Panther Magic (7 page)

Chapter
Seven

Zeb paced the confines of his
elaborate prison cell like his animal counterparts at the zoo. Back and forth,
his panther as agitated as the man, and he was half convinced that he would
make a groove in the expensive carpet that graced this room.

This room at the council’s
official residence might have all the luxuries one would associate with a five
star hotel right down to the stunning view across private gardens, the four
poster bed, and the marble en-suite bathroom, but this was nothing more than a
holding cell.

Bars across the window prevented
escape down that route, and the heavy door was not only a fire door, but also
soundproof. Nothing could come in or out other than through that entry, and
while this room wasn’t bugged, he knew there was CCTV in every corridor of the
mansion.

Not that he had anywhere to go.
To try to escape would be akin to suicide, and besides he had given his word.
There was also nowhere for him to run, because he would no more endanger Kate
and his brother than he could stop breathing.

His panther snarled as unbidden
images of the last time he’d seen his mate invaded his brain. Held in Arran’s
arms she’d looked utterly terrified of him, and Zeb stopped his incessant
pacing and punched the wall instead. Plaster fell to the floor in a cloud of
white, and a dull pain shot up his arm from his abused knuckles, but it was
nothing to the ache in his soul.

Fuck it all to hell and back.
Every cell in his body urged him to go and find her, to reassure himself that
she was okay, but he couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t want him anyway, not after
what he had done in front of her, and she would be better off with just Arran.
He was by far the gentler of the two of them, and the least Zeb could do was
make sure to keep his brother out of it.

The sound of the handle turning
in the door swung his head round, and he scowled at the cloaked figure carrying
a tray laden with food. The stench of hyena hit his nostrils, completely
obliterating the smell of the food, and his stomach roiled in disgust.

“
I told the last one, I don’t want any food, so you
can take that right back again.” The small figure ignored him, and the door
shut with a soft click, effectively barring the hyena’s
exit,
and Zeb swore under his breath, as the dim as fuck shifter put the tray down on
the sideboard.

“
Are you fucking deaf as well as stupid, hyena? I
said, I … fuck,
no
.”

His words trailed off and his
panther roared when the
hyena
shrugged off her cloak with a disgusted
sound at the back of her throat, and Kate gave the filthy rags she’d hidden
under a kick with her trainer clad foot.

“
Bleugh
, that stinks, and
you need to eat. I’m not leaving until you have and I’ve talked some sense into
you.”

“
The fuck you will.”
 

Kate flinched at his harsh reply,
and his panther whined when she took an involuntary step away from him, when he
advanced toward her.

Shit, he was scaring her, but his
panther was in charge and he wanted, needed, to get close to his mate to
reassure himself that she was okay.
 
Her
eyes widened and she backed up against the door she’d just come through when
his animal roared at the sight of her hurt lip. Her throat, too, looked bruised
and sore, and Zeb knew he sounded more animal than human when he forced the
words out of his throat.

“
I’m going to kill them all over again.” Kate
flinched when he moved to grasp her chin. He swore and clenching his fingers
into a fist let it fall next to his thigh. He couldn’t help but lean in more
and sniff her, however. The sweet scent that was his Kate soothed his agitated
panther somewhat. It was
underlaid
with the familiar
musk of his brother, and he could just about see the edge of his brother’s mark
on her shoulder, thanks to the low neck line of her shirt. Arran had mated with
her then. Jealousy tore a hole in his gut, even as he told himself this was a
good thing. Claimed as she was no other fucker would dare lay a hand on her.

“
That would be difficult, being that you didn’t leave
much for the council to clean up last time, other than body parts.” Kate’s
unexpected reply, laced as it was with grim humor, made him tear his gaze away
from that mark, and the silent compassion he saw in her brown eyes took the
wind out of his sails. Where were the terrified woman and the disgust he was so
sure she felt for him?

His panther purred, and Zeb could
do nothing but stare when Kate brought her hand up to his face and after a
moment’s hesitation traced the stubble on his face. He hadn’t bothered with
shaving, so it wasn’t so much designer scruff as downright furry going on
there, yet Kate didn’t seem to mind. Her pupils dilated, and the sweet scent of
her arousal increased as she raised herself on her tiptoes and sniffed him.

The action proved the undoing of
what tenuous control he had on himself, and with a growl to shake the room, he
grasped her and pulled her into his frame. His panther calmed instantly when
Kate relaxed into his embrace, the softness of her slight curves the perfect
counterfoil to the hard planes of his body, and Zeb closed his eyes and filled
his lungs with the sweet scent of his woman.

How long they simply clung to
each other, he couldn’t have said, but eventually Kate fidgeted and he
reluctantly let her go. She turned slightly to take the covers off the tray of
food she brought, and then grinned up at him.

“
This looks good. You need to eat something.”

Zeb only glanced at the food.
Some hearty stew that did smell delicious, come to think of it, but he shook
his head, and let his gaze run over her instead.

“
You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “If they find you
here, then—”

“
Poppycock, they won’t. We’ll have hours before the next
shift change, according to Cole, and besides, I told you. I’m not leaving until
you’ve eaten something, even if I have to force feed you it.”

She’d placed a generous amount
into a bowl, stuck the spoon in it, and then lifted the laden utensil up to his
mouth. When he growled at her, she rolled her eyes, and offered the spoon
again.

“
Come on, eat, pussy cat.”

His panther roared at that
insult, tempered though it was with a coy smile, and Zeb swiped the bowl out of
her hand. It sailed through the air, and smashed against the wall, the contents
of it leaving a trail along the cream wall, as they slowly slid to the floor.

“
Well, that’s just wasteful. If you want to eat off
the floor, then just say so. No need to break perfectly nice crockery.”

Kate picked up another bowl to
fill it with yet more food, and she jumped when he grabbed her hair and spun
her around by it.

“
My, we are tetchy, aren’t we?” His panther snarled
and itched to get out, and her eyes grew wider but she held her ground. It was
only her rapid heartbeat and the trembles in her hands as she put them on his
chest that gave her away. She wasn’t frightened of him, though she bloody well
ought to be, but she was definitely wary.

“
I don’t want you here.” He growled the words, and
she flinched when his claws ran out and pierced her skull where he held her
hair bunched in his fists, but instead of screaming like any sensible woman
would have done, she gave a good attempt at shrugging her shoulders.

“
Tough. I am here, and besides, I can’t leave until Cole
comes back to let me out, so what are we going to do with our time, I
wonder?”
 

Zeb froze when she slid one of
her hands slowly down his torso, until she could cup his dick through his
denims. Pleasure surged through him at the contact, and despite that damn body
part of his having jerked to attention the minute he’d realized it was her
under those stinking rags, he hardened further. His cock jerked against his
confines, and Kate gasped, and licked her lips.

Zeb released her, pushed her away
from him, and resumed his pacing.
Anything to keep control
and to stop himself from mauling her, because that was exactly what his beast
wanted to do right now.
Pin her down, spank that insolent ass of hers
until it was red raw, feast on the wetness between her thighs, and then sink
balls deep into her, and claim her as his, and he couldn’t do that.

Every pace around the room he
glanced at
her,
and it wasn’t helping. Kate simply
stood there, arms pushed into the back pocket of her jeans, watching him. The
rapid pulse at the base of her neck called him, as did the way she was worrying
her bottom lip with her teeth, and the cute little crease that appeared between
her eyes as she frowned.

At what must have been the
hundredth pace around the room he couldn’t stand the heavy silence any more,
and giving his animal full rein, he let the shift consume him. Fire raced over
his skin, as fur erupted, and clothing
tore
, bones
cracked and re-arranged, until he stood on all fours in his panther form. The
animal leapt toward Kate, and still she didn’t move, not even when he reared up
on his hind legs and brought his massive paws down on her shoulder.

She staggered somewhat under his
weight, but she brought her hands into his fur right next to his mouth, and
whispered the words.

“
I’m not frightened. I know you won’t hurt me.”

Zeb roared and, leaping away from
her, shifted back to his human form. Her gasp when he did so made his balls
draw tight, and he kicked his ruined clothes on the floor out of the way,
stalked over to the bed and yanked the bed spread off it. Once he’d managed to
wrap the thing around himself toga style, he turned round and glared at her.

“
Damn it, woman, you have no idea what my panther can
do. Why aren’t you running?”

“
Why are you not defending yourself against these
charges that damn council is throwing at you?” Kate countered his question with
one of her own, and Zeb slammed his mouth shut, and sat down heavily on the
bed, when she started walking toward him.

“
I won’t let you take the blame for this. They’ll kill
you.” The wobble in her voice made him look up, and the tears shimmering on her
eyelashes proved his undoing. He shouldn’t let her anywhere near him. She was
better off without him in her life, but for the life of him he couldn’t move a
muscle when she sat down next to him. Kate tugged at his makeshift cover until
it slid off his shoulders, and ran her hands over his chest.

His panther purred, and Zeb
balled his hands into fists to stop himself from touching her. If he did, he
would lose the plot.

“
Don’t.” He murmured the words under his breath, but
the damn infuriating woman took no notice of him. Instead she ran her fingers
through his chest hair, circled his nipples, and smiled at his involuntary
groan, as she continued her exploration south. His mouth went dry, and all of
his remaining blood supply shot to his dick, when she slid onto her knees in
front of him, and tugged that bedspread off his groin. His cock bounced up, and
before he could stop her, she had grasped the base of his shaft, and started to
stroke him.

“
Fuck, you don’t…”

His words failed him when she
blew across his slit already wet with pre-cum and then licked that drop away.
Zeb’s claws ran out and sliced through the bed covers he was clutching in a
death knuckle grip to stop himself from either pushing her off or taking over
and forcing her down on his cock.

She smiled up at him, and he gave
up the fight when she ran her tongue around his foreskin, up and down the thick
vein underneath his dick, fondled his balls, and then took him into her mouth
as far as she could. She gagged when he hit the back of her throat, and she swallowed
around his head. The rhythmic pressure was too much, and Zeb flexed his hips,
lodging himself even deeper into the warm haven of her mouth.

Kate gagged again, pulled back
slightly, swallowed several times, and then hummed around his prick, while
pumping the bottom of his shaft with both hands now. The vibrations traveled up
his length, and Zeb swore, as pleasure erupted along every one of his sensitive
nerve endings.

“
Fuck, yes, little wildcat, just like that.”
 
Zeb buried his hands in her hair, and took
charge of the up and downward glide of her hot little mouth on his junk. Kate
mumbled something and smiled up at him in such a way that he lost all control.
Her moans trembled along his shaft as he forced her to take him deep, and the
sight of her lips stretched around his cock, slick with her saliva, was so damn
erotic, that his orgasm burst from him with such intensity that his vision
dimmed.

He held her down on his cock, as
he shot jet after jet down her throat, and his little mate did her best to
swallow it all. Drops escaped her mouth and ran down her throat onto her neck,
and his panther roared his pleasure at seeing her thus marked. It was only when
his dick finally stopped twitching, and she’d
 
milked the last drop of cum out of him, that Zeb released his hold on
her hair, and he collapsed back on his bed. His breathing as erratic as hers,
he dropped his arm over his eyes to shut out the world, and let the pleasure
seep through every one of his wary muscles. He was dimly aware of the soft kiss
Kate bestowed on the head of his now far too sensitive cock head, and then the
bed dipped and his little wildcat snuggled in next to him. He pulled her into
his side with his free hand, and once he was sure he could raise his head
without the room spinning around him, he propped himself up on one elbow to
study her. Kate grinned up at him, but her eyes were wary, as well they ought
to be, yet her smart mouth was still very much in evidence now that it wasn’t
full of his cock.