The Delta's Daughter Chapter 287

CRIMSON

My skin prickled from the slight drop in temperature. The only way I knew that the day was changing to night. The slight drop in the air and the recess of humidity told me night had begun to fall. I had determined, by using this method, that I had been chained up in this dark room for 2, maybe 3 days?

Of course, I can’t account for the time I was unconscious.

I was still chained up, but the idiots had loosened the ones around my arms and only had links secured around my ankles and wrists.

I was at full strength now.

It would be easy for me to escape.

I didn’t attempt an escape, though. I had only seen Tawny, or rather heard my kitten, that one time. I didn’t know the layout of where I was being held, or even where. I would be a fool if I broke out of here only to get captured again because I didn’t know where they were keeping my girl.

My girl.

I never thought I would be thinking like that about another woman other than Gillian, yet Tawny came barreling into our lives like a tornado. Sweeping me off my feet and demolishing everything I thought I knew in the best possible way.

There was no way I would leave her behind. I just pray that no harm has come to her. I will kill every motherfucker that has dared to touch what’s mine.

Mine.

A sadistic smile creeps over my face, as I think of exactly how I want to make her mine. For however long I have sat in this dark dingy prison cell, it has given me time alone. Time alone to think and process.

To understand myself and realize what a moron I have been.

I should never have asked Tawny to wait for me. I should have told Gillian the first time I understood what Tawny and I were to each other. Then I should have claimed my kitten. Made her mine.

Maybe then, she wouldn’t have rejected me.

For months I put her through heartache and shamefully, I also put her through pain, thinking of the times I fucked Gillian after I had met Tawny.

My chest pulls tight at the thought of me being the cause of her anguish. I have to hand it to my kitten though, she is one tough girl.

Strong, stubborn, and willful, but also kind and loving. A born Queen. My Queen. I know for a fact she deserves better than me.

Call me selfish but once I get the fuck out of here and find my girl, I will never let her go again. I will worship her for the rest of our lives and that’s a promise I vow to keep to any god that may be listening.

A noise jostles me out of my thoughts. I scent the air, determining it is the same two guards who bring me a plate of bread and cheese every day just as the air starts to cool down.

The door scrapes open, the room flooding with light, making me squint as my sight adjusted. The men come in, putting the tray down by my feet. “Last meal Prince charming.” One guard says, chuckling and smiling.

“Enjoy it, because once the sun rises, and our king has claimed his queen, your time is up.” There was something mischievous in the second guard’s voice. An undertone of excitement for his king to claim a queen. The notion didn’t sit right with me.

In fact, everything about his expression and tone crept over me, making my skin crawl and my stomach become unsettled. A deep pull at my chest had my heart rate spiking.

“If I’m going to die come sunup, do you two dipshits mind telling me where I’m being held and by who? Also, do I get to say goodbye to my girl you are holding here too?”

They share a look before they both crack up laughing. “Not that it matters, but you are in the kingdom of Tolba, by morning this land will be under the rule of King Arik. And I doubt your girl even wants to see you.”

“She will be too preoccupied” The second man chuckles. “Enjoy your last night alive freak!”

They close the door behind them, darkness cascading over me again.

They were lying. Tawny is my mate, the bond is not broken and by the way, her body responded to me before we were snatched, I know for a fact she wanted everything to do with me. I knew it to be true, I felt it.

I close my eyes, steadying my heartbeat. If I’m going get out of here then I have to do it tonight, there was no way I was dying come sunrise. I would say over my dead body, but that was the point, right?

I had a bad feeling about this king Arik. I had heard of Tolba, but it was a myth. The legend of the Lion shifters. There were no Prides left in the realm. They had been wiped out long ago. Or so I had thought.

Like a creeping cat, the sounds of drums filled the still air in this suffocating room. The beat carried an air of danger and promise, and the echoing thump vibrated over my skin.

They were celebrating.

I lift my head up towards the ceiling and let the feel of the rhythm wash over me as I channel all my energy. When taking a deep breath, the scent of nectarines hit my nose and the sweet taste tainted my tongue.

I recognized the scent immediately. My little Kitten. She must be close.

With each second that passed by her scent became stronger and the pull to her was overpowering. I gulped in the stale air, swallowing as much of her surrounding scent as I could.

My eyes changed, a soft red casting a low glow over my face. My skin rippled and my claws Began to form, without me wishing it. I wasn’t in control of my own shift. Something – or someone was calling to my inner beast, and I was responding with compliance.

My mate. She is in heat.

My body came to life as images of Tawny being claimed by another filtered through my head. The more I imagined the angrier I became. Until finally fur erupted all over me. My muscles stretched and ballooned, my teeth poked over my lips and my ears became pointed. My skin was covered in silky red fur in my half-shifted state. I growled and flexed my muscles until the chains snapped. Then I ripped the ones from ankles and wrists clean off.

“Fuck yeah,” I mumble through my teeth, feeling exhilarated and rejuvenated.

My nose twitches with the scent of our mate getting stronger, and my ears hone in on the quickening of the drumbeat, now accompanied by singing and panpipes.

Tawny was in heat, and they were going to take her. Claim her. The words of the guard came back to me.

“Over my fucking dead body!” I growl out loudly. Ready to show these fuckers, exactly who and what I am.

No holding back anymore.

No more Mr. nice kitty.

The world will burn in hell if they touch what’s mine. I will rip them limb from limb and feast on their bloody bodies.

There is no handle on the metal door, that opens inward. So, I raise my clawed foot and slam my heel into the middle of cool metal that crumbles under the force. I rip the door back finding no guards and proceed to find the way out.

I’m coming for you, my Princess. I promise her silently, just hoping I’m not too late.

Up a short flight of stairs, I find myself in another room with only one door that I hope leads to freedom. My clawed hand wraps around the handle and I pull it open to meet the back of a guard.

By the time the guard realizes I’m behind him, it’s too late. He jerks as my hand clenches his neck, cutting off his air supply. I lower his body to the ground. He’s not dead but my inner conscious is screaming for blood.

I latch on to my mate’s scent gulping in the warm air I had missed for the past few days and let out a Yowl, loud and promising. I’m coming for what’s mine.

I find three more guards, or rather they find me. This time I have no choice but to kill them. Quickly and silently My claws rip into them, slashing throats and punching through chest cavities. My motions are fluid and precise. Exhilarated by the spill of blood I get excited and sink my fangs into the last one’s neck, tearing his soft flesh and severing his main artery. I pull back like a starved and crazed beast as his body hits the floor with a thud.

I waste no time and shift from the half form I am in, to paws – heading towards the beat of the drums, the chant of song, and my kitten.

*****

TAWNY

Earlier today, I was plucked from my tiny room and taken to the large mansion I had seen before. I was surprised at how modern the décor was, with plush couches and large area rugs and tapestries that decorated the walls.

It was unlike what I was expecting or had experienced so far.

Placing me inside another room the guards stood outside the door until three women came and told me they needed to prepare me for the celebration and feast.

I was scrubbed in a lavish bath, perfumed, plucked, and shaved. What stood out the most was they had running water. A shower and flushing toilet. Leaving me to wonder why they couldn’t have put me in here in the first place.

It’s simple things like a real bathroom you miss when it has been taken from you.

I was given a black dress to wear, with long gold tassels that hung from seams at the side. It was simple but fitting and pretty in its own way. Unfortunately, they hadn’t given me any underwear or shoes.

When I asked about that they said it was customary to go barefooted and I didn’t need undergarments.

The sun was just setting, casting a beautiful violet and golden hue over the treetops. Dusk was approaching and the feast was ready to begin.

I was walked down to the training grounds, where I first met Arik. They placed me in a seat at the head table which surprised me. It was unusual to place a prisoner in such a favored seat. Maybe because Althea believed I was her granddaughter? I didn’t know.

Althea and Arik joined me at the table taking their places. A servant came and poured us wine, filling my cup almost to the brim.

I watched the Pride interact as more filtered through and found seats around the sandy edges.

Althea said they were 500 strong and looked as if almost all 500 hundred Pride members had come to celebrate.

I sip my wine, watching, and observing. The vibrant enthusiasm rolled off the Pride members and into me. I could almost taste their fever and it excited me. Creating my body to hum in tune with their animation. The area is lit by torches, giving the scene an ethereal and magical feel.

“Tolba Pride!” Althea stood, the crowd quieting with the first syllable of her words. “Tonight, we celebrate the end of a cycle and the dawn of a new sun! Tonight, crowned prince Arik will receive the right of passage and take his rightful place as your king. On dawns early light he will claim his queen, and with the rise of a new sun, so will your new leaders!”

The gathered Pride cheers at Althea’s words. She smiles down at the Lion shifters with pride and love. I sit by her side and on her other side sits Arik.

“Drink, dance, eat, and praise the moon for she brings us a new day, new cycle! The feast begins at dawn!”

Despite my situation, being snatched, held against my will - and my mate being locked up below ground ¬– I felt massive for gratitude being able to witness this celebration and be included. It’s not every day you are privy to observe a Pride changing hands, announcing the era of a new King. It was an honor to be here.

Althea finished her speech and sat down next to me.

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. The beat of drums slowly filled the room, the tune melodic but carrying a whisper of danger. Undertones of windpipes joined the chorus. The pace was fast, yet whimsical. When a woman began to sing, filling the gap between drum and wood, a feeling passed through me.

The woman’s voice gave me goosebumps, and a desire coiled deep inside me. My body began to heat as more women joined in creating a buzz in the sir. Their words sound sultry, though I couldn’t understand them. They sang in a dialect I didn’t recognize.

I look at Aletha, she senses my stare, and turning to me she smiles back. She leans back in her chair, and I come face to face with Arik. “Princess Tawny,” He offers me a lopsided grin. “It is customary, that visiting royalty would usually bring a gift, as you are not aware of our customs and could not, will you honor me with a dance… as a gift?”

Arik’s eyes are hopeful, full of lust, and darker if possible. I look back at the party taking place in front of us. People are up, dancing, bodies slumped closer together, hips moving in tangent.

The way they move with each other is fluid, and sexy, a tempo that makes me think of sex. Of two bodies in a dance of foreplay.

I agree, even though I know I shouldn’t, but the beat, the flow, it’s all around me. Calling to me. Flowing through my body and strumming my deepest desires. I can’t resist.

I nod at Arik, and he stands coming to my side and offering me his hand. I take it, letting him lead me from the main table to where others are dancing.

“Feel the music princess,” He whispers, taking a sip from a cup and passing it to me.

I oblige, sipping the fruitful wine and letting the alcohol work its magic.

My hips sway, my arms lose, as I let the music and laughter blanket me, carrying me away to a far-off place. Large hands gently grip my hips, and a rush of heat rises from my veins.

I pant at the feeling of strong hands roaming me. The press of muscles and the masculine scent that my back has me arching into the touch. I press back grinding my ass onto a very large and hard bulge.

I don’t care, everything feels… sooo good, so right. I’m calm and relaxed, but my body buzzes needing more of that friction. More connection.

I smile when silk ties are wrapped around my arms, Arik pulls me to him, hands snaking down my arms. The silk ignites a spark deep in my abdomen where heat pools and an ache to be filled gathers.

I’m not sure what kind of wine they make here, but it’s some strong shit that has me behaving like a starving whore.

Hands cup my ass, my waist, knead my breasts. They are everywhere and… I don’t hate it. Truth be told my body responds embarrassingly as I arch and grind against whichever body is pressed against mine.

I open my eyes when I realize I have had them closed, just feeling.

“You will make me a fine Queen,” Arik growls, his tongue darting out to lick my jaw, and like a hussy I purr at the contact, shocking myself.

My reaction is enough to jolt my mind into momentary clearness.

This isn’t right, I shouldn’t be having this reaction!

‘Heat,’ Juniper hisses from deep within.

Oh, I think then relinquish my hands to roam over Arik’s wide and chiseled chest.

I feel like I’m floating, flying as hands, so many hands, touch and caress me. Suddenly I’m laying down, and those same hands, or maybe different ones, stroke and knead me.

The silk is wound around my hands, tightening with each slip of the fabric. My eyes flutter closed, then open. The glow from the torches cast erotic shadows, my vision is hazy, and my mind is clouded with lust.

I gyrate my hips seeking out friction to subdue the craving between my legs.

I need to be filled; I need my thirst quenched. “Crimson,” I call out for my mate, craving his touch. Needing only his touch.

For a brief second the haze clears from my mind, and it dawns on me what is happening.

I am the feast.

I am the claiming.

It’s not what I want but I’m powerless to stop it.

The wine, the music, my heat…

My body gives in to its cravings.

“Crimson,” I whisper, needing my mate. My eyes flutter open again, to find Arik hovering over me. His bare skin is heated and brushes against me. “Crimson,” I call for him again.

“No princess, I am your king, you will be my queen. When you wake, you will belong to me.”

“No!” I protest with my words, but my body wants what he’s promising me.

I turn my head and try to tug my hands-free, it’s useless. The beat of the drums quickens and the voices singing deepen. “No… Crimson,” I plead as I feel Arik’s hands slide over me, his tongue licks my neck, and he nips where my mate should mark me.

But my mate isn’t coming for me. My mate would never claim me. He belongs to someone else.

From somewhere a loud roar penetrates the air, making my body quake with the power behind it.

A flash of Crimson red flits across my line of vision and I know he has come for me.