Fated

Chapter 27

“Darlin’, wake up,” Talen’s voice stayed low and soothing as his breath stirred her hair and his arms tightened around her in the big bed. “Wake up now, Cara.” Well, this explained some things. Trees and plants had rescued her once, now she rescued them.

She jolted awake, freezing in place. Under his arm, her heart leapt into a rapid staccato and her fear slammed into him with icy fingers of pain. He pulled it in, refusing to even consider blocking her. It took her a moment, several actually, until her breath evened out. Then she buried her face in the tense column of his neck and keened.

Her pain was palpable even without their connection. He had to muster every ounce of strength in his formidable will to remain calm, to run his large hand down her shuddering back, to deny the anger, the need for violence vibrating for release beneath his skin. That beat with sharpened claws to get out. He felt each shudder of breath, each falling tear, as a physical slice through his own heart, bleeding frustration and anger into his very soul. There wasn’t a monster alive he couldn’t protect her from—nothing existed he wouldn’t stand before and defeat to assure her safety. He was Talen Kayrs, the military leader of the most powerful beings in existence, and he had earned the title. Through wits, battle, and victory.

And now he was helpless.

He blocked his thoughts, his rage, as he comforted her, wincing at the delicacy of the fragile bones he caressed. The brand on his palm burned with a fury matched only in his soul. She was his mate and now gained strength from him. And power. But when she needed him, when she had neither strength nor power, he hadn’t been there. He hadn’t protected her. The failure suffocated him with a weight he hadn’t thought possible.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Tear-filled blue eyes raised to his as her arms wrapped around his shoulders. “There was no way for you to have known, Talen.” Now she rubbed soothing circles into his tense flesh.

He covered his surprise that she had maneuvered past his emotional block and dropped his forehead to hers while his eyes swam with emotion. “I’m sorry, mate.”

Cara shook her head. “As powerful as you are, even you cannot control the entire universe and all its beings. I don’t think you’re supposed to.”

“Sure I am.” His arrogance brought the smile to her lips he needed so desperately to see. To feel.

“I’m so cold, Talen.” She pressed further into him, one leg sliding between his and pressing up against his groin. He was naked and his reaction immediate as he hardened against her. “Warm me up.” She leaned in and licked from his collar bone to the underside of his jaw while pressing herself harder into him.

His mind struggled for cohesion as his body heated and hardened. They needed to talk, and control was an illusion for them both right now. “Not a good idea, sweetheart. Your dream cut into us both.” His emotions had reached a volatile level that he needed hours of rest to subdue. She couldn’t have any idea of what she invited.

“Please Talen,” her breathy voice whispered sweet air in his ear.

“Cara, for once heed my warning. Sleep now, we’ll talk more tomorrow.” A clamoring took up residence in his balls, and he considered a cold shower.

“No.” She nipped his earlobe none too gently, and he was lost. With a swift movement he shifted and settled back while yanking her on top of him, and one hand ripped her shirt over her head. His movements threw her off balance and she gasped, gripping his hips with her thighs to right herself. Her smooth flesh around his own tempted him far more than he liked. She moved startled eyes to his as he casually, easily put one broad hand behind his head and relaxed back into the thick bed.

“Take what you want, mate,” he dared her with a rough voice.

She licked her lips, and her eyes darted to his chest. He forced a calmness to his demeanor but feared she could feel the tumultuous emotions ripping through him.

Cara smiled. His control was impressive as hell. He dared her to make him lose it. And the girl who had been so paralyzed with fright a few minutes ago thrilled at the challenge, at the dare that she take his formidable power and make it hers. She lifted her lids in what could only be termed a sultry look that turned to triumph as he jerked against her in response. He leashed the growl low in his belly but she wasn’t fooled.

“Just how long do you think you can restrain yourself?” she purred as her nails scored down his chest, over his dark nipples to pull on the trail of hair leading from his flat belly to heaven. Muscles clenched beneath her teasing hands. She pressed her core harder into the hard line of his erection, feeling safe with her cotton panties still in place.

“I could have them off you before you blinked.” It was his turn to purr. And his turn for triumph as liquid heat spilled from her and warmed him even through the cloth as his words caressed her. She had forgotten he visited her head. He had warned her of his lack of control and something deep inside her, something feminine and powerful, wanted to destroy it completely.

“But then you’d lose,” she reminded him as a heated flush rose from her chest into her neck, and her pelvis tilted against him with a mind of its own.

“Hardly,” he retorted with an unreadable grin. “But since you wish to play, how about I promise I won’t move my hands until you beg me to do so?”

Now arrogance flowed through her. “It’s a bet.” She ignored the flicker of warning whispering across her awareness that she had no idea what she unleashed. On purpose.

Talen shook his head, his eyes lightening to burnished teak. “Darlin’, you should never underestimate me, a lesson I assume you’d have learned by now.” His voice was calm but his body had begun to vibrate just enough to tempt her womb.

“Have I underestimated you, mate?” She rocked her hips against his fullness before running her own hands up her abdomen, over her breasts and through her hair.

Talen’s blood leapt in response and the arm behind his head started to move before he furiously held himself in check. Her pink nipples pouted at him while nectar flowed unchecked from her; she was the most feminine creature he had ever imagined, and she tempted him.

Her laugh was a tactical error she would later regret. It awoke a dominance in him he had thought controlled, he had thought checked. She wasn’t paying attention to his thoughts, to his drives, or she would have been cautioned. She would have regrouped. But she was busy playing, and the beast within him smiled. Then it set out to teach her a lesson.

Cara gasped as a warmth slammed into her at the base of her neck before flowing unchecked through her breasts, teasing, tightening them from within. Yet he hadn’t moved a muscle. The unbearable ache hardened her nipples to diamond-sharp points. She needed something. Needed more. What was he doing to her? How?

Her eyes flew open on a startled gasp to see the green flecks light hard and flash full through the gold of his—his expression both merciless and promising. He watched her as the heat built in her chest before sliding, flowing south toward her core only to wrap around her to her backside and heat that as well.

With a cry, she pushed harder into his heated length as the fire moved around to pool in her womb while his eyes held hers. Kept hers. Taunting hers with what he did to her body. From within. Pure arrogance lit his features. His force, his power, caressed, teased, and tempted her from within her own skin, within her own heart.

“How?” She didn’t recognize the sound of her own voice as her body heated past a point of pain where the promise of pleasure cut hard and deep.

His thoughts, his power, played her from within as he refused to answer. She furiously began to concentrate and force his power back into his own body, and the chuckle that came from his full lips increased her fury. She mentally pushed back as hard as she could only to have the heat swirl dangerously in her womb to pinpoint in one incredible spot with demanding need. Oh God.

She stifled a whimper as she tried to press against him; all feeling, all need. He stopped her. Not with his impressive strength. Or his large hands. With one thought. With one careless thought, he stopped her from moving.

Her eyes opened incredulously on his. Fear would come later, but now a blinding, animalistic need for release clawed through her. The painful heat demanded she move. “Talen.”

He raised an eyebrow and determination settled hard on his face. “You opened the door, darlin.’ Only I can close it.”

What door? What freaking door? She moaned and tried again to move. A hidden force kept her limbs immobile even as it heated her blood.

“Talen …” she sighed.

“Not good enough.” He shook his head and an orgasm hinted its presence deep within her abdomen. If he allowed it. She fought against his mental hold, anything to rub against him.

He flashed his teeth. “Say ‘please.’ You want me, you beg for me.”

“Please.”

The plea came unbidden from somewhere she never realized existed. A place she would have consciously denied.

His reaction was immediate. He snapped the sides of her panties and lifted her before slamming her down as he lunged upward. She threw her head back and keened a harsh cry. He filled her while she started to move at a speed and with a strength she hadn’t known she possessed. She leaned forward to clutch his chest with sharp nails as she moved her hips in time with his thrusts, his hands clamping bruises into her hips as he drove up. His skin dampening beneath her hands, sweat flowed freely down her back.

She opened her eyes sightlessly and ruthlessly drove toward a spiraling feeling deep within that reached out with dangerous claws until, with a sharp cry, she careened into a million pieces; all thought, all identity, shattered. She vaguely heard his pained shout as he followed her. His burst of pleasure cascaded through her own chest as ecstasy conquered them both.

Her senses, the old familiar ones and the new frightening ones, all overloaded at once and her body slid into the security of blackness. She fell forward onto his heaving chest and sighed as unconsciousness blessed her.

Talen held his unmoving wife against his heart as remorse beat him. Oh God. What had he done? She was out cold. His need for her to acknowledge what was between them had overpowered any sense of caution he may have felt. He had always controlled the power within him and had never taken another’s will unless in battle. A dense ego reminded him it had been battle, but his heart feared he had just sacrificed the war for its victory. He prayed the cost would not be so great as he closed his eyes and followed her into darkness.

Moments or maybe hours later, Cara awoke with the need to run slamming into her head. She remained still as awareness dawned, as she realized where she lay. And with whom. Deep under the earth’s surface, in the very late hour he kept one heavy arm around her waist, his face turned into her shoulder, his heat keeping her warm. She opened wary eyes and shifted to study him, the small light in the corner of the room casting a soft glow over the bed. Even in sleep, the strength, power, and purpose stamped down hard on the sharp angles of his face, no sweet boyishness or innocence softened him while he rested, bold danger marked him even now.

She needed to run.

She wasn’t capable of the trust required to balance the helplessness she had felt while he easily controlled her body. And her reactions. She ignored the sigh within her as her gaze roamed the ridiculously long dark lashes against his tanned skin, the full sensuous lips and firm jaw she itched to trace with one finger. She tensed to spring for safety and was stopped as those lids flew open and clear golden eyes pinned her in place. “No.” His deep voice rumbled with determination.

Cara instinctively slammed down hard shields around her brain until they echoed throughout her head.

“Impressive,” he murmured as the hand around her waist slowly, leisurely ran over her stomach and breasts, causing the skin to pucker and ache before he finally rested it against her neck. He left his hand around her throat against her rapidly beating pulse.

“Let me go.” She meant more than the immediate moment, and they both knew it.

His eyes focused even harder on hers as he opened his mouth to speak, only to have a blaring alarm cut off his words. He rolled to the side and reached down to yank on faded jeans while grabbing his earpiece from the night table and shoving it into his ear.

“Status,” he barked, nodding for her to get dressed, a red fury sweeping across his face.

Cara jumped from the bed and pulled on the jeans and shirt she’d dropped to the floor the previous night before turning back to Talen, whose fury had deepened to rage. She took a step backward. He reached into the table and drew out a green gun which he tossed to her before grabbing his two knives and tucking one in his back pocket. “Roll call,” he muttered as he stalked across the room to the door where he waited a moment as he listened, then started barking orders. “They’ve only breached the first two levels—everyone head to the armory in section three—Jordan, do you know where that is? Good. Move now.”

Yanking on boots, he turned toward her, his face cold and full of purpose, his chest bare and broad, an ancient warrior preparing for battle. “We’re under attack and only have a skeleton crew here.”

“How did they find us?” Cara whispered urgently as she moved toward him.

“I don’t know. We’ll worry about that later. Right now, we need to get to the armory.”