A small sound escaped her throat. Her hands stroked caresses into his hair.I understand so much more now. Thank you for telling me.
She’d said nearly the same thing in the place on the island where she’d been staying when he’d told her part of his past. Her reaction allowed him to continue. “I was also careful never to let anyone see that I was faster or smarter. Eventually, thepakhanthought it would be a great idea to train me as his personal assassin. I thought it would be too.” This might be even more difficult than admitting he’d been raped as a child. That his mother had been, and he’d had to stop telling her he loved her. He had to stop seeking her out or looking at her.
“I began hunting the men who murdered my family. I couldn’t do it all at once. I had to be careful, and I had to make certain I always had an alibi that would hold up. I killed them one by one. I did it when I was a teen. I tried to establish telepathic communication with my mother so I could tell her I was getting justice for what they did, but I never could talk to her that way. I wanted to be able to tell her I loved her just one more time before he killed her.”
“She knew, Gedeon.” Her voice came out of the darkness with absolute confidence.
He loved her even more for that assuredness. “I killed thepakhan, and when I did, I made certain it took him a long time to die. I wasn’t nice about it, Meiling, and I made certain to let him know that they missed one. I told him I had all those gifts and then some. That I was alive and would be for a long, long time.”
He fell silent, waiting for her to condemn him, but heshould have known better. It was Meiling. He’d told her part of his story and she hadn’t condemned him then. “It bothered me that I didn’t feel anything. I had no emotions at all. What kind of monster had I let them shape me into? I knew my parents wouldn’t be happy with me, so I left Russia and changed what and who I was to the best of my ability. I developed my own code. I’m not necessarily a good man, but I make it work. I hide my background from other shifters, and my reputation is dangerous and vicious enough that no one tests me.”
“But then you took me on as a partner. Gedeon, you were off their radar. If those people are looking for me and I’m with you, they’ll be taking a closer look at you.”
“Fuck them, Meiling. They can come after us, but they’ll be out of their league if they do. They orchestrated the murder of my entire family, yours and one other family simply because they feared them. I’ve left them alone until now, but since they’re going after my woman, that’s not going to last.”
“What happened to the other family?”
“Same as mine—and yours. Their friends turned on them and murdered them. Wiped out even the children. Your father had a friend, a woodsman, loyal to him, and while the crowd was killing the other members of the family, the man took you. He was very clever and was able to hide your scent. In all the mob confusion, no one noticed you were gone at first. You were only two, from what I understand. Shifters had sworn you were dead. At first, they thought you were buried with your siblings. Then, when it was discovered you weren’t buried with the others, they thought you had wandered off.”
“I can imagine the uproar.”
“Those scars on your shoulder? Those happened that night when the mob came for your family. From what I understand, one of the shifters clawed you and threw youaside. That was what allowed the woodsman to carry you off. They believed you were dead because the claws were deep and there was so much blood when he cast you aside. The woodsman picked you up and carried you away.”
“Libby’s father was such a good man.”
“Because of the trafficking aspect, thepakhanof the Amurov lair was spoken to on more than one occasion, that’s how I know the details. He had shifters looking. I was always in the room with him when any discussions were held. He often gave me as a gift to foreign travelers, especially the cruel ones. It pleased him to tell my mother. I just stored up information and put my mind elsewhere when things happened to my body. But I heard what they did to your family and eventually how they thought you managed to stay alive. They couldn’t figure out who would dare to save you, though.”
“Libby’s father. That’s why I was never really part of their family and they treated me so strangely. Her mother resented me and wanted me gone. I can totally understand why now. It must have been frightening to have me around. Libby treated me as a sibling. She might have been selfish at times, but she loved me, and I loved her. Her mother knew that, and it was the only reason she didn’t throw me out onto the street.”
“Her father must have moved away as soon as he could without raising suspicion.”
“He was a good man and was always kind to me. I don’t remember my family other than flashes from my nightmares. Terrible nightmares. I would wake up screaming when I was a child. I have those scars on my shoulder and back, those four scars made by a shifter. He was trying to drag me from my mother. There was fire everywhere and we were surrounded by a crowd of people. Their faces were contorted into masks of hatred.”
Gedeon felt the shiver that went through her body. Heturned onto his side to gather her closer. Her body felt extremely warm to him. She moved, her body sliding sensuously against his. She seemed completely unaware.
“You don’t need to think about that anymore, Meiling. We’ll find out who they are. They can’t hide from us. They think they have power. The kind of people they are always think they have power because they hide behind walls and guards. When I was that very young boy, naked and stripped of all power, I had plenty of time to observe what was really happening behind the scenes. Those in power were just as afraid as I was. It didn’t take an army to go knocking at their front door. I had plenty of time to discover how to defeat them. A small force of one or two can slip in undetected and be gone before they’re ever discovered. As long as we ensure we have proper alibis, we’ll always be fine.”
He waited a few moments and then sat up. “Let’s go out onto the patio, Lotus. I feel like breathing the night air.”
He didn’t bother with clothes. When she looked around for a robe, he laughed. “No one is going to see us. I had the screen dipped in a reflective dark paint. You can see out, but unless we turn on bright lights to give people a show, no one can see a thing.” He held out his hand.
She put her hand in his. “You tested this theory?”
“Don’t you want to live dangerously?” he teased, running his fingernail gently from her collarbone over the slight swell of her breast, her nipple and down to her navel. At once goose bumps rose all over her bare skin as endorphins rushed through her in response.
He opened the thick wall so that it slid all the way back to incorporate the outside patio with the bedroom. At once the sounds of the swamp became a symphony of music. Varieties of frogs vied for attention, some singing and others croaking loudly. Insects hummed. Wings fluttered in the treetops. Even the branches contributed, leaves fluttering with the slight breeze.
Meiling pressed her hands over her ears for a moment, laughing. “They’re so loud.”
“Turn it down. That’s your leopard’s hearing.”
“I always have excellent hearing. It shouldn’t be this loud.” She lifted her hands away from her ears and walked to the railing, forgetting her nudity, just as he knew she would.
The sultry heat of the night combined with the cloying scent of gardenias, night-blooming jasmine and Angel’s trumpets called to her leopard, drawing her even closer to the surface. Gedeon’s blood sang hotter than ever in his veins, rushing with a feral music now. He couldn’t take his gaze from her glowing skin. He watched her with the eyes of a leopard. Focused. Unblinking. Recording every movement.
She moved across the patio restlessly, her body unconsciously provocative. Just seeing her in the beginnings of her heat threw his body out of control. His cock swelled into a fierce, needy monster. Slayer added his demands, a ferocious, prowling male too long denied a mate.
Meiling suddenly gripped the dark mesh with a sharp cry, notes of fear and desperation mingling together. Her head hung low and she began to take deep breaths, clearly struggling. “Gedeon. I can feel her rising, but she’s in total chaos. I don’t know what to do to help her.”
