Chapter 24

Lyon dropped Kara's hands and rose, feeling suddenly strange. Off-balance. His chest heavy, like he wasn't sure he remembered how to breathe. Was this another problem due to the lack of radiance? Or something else? Something caused by the woman herself?

The moment he pulled away, Kara's gaze fled to the falls. She stared out at them now, her hair a golden glow around her. The pulse throbbing in her neck.

What just happened? She'd smiled, and he'd fallen. He'd felt as if his feet had been jerked right out from under him. As if his equilibrium had been suddenly stripped away.

Goddess, but she was a temptation he couldn't afford. What was he thinking bringing her out here alone? He should have at least brought one of the others with them. Hawke could have prepped her while he kept watch. Or Vhyper. He should have invited her mate. He could have watched to make sure he didn't go feral. But the thought of that snake's hands on her sent hot jealousy rushing through his bloodstream.

Damn, but he needed to get control.

Kara turned back to Lyon, feeling off-kilter. As if the sands had shifted beneath her feet. She loved him.

How screwed up was that?

She took a deep breath and struggled to settle down. What she felt for Lyon wasn't going to matter so long as he was convinced she had to marry Vhyper. Maybe there was a loophole somewhere. Dear God, there had to be a loophole somewhere.

Maybe for now, she simply needed to learn alt she could about this world and her role in it.

She looked at Lyon, watching the wind toss his thick hair as he watched her in return with enigmatic amber eyes.

"What's the purpose of this energy pull?" She linked her fingers together in front of her. "What can I do with it?"

"You have to pull the power in order to ascend."

"You keep using the word ascend. I'm not actually going anywhere am I?"

He turned away. "No, You'll call the power from the Earth, and we'll all share it."

"How?"

"There's nothing for you to fear."

Warning bells clanged in her head and she stood, staring at his strong profile.

"Oh, no you don't. The moment you tell me I shouldn't be afraid, I know I'd better start worrying. Spill it, Lyon. All of it."

"Later." His tone hardened with impatience. "You need to get back to work." But he wasn't meeting her gaze. She'd been down this path before and wasn't going there again.

"No way. You sent me into the Pairing without telling me I was getting a husband, and look how well that turned out. Don't you dare send me into another one unprepared."

His jaw clenched, and he remained mute.

Kara crossed her arms over her chest. "In case you hadn't noticed, this is not the way to calm my fears."

He glanced at her with a scowl. "You aren't going to like it."

"Tell me anyway. It's better if I'm prepared."

With a huff of frustration, he turned away and began pacing with tight agitation. "When the Ascension is over, you'll feel a rush of power like nothing you've ever experienced. We all will. And we'll be able to shift again."

"That's nice. Tell me the rest, Lyon."

He looked out over the river, then back at the path. Anywhere but her. Finally, his jaw set, and he met her gaze.

"The Ascension requires blood. And sex."

Kara's eyes widened as the word did a strange number on her pulse. "Sex? During the ritual?"

Lyon shrugged. "It's necessary. Only at the moment of sexual release is the body and mind fully opened. It's only at that moment that you'll be able to raise the powers of the Earth and make them yours."

She thought of the Pairing. How they'd been prepared to make her kiss them all. Them all.

"Sex with whom? How many times?"

"For goddess sake, Kara, we're not complete animals. One time. With your mate."

"With Vhyper." She went cold, imagining him forcing himself on her, into her, with the others there. With Lyon there. "I'm not having sex in front of eight men!"

"The rest of us won't watch."

"But you'll be there?"

"Of course. We have to be touching you when you raise the Earth's power in order to be renewed ourselves."

"Touching me?" Dear God, this was getting worse by the second. "Touching me where?"

"You'll be clothed, Kara," Lyon replied, his voice tight with strained patience. "In a ritual gown. Standing. We'll be kneeling, touching your feet or calves, heads bowed. Not watching. Your mate will enter you from behind."

Kara groaned. "You're making this up." They'd be right there, touching her legs, listening to every groan, every slap of flesh on flesh while she was mounted like some kind of… some kind of… animal. Her scalp crawled at the thought of Vhyper's hands on her, his penis pushing against her, forcing itself inside her tight dryness, because she would never be ready for him. Never.

Lyon threw up his hands in frustration. "This is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you wouldn't take it well."

"It's like some kind of frat-boy fantasy! You'll hear everything!"

Lyon scowled. "You wouldn't find it barbaric if you'd been raised Therian. We're shape-shifters, Kara. Part animal. Not a bunch of computer salesmen."

She flung her hands outward, mirroring his own frustration, and whirled away from him. "I can't believe this."

"Don't go anywhere."

She tossed him a heated glare and turned her back on him as she looked out over the river.

Lyon wished he could take back his words. He shouldn't have told her about the sexual nature of the Ascension, not this soon. She was far too human-minded for such truth. At the very least, he should have waited until after they were through with their work today.

They'd barely started, and already Kara stood at the far end of the stone, silhouetted against the brooding sky as she stared down at the Potomac, her back to him. The wind toyed with her hair, rippling the blue jacket that shielded taut shoulders.

For all her innate power and her Therian blood, she wasn't one of them, yet. The human world and morals had molded her thoughts and expectations. She needed time to accept the Therian ways, but time was the one thing they didn't have.

He stood, watching her, and raked his wind-tossed hair from his face. His timing might have been off, but she was right. The Ascension couldn't happen without a fully cooperative Radiant, and springing the sexual aspect of the ritual on her as they tried to ascend her would have been disastrous. At least this way she might get used to the idea by the time they got to it.

If she were his, he'd get her used to the idea. Goddess, but he'd enjoy getting her used to it. Bending her over, sliding inside her hot, wet sheath. Think of me. Only of me.

Blood rushed to his groin even as his stomach clenched with pain at the thought of kneeling at Kara's feet while Vhyper took her. How would he stand hearing Vhyper's groans and Kara's sexy whimpers as the passion rose between them? Listening to her cries as she came. Cries he'd come to love.

Goddess spare me.

He would survive it because he must, and thank the heavens and Earth he only had to be present for their coupling the one time. He'd find a way to be absent from their actual mating ritual, if it killed him.

"You aren't a bunch of shape-shifters," Kara muttered from behind the barrier of her stiff back. "You're a bunch of perverts."

Lyon had had enough. He went to her, took her by the shoulders, and forced her to face him. "You. Are. Not. Human. The sooner you stop thinking like one, the better for all of us, Kara. Yourself included."

The temper in her eyes drained away.

He softened his grip on her shoulders. "It sounds strange to you, I know, but it won't be. You'll be so caught up in the power, you won't think about being self-conscious. I promise."

The look in her eyes turned almost bleak. "I don't want it to be Vhyper."

His hands spasmed. His beast howled with a bleakness to match her own. What had he done? What grief had he pulled down on all their heads by giving in to his need for her when he'd prepped her for the Pairing? If she were his mate instead of Vhyper's, he was certain he'd be able to lead her through the ritual with relative ease because she trusted him. With the right encouragement, he could make her want him even under circumstances that might be embarrassing for her.

But Vhyper was still a stranger to her. Her acceptance of him under those trying circumstances was questionable. Even doubtful. And she must accept him.

Lyon's eyes were shuttered, his jaw tight as he squeezed her shoulders and released her. "Let's get started again. Sit down, Kara. We're going to try something a little different."

Kara wanted to argue. He was asking too much. At every turn he demanded she accept the strange ways of this world and forsake everything, she'd ever known. Forsake everything she was for a role that meant next to nothing to her. A role she'd give anything to give to someone else.

But at lunch she'd begun to accept that while the role might not mean anything to her, it meant everything to them. And she was stuck with it, whether she liked it or not.