Page 49 of Elusive Mate

“I’m fine. I’ll check the GPS, strip down, and shift. Thank you so much for your help. If I can ever do anything for you…”

“What made you start laughing?”

“I was thinking I’ve never envied any other shifter. I always thought being a white tigress was like the ultimate, but I do think I’d swap it for being a reindeer. That was amazing.” Noel grinned. “Then I thought if I was a reindeer, Lucian’s idea of eating me for hours would probably be vastly different.”

Noel started to laugh. “Okay, that’s kind of gross, but really funny.”

“I know. I thought the same thing.”

“You sure you’re going to be all right?”

“Yes. I don’t think I’m going back to the beach. I did love the Outer Banks, though.”

“Maybe someday.”

“I won’t risk it. Lucian is a man possessed. He’ll hire someone to keep watch over my place there.”

“I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

“It is, but it’s the choice I made.”

“I understand.” Noel slipped off the jacket and handed it back to Zenya, giving her a hug. “Take care. I had Brie program my number into the cell in your bag. If you need help, call me.”

“Thank you for everything.”

She stepped back as Noel shifted again and then with one look over her shoulder trotted off. There was a moment when Zenya couldn’t ignore the ache in her heart and almost called Noel back. Instead, she shoved the feeling down into the depths of her soul and looked at the GPS and looked up the coordinates. They looked to be somewhere in Labrador.

She looked at the brief on the tablet that was also in the bag and saw she would be working as a traveling vet for the Canadian government. She wouldn’t be able to use her real name, but that was probably for the best. Securing the GPS tracker and tablet in the waterproof pouch, she shed her clothes and stuffed everything in the duffle. After shifting, she turned toward the rising sun and started to make her way to her new home.

The journey was long, but not especially difficult. She traveled as a white tigress throughout the day. Granted, tigers weren’t indigenous to Northeast Canada, but she was traveling in remote areas, and she never encountered anyone. In some ways it was good for her soul, but in others it gave her far too much time to think.

It was midday when she stopped to take a breather, to get her bearings and scan the horizon—not quite certain what she was looking for. A short while earlier, she thought she had heard the sound of a small airplane engine somewhere in the distance, but it was quickly drowned out by the howling wind. Sound tended to travel long distances in country like this, but the landscape and the winds could distort or amplify it. Without seeing a plane, it was difficult to tell where the sound was coming from, how far away it might be, and even if she had heard it at all.

She wouldn’t be as noticeable as a white tigress standing on the snow-covered ridge. She wasn’t sure if it was her catching his scent or her scent reaching him. Whichever it was, it felt for her as if the world had shifted on its axis. She turned slowly and spotted him. How the hell had Lucian managed to sneak up on her? More importantly, how the hell had he found her?

Slowly he began to stalk her, his white tiger blending into the snow. His nostrils flared and his lips drew back in a grimace as her scent reached him. She knew she was too far to see him up close, but she would have sworn she saw his pupils grow larger and darker, or had she just imagined it?

She could hear as well as feel the low rumbling in his chest rushing down the link and reverberating throughout her system like some crazy pinball machine on crack. The vivid memory of their time together flashed memories of his strong hands wrapped around her, pinning her to the bed and showing her what it meant to be made one with a mate. She could feel her pulse thrumming, as the blood rushed through her veins and her muscles twitched.

Zenya now understood what the rabbit felt, for she felt it, too. The way he stalked her… the way she didn’t seem able to look away was like more of a terrified prey animal than a white tigress. When her stalker was an alpha predator who wanted nothing more than to take her in the snow and rut with her, there was nothing more she could do other than run.

Whirling on her hind end, she leapt in the opposite direction of Lucian.

Lucian. Damn the man; damn his clan; and damn the link that existed between them. Bounding through the snow, all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears and her own panting breath. The sound of her footsteps, as well as his, were mostly muffled by the thick carpet of snow. His scent closed the distance between them.

She relinquished complete control and allowed her inner beast to take over. Lucian was stronger and faster. He was using the power of the rut to flood the link between them—disorienting and overwhelming her—so much so that she failed to hear him close in.

Lucian slammed into her like a brick wall of instinct, anger, and lust. He dragged her to the ground, grappling with her until Zenya was pinned beneath his much larger bulk, shifting so he was once again human—naked and incredibly aroused.

“Shift!” he commanded.

Human worries like modesty or dignity were not even a consideration. All she could do was respond to the rich aroma of his musky scent as she shifted and reached out to hold him once more. A need and desire rose up, feelings she had suppressed and resisted from the time she left him until just this moment—neither of which she’d ever thought to feel again.

“Let me go, Alpha, please…”

He wouldn't, though, and they both knew it. With both of her wrists in one of his huge hands, he pulled her arms over her head and held them tight. Her body was stretched out on the ground, naked and glistening with sweat. She should have felt the cold from the snow, but she didn’t. Lucian took advantage of her immobility to press his nose into the crook of her neck and inhale. After he filled his own lungs with her scent, he growled again, then marked her with wet, open-mouthed kisses that turned to ice from the cold before immediately melting from the heat that arced between them.

"Alpha, please..."

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