The Mating Project (3 page)

No screams
echoed through the air either, and Maria closed her eyes and tried to summon
her mother by concentrating on her face. The mind connection was a lost art
reserved for mated pairs and those sharing a common bloodline, but she had
managed it a few times in the past, mostly without wanting to. It seemed her
mother sensed her distress. Last time had been years ago, when a six year old
Maria had fallen down a well. Mum and Dad had been there in record time, but
she didn't seem able to summon them this time.

With a groan of
disgust Maria stopped trying and scowled against the wall. Judging by the
quietness of the place it was night time.
A perfect time to
escape, if only she could shift.
Surely she would be missed by now. Her
father and brothers would no doubt be tracing her whereabouts by following her
scent. At least she hoped so.

****

Malachi
flattened himself against the wall, and waited for the guard to walk past him.
His stomach churned at the stink coating him. As satisfying as it had been to
rip the hyena's throat out—after all the bastard had reeked of his cougar—it
had been less enthralling to roll in his entrails and to don the other man's
clothes, including the long technician's coat that granted him entry to the
complex.

His wolf scent
suitably masked, it had been surprisingly easy to enter the cave that housed
this underground cell hidden deep in the Thetford Forest. On any other occasion
Malachi would have found the fact that shifters had reclaimed a part of the
forest usually overrun by human tourists amusing, but the events of the night
had robbed him of his sense of humor.

The battle on
Anderson's land had been short and brutal. Half of his pack lay slaughtered,
his father among them, and whilst Malachi had felt no emotion standing over his
father's remains, he'd known that there was more at stake here. He'd followed
the humans at a safe distance. They had dragged the councilor's daughter off
her father's land and had brought her here. His gut had churned witnessing the
rough handling of his mate, and it had taken all of his willpower to hold his
wolf back. He wouldn't be much good to her dead.

He'd overheard
enough of the conversation to know that this attack would be blamed on his
father's pack. They thought Malachi himself dead in the melee, and he knew this
gave him the advantage. He would be able to just blend into the background, and
get on with his life, far away from the council and their politics, but first
he had to rescue his mate.

Malachi didn't
question the absolute certainty behind his wolf's insistence. It was just his
damn luck that not only did he turn out to be one of the rare shifters to
actually meet his mate, but she had to belong to the high council.

A pure blood
cougar such as she would fetch a high price on the open market, if they didn't
choose to experiment on her. A red mist descended upon him at the mere thought,
and he forced himself to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth
to calm his agitated wolf.

His beast didn't
know yet that he had no intention of claiming his mate, but he sure as fuck
couldn't leave her in this hell-hole either.

Besides the
council was ruthless in their eradication of anything and anyone that they
considered a threat, and there were innocent women and children still left in
his pack. Saving the cougar would buy their freedom. At least Malachi hoped so.

With the guard
gone he negotiated the quiet corridors. It was a maze of underground tunnels
here, but his wolf had no problems scenting his mate. In no time at all he
stood in front of her cell and used the hyena's pass to open the heavy door.

The scent of her
fear and anger assaulted him the minute he stepped into the cell.
 
Naked as the day she was born, the blonde and
stunningly beautiful young woman glared at him, before she inhaled sharply, and
some of her anger fled to be replaced by unwilling arousal.

"
You …
you’re part of all this?" She
snarled her question, her amazing blue eyes drawn together in a frown, and she
pulled her knees as far as she could to hide her naked body. Malachi still got
an unimpeded view of her long, slender legs and the curve of one pert breast.

His wolf near
salivated at the sight, and Malachi hardened in his pants, grateful that the
long coat hid his reaction to her.

"No, I'm
not. I'm here to get you out of here, so keep your voice down, princess."

Maria hissed at
him, and Malachi grinned despite the situation. Of course she would be feisty.
He couldn't be granted a nice, gentle mate, now could he? He mentally flipped
the finger to fate and bent down to unshackle her. He heard her cat's purr even
as the woman pulled away from him.

"You
stink of hyena."

"Yes, I do.
Only way I could get in here undetected. Now are we going to make small talk,
or do you want to get out of here, princess?"

He allowed
himself a deep inhale of her delicious scent, as he unclipped her ankle
shackles with the master key he'd taken off the hyena. She stiffened and
growled at him, which only served to get his wolf more excited.

"Don't call
me that,
mutt,
and why are you sniffing me?"

"You know
why." If possible Maria grew even more aloof. There was no denying her cat
though. Her beast's purrs got louder, and his wolf urged him to claim her. To
sink his teeth into her slender neck and taste what was his. Malachi swore
under his breath and pulled away. He would beat this. Just because fate decreed
it had to be, didn't mean he had to act on it.

He shrugged out
of his coat and handed it to her.

"Here,
cover yourself up. And don't worry; your virtue is quite safe with me. I have
no intention of acting on … whatever this is between us."

The most
delightful blush stole across Maria's pale skin, and when she glared at him and
looked pointedly to the wall, he finally got the message and turned around. A
wave of protectiveness floored him. Could she be as innocent as she appeared to
be? The thought that his mate had never been touched by any man made him hard
as nails. A condition not improved by seeing her reflection in the window in
front of him. Legs that seemed to go on forever, an ass just made for sinking
his teeth into, and a slender curved back that called for him to run his claws
along her spine. Her long blonde hair hung halfway down her back, and when she
turned slightly he caught a glimpse of a pert nipple. All too soon she had
dragged that coat over her slender shoulders and turned to catch him staring.

Their gazes
connected, and he could smell the wetness between her legs. It drove his wolf
wild, but now was not the time for sex. He had to get her out of here and fast.

"Enjoyed
the peep show, wolf boy?"

Malachi grinned
and turned around to find her glaring at him. Arms crossed and with the most
delightful pout on her lips, she did her best to stare him down, but all she
achieved was to push her breasts up. It gave him an unimpeded view down her
cleavage, and Malachi didn't even try to hide his body's reaction. There was no
point. She was a shifter, and she would be as aware of his need for her as he
was of hers for him. One day he would look back on this moment and see the
funny side, but right now was not it.

He adjusted his
throbbing dick through the denim of his jeans, and Maria whimpered.

"This is
insane."

He barely heard
that whisper, but the way she looked at him as though she wanted to eat him
alive calmed his agitated wolf.

He held out his
hand, and after a moment's hesitation she took it. They gasped in unison at the
arc of electricity that sparked between them, and some of his anger fled. This
close to his mate he couldn't help but feel at peace. It was an utterly
ridiculous notion, surrounded as they were by the enemy, but there you had it.

"What
now?" she asked.

Malachi smiled
and cupped her chin with his free hand.

"Now, we
get you out of here, kitty. Stay close to me and follow my lead. Can you
shift?"

****

"I-I don't
know. My cougar seems stronger now that you're here."

Maria bit her
lip and rolled her eyes. Had she really just said that out loud?
So what, if it was the truth?
From the minute her beast had
scented this wolf outside her door, she had perked up. Even masked by the
nauseating stench of hyena, she recognized him. It was the wolf from the forest,
and he was even more breathtaking in his human form. He had to be well over six
and half feet tall, because he towered over Maria's five foot eight inch frame.
His lean frame was muscular and broad shouldered, and there was a hint of
shadow on his jaw. Despite the fact that he couldn't be much older than she was,
he carried himself with an air of authority, and there was the underlying sense
of danger that shouldn't really excite her.

The ratty
t-shirt he wore was blood stained and holey in places, giving her tantalizing
glimpses of his washboard abs liberally sprinkled with fine hair, and the worn
jeans clung to his tight ass. His cock was a hard ridge behind his flies, and
Maria's pussy clenched in helpless need, as more moisture coated the tops of
her thighs.

She had never
gone past heavy petting with boys, and she had certainly never been this wet,
just from looking at a guy. When he'd touched her, her beast had purred her
contentment. She wanted nothing more than to curl herself around this male and
submit to him in all ways.

"They gave
you something to stop you from shifting. Hopefully it'll wear off once you hit
the fresh air. This will be so much easier if you can shift.
 
Two animals in the forest will not attract as
much attention, and we can cover the ground much faster."

His low voice in
her ear pulled her out of her internal thoughts, and a shiver went down her
spine at the puffs of hot air against her neck as he spoke. This close to him,
his intoxicating smell intensified until no trace of hyena remained, just his
male scent that called to her cougar and made the animal rise to the surface.
Every feminine cell in her body wished they were in a position to take the next
natural step. This insane attraction made no sense, yet it made perfect sense.
There was no point in denying the fact that this wolf had to be her mate. They
could never be together. It went against all the rules, and there was still the
very real question as to what he had been doing on her father's land and how he
came to be here now. None of that mattered, however, not when she could hear
approaching footsteps.

Maria froze, and
he put his hand over her mouth in warning. She glared at him—really, how stupid
did he think she was?—and the corner of his full mouth kicked up in a fleeting
grin, before he stepped away from her. Gesturing for her to stay he stepped out
of the door, and seconds later there was the sound of a struggle, and a fluid
filled gurgle. He appeared through the door, dragging the dead body of what she
assumed must be one of the guards.

The human's
unseeing gaze stared at her, and Maria swallowed hard. Her wolf had ripped
through his throat, and the coppery scent of blood filled the air.

"Come on,
we need to go."

Half shifted,
her mate made a terrifying sight. His elongated canines still held the
bloodstains of his victim and his eyes had bled to the glowing yellow of his
wolf. The claws on his hands dug into her skin as he grasped her hand and
pulled her along behind him.

It was a maze of
corridors down here, and more than once he flattened her against the wall,
shielding her in the shadows with his big body, as they waited for someone to
pass. It seemed the night shift was largely made up of humans, which made their
escape easier. No shifter would have let them pass. Their senses would have
alerted them to their presence in record time.

As it was Maria
was sure this latest human who stood mere feet away from them, talking on his
mobile phone, should have been able to hear her frantic heartbeat. Pressed as
close to her wolf as two people could be, without being actually joined, her
libido was going into overdrive.

Rather than try to
fight the sensations assaulting her, Maria shut her eyes and savored them. The
feel of his hard muscular body pressed against her soft curves. The way his
solid erection strained against her belly. The way her own juices slipped out
of her pussy and trailed down the inside of her thighs. His heavy breaths that
raised the fine hair clinging to her sweat dampened skin.
The
distant rumble of his wolf, which was joined by her cat's purr.
They all
combined to make the atmosphere so sexually charged it was a wonder they didn’t
catch fire.

When the human
finally moved Maria opened her eyes to find her rescuer watching her from under
hooded lids. The intensity of his gaze sent shivers of anticipation down her
spine, and her cougar rose to the surface to meet her mate. Fully awake now,
her animal wanted out to play, to run with this wolf, and to sink her teeth
into his neck. The need was so intense, so all consuming, that Maria's jaw
ached with the pull to do just that.