Tropical Leopard's Longing (Shifting Sands Resort 8)

With a roar of pain and fury, Eugene threw himself over on his side, and rolled.

Bones creaked and snapped under the massive weight of the angry bear, and the breath was forced from Breck’s crushed lungs.

Darkness was equal parts fur covering everything, and pending unconsciousness.

Breck! No!

He could hear Darla’s voice in his head, like the sweet song of an angel.

Was this what dying felt like? It honestly hurt less than he expected it would; he could feel that his ribs had broken, and that the side of his head was hot and undoubtedly bleeding where he’d been hit by Eugene’s claws, but the pain itself was distant and abstract.

I love you, he thought at the imaginary voice of Darla.

His wrist was hot,

and hurt worst of all.

Chapter 41

Darla’s wrist was on fire, and she was chucking off her other bracelets, rings, and necklaces as fast as she could.

“You can’t go out there,” her mother said in shock and horror. “You’ll violate the wedding rules! It’s not custom!”

“Screw custom,” Darla declared, and then she shifted. The hateful dress tore with a rain of beads, and the remaining clasps snapped, scattering priceless jewels across the dais.

She leaped forward in her snow leopard shape, snarling and springing to the trampled grass where Eugene had pinned Breck.

The cave bear was not expecting her attack; his big head was rolled back as he writhed to crush the leopard beneath him. In a single heartbeat, Darla was on him, closing her jaws around his exposed windpipe.

The temptation was to crush, to kill, to protect her mate at any cost.

But Darla reined in the urge, and just pierced the skin, holding the windpipe in careful teeth and unmistakable threat. The hot taste of Eugene’s blood was fiery, like alcohol.

He growled, the vibration rumbling up through her teeth, and Darla bit just a little deeper, growling.

Eugene whimpered then, and shifted into a man. “I yield!” he choked.

Darla closed her jaws just a touch further, taking shallow pleasure in the way Eugene choked and squirmed before she released him and stepped back. She shifted back to human and pushed him out of the way without a single second thought for him.

Breck still lay in his leopard shape, not breathing.

Blood stained the grass around him; thick scratches along the side of his lolling head were still oozing.

Breck! No!

Darla fell beside him, not sure what to safely touch without causing further damage. Her wrist was still on fire, and both of their bracelets were glowing.

I love you, Darla heard in her head, and she gave a howl of hope and desperation, taking his paw carefully in her hands.

The bracelet gave an explosive sizzle, and Darla felt like all of the breath and energy was sucked out of her in one swift motion. She heard a weird crack of setting bones, and the sound of Breck taking a labored breath. Her lungs hurt, and the side of her head stung. She closed her eyes against the shock of it, and when she opened them again, there was a human hand in hers.

Breck was opening confused eyes.

He coughed, once or twice, and Darla fell, weeping, onto him before remembering that she might hurt him.

Her chest ached, but when Breck sat up and pulled her into his arms, it didn’t matter.

“You could have died,” she murmured into his perfect shoulders.