Forgotten Read online

  “I don’t know. I don’t know where you can go, I just know you have to get away from here. Away from me.”

  Rone paced restlessly around the circle, marking off the dimensions of the invisible force-field they found themselves in. Sure enough, none of the trees were reachable. They were trapped—or Kate was. Trapped in an unbreakable cage with a male who was about to become a ravening Beast. Her heart skittered nervously in her chest—what was she going to do?

  “What in the Seven Hells are we going to do?” Kate heard Rone mutter to himself, repeating her internal question. “What can we…” Suddenly his nearly pure silver eyes drifted down to the bunch of purple gloved staybacks she still clutched in one hand. “Those!” He motioned excitedly. “You have staybacks!”

  “I do. I grabbed them as I left your aunt’s garden.” Kate looked down at the bunch of flowers which were now looking much worse for the wear—their stems crushed and their petals limp and drooping.

  “Use them on me—when I turn,” Rone directed. “Just keep pushing them into my face again and again.”

  “But…won’t that make you—make your Beast—angry?” Kate objected.

  “Yes, almost certainly,” Rone said grimly. “But it should also keep it—me— from getting to you. Please Kate, promise me you’ll do it. I feel…” He looked overhead, his deep voice strangled. “I feel the moons’ convergence. In another moment they’ll completely overlap and I…I won’t be able to hold it…hold it back any longer.”

  “I…” Kate didn’t know what to say.

  “Promise!” Rone insisted and his voice was little more than a growl now, his eyes almost pure silver. “Please, Kate—it’s coming forward. Taking over. I can’t…can’t…”

  The sentence ended in a long, liquid howl that set the short hairs at the nape of Kate’s neck on end. Overhead, the full moons of G’neral finally completely overlapped and in their pure silver light she saw the man who was her husband—the man who she had forgotten but was beginning to love all over again—changing.

  Rone had already taken off his shirt and now his muscular chest, which had always been so smooth, began to sprout hair.

  Kate watched in horrified fascination, wondering if he would become as hairy as the other Beast-man who had chased her through the forest. But no, to her relief, Rone’s chest hair mostly confined itself to his well-defined pecs with a small trail leading down the front of his washboard abs and into the black flight trousers he still wore. The whiskers on his face seemed to get thicker too until he was wearing a short, scruffy beard that made him look dangerous—like seven miles of bad road, her mama would have said.

  Well at least he didn’t grow a freaking fur coat like that other guy, Kate thought. In fact, Rone’s new look was kind of sexy in an animalistic way—if you liked guys with hairy chests. And Kate had never been opposed to them.

  Of course, what she was opposed to, she reminded herself, as Rone turned pure silver eyes filled with lust on her, was being held down and taken against her will.

  He made a low, questioning growl in the back of his throat and took a step towards her.

  Kate took a step of her own, away from him, as her heart leaped up into her throat.

  “Stay back,” he told the Beast, trying to keep her voice level and even. “Just stay back, okay? You and I weren’t ever supposed to meet so just leave me alone.”

  The Beast made another inquiring noise and came towards her again. This time Kate held her ground. With a hand that trembled only a little, she raised her wilting bouquet of staybacks and thrust them directly into his face.

  Rone’s Beast snarled and staggered back, pawing angrily at his face as the other Beast-man had done. Then he looked at Kate with an expression of distrust in his silver eyes.

  “That’s right,” Kate told him in a shaking voice. “Just…just stay back or you’ll get more of the same. Don’t try to get up to anything and we’ll get along just fine.”

  He growled softly and came towards her again.

  Again Kate thrust the wilted bouquet in his face and again he stepped back…but not as far as before. And it only took a moment before he came for her again.

  This time, Kate saw a kind of determination on his face. Rone might not be at home mentally right now but his Beast was clearly determined to get to know her…intimately.

  And would that really be such a bad thing? whispered a little voice in the back of her head. Was it the voice of the Knowing?

  What—letting Rone’s Beast rape me? Hell yes, it would, Kate told it sternly.

  You can’t keep this up all night, the voice said reasonably and this time she knew it was the voice of the Knowing. It isn’t safe—you’re just going to make him angrier and angrier. And you know what happens if the Beast can’t breed…

  “He’ll want to feed. Oh God,” Kate whispered to herself. “But what should I do?”

  She didn’t often communicate so directly with the inner sense inside her. Most often it only surfaced to give her the occasional warning or allowed her to read people when she needed to. But this time it spoke directly to her.

  Submit, Kate. Give yourself willingly.

  “Like the girl in the book—the Volume of Submission?” Kate muttered. “I can’t…I couldn’t. I don’t…don’t know Rone well enough for this, let alone his Beast. I’m not ready—not yet.”

  You may never be completely ready for something like this, The Knowing told her calmly. But the only way to get through this situation is to submit.

  “But what about what Tante Corii said? That the Beast would be able to smell if I wasn’t madly in love with him? With Rone? I mean, I’m starting to care for him but I’m not in love with him—not yet.”

  Yes, you are, whispered the Knowing. You just don’t remember it right now. But the Beast will scent your true emotions—the ones that are buried. Trust him, Kate…and trust yourself. You can do this. You have to. It’s the only way.

  “The only way. The only way,” Kate muttered to herself. The Knowing had never steered her wrong and usually she listened to it without a second thought. But this…what it was telling her to do now was hard…harder than anything she’d ever had to do before.

  A little distance away, the Beast Rone had become made a soft, inquiring growl and stepped towards her again. Kate raised the wilted bunch of stayback flowers once more and saw his pure silver eyes track her movements. A rumbling sound started deep in his chest and one corner of his sensuous mouth lifted in a snarl.

  Kate had a choice to make here and she knew it. Either she could continue to try and keep the very determined Beast away from her all night using the wilting stayback flowers…or she could listen to the Knowing and give in to the inevitable. What should she do?

  She lifted the flowers higher and Rone’s Beast growled again, its silver eyes filled with anger and mistrust. Kate made up her mind. Later she thought it was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life, but she took a deep breath…and tossed the flowers away.

  “It’s all right,” she said, kneeling down to rub her open palm against the grass to get rid of the scent of the staybacks. “Look…see? I don’t have them anymore.”

  Standing slowly, she held out her open hands, palm up, just like the girl in the Volume of Submission had.

  Rone’s Beast made a soft, uncertain growl in the back of his throat and eyed her suspiciously.

  “Really, I don’t,” Kate told it earnestly. “They’re all gone. You…you can come over and see…see for yourself if you want to.”

  Remembering another illustration from the book, she tugged at the neckline of the petal dress. It lowered easily and suddenly she felt the cool breeze on her bare breasts. Her nipples tightened immediately and she felt her heart beating like a jackhammer in her chest. But there was no backing down now.

  “See?” she told Rone’s Beast. “Here I am…come see for yourself.”

  He made another inquiring sound and came towards her again. Remembering that she shouldn�€