Her hesitation only lasted a moment. She might not be able to turn into a beast with four paws, but her two legs could move pretty fast when they wanted to. And there was always the lake. Yes, she could push him in there if she needed to. That would certainly dampen his desire. She smiled to herself at the thought.
She walked four paces behind him, keeping as much distance as possible between them. He led her down towards the water, and then turned towards the small copse of trees at the head of the lake. There was a weeping willow, its branches dipping into the edge of the lake. Once they were under there, no one would see them. No one would know.
His word against hers. If he attacked her, he could say she was the one who instigated their joining. Everyone would believe him. In this part of the world, he was better than her. Her pace slowed; she should run now.
Kane stopped and turned to look upwards, her presence momentarily forgotten by him. The danger he presented momentarily forgotten by her, as her eyes were drawn to the silver disk hanging above them. This was the very place she had been when she had heard him coming. The moon’s reflection was whole and unbroken on the surface of the lake. The thing that mystified her most was why it had the same effect on him, as it did on her: mesmerising, hypnotic.
“Why are we here?” she asked, now more curious than afraid. She had been stupid to think a man like Kane would be interested in her. But she was fascinated by him, something hidden, a depth she couldn’t understand. Now she knew why so many men went to bed with him. Animal magnetism.
“The moon. That’s why you were here.” A statement of fact, not a question.
“Yes,” she answered simply.
“Tell me about it. Tell me how you feel on a night like this when the moon is full.” His eyes flicked briefly to hers, and then they were dragged back to the light.
“You know what I am?” she asked, wanting to be sure he knew she was from the Prime.
“Of course. The collar isn’t exactly hard to miss,” he said, not cruelly, but still it hurt and her hand went to it, feeling the cold hardness of the metal. Even though it touched her skin, it never absorbed her body heat. It was always cold as death.
“The moon makes the change harder to control,” she said, thinking of how her father had taught her to gain control of herself. If they didn’t learn when they were young, by the time puberty hit, the moon would force them to shift, their animal dragged from them to howl, or roar at the moon.
“Tell me. What’s it like?” he asked.
“What? To have a collar around your neck that stops the other half of you from existing?” Her voice was bitter with resentment. She still couldn’t understand how her father, so loving, so caring, had managed to end up with so much debt. Short of selling their family home, there had been no choice but for Amara to offer to bargain a contract to pay off his debts. Three years of slavery for the Reinier family. That was how long it would take to repay the debt.
“No. Tell how you feel when the moon is full.”
“Right now I feel as if my body wants to explode. The tension inside is like holding your breath underwater for too long. I want to tear my skin from my body until my other side is freed,” she said, filled with bitter passion and longing.
He nodded, as if he understood exactly what she meant, and then his gaze dropping to look at the moon’s reflection. Her heart stopped beating rapidly. Instead it slowed, the blood in her veins no longer hot in readiness to fight him off; replaced by a chill, deep in her bones, that made time slow down and her mind clear.
The lioness no longer prowled. She was still, the two of them working as one to piece together the fragments of information that were floating around in her head.
She took a step towards him, and then another, her voice soft as she spoke. “This is my first moon with the collar. The hardest one, so I’m told.” She was so close to him now, she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to. Instead, she allowed her eyes to do the touching. Caressing his body, taking in the broad shoulders, encased in a shirt, open at the neck, that emphasised his toned chest. A part of her wanted to reach out and touch him, but the rest of her told her not to start something she would be powerless to stop.
“And when you don’t have the collar on?” he asked quietly, half turning to look at her, his amber eyes soft, mournful; empty of something that he couldn’t find. The exact same expression that greeted her every morning since she had left Shifters Prime.
Then she saw it. He wore a bracelet around his left wrist. Unable to resist temptation, she reached out, her fingers connecting with the cold metal, the same colour as the moon. She jumped with shock, and touched his skin, feeling an electrical current shoot up her arm.
Scared, she turned and ran.
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