He was both Carpathian and Lycan, and the combination made him an outcast. He had lived under a death sentence for centuries. There was no question of having a lifemate, no chance for him. He had long ago given up on that fairy tale. His lungs burned and he realized he was holding his breath. She was looking up at him with her amazing green eyes. The color changed, going from that deep emerald to a fascinating multifaceted aquamarine.
She knew. The signs for both of them had been there all along but they'd ignored them, misread them, or just plain didn't believe them. On some impractical level he'd been waiting for this one moment his entire life. She existed. His lifemate. The one woman who held the other half of his soul. She was the light to his darkness. She brought back real color and real emotions.
Everything hit him at once, all of it. Feelings. Vivid color. Her hair was red gold yet changed in the shadows to deeper hues or streaks of color blending together. For one moment, he just let the emotions wash over him. He wanted to go where love would be, with this woman, this incredible miracle standing in front of him, staring up at him with wide, shocked eyes.
There was fear in her eyes and if she knew the half of it, she would run for her life. Fen cupped the side of her face gently, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her satin-soft skin. His heart stuttered and thunder roared in his ears.
"My lady," he said softly. Regretfully. "I would give anything to bind you to me, but your protection must come first. You can't be anywhere near me. I'm under a death sentence and anyone giving me safe harbor or aiding me will be killed with me. If they find you and know who you are, they will not take chances. They will kill you, too."
Tatijana blinked up at Fen. His declaration was the last thing she expected. She'd braced herself for the claiming, the words that she knew would bind their souls for all time. There would be no living without him, and no precious freedom-the thing she wanted above all else.
"Why would someone want to kill you?" She sounded just a little accusing, a little miffed. She glanced toward the three men secreted in the trees in the distance. They were waiting to ambush the couple and wouldn't creep through the brush-at least not until they got a lot more courage. "What did you do?"
A faint smile appeared on his face at the slight accusation in her voice. "Don't pretend you wanted me to claim you. You did everything in your power to keep me from knowing that you're my lifemate. I don't think outraged feminine ruffled feathers are the appropriate response. You should be jumping for joy."
"Well I'm not. Jumping for joy, I mean, that you're my lifemate. I can't have a lifemate right now. I've got issues."
His grin turned into a smile that warmed his eyes and that made him all the more attractive. His eyes were amazing. In the tavern they'd been ice-cold blue, like the ice in the caves that had been her home for so long. She'd been drawn to his eyes. Now they were even a deeper, richer blue, like the glittering sapphires that she'd seen in Xavier's cache of gems and artifacts he'd used for his magic. She didn't feel in the least that it was her fault she was acting like a ninny, not when he had those blue eyes.
She held up her hand. "But, here's the thing, Fen. I'm not going to leave my lifemate, or any Carpathian in trouble. So why are you under a death threat and from whom?"
He shook his head. "Woman, you do know how to complicate things, don't you?"
She liked the idea that she did. She liked the idea of complicating his life. She'd never had that experience before and she found she was quite proud of her abilities.
His smile widened, and she realized she hadn't taken care to guard her mind from him. He was there before she realized, pouring warmth into her, filling every barren lonely place, fusing with her mind, joining them together. She caught glimpses of his memories, but she found them strange, not Carpathian.
"You like messing with me," he accused, but the laughter in his voice and the warmth in his incredibly blue eyes belied any anger.
She'd never "messed" with anyone before. It took a moment to translate the modern jargon in her mind, but yes, she quite liked "messing" with him. He was providing several new and exhilarating experiences. "I do, yes." The smile faded from her face. "Those three men waiting to jump me don't really present a threat to either one of us, but you're very serious about this death threat. Is Zev hunting you? Is that why you said he was so dangerous?"
He sighed and tucked her hand against his chest. "You're really going to insist on an explanation, aren't you? If anyone finds out you know, they would come after you."
She lifted her chin. "I'm not afraid, Fen. I've faced monsters you cannot conceive of . . ." She studied his rugged features, the lines in his face. "Maybe you can. But the point is, I will not run from trouble. I'm not going to hide. Just tell me why."
"Centuries ago, I was hunting a particularly savage vampire. I'd never run across one so powerful and brutal. He was destroying entire villages, killing everyone in them, and for some reason I couldn't feel him at all, not his energy, or any of the usual means of finding a vampire. Sometimes, when hunting vampires it's what's not there that gives them away, yet I was always one step behind. I could track him by his destruction, but I couldn't get ahead of him."
Fen turned his head toward the three men waiting. Tatijana immediately realized he had been listening to them the entire time. Carpathian hunters had enormous skills, aware of their surroundings at all times, even when they seemed totally focused on one thing-one person.
She was a little disappointed that she hadn't kept his entire attention when he'd kept hers. "Seriously, those men are annoying me now." She marched toward them, forgetting that Fen was on the other end of her hand. She managed three steps and came to an abrupt halt. She swung around, scowling at him. "What are you doing?"
"Wondering what you're planning," he replied, one eyebrow raised.
She swung back to face the threat. "I'm so disgusted with the three of you," she called out. "If you're planning on jumping us, get it done already. I'm trying to have an important conversation and Fen here is having difficulty concentrating. So either gather up your courage and come out into the open where the two of us will annihilate you, or slink on home."
Fen burst out laughing. The rich, husky tone was so unexpected, so masculine that the sound seemed to reverberate through her body, sending little shock waves of electrical current sizzling through her bloodstream.
"I'm not having difficulty concentrating," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "I'm hanging on your every word."