Shield's Lady

Sariana did look a little like a ghost. But this was no creature made of transparent, untouchable vapor. Gryph knew the lady moving toward him on velvet slippered feet would probably resist the touch of his calloused hand, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be grasped and held.
    He had given the matter a great deal of thought since his first encounter with Sariana and he knew he had reached a turning point in his life. In courting Sariana he would be seeking to alter his own future and hers. Not an easy task.
    It would be more of a hunt than a courtship, he figured; the most demanding kind of hunting he had ever done. Chasing bandits was much simpler than courting Sariana was going to be. Everything was against him. He was from the wrong continent and the wrong social class. On top of that he got the impression she didn’t even like him very much. Oh, she was aware of him, all right. He was sure of that. But that didn’t mean she liked him. Dealing with him was a necessary bit of unpleasantness she was willing to endure in order to reach her goal.
    But every time he saw her a jolt of shuddering awareness went through him. The sensation was nothing as simple and straightforward as lust. That he could have handled one way or another. Instead, it was an acute, indescribable hunger that poured through his entire body like hot rain. It was different from normal sexual desire, more powerful, more complex and, therefore, more dangerous.
    The driving need had been born within him the night he had awakened, mind spinning from the drug, and focused on the woman who had dared to touch his weapon kit. Even unmated and unlinked with him, she’d had the power to reach him in some manner. She hadn’t even been aware of what was happening. It had all taken place on a very subtle level. An untuned mind such as Sariana’s would not have understood the tendrils of awareness that had pulled him out of his drugged haze.
    The powerful emotions that had been incited in that moment had been steadily gaining strength since then. Kissing Sariana two mornings ago had done nothing to alleviate the growing need within Gryph. It had only fed it, making it more powerful and demanding.
    Now a restless, driving energy pervaded his bloodstream. Soon the demand for release would become much more fierce. Gryph knew deep in his guts that there was only one way to satisfy the hunger within himself. He needed Sariana Dayne in a way that was unique to his kind.
    He had never felt these volatile sensations before in his life. He had known there was a chance he might escape coming under the sway of their compelling power. Not every Shield was lucky enough to find a true Shieldmate.
    But he was prepared for the violent sensations. At least, he decided wryly, he was as prepared as a man could be for such an onslaught. His father, like his father before him, had tried to explain the uniqueness of a Shield’s hunger when he found a woman with whom he could link and mate. A Shield could satisfy the appetites of the body with any woman who appealed on a physical basis. But finding a Shieldmate was another matter altogether.
    It wasn’t a matter of love or even of passion. It was a matter of survival. Only a true Shieldmate could give a Shield a son.
    Shield marriages were different in some fundamental ways from the normal alliances of men and women. The people of the western provinces knew that. The special laws, social structures and customs that pertained only to the Shield clans respected that difference.
    Gryph wondered how far he’d get if he tried to explain all that to Sariana. He had the distinct impression she would not take pity on him and offer herself in total surrender.
    Gryph stood very still in the deep shadows of the palm and went over his options. At this point he only had two. The first was to leave the Avylyn household at once. Preferably tonight. There was still time to get away and put an end to this whole business. He suspected that, once out of sight of Sariana, the powerful forces simmering in him would eventually fade. They had to be channeled and focused before they could grow much stronger. They were not completely ungovernable, at least not if he halted things at this stage. A strong, willful man could handle them.
    The second option was to complete the channeling and focusing of the fierce desire within him. To do that he would have to take Sariana Dayne to bed. There he could forge the bond between them in the ancient way