Of what, he didn’t know. Just that he couldn’t make himself kill the male despite his best attempts. His body simply refused.
What his body wanted instead, Sin’s mind refused.
He wouldn’t go there. It was…impossible, on so many levels.
Sin stretched and tensed his muscles, bracing his wounded body to move. He looked down again at the unconscious Hunter beneath him and contemplated what he should do.
Until he figured out what the Hunter was to him, beyond a vendetta he intended to collect, he’d have to keep him in his sights, Sin decided. He couldn’t risk leaving him behind, in the event that the Hunter wouldhunthim when he awoke. If he couldn’t kill his enemy just now, he might as well keep his enemy close.
So, he closed his jaws around the male’s forearm, careful not to break skin (much), and tugged.
The Dark Hunter was a substantial, muscular male, and though Sin outweighed him by ten times even in his emaciated weakened state, it wasn’t easy to drag a three-hundred-pound prey this tall and large. Sin tugged him along for a few minutes, not making much progress, except to make the male’s forearm bleed and potentially dislocate his shoulder if Sin pulled with more force.
Growling with frustration, he dropped the man’s arm and circled the body, trying to find a better way to move him. If he tried the same by gripping the man’s clothes, they would simply tear off of him.
If you changed into a man yourself, you could carry him in your arms, a voice in the back of his head whispered.
Sin shook his head vehemently at the thought.
He hadn’t taken human form since he lost his mate. The only reason for a Beast to take human form was to mate.
Physically, the ability to turn human was always possible, with or without mating. But Beasts preferred their animal forms. There was no incentive to walk on two legs if not with their mates.
Was the incentive of bringing his prize—er,prey—with him enough to transform? Sin ground his back molars at the very thought.
And yet, the next time he tried to move the male, he’d taken human form despite his own reluctance, as naturally as breathing, without conscious thought.
He scooped up the massive male with his arms and straightened to his own considerable height. Beasts retained most of their animal strength in human form, so it was easy to carry the Hunter as he strode swiftly away from the base of the mountain and into the forest beyond.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
It was the crackling of the fire that pulled him from his pain-filled abyss. The smoky scent and the flickering warmth.
That, and the flesh-tearing, bone-crunching, lip-smacking sounds of a beast devouring his meal.
Zai opened his eyes just a sliver, peering out from the thicket of his lashes. Otherwise, he didn’t move, didn’t so much as twitch.
But, the predator who watched over him missed nothing. The smacking noises suddenly ceased, as the liger raised his head from the carcass beneath his massive paws to glare intensely in Zai’s direction.
Zai kept his breathing slow and steady, even as his pulse jumped in his throat.
The liger flattened his ears back and curled his lips in a low warning snarl, baring two rows of extra sharp teeth, his muzzle coated in blood.
Zai could almost hear the Beast’s thoughts in his head:
You are only alive by my mercy. If you so much as sneeze in a way that displeases me, I will happily tear you limb from limb.
Hmm. Those were very specific thoughts, Zai reflected. Uttered in a husky rumble, like war drums.
What were the odds that these were actually the liger’s thoughts and voice? Zai had never before had the ability to communicate telepathically with anyone else.
Why haven’t you done it already?He wondered.
Why am I still alive?
As if the Beast heard him, he growled menacingly in pure frustration, as if he didn’t understand why he hadn’t ended Zai already himself.
Finally, the liger tore away his gaze and concentrated again on the fresh kill of his meal. Though he didn’t look at Zai, the raised hackles and visible tension in his muscles showed that he was intensely aware of Zai’s presence nonetheless.