Golden Eyes

CHAPTER 15

“Tell me about your people,” Duncan said as he returned to the couch after seeing Nick off.

He sat down next to her, and she automatically curled into his arms, not caring that she was still naked beneath the blanket. His arms came around her, strong, comforting, and she laid her cheek against his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart.

“Why haven’t you contacted your parents? They must be so worried.”

She inhaled a deep breath and pulled slightly away so she could look at him, though his arms remained wrapped around her.

“I did try to call them while you were at work. I wasn’t sure I could trust you at first,” she said simply.

“And now?”

His brown eyes bore into her, a flicker of hope warming the dark orbs.

“I trust you.”

Satisfaction glinted though he showed no other outward reaction to her statement.

“Then tell me,” he said.

She did trust him. Unwavering determination reflected in his every action, his every word. She knew he’d protect her and wouldn’t betray her. And that had an unnerving affect on her. She wanted this man. She wanted him with a painful longing. One that had built and swelled within her since the moment he’d gathered her in his arms.

She licked her lips, knowing she would tell him all. Tell him things she’d never told another soul.

“My father is the great Kodiak bear. My mother, a majestic eagle. It’s why we lived in Alaska at first. They could move in relative obscurity because the island we inhabited had a healthy population of both.

“Then my sister was born, and the spirit guide gifted her with the cougar. And then I was born and was given the cheetah. As a child, I spent more time in animal form than other children of my race. I was playful and mischievous, and my parents feared that I would be discovered, even as remotely as we lived.

“And then…” A surge of pain threaded through her chest. It had been so many years, but the loss still felt fresh and vibrant in her mind.

“Then what,” Duncan asked gently.

“My sister was taken. We believe she was taken. She simply disappeared, and we never found her. My parents were distraught. It nearly destroyed them. And then there’s me, spending more time in cheetah form than human. The cheetah has always been strong within me, and I was too young to learn dominance.

“We spent a year searching, hoping, but then my parents had to face the fact that she was gone, and they were so afraid the same would happen to me. So we moved to Africa.

“One of our kind manages a game preserve. He’s a lion shifter. We went there so I would be safer, so I could be with more of my own kind. It was hard on my parents because now they were the ones forced to be so careful. They spent much time in human form, but our animal self has to be nurtured or the relationship suffers. There is trust between human and animal. A bond that cannot be broken.

“When I was old enough and mature enough to better control the divide between human and cheetah, we moved back to Alaska. My parents and I operate a lodge for travelers. It was during a visit back to Africa that I was captured by the hunters.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” She laughed but it cracked and came out feebly. “The one place I felt truly safe. Free. Was the place I was captured. I was stupid and careless.”

Duncan smoothed her hair from her face and pulled her back against his chest. “You have such an amazing life. Such an incredible story. I can’t even fathom that there are people out there just like me only they’re animals.”

He stopped for a moment, and she could feel another question brewing.

“How is it you’re all so different? I would have thought it was genetic, and yet your parents, you, your sister, you’re all completely different. An entirely different species.”

She smiled. He was logical, and she’d just shattered his understanding of the world he lived in.

“We aren’t born a certain animal. It is a gift bestowed to us. What our parents are has no bearing on what a child becomes. When a woman becomes pregnant, she is visited by the spirit guide. I suppose you could call him God. Is he your God? That I can’t answer. Maybe they’re one and the same.

“There is a scripture in the Bible, though, that I’ve always carried with me. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Because when a woman is pregnant, she is given a vision of what gift will be bestowed on her child. That scripture has always resonated with me. The spirit guide knew me before I was placed in my mother’s womb. He knew what gift I would carry with me. I find that comforting.”

“And when you have children? Will they carry those gifts as well? Are you required to marry within your race for it to be passed down to your children?”

“There are no rules, Duncan. We are few. Fewer now than ever. I don’t know why. Not every child is gifted with the ability to shift. Some parents who are both shifters give birth to fully human children while some of the very few who have partnered outside our people have borne children who were given the ability.”

“So it’s random?” Duncan frowned. “That doesn’t seem very logical.”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe it’s random. I don’t think anything is. I firmly believe there is a reason why some are gifted with the ability and others aren’t. Some things are beyond the scope of human understanding. Some things just are.”

“But where did you come from? You speak of people of your kind, and yet you’re scattered.”

She sighed. “We are an old race. We arrived in America before the first Native Americans. I suppose you could say we’re the original Native Americans. We were small and secretive. Instead of engaging when others encroached on our land, our territory, we would simply move on, seeking out other places where we could be free.”

“You speak as though you were there,” he murmured.

She smiled. “No. But stories have been passed down from generation to generation. Carefully safeguarded, meticulously retold. We fear putting anything in writing.

“It was that same fear that eventually caused us to disburse and go our separate ways, no longer living as a community. Many of us have lost touch. Our numbers aren’t known. Smaller groups of us keep touch and help each other when we can. We fear…” She swallowed against the knot growing in her throat. Duncan’s hand continued to soothe down her hair, over her shoulder and down her arm.

“What do you fear?” he asked.

“Extinction,” she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head, and she lay there for a long moment, resting her cheek against his chest. His heartbeat thudded comfortingly next to her ear. Strong. Steady. Like him.

Slowly, she pulled away and stared up at him, her heart in her throat. “I’d like to call my parents now if that’s okay with you.”

He nodded. “Of course, honey. You stay here. I’ll get you the phone.”

Butterflies winged their way through her stomach and into her chest. Tears stung her eyes. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to form a coherent sentence. Let them be there this time.

When Duncan returned, he settled beside her and touched her gently on the cheek. “Tell me the number, and I’ll dial it for you.”

She related the number in a shaky voice then looked up at him fearfully as he handed her the phone. She waited anxiously as the phone rang, and her breath caught and held when her mother’s voice came over the line.

“Mama?” she whispered. “Mama, it’s Aliyah.”

There was a moment of stunned silence before her mother began babbling in her ear. They were both sobbing as Aliyah poured her story out, and then her father picked up, his gruff, deep voice shaken with emotion.

“Where are you, baby? We’ll come get you.”

Aliyah frowned. She didn’t even know where she was. Colorado. She knew that much. She couldn’t even tell her parents how to come get her. She looked to Duncan for help and then told her mother to hold on for a moment.

She held the phone out to him. “They need to know where I am so they can come get me. I-I don’t know how to tell them.”

Duncan’s hand closed over hers as he took the phone. “Don’t worry, honey, I’ll tell them what they need to know.”

Aliyah listened as Duncan politely introduced himself to her parents and then assured them that she was okay and that she was safe with him. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence when Duncan told them that he was well aware of what Aliyah was and that it didn’t make a damn bit of difference to him because no one was going to hurt her.

Finally, he gave them the information they needed before he handed the phone back to her.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” her mother said. “We’re leaving now. Your father is calling the pilot to get us to Kodiak, and from there we’ll book a flight into Denver. We’ll see you soon.”

“I love you, mama,” she whispered.

“Oh, I love you too, my baby. I’m so glad you’re alive.”

Aliyah hung up and closed her eyes. Tears slipped from underneath her eyelids and trickled down her cheeks. Warm lips sipped them from her skin and kissed a path up her face until he pressed his mouth to one closed eyelid and then the other.

She reached blindly for him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Love me,” she whispered.

They only had another day. Tomorrow she would lead Duncan to the hunters, and her parents would arrive soon after.

He gathered her in his arms, letting the blanket fall away. He carried her into the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed. He followed her down, pressing his body to hers, kissing her, nibbling delicately at her neck and jawline.

“I need you so much.”

He swallowed her words into his mouth, and he ravished her lips. He pulled at his clothes, never leaving her but for the briefest of seconds as he tossed his shirt and pants across the room.

She was waiting with open arms when he returned, lowering his body to hers. Skin on skin. Warm. Soft against hard. Loving. So tender. So gentle it made her heart ache. For all their erotic romping of the night before, this was, in effect, their good-bye.

She ran her fingertips up his sides then over his back until they dug into his shoulders. Her head fell back as she bared her neck to his seeking lips.

They traced downward, over the column of her shoulder then down to her breasts. Warm, liquid desire, like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter night seeped into her veins, heating her body. Her breasts swelled and ached, the nipples tightening to rigid points.

He licked at one then the other, alternating the swipes of his tongue with sharp little nips of his teeth. She wiggled and squirmed, but he held her fast, her body laid out like a feast.

“I want inside you so bad,” he murmured. “Give me a minute to get the condom.”

“No,” she protested, wrapping her legs around his waist. His cock brushed against the damp flesh between her thighs, and she quivered. “Please. I want you now.”

His gaze focused on her. “Aliyah, honey, are you sure?”

“Please. Let me have all of you tonight.”

He slid into her wetness with a groan. She cried out at the fullness, in shock at the exquisite feel of his flesh against hers, no barrier between them.

He slid his hands underneath to cup her buttocks. He squeezed and spread her wider as he planted himself deeper and deeper still with each thrust.

“Open for me, sweetheart. Take all of me, just like before. Relax and let me have you just as you have me.”

His words sent a shockwave of desire soaring through her belly. She arched into him, opening, surrendering, letting him take everything she could give him.

“Give me more,” he growled.

And she felt herself open for him, accept all of him as he slid deep, touching the deepest part of her soul. Her body cradled his as he took her over and over, possessing her, owning her.

I love you.

At first she thought she’d said it aloud, but it welled up from the depths of her heart. Her mind screamed it, her heart accepted it.

“Take me,” she whispered. “I’ll always be yours.”

He shuddered above her and poured himself into her welcoming body. Her world fractured. Splintered as tiny fragments of pleasure burst around her. She felt his warmth fill her and found peace as she slowly fell back to earth.

She held him tightly against her, refusing to let go. Not wanting their time together to end.