Carpathian 05 - Dark Challenge

will never allow you to go away unprotected," Desari reminded her gently. "He would send one of the men to look after you."
    A male leopard, large and well-muscled, moved out into the open and leapt with casual ease onto a low tree branch. It stared at the two women, its eyes unblinking, its sides rippling with power as it breathed steadily. Syndil glared at the animal. Desari shook her head.
    Barack, you must stop pushing her so hard. She is going to run if you keep this up . She used their common mental path, trying to convey the desperation Syndil was feeling.
    She will go nowhere without the consent of Darius. And if he were to give it, there would be nowhere she could go that I would not follow . The voice was arrogant.
    Without warning, Julian shimmered into solid form beside Desari, his arm dropping protectively around her shoulders. His eyes, molten gold filled with menace, were fixed on the leopard above them. The disturbance in Desari's mind had brought him instantly to her side. In that moment there was nothing easygoing about him, only a hard, implacable warrior honed by a merciless life.
    Do not drive her away from us , Desari pleaded, I beg you, be more gentle with her. You do not understand what has happened to her. She needs time to recover .
    I understand far more than you think, Desari. She is no longer living. She is merely existing. I cannot allow it to continue . Barack sounded cold and distant.
    Desari's dark eyes filled with tears. She turned her head into Julian's shoulder. "Please, Syndil, do not leave me. Not now. I need you here with me. Everything is so different."
    Syndil reached out and touched her hand. "If that is so, then he will not force me from my own family. I am strong enough to stand up to him." She glared at the leopard, who simply watched her without so much as blinking. Nodding at Julian, she moved away from them, disappearing into the trees. The leopard jumped soundlessly from the branch and padded after her.
    Desari glanced up at Julian. "Do you realize how really intimidating you can look when you want to?
    What did you think Barack was going to do?"
    He shrugged with his casual grace. "It did not matter, cara . I did not like the way he made you feel.
    These other males seem to think they have the right to interfere with you women. Only your brother, as the acknowledged leader, has such a right and duty. The others can do no other than protect you, as Barack has tried to do with Syndil. He cannot chastise you. You are my lifemate and answerable only to me and the Prince of our people. In your case, perhaps to Darius as well. But not to Dayan. Not to Barack. Only to the leaders and your lifemate."
    Her dark eyes flashed with fire. "I am answerable to you?" Her voice was even softer than usual, a velvet volcano waiting to erupt.
    Julian rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to allow the smile creeping up from his heart to show in his mind or on his face. "As I am answerable only to you, my lifemate, and to the Prince of our people."

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    She studied the sensual beauty of his face for a long time. He was amused by her flares of feminism, she could clearly read that, although he wisely attempted to cover it up. Yet she found herself appreciative that Julian cared enough to try to put them on the same footing. Whatever rules he deemed necessary in his mind for his lifemate, he attempted to be fair enough to place the same on himself. Julian was in many ways a chauvinist, like most of the males she had encountered, yet he was at least attempting to make their relationship an equal partnership. She caught at his arm and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. "I seriously believe that I am beginning to fall in love with you."
    His smile was pure masculine arrogance. "You are madly in love with me. Face it, cara mia , you know you cannot resist me."
    Her small fist thumped him in the middle of his chest. "When you talk like that I can. Occasionally I think I must be insane to put up with you. 'Madly in love' is not a way I would put things."
    His arm swept around her waist. "Sure you would, piccola , if you were not so stubborn." Julian bent his head to bury his face against the slender column of her neck. He loved her scent. She smelled so clean, so tempting. Beneath his wandering mouth, his stroking tongue, he felt the rush of life in her veins beckoning to him. Deliberately he nuzzled her