Feral Awakening (The Feral Series-Book 2) (12 page)

 Ronan held Kat tightly
to his chest as his thoughts raced around each other in his head. Gods, she was
really here. All these years he had thought she was forever lost to him. At
least his reaction to her made sense now. He was unaware of how much time had passed
until he felt her beginning to stir in his arms.

 Kat shifted and
snuggled closer with a soft moan on her lips. She was having the most delicious
dream. Again she had dreamt of the man with the golden eyes. But this time, as
she stumbled through the woods searching for him, he emerged from the darkness
that surrounded them. This time instead of chasing his shadow the sun had shined
down brightly on his head, illuminating his face and making his eyes glow brightly.

 Breathless Kat had run
to stand in front of him. He smiled down at her as she reached a hand out and
ran it over the smooth skin of his cheek. “I’ve been looking for you.” She
gasped, her voice coming out in a whisper.

 Wrapping his arms
around her he pulled her in close to his warm body and lowered his lips to
hers.

 Ronan waited tensely
as Kat began to stir in his arms. Would she know who he was now? What would her
reaction to him be? Ronan took a deep breath and froze. Dam it. The woman was
sending out pheromones like crazy. This was not good. His beast was quick to
respond and heat pulsed through his body. She was his mate and she had been
sending out signals for the last few weeks that she was close to her first heat
cycle. It was what had attracted the feral to her so fiercely and one of the
reasons he had been in such a hurry to deposit her with his pack and then be
free of her.

 As he lay quietly with
her in his arms this morning his thoughts had raced. He understood now his
fascination with her. In spite of the pendant he had been drawn to her from the
beginning. Need for her pounded through his veins along with a fierce demand to
protect her, especially from himself. There really was no other option. Even
though he now knew that they were bonded he still had to take her to his pack. He
was still not a fit mate for her, even more so now than before. He could not complete
the mating bond with her. He had stepped down as the next in line to lead his
pack. His beast had become more uncontrollable in the years since he had lost
her. He had become a lone wolf, unfit to be around the others. He couldn’t in
good conscience bind her to him for all eternity.

 She deserved a good
life, one with family and children. One he could no longer give her. The bonding
mark on her wrist, declared to all that she would one day be his mate. However,
she could still be mated to another male in spite of the mark. Their mating
wasn’t complete but it might be before the end of the day if she kept sending
out pheromones like she was. Dam it.

 Kat could feel the familiar
buzz of energy surging through her system. The energy that sent her running
through the woods until her muscles finally slumped in exhaustion. Cracking her
eyes open she stretched and struggled to remember where she was. Looking up she
found herself being watched closely by the man that she was apparently using as
a pillow.

 With a frown she took
a deep breath and prepared to pull as far away from him as she could get, that
is until something warm pulsed through her veins. With a groan she buried her
face in his chest and breathed in his scent. His dark woodsy scent had all the
muscles in her body clenching in response. Heat settled in her core as the
energy at her center jumped into overdrive.

 With a gasp Kat pulled
him closer instead of pushing him away like she knew she should. A low growl
rumbled beneath her hand as she looked up at his face. Dark hair hid his eyes
from her but she could still see that they had started to glow. For some
strange reason the sight made the energy inside of her burn all the brighter. Placing
her hand on his face she rubbed her palm across his full beard, letting it tickle
her hand.

 He brought his hand up
as though to pull her away from him but then seemed as if he couldn’t bring
himself to do it. With a low growl he grabbed her wrist and held it above her
head as he rolled her onto her back and pinned her with his warm body.

 Ronan had every
intension of pulling away from her but all his good intentions were quickly
forgotten with just one innocent touch. He had been without her for so long, he
just needed one taste of her. Kat gasped as his mouth came down hungrily on hers.
He ravaged her with his kiss like a man that was starving. Kat was overwhelmed
by the flood of emotions crashing through her system and taking over her will
to deny him. Kat clenched him to her with her free hand and returned the kiss
with all the heat building up inside of her. She needed to touch him, to feel
his hot skin beneath her fingers. Wrapping her leg around the back of his
thigh, she tried to get even closer to him as she pulled at the hem of his
shirt, suddenly desperate to feel her skin against his own.

 With a groan Ronan
settled himself in the cradle of Kats hips and ground his straining erection
against her core. He growled low at the feeling of her fingers on his skin,
blazing a path across his back. The need to possess her overwhelmed him and his
instincts threatened to undermine his good intentions.

 Kat arched against him
in invitation, delighting in all of the new sensations he was awaking inside of
her.

 Reaching for the front
of her shirt, Ronan popped the snaps of her flannel shirt open, revealing the
lacy tank beneath. His large hand ran up over her ribs and teased one of the
rosy tips through her thin clothing. With a soft moan, Kat arched beneath his
hand craving his touch.

 Releasing her lips, he
tasted his way down her neck and traced the curve of her delicate collar bone. With
a low growl he savored the salty sweet taste of her, still he needed more. Sliding
his fingertips beneath the lacy edge of her tank top he let them graze the tip
of her breast before catching the top of her bra and pulling it down. Baring her
full breast to the cool air he lowered his head to the pale mound and twirled
his tongue around the straining peak. Cupping her in his palm he savored the
heat of her skin against his tongue. With a growl he nipped the underside of
her breast before baring her second mound to his hungry gaze. Kat groaned in
appreciation as he lavished the same attention to the straining peaks as he
just had to her now swollen lips.

 Kat fisted her hand in
his shirt and arched into his mouth. She wanted more of him, she needed more. Reaching
for his jeans she set about unbuckling his pants and had just started on the
top button when Ronan suddenly tensed above her. Afraid she had done something
wrong, Kat froze and looked into his face with uncertainty.

 With a low growl,
Ronan looked off into the distance while hovering protectively over her. Worried
that someone was coming, Kat slowly came to her senses and began pulling her
clothing back into place. Leaning up on one arm so she could see out she saw a
plume of dust moving in the distance. It was just a car making its way down the
gravel road. Ronan’s super hearing must have picked up the sound.

 Reality was like an
icy cold bucket of water being dumped over her head. She was making out in the
bed of a pickup truck on the side of some old dirt road with a man who had
kidnapped her. A sudden burst of shame and embarrassment lit up her cheeks.

 Glancing back down at
her, Ronan ran a hand over his face and then jumped from the back of the truck
bed as though it had suddenly caught fire. “Dam it.”  Ronan muttered curses
under his breath as he stomped a circle around the truck.

 Kat watched him in
confusion as he paced back and forth on the roadside before glaring at her and
pointing his finger at her. “Stay right here.” He demanded before storming off
into the woods.

 Kat simply sat where
she was for a moment, not moving. Her traitorous body still hummed from Ronan’s
hungry ministrations. Running her fingers through her hair she groaned in
embarrassment. “God Kat. What the hell are you doing?” She was mortified by her
behavior this morning. She blamed it on the stupid energy that kept trying to
drive her crazy. Usually when it got to be too much she would go for a hard run
on the trial in her woods and it would ease up. She didn’t know what had come
over her. Then again she didn’t usually wake up with a man in her bed.

 He had clearly been
disgusted with her too. The man acted as if he could barely stand her and here
she practically threw herself at him this morning. She could feel her heart
sinking at his harsh rejection of her. Thankfully she could feel her temper
coming to her rescue. Dam it she shouldn’t be here with him in the first place.
He should never have taken her from her home.

 Dragging herself out
of the truck bed she headed into the woods to see to her morning needs. Mission
accomplished she stomped back towards the truck reattaching the snaps down the
front of her shirt. Ronan stood by the truck as she emerged from the trees. He
grabbed her wrist and drug her around the front of the truck. “I thought I told
you to stay put.”

 Inwardly Kat cringed
at his harsh tone. Digging in her heals, Kat jerked back on her arm, unsuccessfully.
“Excuse me but I had to pee and seeing as how you parked us on the side of a deserted
road in the middle of nowhere I just had to pee in front of a bunch of crows.”

 Pulling the door of
her truck open he pushed her inside and closed the door again. Kat folded her
arms across her chest and fumed. “I swear if that man puts those ropes on me
again so help me…” She could feel the truck rocking as he packed up their stuff
and secured it in the bed of the truck. Slamming the tail gate shut he opened
the driver’s side door and slid his large frame behind the wheel of the truck.

 Her poor old truck
started with a groan and then they were back on the road and headed to who
knows where. Reaching into his pocket he pulled something out and handed it to
her. “Here put this back on.” Kat looked at what he was handing her in
confusion.

 “My cuff! Where did
you find that?” Taking it from his fingers Kat checked to see if the snap was
broken.

 “It was in the bed of
the truck.” He replied gruffly.

 “I guess it fell off.”
Kat absently rubbed the scar on her wrist before snapping the cuff over it and
then out of habit she reached up to adjust the pendant her mom had given her. Kat
gasped in horror when her searching fingers came up empty.

 “What’s wrong?” Ronan
was concerned at the look in her eyes.

 “My pendant! It’s
gone!”

 Ronan grit his teeth
and looked out the window instead of meeting her eyes.

 “My mother gave it to
me. She said it was a family heirloom and that it had been my grandmothers. It
can’t be gone! I never take it off, where could it be? Did you see it when you
were cleaning up the truck bed?”

 Well Ronan could
honestly answer that question at least. “No, it wasn’t in the truck bed.” A
pang of guilt ate at his conscience at the look of panic in her eyes. Gruffly
he shook the feeling away. That dam pendant had helped someone to hide her from
him all these years. He wasn’t sorry it was gone.

 Kat bit her lip in
worry. She had to find it. “It must have fallen off back at the house or maybe
when the feral attacked me.” The moment Kat got to go back home again she was
going back up on the trail to search for it. She hoped she would be able to
find it again. Her mother hadn’t been the sentimental type and had never kept
keepsakes. She never even kept pictures of Kat as a baby. They had moved around
a lot and her mom had liked to travel lite so she never held on to things. The
pendant had meant that much more to Kat because of it. It was the one thing of
her mother’s that she had been able to keep.

 “Why do you cover your
scar?” Ronan’s voice interrupted her worrying.

 “Oh um, I don’t know,
my mom was always saying it was ugly and giving me bracelets to cover it up
when I was little. I guess it just became a habit, that and it really is kind
of ugly.”

 A low growl rumbled
from Ronan and his eyebrows came together, clearly irritated with her.  The dam
female thought his bonding mark was ugly. He knew that she didn’t know what it
was but dam it he still didn’t like it. He should have just tossed the cuff but
he thought it would be easier on him if she covered the mark up so that every
time he looked at her he wasn’t reminded of what she was to him. Like he could
ever forget, now it was all he could think about.

 Kat gaped at the look
on Ronan’s face. What did she do this time? Why in the hell was he always so
angry with her? She hadn’t done anything to deserve the way he treated her. Okay,
well there was the little frying pan incident. But dam it she hadn’t asked to
be kidnapped.

 Was it because of this
morning? Was the kiss really so disgusting? Why was he so repulsed by her? There
was that time in the kitchen too when she had lingered too long while looking
at his chest wound. He had practically jumped across the kitchen table to get
away from her. He had seemed as into their kiss this morning as she was but
here they were again with him stomping around and angry at her.

 God she was such a
head case. What did it matter anyway what he thought of her. She didn’t know
why but for some reason it just did. Maybe some part of her was disappointed
that he wasn’t attracted to her. Surely her ego wasn’t that big.