Beastly Desires (8 page)
***
They were leaving. Today. Kamali couldn’t put it off any longer. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t draw. Callum had gotten restless, irritable. The more questions he asked about Kaisal the more restless and irritable
she
became. Then the burning started. Flames licked the depths of Kamali’s gut—twisting her from the inside out—and the sensation was so intense that rest was impossible; standing
still
was impossible. Swallowing to regain moisture in her mouth had become a chore. Every draw of air did nothing but send her into a tailspin because all she could smell, all she could taste was
him.
If she didn’t leave now…
“What’re you doing?”
Kamali cringed at the accusatory tone floating from the doorway of Callum’s room. He’d moved down the hall, preferring to have his own bed because he’d apparently outgrown sleeping next to her.
Turning, she met his stare, a few of his shirts in her grasp, his suitcase open in the middle of the floor. “Packing, love.”
His eye narrowed. “Why?”
She sighed. “Because we have to leave.”
“No.” Callum shook his head. “I don’t want to leave. I want—”
“Callum, we have to—”
“What about Kaisal?” His small hand fisted at his sides. “He promised we’d be safe here, that we could
stay
here. I want to
stay.”
Dropping his things, she crouched to eye level. “That’s not a promise he can keep,
if
¹
,
and I won’t risk you. So we have to leave.” Kamali reached out and ran her fingertips down his temple. “We can’t hide away here forever.”
“I want to say good-bye.”
“Callum—”
“No!” He jerked away. “I want to say good-bye to Kaisal!”
Kamali reached for him but came away wanting. He moved faster than she could anticipate and was down the hall in minutes. She charged after him and heard the front door swing open. “Callum!”
Shooting through the cabin, she cleared the couch and went straight toward the entrance. She hit the front steps and caught sight of a bright green shirt amongst the droves of white-covered earth just outside. Kamali called his name. By the time she hit the pavement, her feet came out from under her, ice now controlling her movements. Every ounce of air previously stored in her lungs left the moment her back connected with the ground. She tried to draw in a breath and almost choked. Her chest felt as if would cave in at any moment. Kamali lay there, blinking back the moisture in her eyes until the pain dissipated and she was able to inhale again.
Sitting up slowly, she got to her feet and carefully stepped her way through the snow, tracking Callum’s steps as she went along. Frustration mounted the longer she walked. Frustration with herself, with Kaisal, with the shitstorm that was her life. She should’ve known he’d want to attach himself to the only male who’d ever shown him something other than tolerance. In just a few hours of time, the tiger had provided everything her son had been missing in Alfre, in Enilo, and in her—a healthy, testosterone-laden influence. He’d been kind and gentle with an infinite amount of patience, almost as if he needed to be around Callum as much as Callum needed to be around him. But they couldn’t stay. Kaisal wasn’t theirs to keep and vice versa. He had his own life, his own family, and his own issues. To bring Nico down on his head after all the inexplicable decency he’d shown her would be selfish. Kamali wouldn’t do that to him; she wouldn’t do that to his pride.
***
“Kaisal!”
Basanti and Naresh’s confused eyes met his just across the kitchen island where’d they’d been seated for the last hour, debating the newest mock-up for personalized security systems.
Basanti’s head tilted. “Is that…?”
“Kaisal!”
He rose from his position and headed for the back door. A quick glance through the windowpane gave him a glimpse of riotous hair, a bright green shirt, and fast legs. Without hesitation, Kaisal swung the door open and started down the deck. “Cal?”
The cub’s movements never ceased; he powered forward, leaping from the bottom step to the top and launching himself at Kaisal. Catching the boy, he crouched. “Hey, hey, hey. What’re you doing away from the cabin? Where’s your mother?”
Cal shook his head, tiny hands clenching in Kaisal’s T-shirt. “She’s trying to make me leave!” Bright, devastated eyes stared up at him. “Tell her we can’t leave. Tell her you want us to stay. Tell her we’re safe!”
“Cal—”
“
Please
.”
Kaisal sucked in a deep breath, placed his palms on Cal’s shoulders. “Calm. Down.”
The cub inhaled, his lips trembling. His lids slid closed as if he were staving off the urge to cry. They stood like that until his expression hardened into a mask that Kaisal had seen Kam wear more than once—determination. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to have to start over. I’m tired of running.” He swallowed. “I like it here.” His stare turned accusatory. “Even if you haven’t been around.”
Right. No punches pulled.
“I—” He stopped the moment undertones of freesia teased his senses. Kam wasn’t far behind and the smell of her seemed to have only gotten headier the longer he kept his distance. It had gone from simply being sweet to being distinctive. Kaisal’s tiger pushed.
Ours. She’s trying to leave us. She
can’t
leave us.
Kaisal bit the inside of his cheek. He’d get control. He’d get control quickly.
Cal wrapped his small arms around Kaisal’s neck. “
Please
.” The plea in his voice, the thread of desperation tapped something inside that was unbearably hard to feel. He was attached. He was fucking attached. How or why was indecipherable but his beast would not be ignored. If he stood by and attempted to watch them leave, his leash would snap and there would be no going back.
Her voice rang out, and soon the sound of her footsteps crunching through the snow followed. Kaisal stood, Cal clinging to him. She passed the trees and her gaze locked onto his the moment she cleared them. For the briefest second she looked as though she simply wanted to fall to her knees but she didn’t. She lowered her stare and he felt the slow build of a growl in his throat.
Ours.
His tiger reiterated.
“
If
¹
,” she softly called, coming closer. “It’s time to go.”
Cal’s grip tightened. “No.”
Her eyes begged Kaisal to argue, to insist but he did neither. He simply watched her as she approached, her steps slow, steady.
“You’re leaving,” he stated flatly.
Kam halted, her gaze turning wary. “We’ve stayed long enough. I need to start—”
“Why?” Kaisal cut in.
She shifted from one foot to another. “Why what?”
“Why are you leaving?”
Cal lifted his head from Kaisal’s shoulder and turned to his mother, obviously looking for an explanation also.
Catching her bottom lip, she rubbed her arms. “Because we need to.”
“Why?” he asked again.
Her nostrils flared and she slowly repeated herself. “Because we
need
to.”
“
Why
?”
Her jaw clenched and Kaisal could see her resisting the inclination to scream. She wanted to. The way her shoulders tensed and her hands balled at her sides told him. Her eyes suddenly went from his and bounced just over his shoulder. Without turning around, he knew Basanti and Naresh were in the doorway, obviously curious about the tangible tension building in their presence.
Kaisal sat Cal down and kept his glare fastened to Kam’s, speaking calmly. “Baz, would you please take the young prince inside and make him a mug of cocoa?”
“Err…” Indecision colored her voice.
“
Now.”
Cal looked from Kaisal to his mother before moving out of sight. The back door closed behind him.
Kam spoke through clenched teeth. “You have
no
right—”
“Is there something wrong with the cabin?” he cut in, stepping down. “Is there not enough heat? Enough food?”
She looked confused. “The cabin’s fine.”
“Has someone in my pride spotted you? Did they make you uncomfortable?”
“No.”
He took 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.