A Short Leash (15 page)

“He will not hesitate to discipline you if you need it, I warn you.”

Sierra did not believe him. Charles was not the disciplinary kind. He was seductive and genteel, but she could not imagine being punished by him. It wasn’t in his nature as far as she could tell. Looking over at his handsome, sleeping face, Sierra was certain she was about to have a good day.

* * *

A few hours later, Sierra felt an impish impulse to test the boundaries. She cuddled up beside Charles, who was sitting in bed reading, and let her teeth graze against his neck. At first he smiled, but as she bit down a little harder, he winced.

“That’s enough, Sierra.”

She giggled and delivered a swift nip, leaving a blushing mark in her wake.

“Settle down, pet,” Charles said, his tone indulgent. “I’m not Kade, but there are still rules with me.”

“Have you had a pet before?”

“No,” he said, his dark eyes holding humor. “But I know how to handle one, don’t you worry.”

He hadn’t had a pet before. That meant he was probably like Roman, eager to be her friend and lover, not to master her. Oh, the fun she was going to have with Charles. She was going to get away with all sorts of things. What should she do first? She sat next to him, his arm around her shoulders as she tried to think of something naughty to do. Charles read his book quite happily whilst she lay against him, her eyelids slowly becoming heavy as the notion of naughtiness seemed to quite escape her.

She woke from an unexpected nap to find herself curled against Charles’ side. Hours had gone by and she had not done anything of any interest at all.

“Hello, you.” Charles smiled down at her as she stirred. “You must have been tired.”

“I must have been,” Sierra agreed as Charles stroked her hair gently. “I didn’t feel tired though.”

It was him. He had a relaxing effect on her, made rebellion seem not just unnecessary but somewhat undesirable. Sierra was quite confused by her own feelings. In Kade’s presence she was energized and excited, ready to chase, to hunt, to exert her will. With Charles she felt like curling up and being petted and cossetted.

Charles was happy to oblige her in her desires. Feeling his fingers trailing up and down the back of her neck, Sierra shivered happily. He was quite engrossed in his book, but that did not stop him from petting her almost constantly for most of the afternoon.

Kade’s return came at dusk. He was alone, having sent Seraphine and Roman on their way. He smiled as he stepped into the bedroom dressed in his hunting leathers, long powerful legs encased in a thick hide that emphasized their strength. Sierra saw him from the feet first, her eyes rising up the length of his body to meet his smiling azure eyes. He was so very handsome in a way that touched her deep in her most instinctive places. His hair was tied back and braided, leaving the masculine planes of his face free for her admiration.

“And how are we? Any problems?”

“Of course not,” Charles drawled. Sierra gave Kade a satisfied look. He smiled at her in response.

“What did you two do today?”

“This,” Sierra said, stretching out. “Just this.”

“I see,” Kade said, glancing at his timepiece. “I think there’s time for a training session before dinner.”

The idea struck Sierra as a terrible one. “But…”

“No buts, Sierra. You know you need to exercise daily to keep increasing your muscle tone. An hour in the contained wilds should do it.”

She squirmed and wriggled up to Charles. “I don’t want to,” she whispered, batting her lashes.

“What if I came with you? I could do with the exercise as well,” he said, patting his belly, which did not seem to need any additional exercise at all to Sierra’s appreciative gaze.

“I don’t want to,” she repeated.

“You know this isn’t a matter of what you want,” Kade replied. “Come along. The day is waning and the predators will be stirring soon. Every moment you waste sitting here makes the exercise more dangerous.”

“Do you know what would be less dangerous? Not making me go into a pen with a bunch of hungry predators.”

“It’s not a pen,” Kade reminded her. “It’s several acres from which I know you will not escape. Your senses need rehabilitation, Sierra. You’re still at a point where you occasionally run into trees. Do that with a predator about and you’ll be dinner before you can so much as whine that you don’t want to be.”

Sierra rolled her eyes. She was feeling very lazy and very content and being forced up from her comfortable cuddle spot was putting her in a bad mood.

Charles ran his hand down the length of her back and settled his palm over the curve of her bottom. “We’ve had such a nice day,” he cajoled. “You don’t want to ruin it just because of a little exercise, do you?”

Sierra looked from Charles to Kade and knew that she didn’t really have a choice. With a deep sigh, she dragged herself up from the couch and stood.

“Good girl,” Kade said, beckoning her forward. She went to him and he took her lightly by the cheeks, kissing her lips. “I missed you.”

A wave of unexpected emotion washed over Sierra. “I missed you too,” she said, her voice suddenly wobbly for reasons she couldn’t explain. Perhaps it was the tenderness in his voice and touch compared to the orders almost snapped at her. The combination of lover and master was a strange one sometimes.

“Perhaps you could start dinner,” Kade suggested to Charles. “Sierra and I will not be long.”

“Yes, dear,” Charles winked, shutting his book. Sierra giggled, enjoying their banter.

“You must have been friends a very long time,” she said as they made their way to the training area.

“Charles has saved my life many times over,” Kade explained. “I have been gored, mauled, half-eaten and he has stitched me back together each and every time. He is closer than a brother to me.”

“So you have been caught by beasts?”

“Many times,” Kade confessed. “None in the last few years, but as a young man I was much more reckless than I am now. I had no pet to take care of and hunted on my own, pitting my wits against the wild beasts without anything other than a knife. It did not end well.”

Sierra could imagine him doing such a thing as a much younger man. The marks on his body bore testament to such deeds, and the fire that made him so attractive now for being restrained with self-discipline and experience would surely once have burned out of control. That was no doubt how he understood his pets so well, because he had once been like them—perhaps worse.

“Charles used me as part of a research paper,” Kade chuckled. “He became a doctor three years earlier than usual thanks to his work on me.”

“Why don’t you hunt like that anymore?”

“It was Charles who put an end to that,” he said. “I had no master to teach me, or guiding hand to stop me. I went out into the wilds and I went wild until I dragged myself back, bleeding and bloody. In the end he sedated me to the point of paralysis and made me promise not to ever go out like that again.”

“And you kept that promise?”

“I did,” Kade said, opening the gate. “A man only has his word.”

Sierra stepped through the gate and into the little wild within the wilds.

“I want you to stay still,” Kade said, shutting the gate behind them. “I want you to sense what is around you. No running about, no climbing or jumping. Just stay here and let your senses soak everything in.”

Sierra did as she was told, letting her mind drift into non-thought as her eyes, ears, nose, and skin picked up all the sensations of the world about her. It was so easy to be absorbed into nature, to breathe in the wind and become part of it.

As she relaxed into the wild she began to sense the smaller things. Every rustling leaf, every bending blade of grass. It was all part of a oneness.

“Anything out there?”

She could feel something a mile or so off. She wouldn’t have thought it was possible to do so, but there it was, a tugging weight in her mind. Some might have called it a psychic sense, but it was more than that; it was the interplay of a thousand little pieces of information being combined deep in her mind far away from the restrictions of consciousness.

“I think one of the wolverines is at the watering hole,” she said.

Kade checked the panel he carried upon which every animal in the enclosure was tracked. “You’re right,” he said, smiling. “Your senses are starting to return.”

Sierra beamed at the unmistakable note of pride in his voice.

“I think you will sense the world with a clarity very few do when you are fully recovered,” he continued. “You just have to find the quiet places inside you.”

The quiet places. She had been in a quiet place for the better part of the day, which seemed to have helped her hunting skills immensely. The enclosure was no longer a confusion of green hues. It was a collective of sensations, each one of which meant something, told her something.

“Did you have a good day with Charles?”

Sierra looked up into Kade’s face. “Yes,” she said. “He was nice. He didn’t punish me even once.”

“Good,” Kade said. “Because I have been summoned to a village in the middle of the wilds. They need me to assist in a hunt.”

The idea of not seeing Kade for a while made Sierra’s breath feel tight. “Can I come?”

“No.” He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. A man-eating tigress is on the loose. You’re going to be a perfect pet, Sierra, but you haven’t had enough time in the wilds to be safe yet. I can’t take you with me, but I was hoping you would be happy to stay with Charles until I return.”

Sierra nodded slowly, a mixture of emotions swirling in her belly. She was content with Charles, but she was most attached to Kade. From the moment he’d first laid eyes on her they’d never been apart.

“How long will you be gone?”

“Three days,” Kade said, wrapping his arms about her waist and pressing kisses to her lips. “But I need to leave soon. People’s lives are in danger. This tigress has taken three villagers already, and she will have more if she is not stopped.”

Sierra understood. Her village had known threat from predators before, and she knew that a tigress who had chosen humans as her prey would kill and kill again until she was stopped.

“I could help you,” she said, repeating herself.

“Your senses still aren’t what they once were,” Kade said. “They’re returning, but there is no margin for error with this beast. She will know where you are from miles away, she will stalk you without ever laying eyes on you until the moment she strikes. I can’t risk you, Sierra.” He wrapped his arms around her tightly and pulled her close. “Charles will take care of you,” he murmured against her head. “Be good for him.”

Be good. They were always saying that. But what was the point of being good when all it meant was watching the man she loved leave to tangle with a tiger? Sierra followed Kade back home and watched with a feeling of deep foreboding as he prepared for his journey. Something was telling her that all was not well, but she knew Kade would not listen, and Charles was not inclined to believe her either. She received plenty of petting and attention, but as Kade left the compound, that did not stop her from shedding a tear.

Chapter Ten

There was one very great advantage to having Charles stay with her while Kade was away. He brought all his things, including a supply of the chocolate Sierra so adored. Kade did not keep chocolate in the house, but when Sierra passed through the kitchen a day after Kade’s departure, she immediately scented a large amount of the stuff and tracked it down to one of the cupboards. There, to her great surprise and extreme joy, was an entire case of chocolate. It was contained in a large cardboard box, but she knew precisely what it was, for it was giving off waves of the irresistible scent.

She sat down on the kitchen floor and began to tear into her find then and there, like a hungry hyena chancing across a freshly downed gazelle. There was all sorts of wrapping to contend with, unfortunately. The habit of wrapping food repetitively in non-food items was a citizen foible. She broke through a plastic outer layer, ripped through the cardboard, and discovered that the case was filled with thick bars of chocolate, each of which was wrapped in foil. Once she ripped the foil away there were seven pieces to feast upon. Sierra shoved the first three bars of chocolate into her mouth almost at once, moaning with pleasure as the rich flavors ran over her tongue and then seemed to course through her body.

No food was like this. No food pleasured as much as it satisfied. And no food demanded to be eaten like this one did. Bar after bar found its way into her stomach with a quickness and she quite lost track of time until finally the last piece was consumed.

When she had licked every wrapper and satisfied herself several times over that there was not another trace of chocolate left in the house, she ran out into the garden and began leaping from tree to tree with a speed and alacrity she had not enjoyed in a very long time. The chocolate was extraordinarily energizing, providing physical power unlike any other. The wild animals looked upon her with utter concern, a panicked wolverine running from her flashing form as she danced from branch to branch, dipping to the ground for a brief moment then swinging herself back up into the embrace of the foliage.

After a good two hours of this frenetic activity she made her way to her favorite couch and collapsed in a cocoa stupor, feeling simultaneously energized and curiously heavy. For a while all was well, but slowly over a period of about an hour, the good feeling turned to bad and a sharp pain established itself in her stomach. She very much wanted to go to the bathroom, but it was as if she were somehow blocked from doing so. The one weak trip she made there resulted in nothing at all and she made her way back to the couch feeling more miserable than she had been in a very long time.

Charles found her like that not long after. He entered the room, a glass of water in one hand and a book in the other. He put both down when he saw Sierra lying on the couch and clutching at her stomach.