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  More growling. Bristling too. As if the panther knew what he was thinking and took umbrage at the comparison.

  If Maximus understood feline language, he thought she might have communicated something along the lines of, why don’t you make yourself useful, human, instead of stating the obvious.

  The look she gave him was pure annoyance.

  “I’m not human,” he said, as if the panther had actually spoken. “I’m not sure what I am. But I know I’m not human.”

  The growling subsided into a half-hearted rumble as the panther perked her ears back toward the front, giving Maximus her full attention.

  I’m not entirely animal, she seemed to say.

  No. He heard her say. Not in so many words, but somehow, miraculously, he felt he understood the panther.

  “What are you then?” he asked in all seriousness.

  She tilted her head at him, considering.

  Vampire and panther stared long and hard at each other, golden green eyes drilling into azure blue.

  Finally she communicated, I’m yours if you get me out of this mess and feed me supper.

  She sat up, licked her chops, and stared down at him imperiously.

  Maximus huffed an abbreviated chuckle.

  “You’re rather easy, mistress panther.”

  And then everything changed. Her demeanor shifted abruptly. He could have sworn she even batted her lashes at him!

  What she did was roll her head adorably and lick one of her front paws, while a resonant purr vibrated through her body.

  Take me with you, warrior. You will never be lonely again.

  And so he did.

  When he walked back to the camp with the panther loping by his side, casting arrogant glances like the cat who got the cream at his soldiers, his men regarded him with mouths agape and eyes bugged out of their heads.

  If his reputation already preceded him as a god among men, this little demonstration just rendered his myth even more hyperbolic.

  He could tame wild beasts now, they whispered. He could slay a thousand men single-handedly in battle. He must be descended from Jupiter himself. He even had the strength of Hercules.

  There was a hiccup when he reached his tent, however.

  The moment the panther saw the village maid, she growled loudly and threateningly, before lunging at the human woman with a snarl and a hiss.

  The poor wench screamed shrilly and ran half naked out of Maximus’s tent. He was about to go after her to see if she was all right when he heard one of his men take her aside and console her with sweet words.

  Maximus sighed. So much for his night of rutting and bloodletting.

  “You’re going to be nothing but trouble, aren’t you?” he tossed at the panther, who was now lounging on top of his pallet of furs, stretching her jaws in a massive yawn.

  She gave him a haughty look as if she was the Mistress of this tent, and he was her lowly servant. Then, she reclined on her stomach and stared at him through her bristly lashes, her head tilted in that charming way.

  But I will also make you smile and bring you joy, she seemed to say, her eyes closing almost entirely as she purred at him.

  He slowly approached, and when she didn’t startle, he sat down beside her on the pallet.

  Immediately, she pounced on him, slamming her paws on his chest to press him down to his back.

  But he somehow knew that she was merely being playful. The ever-increasing volume of her purring and the curling of her tail undulating to and fro gave him the clues.

  “Simca,” he said. “That’s what I’ll call you. My gladness and joy.”

  She lay fully on top of his torso and licked her sandpaper tongue from his neck to his brow in a long, affectionate swipe.

  He chuckled as she purred even louder, nuzzling his face and throat with her scent glands.

  She had a name for him too—

  Hers.

  Chapter Ten

  Claiming Ariel was easier said than done, Maximus realized at the crack of dawn when they began their second day of training.

  One, he barely got an hour or two of sleep, so he was not feeling his best.

  Two, when they arrived at the same training plateau in the clutches of the two giant eagles, Maximus saw right away that something had changed:

  Cassandra had been replaced with Azad as one of Ariel’s trainers. And from the beatific grin he gave them as they were deposited onto the plateau, he was looking forward to getting very physical with Maximus’s partner.

  “I want the tiger,” Maximus bit out immediately when they were getting into their designated groups for training.

  Ariel put her hands on hips and scowled at him.

  “Azad is going to show me some wicked ass moves. I’m looking forward to it. He’s my trainer.”

  Maximus just barely prevented himself from growling at her.

  “He can show me those moves first,” he ground out. “I’ll teach them to you myself.”

  She snorted dismissively, making his hackles rise.

  “Why should I learn from the student when I can learn from the master directly? Azad and I have a bargain. He’s my trainer. Get your own.”

  “What bargain?” Maximus immediately barked.

  “None of your business,” she barked back.

  “Children,” Leti said, looking between the two of them, not knowing who to placate first. “We can always switch up the pairing later in the day. It doesn’t have to—”

  “She’s not pairing off with him,” Maximus commanded, as if he was the one in charge instead of being one of the humble trainees.

  “You’re not the boss of me,” Ariel retorted. “You’re just pissed Cassandra isn’t here to rub herself all over you.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” he practically roared, his rare temper boiling rapidly to the surface, heating his skin. “She wasn’t my trainer to begin with.”

  “Nor will she ever be, if the hyena knows what’s good for her,” Ariel said darkly.

  “She’s not a hyena, she’s a—”

  “Oh! All of a sudden you’re defending her, are you?”

  Ariel stepped right up to him and chest-butted him.

  Chest-butted him!

  What the fucking hell?!

  She didn’t move him even one fraction of a centimeter, and if he wasn’t so pissed off right now he might have thought it comical. How a woman who was a foot shorter and half his weight was trying to challenge him with her breasts.

  Small though they were, he felt her pointed nipples stab straight into his ribs. Fury apparently turned her body on.

  But Maximus was equally revved up for some reason. It’s like his brain had completely shut down in this inane back and forth they were engaged in.

  “I’m not defending—”

  “You don’t talk about her!” Ariel bark-growled and shoved her hands against his chest this time, though she still couldn’t budge him.

  Her ire seemed to escalate exponentially as she realized how ineffectual her physical aggression was, as if she was just comprehending the limitations to her strength in human form. It made her boiling mad.

  But before she could continue with her tirade, Azad cut in smoothly, “I’ll train the vampire.”

  He gave Ariel a flirtatious wink, which made Maximus gnash his teeth together.

  “Don’t worry, sundaree, I’ll teach him a lesson for you.”

  Ariel shifted her dagger-shooting gaze to the Bengal tiger and ordered imperiously, “You do that.”

  And that was how Maximus began his bloody, exhausting, tortuous, shitty day.

  *** *** *** ***

  Maybe she shouldn’t have goaded Azad into teaching Maximus a lesson.

  Ariel winced in vicarious pain as she watched Maximus’s back get striped in bloody streaks by a massive tiger paw when he couldn’t avoid the attack, barely twisting in time so that the claws didn’t flay him wide open instead of leaving nasty scratches.

  She herself wa
s faring a lot better today versus yesterday. She knew that her trainers were going easier on her than Maximus, because there was only so much a human woman was capable of handling, no matter her military and FBI combat experience.

  At the same time, Ariel knew that she was doing better because of Simca. The panther in her anticipated her opponents’ moves, reacting in a way that was one-hundred-percent animal instinct rather than taught and honed reflexes.

  Maximus was doing better too, despite his still healing wounds from the gun fight just a few days ago.

  It might not seem that way, with all the talons and claws and teeth he’d been taking upon himself all day long. His trainers had stepped up their game, no longer holding anything back, and he was reacting with primal instinct, not calculation.

  Ariel barely registered that her training had ended for the day, so engrossed in Maximus’s match with Azad. Everyone had gathered around to watch the two males go at each other, no holds barred.

  It hardly seemed fair—a giant Bengal tiger against an unarmed humanoid male, even if he was a seasoned vampire warrior. But amazingly, Maximus was holding his own.

  Though just barely.

  He’d sustained many injuries already, bleeding out of countless wounds, while Azad in tiger form seemed invincible, with nary a hair out of place on his glossy coat.

  The tiger growled low and pounced again, massive paws poised to strike Maximus down, jaws opened wide to go for the kill.

  It occurred to Ariel with a fissure of alarm that Azad wasn’t just training now. He held nothing back. He was in the kill zone, his full aggression unleashed.

  The Bengal tiger was the most aggressive and deadly of all feline predators. They were known to kill other hunter cats, crocodiles, bears, and animals much larger than themselves in the wild. It had little to do with hunting for food, and everything to do with territoriality and dominance. They had no love for humans either.

  Once their bloodlust was triggered, they wouldn’t back down. They fought to kill.

  Either Maximus hadn’t picked up on the shift in the tiger’s intent or he didn’t care. Instead of ducking and rolling as Ariel expected him to do—as any sane person would do!—he held his ground, taking the weight of the giant tiger as Azad landed with one paw pinning him into the hard ground, with enough force to dislocate his shoulder.

  Ariel didn’t hear the snapping sound of a bone popping out of its socket, thank fuck. If that had happened, it would have been game over, and Maximus would be dead within seconds.

  She involuntarily shifted forward, away from the rest of the spectators, closer to the fight. Everything in her screamed to jump into the fray and defend her male.

  But she knew very well that Maximus would rather die than let anyone, let alone her, interfere.

  This was his fight to win or lose.

  If Ariel had still been Simca, she would have watched the match with investment in the outcome. But if Maximus had died, Simca would have accepted it as a good death and moved on.

  Ariel couldn’t do that. Maximus meant too much to her. He was no longer just a partner. He’d been much more to her since the moment Simca’s animal spirit had infused into her human body.

  Maximus grabbed onto the top and bottom of the tiger’s jaw and held them open as Azad tried to chomp down on him. In his giant tiger form, he could tear Maximus’s torso in two easily, never mind just his neck.

  You are no match for me, vampire, Ariel could hear Azad rumble in tiger speak. She understood every word clearly as if he’d said them aloud.

  Maximus didn’t waste the breath to reply. Either he didn’t understand the animal language yet or he hadn’t the strength to acknowledge it much less form a retort. He strained to keep the giant jaws open as they moved ever closer to his head and shoulders.

  “Enough, Azad,” Leti said, and even shifted into giant snake form, ready to intervene by force.

  Rhys gave one mighty flap from his wings, lifted a foot off the ground and instantly shifted into a giant Golden eagle. He swept his wings a couple more times as he hovered above the two males locked in a death match and screeched shrilly, his talons extended to dig into the scruff of the tiger’s neck if necessary and lift him off of Maximus.

  Stupid vampire, Azad spat out in tiger speak. You will never defeat me to win her. A feline warrior like Ariel will never take a weakling such as yourself to rut, much less Mate.

  Out of nowhere, a giant white tiger paw smacked Azad from the side and knocked him off balance hard enough to send him rolling twice on the ground.

  In the blink of an eye, a massive white Siberian tiger pounced on top of the Bengal before he could get his bearings, closed his massive jaws around the back of the Bengal’s neck and, with an almost casual flick of his head, sent Azad flying paws over head into a rock wall ten feet away.

  Ariel looked wildly around her, thinking the Tiger King had somehow appeared to defend Maximus.

  But then, where was Maximus himself?

  The Bengal landed with a cracking thud and a loud groan. When he got back on his feet, he seemed to favor his left hind paw.

  He roared in fury at the Siberian tiger and stood on hind legs despite his broken bones.

  The white tiger stood as well. He was larger and thicker than the Bengal, likely outweighed him by a hundred pounds or more. As massive as the Tiger King.

  But his stripes were different.

  Ariel stared intensely at the Siberian tiger, unconsciously moving even closer to get a better look.

  Tiger stripes were like human fingerprints. No two tigers had the same stripes. She was certain she wasn’t looking at the Tiger King. This was another tiger altogether.

  Just as big. Just as ferocious.

  And royally pissed off from the looks of it!

  The Siberian tiger used his height advantage to land one powerful paw to the face of the Bengal, knocking him back, and followed that up with a clawed strike from the other paw, straight across the Bengal’s neck.

  The Bengal twisted at the last second so that the neck strike glanced off, leaving deep gashes instead of a lethal throat wound. He clawed both of his paws into the Siberian’s shoulders and dangled his weight on his claws, digging deeper wounds. He pulled the Siberian closer to tear out his throat or get on his back to snap his spine.

  Just as the Bengal opened his jaws against the Siberian’s neck, the Siberian kicked out and flipped them both onto the ground, rolling once until the Siberian landed on top, slamming the Bengal down onto his back, his belly exposed, four paws pedaling the air.

  The Siberian closed his massive jaws around the Bengal’s throat as the other tiger kicked with his paws, trying to dislodge him but to no avail. The Siberian held him down with one paw on his exposed belly, his teeth digging into the Bengal’s throat, piercing his hide.

  She’s mine, Ariel heard the Siberian tiger growl low. If you so much as sniff the air she leaves behind her, I will tear your balls off and make you eat them.

  And just because he could, the Siberian tiger smacked his other paw with the pendulous weight of a boulder right against the Bengal’s exposed tender bits, making the orange tiger howl with pain.

  Holy shit on a stick!

  Ariel reeled back, as if she’d received a punch to her solar plexus, realizing that the Siberian tiger’s voice was Maximus’s.

  That freaking giant white tiger was Maximus!

  She barely heard Azad’s acquiescence over Maximus’s booming roar. She felt like it shook the entire mountain range.

  Or maybe it just shook her. Hard enough to scramble her wits and fire up her blood, like a mad scientist shook up a container of combustible chemicals.

  She was literally about to blow.

  With excitement. Wonder. Triumph. But most of all—white hot lust.

  Maximus roared again, this time at the spectators around them.

  On cue, the eagles transformed and flew away without a look back, while the snakes and felines scattered like hares down the m
ountain side, including one limping, wheezing Bengal tiger, once Maximus let him slip loose of his jaws.

  Maximus took a couple of steps in the direction of Azad’s retreating form and roared once more, sending the other tiger scurrying with his tail between his legs.

  And then they were alone.

  Just Ariel and Maximus.

  Human and tiger.

  When there was not a trace of others on the plateau, not even a whiff of their scent, he turned to her and stalked forward like the magnificent, primal, savage beast that he was.

  He looked like he was going to devour her.

  About damned time! Ariel couldn’t help shouting with jubilation in her head.

  She couldn’t wait to be devoured.

  *** *** *** ***

  So this was what it felt like to be free.

  Maximus was drunk on the euphoria of his natural tiger form.

  Added to the adrenaline from beating the shit out of a male who’d challenged his right to his female, Maximus was in a dangerous, unpredictable mood.

  His mind wasn’t in the right place. He knew that.

  Hell, his mind was misplaced entirely.

  He didn’t think. He didn’t hesitate. All he did was feel.

  There was only instinct, passion, lust and animal savagery.

  And all of it was concentrated on one particular female.

  Mine.

  He growled low and menacingly as he approached her in his giant tiger form, shifting to normal size with unconscious fluidity as he got closer.

  If she didn’t want him, he’d let her leave. But if she stayed, he would never let her go again.

  When he got within five feet of her, he shifted back into vampire form.

  He was naked, battered, and hard enough to pound stone.

  This was what he was. Half vampire, half beast.

  Maybe he was more. He didn’t know. But he was hers if she wanted him.

  This was all he had to offer her.

  She didn’t say a word, didn’t make a sound. Only her eyes moved as they zeroed straight to his groin, watching his thick staff bob against his stomach, as if it was warning her, showing her exactly how many inches of corded, velvet-covered steel she’d be taking into her body if she stayed.