Okay…oh, that’s it…
Her focus drifted totally away, yet the door between them remained open. Content to maintain the low-level awareness, he scanned the area once more. Perhaps his discomfort came from the distance he would travel away from her. Reticence to be away from his mate was normal, or so he suspected. Yet, he could feel her in his mind, always just a thought away.

Considering her again, he let his mind drift to her and for one brief disorienting moment, he saw the laboratory as she used little droppers to place two drops of a viscous fluid onto each of her petri dish samples. Excitement mingled with her dedicated focus, so he withdrew.

The desire to protect her behind steel and stone where no one could reach her warred with the equal desire to see her happy. She liked her work. The lab was a safe room, designed to keep her safe if he had to wander. As much as he wanted her trust in all things, he had to be willing to bestow it as well. Still, the unease in his soul wouldn’t settle.

For once, the cat didn’t disagree with his sentiment. They’d thought to bring her venison, because she enjoyed it so much, but they’d have to descend to a lower elevation. They could hunt rabbits closer to home. Satisfying both his need to provide and to stay within range, he angled his path away from the cabin. If he traveled a circuit, he wouldn’t be more than a few hundred meters at any given point.

Ears pricked for any foreign movements, he concentrated on his hunt. Perhaps one day when she wasn’t so distracted, Darcy would like to settle into his mind and he could let her experience the chase and hunt for herself. Liking the idea, he continued his route. It only took an hour to catch the scent of his prey. Once into the thicker woods, he began a slow stalking, using the trees as his pathway.

Not all leopards preferred to climb to pinpoint their targets, but he’d discovered he could move efficiently and still capture his prey. The hunt carried him away from the cabin, but he was still within a half-mile. His mate’s mind continued to tick away in the back of his, her focus so absolute, he heard only whispers of sound as though she mumbled in a language only she understood. Taking comfort, he withdrew a little further rather than risk distracting her. The last thing he wanted was for her to spill something…movement below snagged his attention. A fairly large rabbit, fat and sassy, edged out of its burrow. It sat still a long moment, whiskers twitching as it scented the air.

Going perfectly still, he waited to see which route the little one would take. A second rabbit bounded out, followed by a third.
Perfection.
His cat agreed. They could take all three in swift order and make it back to the cabin with enough time to prepare them for cooking before she saw their furred bodies. No doubt existed within him that it would bother her. No judgment for the disconnect between her enjoyment of meat and her love for animals existed within him.

The rabbits padded out a few more inches, then began to hop and race on their own scout for food. His muscles bunched as he prepared to leap. He’d go for the one in the rear first, then the leader. Panic would hold the third and, even if it escaped him…