Wild Magic Two: The Dark of the Sun- a M/M shifter fantasy romance

16- The Cougar, the Bobcat, and the Snake

RIECE—

I grabbed my sword, drawing it before leaping out of my tent and into a chaos of blood, battle, and death. There were at least four bodies on the ground already, although I only recognized one as one of my guards— Tauren. The others were mercenaries, who also surrounded the camp and battled with my remaining four guards, — Luc, Stiles, Dean, and Tedd— as well as the two guards Lhiam had sent with me— Dasan and Nibley.

The moment I left the tent, a great roar of some beast shook the trees and froze the very blood in my bones. Not in fear. Oh no, I could never fear that sound.

In recognition.

That was the sound of a feral monster protecting what belonged to it.

Just as the roar cut off, a cougar jumped into the middle of the camp from the trees above, landing atop a man, snapping his neck and killing him instantly, before turning and stalking towards me. I froze, as did every man in the camp, for just a moment, as the cougar padded up to me, bumped his forehead against my thigh, rubbing his body along me, scenting me, and then turned his back on me. His body positioned as if to protect me, to tell the world This is mine, his roar shook the very ground at my feet, and seemed to signal the fighting to start again.

Cain was at least double the size of any cougar I'd ever seen before. His shoulders stood at my waist, and he was maybe eight feet long from head to rump, over 400 pounds of lean, rippling muscles.

He stood by my side for only a few moments before joining back in the fray. But I was forced to step in as well only a moment later. We were vastly outnumbered, and our enemies wore thick leathers and mail as armor, while most of us were barefoot and were lucky if we had kept our pants on while we slept, much less armor. Only River, left awake for first watch, was fully dressed, but he was young, inexperienced, and flagging quickly against his two attackers.

I joined him first, cutting down the two men he fought before leaping to the next. Always, at my back, Cain followed, killing men with teeth and claws and brutal efficiency. My men gave him a wide berth, sensing he wouldn't attack them. Or knowing he wouldn't, for the display of possessive protectiveness he had shown.

Before long, Luc, Tedd, and Stiles had fallen, maybe dead, River nursed a leg wound by my tent, where Cain had dragged him by his tunic when he fell, and Dean wasn't looking much better. Dasan and Nibley fought back-to-back, expertly, and I could tell by the fluid way they moved together, complimenting each other's moves, that this was far from their first battle together. If any of us was going to survive, it would be the two of them.

So with only five of us left standing, Dean ready to fall over any moment, there were still at least a dozen mercenaries around us. They knew who we were— my flag flew above the tent my guards had been sleeping in. So they either didn't care who they were attacking, or they were specifically targeting me.

I didn't care to find out which.

Cain took down another man, just as he was stabbed through the back leg by the biggest man I'd ever seen in my life. Cain yelped and jumped away as I screamed out his name. He limped back, his huge yellow eyes tinged in black wide as he glared the man down, his chest heaving. He was absolutely covered in blood, from his paws that were each as large as my head, to his teeth, as sharp and long as steak knives.

"Cain! You fucking bastard, give yourself up, and the rest go free."

I froze at the man's words, especially that he knew the cougar was Cain. I had called out his name, but the way the man said it was familiar... almost friendly. He smirked down at him, holding his hands up placatingly.

"You heard me," the man hissed when Cain took a step back as he began to advance. The men around the big man stepped back as well, moving to stand beside their leader. The second he was able, during the strange lull, Dean fell down beside River. Dasan and Nibley stared at the man who dwarfed even the two of them with something like recognition firing in their eyes. "Stop fighting, and your friends go free. We vastly outnumber you, and you'll fall soon. Give up now, and I promise—"

The man's words were cut off as a small bobcat leapt from the trees above him, directly onto the man's back. It was almost the same color as Cain's cougar form but darker, with just a bit of dark gray mixed with the tan, and of course a bobcat's black spots and the black, pointed tufts of fur at the tips of its ears. It was about 20 pounds, so less than half the size of Cain's wild cat, and then half again, and maybe three feet long, its stubby tail twitching as it bit into the man's neck and screeched.

Blood spurted out of the man's neck and he roared, drawing his men back into action. Cain jumped towards me, landing awkwardly before falling to his side just in front of me.

"Cain!" I yelled, kneeling down to examine his wound. Between one blink and the next, he was no longer a cougar but a fierce-looking, blood-soaked, naked man.

I had to fight back the overwhelming urge to cover him and growl at any who saw his nakedness. It was such a silly thing to worry about, amidst the blood and death around us, but it was near-overpowering just the same.

"I'm so sorry," he gasped, his hand reaching up to finger a bruise I knew was forming on my cheek from a blow I'd taken earlier. "I'd give myself up, if I thought he'd keep true to his word. But he would never... he's a liar. He'd kill me, and then you. I can't—"

"—Shh," I whispered, staring around him at the men fighting again. Dasan and Nibley now stood before both Cain and I, and it looked like Dean had finally fallen to a mercenary's blade. The little bobcat was pouncing from one man to another, injuring them enough to slow them down for Dasan and Nibley's blades. But they needed my help.

"You're alright," I finished, drawing myself up and away from him. "Run. Now. Get to safety. Please, Cain. Run."

I pulled away, back towards the fight, but was immediately overtaken by Cain, who glared down at me as he stood on shaky legs.

"I won't leave my mate, even unto death," he hissed angrily.

And everything fell into place.

His reluctant attraction.

His inability to truly push me away.

His possessive behavior as he fucked me.

His protectiveness now.

I was his mate. The mate of a wild mage. Me. I was the legendary soul mate to a cougar shifter.

Dear gods, I should not be so happy surrounded by death and violence.

"Cain!" the man called out mockingly, only about nine men backing him up now. The others lay around us in bloody heaps.

Malevolent gods, so many lives, snuffed out so quickly. For what? Greed? Revenge? What drove the man who knew Cain by sight, in either form?

"Didn't you learn your lesson, you stupid animal? Love is for the weak! This man will betray you, just as I did. Because who the fuck could love an animal?"

My rage knew no bounds as I turned, without much thought in my head but the sudden and gripping realization that this man, this snake, had been the one to break Cain so viciously it had taken me months just to get a peek inside of him. And the glimpse I'd gotten was full of terror and rage, all because of this monster who stood not ten feet from me.

Before I really knew what I was doing, the man was dead at my feet, Cain was screaming my name, then roaring his rage, and I was falling back into strong, warm arms, a blade stuck deep in my belly.