"See?" she said to her sister.
The sound of her voice fell like music on Gio's leonine ears. He pricked them forward, fascinated to find himself responding somewhat differently to Max in his lion form. She was still incredibly compelling, the most magnetically appealing woman he had ever known. But rather than wanting to lay her down on the nearest flat surface and make sweet love until she cried out in pleasure, he wanted to rub all over her and then curl himself around her, holding her safe in the curve of his great stone body.
Somewhere deep inside him, he was aware of a presence, a sense of movement and awakening. And a voice, low and strange and yet somehow familiar, ground out one word: "Mate."
Gio was so shocked that he shifted back too quickly to keep his balance as he went from four legs to two. He sat down hard on the rooftop.
"Gio!" Max sprang to her feet. "Are you all right?"
He was considerably more than all right as she put her arms around him, warm and sweet-smelling, a perfect fit to his body. But it was with a certain amount of distraction that he wrapped an arm around her. He was still feeling for that elusive presence inside his soul. And it was there: not an invader, not even a guest, but a part of him, as if it had been there all along and he was only now becoming aware of it.
"Max," he said. "I think I have a lion."
"Of course you do," Max told him. "You just shifted. It looked easier that time than usual." She drew back, frowning. "Wait, what do you mean?"
"Does your jaguar—talk to you?"
"Oh!" Max said in surprise. "Yes ... sometimes. Doesn't your lion talk to you?"
"It never has before. But it did this time."
"Nothing rude, I hope," Max said playfully.
"No," Gio said, gazing into her bottomless brown eyes. "Not at all."
Sofia cleared her throat. "If you twomatesare done making googly eyes at each other in front of the third wheel over here—"
She broke off at a sudden crash from below.
"The cousins again?" Max asked, smiling. "Tía Juliet is going to break their heads."
The crash was followed by a scream and a billow of smoke rising above the rooftops of the hacienda. Gio leaped to his feet, accompanied by Max.
"They're here," Gio said.
He cursed himself for staying so long. Somehow he had allowed himself to be lulled by Max's conviction that they were safe here for a little longer. It had simply been such a relief to rest for a while. Now he could only hope that Max's family didn't end up paying the price.
MAX
Together with Gio and Sofia,Max rushed to the edge of the roof. The action was happening below them, but could not be clearly seen; the overlapping roofs were in the way. She glimpsed the movement of black robes below, as well as a rushing jaguar appearing and disappearing between the buildings.
Her heart seemed to have risen into her throat, and her entire chest was a pit of fear and fury. How dare they come here, to the heart of her family's stronghold! Howdarethey!
"Is that them?" Sofia asked. She looked alert but calm.
"It is," Gio said. "Where is Elina?"
"She is with my daughters and the other children." Sofia pointed. "There's a nursery in that wing. There is a vault under it where the children will be taken to keep them safe; I expect the aunts are already moving them." She smiled grimly. "As I've said, Gio, we have fought enemies before. We have also withstood sieges."
"I hope we won't have to this time," Max said. If the cult were already inside, they must have portaled in. They couldn't have too exact a fix on Gio, though, or they would have arrived on the roof. They knew he was here but not where. "Is the armory still maintained?"
Gio gave her a startled look. "You have a family armory?"
"Used to, anyway. I would think that'd be one thing Nacio kept in good working order."
"We'll start there," Sofia said. "I need to organize a defense." Her new alpha role was visibly showing in her now, her face firming up into decisive lines.
There was a flash of fire from below, accompanied by sparks dancing up the trunk of one of the fruit trees, and suddenly Max saw Javic.
