“I can do no other than demand it of you,” he said. “Call him to you.”
“If I do, he will believe he has the right to my obedience.”
“You are suffering needlessly. Whatever this man has done to bind you to him we cannot undo until we know more.” He forced a gentleness into his voice. “You know I cannot allow you to suffer, Desari. Call him to you.”
“I cannot. Did you not hear what I told Dayan? Women have rights, Darius. We cannot be ruled by men simply because they believe it is so.”
His icy black eyes captured her dark, sorrow-filled ones and held her gaze. “I have always been responsible for you and Syndil both. In this I must insist. I can feel your pain, the chaos of your mind. Do as I bid you.”
“Please, Darius. I do not wish to openly defy you.” Desari was actually biting her fingernails, the strain on her face terrible for her brother to witness. Her other hand nervously tugged its way through the mass of ebony hair cascading around her shoulders and down her back.
“You have done so repeatedly since this man entered our lives,” Darius reminded her gently. “I will tolerate only so much defiance from you, little sister. I realize this is a new experience, one outside our realm of knowledge, but I cannot allow you to suffer. Call Savage to your side.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes and on her long lashes. She sank onto the wooden bench beside the table, hanging her head in defeat.
“There is no need to call me.” Julian’s muscular form solidified beside her, close enough that she could feel his body heat. His arm curved around her shoulders. “I cannot take the separation from you, Desari.” He made the admission without hesitation, uncaring that Darius was within hearing, wanting only to spare her further pain.
“What have you done to me?” There were tears in Desari’s voice as well as her eyes. Her fingers curled into two tight fists so that her nails bit deeply into her palms. Her voice became a tragic whisper. “What have you done that I cannot be without you?”
Julian bent his head to hers, his grip gentle, tender as he pried her fingers open one by one. Very carefully he brought her hands to the healing warmth of his mouth, pressing a kiss into the exact center of each wounded palm. His golden eyes held her dark gaze captive.
Desari could feel the terrible knot in the pit of her stomach begin to melt from his molten heat. Whatever fire lay deep within him ignited a matching inferno deep within her. There was also a peace stealing into her soul and heart, filling the terrible emptiness. She was complete, totally complete again with him so close. Her lungs could work; her heart beat in a strong, steady rhythm.
“I can feel your fear, Desari,” Julian said softly. “There is no need. I cannot hurt you. I am your lifemate, responsible for your happiness.”
“How can that be if I cannot even be away from you for a short period of time?” Desari glanced at her brother, a silent plea for privacy. She had trouble enough accepting such a strange phenomenon without there being a witness to her humiliation.
Julian waited until Darius had signaled the two leopards to his side and disappeared into the dark interior of the trees to hunt. He palmed the nape of Desari’s neck, his fingers caressing her silken hair. “Our physical bodies can be in separate places,
piccola,
but our minds must touch often when we are apart.”
“You knew this, yet you withdrew. I chose to assert my independence, and you punished me for it,” she said, lifting her chin at him.
“You ignored your own safety,
cara mia,
” he said softly. “You refused to believe the things I tried to tell you, even when I gave you access to my mind. I had no choice but to allow you to learn firsthand that what I say is true. I am your lifemate; there cannot be untruth between us.”
Desari found one button on his immaculate shirt and twisted it nervously. “It was not as if I believed you lied. The things you believed—I did not doubt you thought them true. But it all seemed so unreal, like a fantasy, a dream. How could mere words bind us together for all eternity? How could one male have the power to so change a female’s life?”
“We are connected from birth,
cara,
” he explained, moving his body closer when he felt a shiver run through her. “Two halves of the same whole. There is only one true lifemate. I am fortunate that mine is so talented and beautiful. It is unfortunate, however,” he added, “that you are so willful and have no knowledge of what is expected of you.”
Desari leapt away from him, clearing the picnic table in a single bound. She looked wild and untamed, a sexy enchantress capable of taking his very breath away.
“You think me willful because I insist on taking control of my own destiny? Do not talk to me of this lifemate thing. It means nothing to me. Nothing at all. You breeze into my life, do something to tie us together, and then feel you have the right to dictate how I should live?”
Julian watched the expressions chasing across her beautiful, furious face. Everything about her was a miracle to him. How small and delicate her bones seemed to be. The sheen and mass of her silken hair was so luxurious he could lose himself in it. “I am of the Old World, a male Carpathian. I did not take into account that you would not know the ways of our people.”
“Is that supposed to be an apology of some kind?” Desari folded her arms across her body, shivering as if cold. “I do not care about the ways of your people.”
“Our people,” he corrected gently.
“My people are the ones I live with, share my life with. For instance, my brother, the one you tried to kill.”
“If I had tried to kill him,
cara mia,
he would be dead.” He raised a hand to prevent her indignant interruption. “I am not saying he would not have taken me with him; he very likely would have. But he was not really trying to kill me either. It was more a matter of being sure. Darius was not going to turn his beloved sister over to a stranger who was unable to protect her. It was a test.”
“Darius was testing you?” she repeated slowly. “This is some kind of male thing I should understand? Approve of?”
Julian moved so quickly he was on her before she had time to run. He never gave a warning, never twitched a muscle. He simply was there, his body crowding aggressively close, his hand spanning her throat, his thumb feathering back and forth along her delicate jaw. “Desari,
cara,
we have no choice but to learn each other’s ways. We are bound together. I would like to be able to say the pretty words you want to hear. That I was wrong to force your obedience—”
“Tried to force,” she corrected with a flash of her eyes.
Julian bent to brush his lips across the tempting satin of her forehead as amusement crept into the deep gold of his eyes. “Tried to force. That is true. I am fortunate that my lifemate is so powerful. Still,
piccola,
I was well within my rights to see to your safety. I can do no other than ensure your well-being. Our people cannot afford to lose even one woman, Desari. The total extinction of our race is nearly complete. Our women are our only hope. I will admit that I do not always follow the laws of our people, but in this I have no choice, and neither do you. Your safety and health must be placed above all else. The other woman you have traveling with you must be guarded as well.”
She swept a hand through her hair. “Are we meant only to provide children for our race, then? That is the sole reason for our existence?”
“No,
cara,
your existence is to bring joy to this world, as you have done for so many centuries. God would not have graced you with such a voice, such a powerful tool for peace, had he not meant for you to use it. But”—Julian shrugged his broad shoulders, his thumb tracing a pattern along her neck—”in time, that would be the hope, yes, that you and I would provide our race with more female children. I am uncertain what kind of a father I would make, as I never imagined myself in such a role, but I never thought I would find or be a lifemate either.”