He was silent again, blinking quickly. “You . . . want . . . to feed me?”
I stared at him, figuring it was obvious.
“Fuck,” he said it low again and scratched his temple. He reached forward and his palm cupped the bottom of my jaw. I was quick to lean into the touch. “You’re making this very hard.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I stayed silent. He exhaled, a muscle jumping in his cheek. He ran a thumb across my skin, and that single touch from him caused tingles to spread down. I wanted to claim him again.
His eyes dropped, and I followed his attention down to my human form. I didn’t miss the dilation of his eyes, the flared nostrils, and the throb at the side of his neck. He liked what he saw, and I liked that he liked it. I puffed my breasts out. The human mates that had been here before did many things with each other’s bodies while they claimed each other.
I would do every single one of them withmymate.
“Why . . .” He exhaled. “Why do I feel like this?”
His voice sounded deeper and raspier. I wasn’t sure what he was asking, so I stayed silent.
“Hunger?” I peeked at the rabbit on the floor. He was quiet, then a boom exploded from his mouth. The sound light and airy.
And my own lips twitched.
How I craved him.
I would never let him go.
Chapter 4
Griffin
She staredat me with guileless eyes, her face patient and waiting. My heart squeezed as if she’d reached inside me and clenched it in her fist. Her hair rested around her small face, the same color as her onyx pelt . . . from heranimalform.
A panther.
I gritted my teeth, still grappling with what I had seen. I’d officially lost my mind. Some sick hallucination . . . but that didn’t explain everything else, which brought me to my other option. Everything that happened until now wasn’t a deluded manifestation of being poisoned. If this was real, if she was real, then I’d fallen into a different world. I scrubbed the back of my neck with my palm.
She stared up at me, her lips puckered as she waited for me to speak, her eyes wide.
After chasing her off, I’d continued to battle with the urge to turn back around where I’d left her. The urge was foreign and insistent. Even now, I wanted nothing more than to grab her.
Something abnormal was happening, and I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t want to.
“What’s your name?”
“Name?” She enunciated the word, drawing out the vowel. “What isname?” Every word she’d had an almost hesitant edge.
Fuck, she was cute.
“I’m Griffin,” I carefully enunciated, motioning toward myself emphatically.
“Grif-fin.” Her lips moved carefully around my name. I motioned to her next. She nodded, her eyes narrowed. “Beast.” She pointed at her chest.
The corners of my lips twitched. “That’s what you are.” I did the same motion. “Human.”
She cocked her head, and the long black hair fell over her shoulders in a waterfall, shimmering like her pelt. Thick eyelashes framed her unique golden eyes. When the moon caught them, they glowed.
“My kin title,” she suddenly blurted, nodding as if finally understanding. “Soleil.”
“Soleil,” I said, the name rolling off my tongue like it was always meant to. She feltright. “The tiger. Is it like you, aBeast?”
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head, her lip curling up disgustedly. “No, my territory.”
