Winter Born Read Free Page B

“Animals protect their own. I’m doing this to help my brothers as much as I’m doing it to help you. If they were to hurt you, they’d never forgive themselves, and I’d have to listen to them lament for eternity.”
    Releasing her, he moved to the door and left the room.
    Pandora took a deep breath, and for the first time since she’d been stolen from her people, she began to relax a little.
    Now all she had to do was stay put until he returned.
    But that wasn’t as easy as it would normally be. The female in her that was just entering womanhood was all too aware of the fact that there were three unmated panthers in this hotel.
    That alien and new part of her wanted with a vengeance the mating ritual that would induct her into adulthood.
    It craved it.
    For an Arcadian, the ritual was simple. Had she stayed at home, she would have chosen an elder panther from her pack to gently introduce her to the animal side of herself. Once he unlocked her full powers by copulating with her, he would have taught her how to shift from human to panther and how to protect herself and use her newborn powers.
    The Katagaria were completely different. She’d heard the horror stories directly from her sister Sefia. They took their nearas —virgin females who were cresting—and allowed every unmated male of the pack to have sex with her to see if she was the mate to one of them.
    They would use her without mercy until all their males were fully sated.
    Her sister Sefia had been one of the lucky ones. On the night they had deflowered her, Sefia had been mated to a Katagari panther who had then decided to keep her more as a pet than a mate.
    Katagaria females left their mates once they were out of heat, and only returned whenever they were in season. If a male tried to mate with a Katagari female when she wasn’t in heat, she would attack and possibly kill him.
    Once their season passed, the Katagaria females left their males and stayed with their sisters to travel about until their next fertile cycle. If the female became pregnant, she’d birth her young among her sisters, and as soon as the cubs were weaned, she would take them to the father to raise.
    Arcadian pantheresses were much more coveted since they were ruled by human hearts that wouldn’t allow them to abandon their children until adulthood. Unlike their Katagaria cousins, the Arcadians stayed with their young and their mates. The male panthers didn’t have to wait for an Arcadian female to go into heat. She would be receptive to her mate at any time.
    The worst part was that a panther male couldn’t rape a panther female when she was in heat. All he had to do was come near her and she would willingly accept him. It was nature and a pantheress had no control over her body at such times. It wouldn’t listen to any reason or rationale.
    She would beg him to fill her.
    The shame of that would come later, after the mating was done. Then, the Arcadian pantheress would feel embarrassed that she had acted like an animal and not a human.
    Pandora moaned low in her throat as her desire sparked again and coiled through her. Her breasts were heavy, her body hot and alive with need.
    Go  …
    The command was overwhelming, but she refused to heed it. She was a human, not an animal.
    The Katagari male would return with Acheron and she would be among her own kind again.
    Then everything would be normal.
    *   *   *
    Dante couldn’t get the fire out of his blood. The animal in him was awake and craving.
    Needing.
    One whiff should not have affected him this much, and yet as he drifted through the dense crowd of people pretending to be aliens and paranormal entities, he couldn’t stop himself from trying to find her scent again.
    It was all he could do to stay in human form and not revert to his true animal body.
    The hunter wasn’t listening to him.
    Damn it!
    He caught a glimpse of Acheron