Free Beastly Desires by Nikki Winter Page B

another step down. “Have I made you uncomfortable?”
    Her chest pushed against the thin T-shirt hugging her torso. “No.”
    “So then why”—Kaisal closed the space between the two of them—“are you leaving?”
    “We cannot stay here .”
    “Tell me why,” he demanded. “Give me a good reason why.” Reasoning gave way to frustration, which gave way to the slow boil of anger. She wasn’t doing this. She wasn’t charging into his life, eliciting all of these new emotions— foreign emotions—then just walking away. No. She couldn’t just simply induce these feelings of possessive obsession and then turn around and disappear.
    “Kaisal…” Kam’s tone was a warning. One that he ignored.
    “You. Stay.”
    She shook her head. “ I said no .”
    The muscles in his jaw worked, his chest bulking. “ Yes .”
    Steely resolve met him head on. “We. Go.”
    Calm quickly fled. “Tell me why !”
    “ Because if we stay here we die !” Kam roared. She slapped at his chest. “Do you understand that?! You make me fucking reckless ! I have my son around someone I don’t even know, someone who doesn’t even know me, and it’s making me forgetful—comfortable! If I stay here—if we stay here—I will slip, he will find us and we will die .” She pushed away from him. “There is someone who will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.” Liquid gold irises stared back at him; her voice dropped to a whisper. “I have seen the devastation he can bring down. There is no mercy, no grace, and no emotion. He does not care about how much blood is spilled or how many bodies he has to bury, he will keep going, he will continue until everyone here is wiped out and then he’ll go for Callum. He destroyed half of my pride to get to Callum. He killed my father to get to Callum.” Her canines were in clear view. “Where I’ve come from—where I was— is not a grouping of housecats looking for their next meal. The Oriade Towers? Callum and I rightfully own that. We rightfully own a lot of things. My father was one of the most powerful shifters in our community, and the moment he died—the very second his throat was slit—that power passed over to someone who is insane. Someone who wants to break me. If you think I’m going to sit and play house with you while my end is literally tracking me down, you’re wrong .”
    She started past him and Kaisal dragged her back by her shirt. Placing his lips to her ear, he murmured, “You clearly have me confused with the fucker whose throat you ripped out. Believe me when I say that you have not even begun to see devastation, princess. I am not—nor have I ever been—weak enough to watch anyone in my pride, on my territory, get wiped out. This individual that is coming for you doesn’t truly grasp what it means to be without mercy on the grounds that he. Has. Not. Met. Me. And when he does, when he finally oversteps his bounds and forgets he isn’t the only thing that goes bump in the night, I will make sure he receives exactly what it is he desires because by the time I am done with him and whomever he’s brought along for the ride, he’ll want nothing more than for me to end him .” He cupped her face on either side and pressed his lips to her forehead. “You can hide from him but you will not run from me. Not when I haven’t given you a reason to. Not when the thought of never seeing you or Cal again makes me want to hurt things. I don’t care where you came from, what your surname is or how much power that son of a bitch holds. You’re under my protection. Mine .” Swallowing, Kaisal said, “Go inside. Warm up. Stay there.”
    “Kaisal—”
    “ Now .”
    Why she did what he commanded without argument he would never know but he was grateful. Because if she had stayed, she would’ve seen what he so rarely allowed others to witness. She would’ve seen what scared even him. Kam would’ve seen his rage.

Seven
    It came fast, hard, and stronger than