Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
I want to give you the words.
But I can’t.
Not just yet.
—before I start to cry.
Because those words that I hear in my mind...are all his.
Chapter Eleven
GUARDS SNAPPED TO ATTENTION as Hexius walked past them. While the snow leopards remained largely unknown to mainstream news, they were a legend among preters, and for over a week now, the sight of the Leopard King walking within the hallowed halls of L’Alliance had every preternatural tongue wagging.
Or drooling.
It depended on the gender.
But either way, Hexius didn’t notice anything around him, with his thoughts consumed mostly by his mate.
The past week had been...enlightening. He had heard of stories, of course. Of how mating bonds with the highest compatibility rate could result in seismic changes. But what he didn’t realize that such changes included being obsessed with a woman he had only known for days.
She was all he could think of lately, wherever he looked.
This hallway, for instance.
All Hexius could remember was how he had pinned her against this same wall three days ago, and all because he couldn’t wait another thirty seconds to reach his suite. He had wanted a taste of her then and there, and even now, the memory of that small sound she had made when his mouth found her throat...
Maîtrisez-vous, Mercer. Control yourself.
But this was easier said than done, with another memory assaulting him when he caught a glimpse of a particular balcony on his way to the conference hall.
Merde.
He remembered how she had smiled at him with an irresistible mixture of shyness and mischief as she told him she had a surprise. And when they had gotten to the balcony, and she had slowly dropped to her knees before reaching up to unzip his length...
Blood stained Hexius’ high-boned cheeks as he recalled how he had nearly lost control that night, and he found himself unconsciously reaching to massage the back of his nape to assuage his discomfort.
Never had a woman so unsettled him without even trying, and while he wanted to believe it only had to do with their compatibility scores...
What if it was more than that?
What then?
He might not be the type to follow preter gossip, but he was well aware that having Samira as a mate had people talking and wondering if theirs was a love match. Some went even as far as comparing him and Samira to Domenico and Misty Moretti, whose interspecies marriage was the first and most famous of its kind.
Idiots, the lot of them.
Did they not know that snow leopards like him were not the type to love? That their race was most comfortable with isolation, and their whole lives revolved on defending and protecting their pack?
Trust no one but yourself.
Death before surrender.
And let no outsider wrest control of your heart.
These were the rules every snow leopard lived by.
So why then, dammit?
Why did it feel like he had violated all of those rules the moment he had mated with Samira? It was as if their souls had suddenly become fused as one being, his heart now beating in rhythm with hers. When he had thought himself in love with Brandy, he had seen his feelings for her as his right to claim ownership of her body.
But with Samira, it was completely different.
Something about her just messed him up completely, and his jaw clenched as he headed up the stairs, and another memory assailed him when the tall stairwell window revealed the expansive training grounds of L’Alliance.
He had been invited a few days ago by one of the Panthera captains to train with them, and it was after soundly defeating two young cubs in hand-to-hand combat that he had sensed her presence.
And it distracted him enough to turn towards her scent.
Big mistake.
Samira had let out a cry of dismay as his third opponent took advantage of his distraction to score a mighty left hook. It was good enough for Hexius’ head to snap to the side, and everyone groaned. But then it was his turn, and all he had to do was stare menacingly at the boy while allowing his power as alpha to slowly radiate like a palpable force field.
Three...two...one.
He had simply taken a step, said ‘boo’—
And everyone laughed good-naturedly as the boy’s imaginary fears had him stumbling back and falling to the ground.
The Panthera captain had thanked him for an excellent display of Psych War 101, and Hexius was equally gracious as he thanked everyone for being courteous enough not to call him a pussy for allowing himself to be distracted by his own mate.
By the time he turned around, Samira had wisely already run away, having realized her role in his defeat. But of course, it had been easy for him to hunt her down, and all she had been able to do was gasp when he swung her up on his shoulder like she weighed nothing at all.