Chapter 60
Dream Continuation From Last Chapter:
“You have no lifemate,” Maya heard her mother said, denying the truth. “You have only dreamed of her p>
” You cannot trap me with such deceit. Go to your puppet master and tell him I am not so easily caught.” Maya answered, and broke off the connection immediately and slammed closed all pathways, private and common, to her mind.
Spinning around, she took in her enemy, grown into so many faces from her past. She knew she was facing death.
“Come then, dance with me as you have so many times,” She ordered the creatures and beckoned with her fingers.
The first line of creatures closest to her howled, spittle running down their faces and holes for eyes glowing with hatred.
“Join us, sister. You are one of us.” They swayed, feet carrying out the strange hypnotic pattern of the undead.
She heard them calling to her, but the sound was more in her head than out of it.
Whispers. Buzzing. Drawing a veil over her mind.
She shook her head to clear it, but the sounds persisted. The creatures drew closer, and now she could feel the flutter of tattered clothing, torn and gray with age, brushing against her skin.
Once again, the sensation of bugs crawling over her skin alarmed her. She spun around, trying to keep the enemy in her sight, and all the while the voices grew louder, more distinctive.
“Join us. Feel. You are so hungry. Starving. We can feel your heart stuttering. You need fresh blood. Adrenaline-laced blood is the best. You can feel p>
“Join us,” they cried, the entreaty loud and swelling in volume until it was a tidal wave rolling over her.
“Fresh blood. You need to survive. Just a taste. One taste. And the fear. Let them see you. Let them feel fear and the high is like nothing you’ve ever felt p>
But then a big black wolf intercepted them, flinging them off with its paws before coming to stand before Maya.
Maya spun around, still on her knees, her hands going up instinctively to catch the large, heavy black wolf as it sprang towards her.
“We have to leave here, Maya.” She heard the wolf mutter vehemently to her telepathically as it landed right beside her. Maya furrowed her eyebrows, thinking it was another trick, but for the steady rhythm of her heart.
Mate? He was the one that she had submitted her condemnation letter to? Would he condemn her? And why had he shifted to a wolf?
“Who are you?” She asked gently, tempted to sink her fingers in the so black and soft a fur of the wolf, tempted to rest against him and sigh in comfort and relief.
“I’m who I am. I’m a werewolf. According to some people, I am your mate. Although, I don’t understand how that can be. We are from two different kinds.” The wolf stated, even as she looked around the area as if searching out for any kind of threat.
“I came because you called for me actually. I heard your beckoning and I came. Your family couldn’t. They seem to think I am the only one that could get past the dark barrier p>
She knew the wolf was telling the truth, but she wished it could shift back to the man so that she could appraise him.
Was it Adam? But if it was Adam, shouldn’t he be aware of who she was already? The way he spoke, it was as if he didn’t who she was. And what was that he was talking about kinds?
First, she needed to see his human version.
But before she could make such request, forgetting temporarily her surroundings, two janguars came running out of the forest toward them.
“I will take out one, and you take out the other.” He said, and immediately she shook her head.
She won’t let her lifemate fight her battle. She couldn’t afford to lose him, not now, after so many centuries of waiting and searching for him.
“No, you will do no such thing.” She said, and he snorted, already moving away from her to face one of the janguars.
Maya cussed, attempting to rise on her feet and stop him when one of the janguars jumped on her.
The force and power of the jaguar was tremendous, driving her down and onto her back. Was this real, or was this an illusion like the shadowy creatures must have been?
Her fingers sank into thick fur. Claws raked her belly, tearing through skin and muscle.
Hot, fetid breath exploded in her face, and wicked teeth scraped along her arm as she used sheer strength to keep the beast from getting to her throat and skull.
For one moment, as she lay beneath the cat, keeping its massive head from her, she felt someone, her lifemate-move in her brain.
His cry of terror echoed through her mind, replacing hunger and confusion with a focus she might not otherwise have found.
She saw him reaching for the cat, trying to aid her.
Not wanting to risk his life, she broke the telepathic connection between them and dissolved. For more chapters visit.net
Her body turned to vapor, streaming up and around the cat to reshape into that of a male jaguar with a broad, heavy head and a larger, stockier body the color of the darker shadows.
Droplets of blood fell like mist, spattering the leaves and roots as she took the form of a rare black jaguar.
She snarled a challenge and leapt. The two cats crashed heavily together, rolling across roots and boughs, the sounds of battle disturbing the night.
Many cats used strangulation to kill, but the jaguar, with its exceptionally powerful jaw, would bite directly through the skull between the temporal bones, killing prey instantly.
Jaguars were extraordinarily strong, with compact, muscular bodies and broad heads. Stealthy and nearly invisible, they lived a solitary life in a shadowy world of dusk and dawn.
With their incredible night vision, retractable lethal claws, piercing canines and well-muscled bodies built for ambush and stealth, they commanded the rain forest, yet they were leery of fighting one another.