Clawless

Excerpt

Chapter One

She took his breath away.

Griffin Hayes had never been so dazzled in his life. Something inside him snapped the moment she entered the room and was introduced. He could still feel her hand in his. Try as he might, he couldn’t concentrate on what her father said. The last twenty-four hours had been harrowing and scary as hell. None of it matched the hammering in his chest as he gazed at her.

Jenna Sahara.

He realized her father, Marcus, waited for an answer from him. Shit. He’d look like a jackass if he didn’t say something soon. He’d come here for another reason but now vowed to himself he wouldn’t leave without her. What had happened? It was too unbelievable. But he couldn’t stop himself. From watching her or wanting her.

Thank God the man started to talk again. Griff’s eyes followed her when she moved. She took a seat beside the beautiful woman with short hair the same color as hers. Mother and daughter, their resemblance striking. He would have said sisters if asked.

When Jenna turned her eyes to him, he sucked in a lungful of air. Christ! His cock knocked at the front of his pants. If he’d been standing, he would have dropped to his knees. The room swam when her full red lips curved into a smile. He exhaled slowly, sure everyone had heard him groan. He forced his attention back to her father. Desperation set in as he moved his arms to hide the hard on.

“Mr. Hayes, we are immortal and the Fates, or the Gods, have graced us with amazing beauty and strengths. Elders have the vampyre ability of kinetic powers and enthrallment, which I will use to erase your memory of these events.” Jenna’s father kept talking. He spoke about vampyres. Weren’t they cats? Or are they both? Griff didn’t give a shit. Unless Marcus read his mind. Damn, did he know what he wanted to do to Jenna? What had he gotten himself into?

“I don’t want you to erase my memory. I would like to date your daughter, sir.” He barely paid attention to a word of the speech while watching her. He’d listened, even pretended interest.

The woman of his dreams. He thought the other two women, the jaguars he had saved, were beautiful. This woman lit up the room.

An abundance of straight chocolate brown hair hung down her back. Deep brown almond shaped eyes sparkled and long sooty lashes fluttered to her honey colored cheeks each time she blinked. Her lips were full and sexy. They’d feel so good wrapped around his cock.

She could have graced the cover of the girlie magazines he used to buy. She exuded sex appeal. His eyes continued to travel over her body, noticing firm, round breasts that strained against her tee shirt. A small waist led to a flare of hips and the sweetest ass he’d ever seen.

He turned to face Marcus hoping he could gain some perspective and understand what was going on. I’m sporting wood in front of her father. When his mouth opened, he knew he was done for.

“Look, Marcus, why don’t you call me Griffin. Better yet, Griff. I’m not going anywhere. Not without Jenna.” He wanted her and he intended to have her. Griff had lost his fucking mind but it didn’t matter. Now, if he could take the words back…

“What did you say?” Marcus appeared to be as much at a loss for words as he was.

“You heard me. But I’ll repeat it. I don’t want my memory erased and I want to take your daughter out.” His eyes never wavered from the man’s face. Yeah, he’d gone stone crazy. If he believed the events of the last day, and what her father said, he could tear Griff apart, or drain his blood, if he chose.

Too late now.

He glanced at Jenna. Her cheeks flushed as she stared back at him. The feeling she liked what he’d just said washed over him in waves. He had stood up to her father.

“You did understand everything I said to you, Mr. Ha… Griff?”

“Yes. You’re cats. Not men. You appear as men only when you drink human blood, and then you are vampyres. Your people here are the Sovereign Kind, protectors—the Reign, of which you’re a part.” Words continued to tumble from his mouth. He spouted bits of the conversation to her father. His brain worked on some level but most of his blood was in use elsewhere.

Her eyes were pointed in his direction. He needed her in a way he couldn’t explain. He wanted her in his life. In his bed. He turned to Marcus. “I understand everything you said. It changes nothing. I want to see your daughter again.” Griff briefly thought about how he came to be here.

He had found two jaguars trapped in a hunter’s snare. They were docile and he thought they’d escaped from a circus in the area. He wasn’t prepared for what happened next. He had spent a fantastical evening as one cat then the other changed—into beautiful, naked women.

Scared out of his wits, Griff hoped it was a dream, a nightmare. After he had calmed down, he listened to their story with disbelief. By the time they had finished, he believed them. He returned the women to their home where he was graciously thanked and told his memory would be wiped by an elder. He fully expected to have that done.

The world turned upside down when he met Jenna. He would do whatever it took to have her.

* * * * *

Since their introductions and the stranger touched her hand, Jenna’s body had been on fire. A human!

She’d never been so aroused before. She ached to feel him next to her body. The pressure of her cotton shirt against her nipples did not help her at all. Wetness between her legs caught her by complete surprise.

She did not want to be erased from his memory. Jenna had no desire to forget him. His gray eyes smoldered with lust when he stared at her, his lips sensuously curved in a smile. Dark brown, almost black, hair with a bit of gray at the temples grazed his shirt collar. He absently pushed it back from his forehead as though not used to the length of it. She hoped he would never shave the day old growth from his face. Extremely toned, his stomach rippled under the tee shirt and the loose pants could not hide his thick thighs. Or the erection growing between his legs.

He took her virginal breath away. She had never been with a man but this one she wanted to be with so bad. Her tongue slipped out and wet her lips in anticipation.

Griffin Hayes would not understand the pull he felt. Jenna knew the minute their hands touched. Draga. True mates. The Kind were an unnatural creation and she was more so. There were a few born like her, minus the ability to turn into a cat. Instincts bred into the animal for thousands of years lay dormant inside her, and though the beast would never emerge, it knew. Awakened by the knowledge that this was her mate, it stirred and sent a purr rumbling through Jenna’s body.

Her life mate was human.

She breathed deeply to capture his scent. Held it in her nose. If he were Kind, he would smell her. Her parents must know by now because the sexual aroma she released could not be stopped. Sadness overwhelmed her at that thread of thought. Her parents were lions, could she be called a lioness? It lived in her waiting—but it would never be free. No one knew why.

Jenna could see Griffin was attracted to her by the bulge in his cotton pants. They did nothing to restrain his need. It excited her more. Jolted from her reverie by her father’s voice, she listened to him talk.

“I will allow you to court my daughter if it is her wish also.” Both heads swiveled in her direction.

“I do not wish his memory of me erased, Father.” Jenna wanted to be with this man. She needed to be his. The rightness of it settled in her heart and between her thighs. Mates. They were meant to be together. Her primal need was strong and the vampyre in her wanted to taste him.

“Well then, it’s settled. Jenna, go with your mother. I need to speak to Griff alone.”

“Father?” She was wary of the sly smile on his face.

“Go. Your young man will be safe. I must clear up a few things with him.”

Griffin stood and walked over to her. He took her hand in his, raised it to his lips and pressed a whisper soft kiss into her palm. The shock of his warm mouth sent shivers down her spine. Yes, he was the one. The animal in her was aroused. Moisture gathered between her legs.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I would like that.” Fate left them no choice in the matter. The urge to take him beat at her as she went from the room.

She waited in the foyer. Cats possessed excellent hearing and the vampyre blood that ran strong through her veins made hers even better. She heard every word said to her human.

Both parents seemed to like Griffin. Her father looked pleased when Griffin stood up to him. When draga found one another, most left them alone. Attempting to keep the two apart might prove to be deadly. Jenna’s father would not make it easy. She had no idea what he planned but Griffin Hayes would have to earn the right to court her. She hoped her human possessed the mettle to pass the test.

She was part of the Kind species, cats infected with vampyre blood. A few had mated with humans before. Especially those like her who would never know their cat. It was not spoken of. Their need for blood wasn’t as strong but they still took sustenance in the vampyre way and lived longer. She was called non-generation.

Some spoke of scrolls that said females who could not change were special. The prophet Ezekiel was to have written five of them while kept in Babylon for twenty-two years—the age Kind women go through their change and meet their beast for the first time. For her that age had come and gone. Jenna did not feel special; she felt trapped in her body.

The council of Elders had entrusted a chosen few to search for the mysterious documents that would free them of the curse that affected their blood. Vampyres had secreted them away. Over a thousand years later, none had ever been recovered.

With humans who kill for sport and hunters in the fanatical groups who had somehow learned of their existence, everyone was important. Especially the females. They gave birth to each new generation.

Jenna listened to her father’s voice drone on and on. She wondered if Griffin really understood how much his life was about to change.

**END EXCERPT**

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