Touch of Desire (7 page)

“She’s fine.”

Cora shook her head and wiggled to try to escape the cage of Travis’s arms. She needed to see if Ana was okay. Fear rushed through her like lava when the gun fired right after Ana shifted and ran toward the humans.

“She’s not hurt. I can sense her through the blood bond.”

It took several moments before his words sank in. The blood bond was what all the soldiers, enforcers, and sentries—and anyone else directly connected to the Pack hierarchy—

shared. Travis was the Pack tracker.

A growl stopped her heart for a brief moment, followed by Torin’s low, rough warning. “Let her go.”

Slowly, Travis released her and held his hands up. “She was worried about Ana and ran after her.”

Torin tugged Cora to him, wrapping her in his arms and burying his nose into her neck. A tiny thread of awareness formed inside her and grew. When he kissed her, thrusting his tongue in her mouth, the thread strengthened. She fisted his hair and met his hunger with one of her own. The connection between them became too much for her to deny.

Then, as if being zapped with a shot of electricity, the mating bond snapped into place.

Torin broke the kiss and rested his forehead to hers. “I love you. God, I was so scared. I heard the shot….”

She held his face in her hands. “Shh. If I knew making you jealous would snap the bond in place, I’d have tried it first.”

His lips twitched, then he twisted her hair in his hand, pulled her head to the side, and bit her. A cry of pleasure, mixed with the sting of his fangs piercing her skin, tore from her lips.

Retracting his fangs from her skin, he met her gaze and smiled. “You’re mine.”

“Always,” she breathed. “What about Ana?”

“I don’t want her.”

“Torin.”

He laughed. “She’s fine. I’ll take you to her.” He took her hand and nodded to Travis as if to say something, but the other male shook his head.

“I’ve been in the dance. And now my mate is about to give birth. Believe me, I get it.”

“Thanks for stopping her from risking her life.”

Travis waved him off and headed in the direction Ana went. Torin tugged her hand as he followed him. Cora’s heart was still pounding, but her body started to relax. Why were the humans here again? If they were the same ones from the day before….

When they reached Ana, Cora gasped as she saw the mother bobcat barely alive at Ana’s feet. Keegan and Blaine stood on either side of the cat. Ana turned, eyes red with tears, and in her arms was a cub. Cora guessed the baby was no more than a couple months old.

Cora’s vision blurred as she closed the distance between her and Ana. Her new friend handed the cub to her. “I can’t keep her. I live with Blaine, and with the babies on the way….”

Torin spoke up. “We can keep her. Teach her to track and hunt, so she can return to the forest one day.”

Cora hugged the baby bobcat close. “Thanks!” She turned to the mother. “Can Dani help her?”

Keegan frowned. “No. Dani’s healing powers only work on shifters. She can give her something to ease the pain until she passes.”

Cora sniffed, and Torin drew her close, kissing the top of her temple. “Come, let’s get the little one home and figure out what to feed her.”

“What about work?”

Blaine answered her question. “We will stay and finish it. The outer layer needs to be done by tonight. I’m afraid the human activity will draw out the mutants. I called in another team to help finish it. You can start on the second layer tomorrow as well as inspect what we do tonight.”

The cub let out a cry, and Cora’s heart broke. “I know baby. It hurts, but it’ll be okay because there is a whole Pack who will love you.”

Just like they did her.

She wrapped an arm around Torin’s waist as they walked toward MoonRiver. “I Love you, Tor.”

He scooped her up in his arms and kissed her. “Love you, too.”

The cub whimpered and butted her head against his chin. He laughed and scratched under her chin. “We love you too, squirt.”

Cora laughed. “I think I’ll name her Spring.”

“Why Spring?”

“Because it is the season of new beginnings. This is a new beginning for all three of us.”

Torin smiled. “I like it. Spring it is.”

Cora laid her head on his shoulder as he carried her and Spring to their new home. Jason would be proud.
Love you, brother. Rest in peace
.

Thank you so much for reading
Touch of Desire
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Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, and co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

http://www.authorliadavis.com/

Now Available

Ashwood Falls

Winter Eve

A Tiger’s Claim

A Mating Dance

Surrendering to the Alpha

Ever After

Divided Loyalties

Touch of Desire

The Divinities

Death’s Storm

Sons of War

War’s Passion

Ashes of War

Artemis’s Hunt

Pleasures of the Heart

Business Pleasures

Coming Soon

Ashwood Falls

A Leopard’s Path

Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?

War’s Passion
by Lia Davis

A cold sensation rolled down Gwen’s spine like an icy finger as she stepped out onto the back porch of her parents’ Florida home. She focused her senses out into the cool evening, and inhaled the fragrance of night jasmine lingering on the breeze. The moonless, star-filled sky didn’t chase away the feeling of menace lurking in the shadows, waiting. The awareness had clung to her since she’d woken that morning and she wished she could feel the creatures of the night like her best friend and adopted sister, Elle, could. Although Gwen descended from the gods themselves, sensing monsters wasn’t her gift. As the great-granddaughter of Nyx, goddess of the night, Elle could see into the darkness and all her secrets.

Descended from the goddess of love, Gwen held the power of persuasion, and she could sway people, especially men, to bend to her will. The gift came from her father’s side of the family—Tom Preston was one of Aphrodite’s earthborn sons.

She loved nights like this as well as the calm that blanketed the small town of Perry. It was a few minutes before midnight and everyone slept. Elle had left early that morning to show her latest paintings and sculptures at a gallery in Jacksonville. It was the first time the girls had been apart since becoming friends in the third grade.

The sound of glass breaking behind her made Gwen’s heart hammer and her stomach clenched. Spinning, she saw three large men charge into her home through what used to be the front door.  Splintered wood lay half in the kitchen, half in the living room, and the long rectangular windows on either side of the entrance were destroyed. Glass littered the living room floor.

Fear rushed through her like wildfire and she darted to the side to hide behind the curtain of the sliding glass door. Helplessness consumed her as she watched one of the men open drawers to her father’s desk, dumping the contents on the floor. Another searched the living room, then stepped into the kitchen. Her heart sank as the third man turned toward the hallway.

Mom, Dad
.

Without another thought for her own safety, she rushed after the man that went down the hall. Before she could make it, another man crashed into her, slamming her to the ground. Sharp, stabbing pain shot from her hip down her leg. Gwen screamed, hoping to wake her parents, as she clawed at the man’s face, aiming for his eyes.

A loud thump followed by her mother’s cry reached Gwen’s ears. Terror filled her, cold and crippling. Tears ran down her cheeks. A moment later the man that went towards her parents’ room flew backwards through the living room, and further until he crashed into the kitchen island. Then her father stood at the hallway entrance, hands fisted by his side.

“Let her go.”

Gwen stared at her father in disbelief. His body glowed with power.

“You think to use mortal magic on me?” The man holding her laughed, then released Gwen and rose to his feet.

A bright flash of black and gold light filled the room, leaving a large black dragon where the man had been. Disbelief and horror twined through her veins as she stared at the creature. Smoke rolled out its long snout and the eyes almost glowed red. Shaking, she managed to scramble backwards to keep from being trampled by the beast—which was way too big for the house.

Her father held his hands out from his body, palms facing the dragon. A soft white light beamed from the center of his hands, then brightened and grew into a ball of bright white energy the size of cantaloupe before her father thrust it at the dragon.

Gwen screamed again, not knowing what she could do. There was a freaking dragon inside her home and her father…well, she didn’t know what he threw at the beast because he’d never used his magic to that extent before. The ball of light didn’t do anything, but drive the dragon back a step and whip his tail around to hit Gwen. The blow knocked her out the back door. Landing on the deck, she watched in horror as the dragon breathed fire toward her father.

Tears streaming down her face, she shouted for her father to get out, but too late. Flames covered him and he stumbled forward, igniting the carpet with each step and the couch as he fell. The dragon let out a roar that rocked the house. The men that came with him rushed outside right before the beast blew out another blast of fire and swiveled his head around the room. The whole house engulfed in flames within seconds.

Agony ripped through Gwen’s heart and she sobbed, but no one heard her.

You can find more from Lia’s War’s Passion
HERE
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Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?

Fighting Fate
by New York Times Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan

With her blue-black hair and striking green eyes, Cailin Jamenson is the epitome of beauty and the exemplar of strength. She has fought the enforced boundaries of being the lone Jamenson daughter and Redwood Pack princess, but it is the potential future with the dark wolf in her path that threatens everything she thought she desired.

Logan Anderson’s own darkness provided the reasoning for his abandonment of his former Pack, the Talons. Now, newly accepted into the Redwood Pack, this jade-eyed wolf and all she represents could be his own undoing.

In this final installment of the Redwood Pack, unimaginable tragedy strikes, and the two wolves who have fought the longest for their independence now face the uncertainty of fate and the epic battle that could end the war… and their lives.

You can find more from Carrie Ann’s Fighting Fate
HERE
.

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MAILING LIST
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FAN CLUB
to get more info and special perks.

Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?

Beasts of Burden
by New York Times Bestselling Author Marie Harte

Pulling a chariot for the goddess Freya is no picnic, but Hall and Avarr don’t mind protecting her from all harm. They’re waiting because they’ve been promised a rich reward for their loyalty—Eira, a stubborn valkyrie who drives them to distraction. Unfortunately, they’ve been told they can’t have her until they’re ready. And they’ve been ready for fifty years.