Talon/Xavier (Bayou Heat) by Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright Page B

of your people to protect the female?”
    His answer came without hesitation. “Yes.”
    Isi forgot to breathe, her gaze locked on Talon’s broad back as he stood between her and the powerful females who wanted her dead.
    Never had anyone stood up for her. Let alone risked their life to protect her.
    God…Talon was willing to sacrifice his people.
    The last layer of her protective barriers shattered as the bond between them settled into place, irrevocably binding them together.
    There was the sensation of surprise before the voices of the elders echoed through her brain.
    “You’ve mated her.”
    “Fate mated us,” Talon countered.
    Mated. Yes. The word was perfect for the bond she felt for Talon.
    But even as she adjusted to the knowledge that her future was forever bound to the cat, a fierce fury was racing through her.
    She’d been alone for as long as she could remember, and now, just when she had the opportunity to share her world with a man who she loved and a sister who needed her, the damned elders were threatening to snatch it all away.
    “It changes nothing,” they were saying, their gazes studying her with a grim determination.
    “Fuck that,” Talon snarled. “It changes everything.”
    “You will give us the female or you will die,” the elders warned.
    Talon shrugged. “Then I die.”
    “No.”
    The horrified denial was jerked from Isi’s lips as she rushed down the steps to stand beside her mate.
    Talon turned to glare at her with a smoldering frustration. “I told you to stay in the house.”
    She lifted a hand to brush her fingers through his silky hair, her heart twisting with a fear that had nothing to do with her own danger, and everything to do with this man who’d somehow become a vital part of her existence.
    “I won’t let them hurt you.”
    His expression tightened with a savage need to protect her. “Not your choice.”
    “Yes,” she said softly. “It is.”
    “Dammit, Isi,” he growled. “You’re not alone anymore. We’re in this together.”
    Together. A wistful smile touched her lips.
    It was ironic. She spent her whole life avoiding relationships, certain they would demand a price she wasn’t willing to pay. Now, when she was facing certain death, she realized that there was no price to love.
    It didn’t take.
    It gave.
    Everything.
    “Not if it means watching you die,” she said in husky tones. “Anything but that.”
    His cat glowed in his eyes, his emotions scalding the air with heat as the two male Pantera rapidly approached.
    “Isi…no.”
    Her finger brushed his lips before she was turning to haul ass toward the side gate, glancing over her shoulder as she flipped off the elders.
    “You want me? Then catch me, you bitches.”

 
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Talon was braced for the two Hunters who charged toward him, prepared to kill them if that’s what it took to protect his mate.
    It didn’t matter that he’d trained with them. Or that they were only following the commands of the elders.
    If they stood between him and the woman who was his other half then they had to die.
    On the point of shifting, Talon was caught off-guard when the nearest Pantera halted, pointing a small crossbow in his direction.
    What the hell?
    He dodged to the side as the small bolt whizzed toward him, striking him in the upper thigh.
    The weapon wasn’t large enough to cause permanent damage, but Talon swiftly realized that he was in trouble.
    Already a thick potion laced with malachite was pumping through his bloodstream, caging his cat and weakening him.
    God. Dammit.
    “Don’t interfere, Talon,” the voices of the elders thundered through his mind as they went in pursuit of Isi who’d already vaulted over the gate and disappeared into the marshes.
    The two guards followed behind them, leaving Talon to collapse against the stairs of the porch.
    Black fury engulfed him, his cat roaring in distress as the scent of his mate faded.
    On hands and knees he tried to claw his