Page 33 of Shift of Destiny
He shook his head. “I need to tell you about shifters. Our pheromones are like an aphrodisiac to people with mate… some people.” His thumb stroked hers. “I’m highly attracted to you, so my body might be putting your hormones in the driver’s seat.”
“Chantal told me about mates. I want you, sure, but that’s only part of the package. You’re smart, you’re protective without being a jerk about it, and you could have any woman you want, and still you chose me.” She smiled. “Besides, the big, blond, furry side of you is way beyond cool.”
His head tilted quizzically. “You’re not afraid of me.”
“No.” She studied his troubled face, trying to guess what he was thinking. “Should I be? I know we don’t know each other very well yet, but you’ve shown me nothing but kindness and caring.”
“My beast scares everyone. Even my parents. I had to leave to protect them, because her cougar pride and his wolf pack hated me.” He said it like he was confessing to a dark, shameful secret. Her heart broke that people had hurt him so badly by rejecting the animal that shared his soul.
“Pffft,” she said, waving dismissively. “That’s because they’ve never seen aPanthera leo atroxin the flesh.” She gave him a fierce smile. “Have youseenyourself? You’re magnificent.”
He blinked. “A what?”
“American lion. Ice-Age megafauna. Apex predator. Went extinct about eleven thousand years ago.” She lifted one shoulder. “It took me a moment to recognize what you are. I helped excavate a skeleton in Florida for a guy looking to make a private sale. He got a graduate student to create an artist’s interpretation of it, and the only thing she got wrong was your coloring and the thick muscles around your neck.” Intuition, or maybe her magic, bubbled up. “I’ll bet every mammal alive today has a genetic memory of being hunted byP. atrox. Ordinary shifters probably have a similar instinctive reaction to Ice Age shifters. You were all bigger and badder.”
He pulled her out of her chair and into his lap, inhaling deeply as his arms encircled her. “I want to mate with you so bad I’m shaking.” He kissed her with surprising tenderness. “But you have to understand, it’s for life. We’ll share a mental connection. I’ll never cheat, because no other female will interest me.” He brushed the bruised side of her face with his thumb. “You’re human, so it’s not the same. You can leave. You would, if you thought you were protecting me.”
She bristled at the sadness in his tone, like he was giving up so she couldn’t reject him like others had. “Two days ago, yeah, I would have left, because it’s what worked before. Witzer is obsessed and ruthless, and I couldn’t afford to make myself or anyone else vulnerable because I cared about them.” She pulled back to make him look at her. “All it took was one kiss with you, and I knew I wouldn’t leave, even if I should. I think that’s why ‘shifter-mate potential’ is so valuable. Not just because I’m fertile with shifters, but because I can form the true-mate bond.”
Even the thought of leaving his arms at that moment was enough to make tears threaten. “But I’ll still be a magnet for the baby-factory auctions, and you’ll outlive me by centuries, if what Pruhon said is true.” She took a deep breath and let it out with a rush. “So here’s the only solution I can come up with. Change me. Transform me into a bad-ass, Ice-Age shifter so I can mate with you for a very long life together, and kill anyone or anything that tries to get between me and my mate and our children. Cubs. Whatever.” She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Your call.”
It was hard not to fidget while she waited for his response. Despite her best intentions, insidious doubts began to creep in. Maybe she justwantedit to be the best thing for both of them, instead ofknowingit to be true. Maybe he wasn’t ready to change his independent lifestyle or share all of himself with someone else. Maybe he was as scared of her magic as she sometimes was. She couldn’t do anything to stop the tear that fell.
His hold tightened on her. “Moira.” He kissed her forehead and rocked her. “Claiming you will mingle our scents and take you off the baby-factory list. But you’re right, I’ll live longer than you if you stay human. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m not giving you up.”
She let herself be comforted in the soul-warming strength of the man who loved her, even if he hadn’t said it. It had been a long damn night, and she hurt all over, except where he was holding her. She snorted with amusement through her tears. “Sorry about your shirt. Again.”
“I told you, you can always cry with me.” He stroked her hair. “You can be a bad-assPanthera leo atroxshifter with everyone else.”
Hope flooded through her and she pulled back to look at him, surprised to see his face was wet with tears, too. “You want this? You want me?”
He smiled and palmed her face. “How could I not?” He kissed her softly, but with the promise of so much more. “You’re perfect.”
Her hormones woke up in a flash, and she kissed him with passion, nibbling at his lips, loving the feel of his soft beard against her face.
He groaned and kissed her like he was starving. She loved how he teased her tongue with his, rather than trying to find out if she still had her tonsils. Her nipples hardened and competed with her core in demanding attention.
He tensed and pulled back. “Someone’s coming.”
She reluctantly slid off his lap and stood to face the door as it opened.
Shiloh grinned at them both. “We found Witzer.”
* * *
Chance felt the tension in Moira as they stared through the one-way glass of the interrogation room in the sheriff’s office. He slipped behind her and pulled her back to lean against him. She relaxed a little and voiced a small sigh.
The dripping wet, bedraggled man wearing a rubber-ducky inflatable life preserver around his waist didn’t look like a monster. But neither had Pruhon. And Chance himself could be an eight-hundred-pound terror. No, aPanthera leo atrox. He liked having an identity.
Shiloh stepped up beside them wearing a shit-eating grin, in sharp contrast to the patient neutrality he’d displayed for Witzer while in the small room.
“What did he tell you?” asked Moira warily.
“That he’s suing us all, either before or after he sends the state police to arrest everyone in the town for theft, kidnapping, assault, and more theft. The theft really bothers him.” Shiloh chuckled. “For all that he thinks he knows about the magical world, he doesn’t believe half of what happened tonight.”
Chance tightened his arms around his mate’s waist. “Where did you find him?”
“In the outdoor dry sauna next door to Tinsel’s. His plan was to break in, shoot Moira with a wolf tranquilizer, carry her to his limo, and head to the helicopter.” Shiloh smirked. “His first mistake was hiding in Tinsel’s sleigh when Shepherd came to the door.”
