She was fast, but he was faster. He could see her ahead of him now, her sleek, sandy form little more than a shadow streaking across the dusty plain. The heady satisfaction of a successful hunt began to pulse through his blood as, with each leaping stride, he grew closer to his prey.
He closed the distance, gauging her speed, and leapt. His paws struck her shoulders. Her feet flew out from under her and they rolled in a flurry of snapping teeth and swiping paws. She snarled and fought like a hellcat, but size and blind rage were both on his side.
He sank his teeth into her scruff, pinning her beneath his bulk. She hissed angrily but stopped struggling, her breath panting out onto the dirt raising puffing dust clouds.
He eased his teeth off her, making sure he kept his weight pressing her into the ground. He shifted back to human form, trusting she would follow suit. If she stayed in feline form, she could easily get away from him, but she must have known he would only shift again and come after her. Michael could keep this up all night.
Mara shifted beneath him. Both of their clothes had been destroyed in the change, so naked flesh pressed warm against naked flesh. Michael’s body immediately took notice, but his thoughts were still fogged with anger, not lust. He flipped her onto her back so he could look into her eyes, then pressed his forearm across her shoulders and used his legs to pin hers. She would hear him out. He would make sure of it.
Mara swiped her tongue across her lower lip, her eyes wide but unafraid. “What do you want?” she asked defiantly.
Michael kept his voice low and controlled. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so angry, but he didn’t want to risk an involuntary shift. He would say his piece, tell her every thought burning through his mind, and then he would walk away.
“I’ve begged you to say,” he said darkly. “I’ve done everything in my power to prove I deserve you, to be good enough for you. That changes now. I am sick of being treated like a child because I feel things strongly and my lion rides close to the surface. I am more than just my deficiencies. I deserve to be with someone who recognizes that. Someone who respects me in a way you never have.”
The last you broke something open inside him. Michael growled, staring into the greenish-brown eyes he would have sold his soul to protect only twenty-four hours ago.
“Maybe it’s you who doesn’t deserve me,” he snarled. “Maybe you aren’t some poor lonely creature who hasn’t been lucky enough to find love, but rather someone who refuses to give any piece of herself to anyone else. Maybe you are the reason you’re alone. Incapable of accepting love into your heart. Always in control. Always thinking. Maybe, just maybe, my passion isn’t a curse, but something to be admired. Cherished. I would rather break my heart a thousand times than live in the cold, safe bubble you’ve built for yourself.”
The smug hauteur in her eyes had chilled to something harder, but she made no move to push him off or speak.
Weariness weighed on him, that little speech more exhausting than running a marathon. But he wasn’t quite done yet. There was one last thing he needed to say.
“Mara, I love you.” There was no affection in the words. Just a flat, hard fact. “But if you can’t see that I’m worth staying for, I hope you leave tonight. Right this minute. Pack your things and go.” Michael swallowed, forcing himself to say the last words. “Do me a favor and never come back.”
He rolled away from her, shifting form with the movement and coming to his feet on all fours. He didn’t wait to see her reaction.
He’d clung to their relationship so hard for so long and now it was over. The finality of it felt strange, heavy and light at the same time. His chest was tight, his head floating.
Michael spun on his tail and ran. He didn’t know where he was going. Anywhere. Away from Mara. Away from the permanence of that last moment. Away from the end of them.
Chapter Eleven
Mara lay on her back long after Michael had disappeared into the night. There were no stars above her, only clouds. That seemed fitting somehow.
She didn’t know what had just happened. She’d shouted at Michael and run out on him. He’d chased after her and caught her. She’d been so certain he was going to offer some explanation, beg her to reconsider, do something to convince her to give him another chance, something. Instead…
Mara lay, stunned. The things he’d said…
Did she push men away? Hold them at a distance? No one had ever said it might be her fault before.
Why was that? Did they think she was breakable or something? A victim of her own romantic woes? She was an alpha female in a lion pride. She defined strength. So why did she have the feeling that the only person who’d ever seen that strength for what it was was Michael.
He had always treated her like an equal, but how had she treated him? Like shit. Like she was too good for him. Just toying with him, using him as a pretty plaything until someone better came along.
An image of Tria flashed in Mara’s mind and her stomach rolled. She was worse than Duncan. At least that philanderer had some sort of noble intentions toward Tria. He’d become her mate, the father to her children. Mara had never had honorable intentions toward Michael. She had used him from day one.
He deserved so much better than that.
The clouds opened up above her, the sudden downpour slicking her skin. Mara took her lioness form and rolled to her feet, shaking out her fur. She moved quickly in the direction Michael had gone, hurrying before the rain could wash away his trail.
He was a passionate lover, an intense listener, and a good friend. He could be so heart-wrenchingly gentle with the cubs, but he would be firm when called on to be. Michael was everything she’d always had on her list, but what’s more, he was a thousand things she’d forgotten to put on her list, including the man she loved.
And she had treated him like a cabana boy because of his age.
Mara had to find him. She didn’t know what she would say when she did. She wasn’t sure there were enough apologies in the world to convince him to forgive her, but she couldn’t let things stand the way they were. She had to at least try to win him back. For once in her life, she had to throw her heart wide open, expose herself to the possibility of heartbreak and just pray he still loved her enough to let her back in.
Mara tracked Michael’s scent in a wide arc around the compound and back to his bungalow, but he wasn’t inside. She didn’t even need to go up on the porch to know he hadn’t stayed there long. A fresh trail led away from the house. Mara chased his scent down another path until it dead ended at the garage.
The Cherokee’s spot was empty and fresh tire tracks cut through the mud. Michael had left the ranch.
The Bar Nothing was packed on a Friday night. Mara had to circle the parking lot twice before she found a space to wedge the truck she’d borrowed. She spotted the Cherokee with its distinctive claw marks on her first pass.
Michael was here. Her heart picked up pace to thunder like a jackhammer in her chest.
She’d yanked on a pair of jeans and the first shirt to come to her hand, not caring what she looked like as long as she found him. She buttoned an extra button on the shirt and shoved open the door to the Bar Nothing. The last thing she needed was some overeager asshole with a practiced come-on.
Find Michael. Beg forgiveness. Get out. That was the plan.
She pressed through the mass of bodies crowding the seedy bar. It was apparently prime time to get drunk and rub up against strangers in the hope of getting lucky. She couldn’t see three feet in front of her for all the people, but she shoved toward where she remembered the bar being, hoping Michael would be there.