Saturday Snippet – The Hero

In anticipation of the release of Malcolm at the end of the month, I'm probably going to talk a lot about my cougar shifters this month. In fact… Today's snippet is all about Kane.

This is Kane's trading card that I will be handing out at conferences this year as well as making available by mail to anyone who wants one.

Snippet:

It would be a cold day in hell before she begged for anything from him, but she thought about his other question. What did she want? Just him dead, right? She looked at him, really looked at him. It had been weeks since she'd seen him last, and unfortunately he looked even better than she remembered. His spiked, short hair had grown out since then and it was messier and in desperate need of a comb, or maybe her fingers running through it.

His eyes, glaring at her, were dark, like coal in anger. She stood too far away to make out the flecks of gold she'd seen before. The grim line of his lips against the square, firm jaw made her want to laugh out loud. He was damned irresistible right now. It wasn't right for him to look so—so sinful. He made her think of sex. Sex on the floor, sex on the wall, sex damn near any which way she could get it.

She let out a slow, unsteady breath. She had to stop thinking about him like that; the time for fun was long gone.

"I'm tired of playing with you, cat. It's time to end this."

"What exactly is this?" His hands gestured around them. "You're a criminal, Lara. One who now has a death sentence against her."

"I'm not the one who deserves to die." Her anger fired hot and she practically spat at him. "You and yours are the only criminals as far as I'm concerned. You're just afraid for someone to finally expose you for what you really are." She turned away from him. What she felt when she looked at him and what she knew were at odds, and it drove her crazy. Nerve endings sizzled as desire warred with the facts her brain wouldn't let her forget.

"You aren't making any sense. Make me understand what this is all about."

She whirled back around and stalked across the room, careful not to get too close to the circle, which could weaken.

"Tell me something, Kane. Before you kill, do you even take the time to learn something about your victim?"

"What the hell kind of question is that? I don't take lives because I enjoy it. I do it because it has to be done, it's a duty—a job. Without order and rules our secrets can't be maintained. And then people like you start hunting us, wanting to kill all of us because of fear of the unknown. We aren't evil, you know. Hell, I'm standing in a spell you created with black magic, talk about evil. You of all people should understand different. So what exactly is your damage?"

"My damage?" She wanted to reach through the barrier holding him and slap the crap out of him, maybe knock some sense into that pretty boy head of his. What had she been thinking? "How can you be sure you aren't killing the innocent? Do you ever question the validity and integrity of your precious council?"

"Why should I? Every case is presented and voted on by unbiased members of our clan. It's their duty to ensure everyone a fair trial and our system has worked well for a very long time."

"Like with me?" His blind faith burned in her gut worse than a wicked case of indigestion that wouldn't go away no matter how many antacids you popped.

"I witnessed your treachery with my own eyes. The evidence is pretty cut and dry." His voice had lowered, and if she didn't know better she could have sworn she detected a thread of sadness. In fact, now that she thought about it, he didn't seem all that angry about being trapped. Did he not believe she would really kill him? Would she?

"You're nothing but a liar. An animal that wouldn't see the truth if it bit him on the ass." Power flared through her as the edge of her control frayed.

"That's right, honey. I'm an animal and right now I can smell just how full of shit you are. You think you can hide your wet little pussy from me? That I can't sense arousal?"

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