Felidae Read online

  “Damn it. I can’t see and she’s too tight.”

  A hand groped between her legs and pawed at her entrance, trying to hold her open and prone. Fingers jabbed and prodded. Kiya moaned and kicked as a fingernail scratched her sensitive passage.

  Kiya’s hands, still slick from blood, were held tightly, but Gnaeus lost his grip when she thrashed at the bumbling assault on her maidenhood. She reached down and clouted Sul solidly on the side of his head.

  Sul howled with pain and reached up to grab her wrist, bending it cruelly. The clotting blood became a river as her wound reopened. Sul held her wrist and tried to force his cock inside her. She wriggled and began to scream.

  “Turn her over and mash her face into the rock. I’m gonna do it to her so hard she screams for me to kill her. Then after you two are finished, we’ll do just that.” Sul spat a load of spittle from his mouth.

  Kiya felt her arms twisted brutally, forcing her to roll over to lessen the pain. A resounding slap on her butt caused her to draw her knees under her. Her wrists were held down at her sides, her ass thrust up as Sul grabbed her ankles and pulled her legs out.

  “Raise up, Egypt. You’re about to get what’s coming to you.”

  Kiya knew it was over. She could do nothing. The blood from her wrist ran freely, soaking the sacrificial slab and pooling in a sticky puddle under her body. Her face was pressed against the black rock, almost kissing it. Kiya felt tears run and mingle with the blood. She uttered one last plea, “Oh Great Taharqa, if you have any mercy, ease my suffering. I do not ask that my life be spared, only that I am allowed to die ignorant of the indignities being inflicted on me. Great One, hear my plea!”

  Her ass was being clumsily pushed against and Kiya braced herself for the unknown assault. Then she wasn’t sure what happened next. There was a rumbling and the sound of rocks falling. The temple shuddered and rocks tumbled from the ceiling in a mighty roar, as if the earth was being torn apart. The whole valley quaked and her attackers began to shout.

  Fearful the entire valley was caving, and certainly the temple was collapsing, the soldiers dropped their holds on Kiya and scrambled for the entranceway. Two made it out, but one was knocked down by a falling rock.

  Kiya lay on the altar, not sure what to do. The temple continued to rumble and the entranceway began to collapse. Black rock fell in a torrent as dust so thick it clogged the lungs, filled the air. Kiya knew she should try to escape as had the others, but her legs would not obey. She buried her head under her arms and waited for the end.

  Kiya did not know how long she lay there. The darkness was now complete and no light above filtered into the temple. The settling dust tickled her nose and she could not help the delicate sneeze that erupted. The entrance of the temple was as dark as night and no airflow came from that direction. The temple entrance was buried, sealed with rock.

  Kiya rolled over on the slab. She was not sure what to do. The temple was silent now except for the sound of a few rocks settling. As Kiya lay there she heard a moan from the Roman soldier, somewhere on the floor of the temple. She dared not move lest he not be as injured as she hoped, and attacked her again or just killed her outright.

  Kiya’s dark eyes darted around the temple. What was her fate? What was to become of her? Her blood had made the stone sticky and uncomfortable. She grew cold and shivered. In the darkness came an immense groaning from somewhere near the back of the temple, where it met the wall of the giant black pyramid. It sounded like a thousand laborers in pain, moving something heavy, followed by whispering such as no wind she had ever heard, uttered low and deep.

  A whoosh sounded and scraping, like something being dragged across the stone floor. Then a light appeared from the back of the temple… No, a torch! Kiya stared, her eyes bulging. Was she hallucinating from the loss of blood? A figure appeared, then another. Dressed in gold plating and finely woven skirting these servants ignored Kiya and passed by the altar. Another moan came from the floor as the Roman soldier was hoisted and carried between the two men back through the temple and into the pyramid.

  Kiya shivered and didn’t know if she should indicate her presence. But what if she remained buried alive, starving and freezing? “Wait! What about me!”

  From just inside the entrance to the pyramid, a deep chuckle rumbled. “Don’t fret, pretty one. You belong to me.”

  “Who are you?” Kiya craned her neck, but she could see nothing. She struggled to rise, but her head swam. The voice seemed nearer, but she could discern nothing in the dark. He carried no torch and seemed to have no trouble finding his way towards her.

  “I am the one you summoned. Your fresh blood cried out to me. Your tears became my tears. And so I have come for you.”

  From the darkness a large, black figure loomed. Kiya drew back, but the hands on her arms that helped raise her to a sitting position, were warm, and strangely soft with a furry texture.

  The room careened dizzily and Kiya felt herself lifted into arms that were as warm as she was cold. The hard chest cradled her and she found herself crying in confusion, as her aching body sighed and fitted snuggly against her new captor. She was carried from the temple into the pyramid where no torches burned, but the figure carrying Kiya had no trouble seeing in the dark. He carried her for what seemed a lifetime down stone stairways and passages leading into eternity.

  Kiya felt the softness of down and silk beneath her back. Kiya had lain on her mistress’ pallet once when Nitetis was unaware, but this was far softer than any mere nobleman’s pallet.

  She sighed as her body relaxed and she felt the pain slowing moving through her. Was she dying? The voice in the darkness spoke low. “I can relieve your suffering. Would you like that? To feel no pain, to be free of earthly troubles and sorrows. Your city is gone; your life is no more. The man we have taken as an offering would have raped you and left you dead. I can keep you from that fate. Forever.

  “I am revered, not just here, but all over the world. Wherever vengeance and retribution is sought is my realm. My kind must live on and for that to happen I must have a mate. I have chosen you. Your blood and tears called to me and lured me to the temple, but I cannot take you against your will, it is forbidden.”

  “I-I don’t understand. What are you?” Kiya was more curious than scared to be face to face with a legend long whispered about. After what she had witnessed and faced that day, this seemed not scary, so much as bizarre.

  “No. It is an unconditional contract. Binding by your agreement. My kind must flourish and to do that we must learn to adapt to the world above. And we must procreate in order that our children will live among the humans and guide them forward. Mankind is not the wisest species, but they are what has survived and changed the world, therefore we must blend with them.”

  Kiya did not know what that meant and latched onto her spiritual upbringing. “But you are Taharqa, fierce and known to exact revenge.”

  “I am Taharqa. In my own arrogance I thought I could strike a bargain with the gods and not pay a price. I achieved revenge on my brother and his wife. His lineage has perished. Now my penalty is to walk amongst the humans and wander the night. It is hard for a human to understand the loneliness, the solitude. But it must be so, until now.”

  “Now?” Kiya winced as her pained body contracted and muscles flexed.

  Taharqa spoke low and persuasively. “Give me permission to ease your pain.”

  Another spasm racked Kiya’s body as the blood loss cramped her muscles into waves of unrelenting torture. “Yes. Heal me. Please.” She tried not to cry out.

  A warm furred hand touched her brow, then ran down her cheek to her neck. An icy cold coursed wherever he touched, then warmth surged. Her shoulders practically melted into the soft bed on which she lay, leaving Kiya unprepared when he touched her bruised breasts. They tingled under his hands, unlike the fumbling touch of the Romans, and as they grew warm Kiya couldn’t help but breathe, “More, please.”

  “Perhaps later, if…”
Taharqa continued down her arm and stroked her wrist, leaving the statement unfinished. The wound puckered and closed. Her fingers were rubbed and flexed. Her waist soothed ‘til the bruises and scrapes disappeared. Her pubic region was scratched and tender as his touch lingered on her belly and his hand splayed down, erasing the marks as he went. He touched her delicate folds, his fingers moved within, so different from the earlier assault that Kiya felt tears gather.

  He moved quickly, as if afraid to linger, and ran his furred hands high on her thighs, then down to her knees and calves. Her torn bloody feet were divested of their ragged slippers and rubbed ‘til they were flawless.

  “Turn over.”

  Kiya shuddered, remembering the soldiers.

  “Trust me. I have saved you from a fate worse than death. I have asked permission to touch you. You have given it. If I was going to hurt you I would not have asked.”

  Kiya turned over, realizing the truth of his words. His touch on her buttocks was feather light as he smoothed her delicate skin, delving between the crack and her soft folds. Kiya was about to tell him he had already healed that part of her, but it felt so good to have him between her legs, she simply moved her legs further apart as he slipped his hand within.

  She felt him push against her anus with his finger and wondered at the feel as he bent over her and kissed her plump cheek. “I would show you what it is to be completely taken, until you begged for it every night, but it would not be fair. You must come to me of your own free will.”

  His touch withdrew and she waited, but there was nothing. Light flooded the chamber as a torch was lit. Puzzled, she turned around to find a huge black panther reclining next to her. Kiya shrieked in terror. These were the fabled big cats that could tear a man apart! As she scrambled to the front of the bed, the cat’s shape became hazy and the outline shifted. The panther disappeared and in its place was an ebony-skinned man. Smooth of feature except for furry hands. His hair was lustrous black, his eyes such a bright emerald green they reflected light back at her. He stared at her intently. “Do I frighten you? Repulse you?”

  Kiya ran her eyes over his body. Except for the fur on the back of his hands he looked like a man. But not like just any man. Taharqa was powerful even in repose. His thighs and arms were defined and the muscles flexed whenever he stretched.

  With no shame he rolled onto his back. “I am neither man nor beast, but something in between.” The fur on his hands disappeared.

  “You change at will?” Kiya questioned, entranced.

  “Yes. As it suits. Do I please you?”

  Kiya ran her eyes down his chest, where no hair was now apparent. Only ebony skin, and more muscles. His stomach was flat and hard, smooth even down to where the lower abdomen met the beginning of pelvic bone. His cock and sacs were as black and smooth as the rest of him. As Kiya stared, his cock grew under her scrutiny. “You have no fur down there.”

  “I can have none, or some, or a lot. If you are mine, you may dictate whatever pleases you.”

  “I don’t understand,” Kiya questioned. “What does it mean to be yours?”

  “Do you give me permission to show you?”

  “Will it hurt?”

  “I can make it pleasurable. But you must declare your vow to remain my mate. You cannot change your mind. The consequences are too great and my kind cannot venture amongst the humans freely just yet. Perhaps in a few more centuries when our children and grandchildren and so forth have evolved into a more blendable, accepted genus. Who can say? I only know I have been alone too long. Stay with me.”

  “Forever?”

  “Forever,” Taharqa answered truthfully.

  “Show me pleasure and I will stay with you.”

  Taharqa smiled and his sharp white teeth vied with his glinting green eyes for brightness. He rolled onto his side, rubbing against Kiya as his fingers found her lips and parted them. His face came close and his lips pressed against hers. His tongue slid within and he slowly licked at her tongue. His hand found her breast and his thumb stroked the nipple back and forth, until it hardened and crested.

  He ended the kiss and brought his head down until his mouth was at her breast. “I will suckle from you, just as our offspring will suckle from you and their offspring will nurse from their mothers for generations to come. We will grow strong through our offspring and populate the lands aboveground. Do you want this?” His tongue traced Kiya’s areola until she arched her back excitedly.

  “Yes. Oh, yes!” she gasped as his lips fastened on her nipple and sucked its tender bud almost ferociously.

  His hand palmed her other breast, priming the nipple for his lips. He slid his body half over hers, allowing his hand to roam over her belly, relishing the slight rise of her abdomen. He couldn’t wait to fill her with his seed that would result in his many offspring. His hand found her mons and cupped the crest. She was clipped of hair, as was their custom and he easily found the button that invited stroking.

  Kiya rose up under his ministrations.

  Taharqa pulled his head from her breast and watched her face as he slid a long finger into her cunt.

  Kiya caught her breath in alarm. Would this hurt as when the soldiers had tried to rape her? Taharqa’s cock was impossibly large. It would never fit! But his fingers were inside her, stroking, coaxing and Kiya was amazed when she felt a slide of liquid ooze from her womb.

  “That’s it, my sweet. Let your juices coat your passage to make way for me.” His fingers moved within her until Kiya rode them in a rhythm that was designed to incite her to accept more of him. His fingers touched her deeply, his thumb stroking against her small pearlescent button in quick strokes. She rode his hand, but then it was gone.

  Taharqa rose over her. “Touch me and guide me at your own pace.”

  Kiya’s hand clutched for him almost spasmodically. She missed the feeling of him inside her. She wanted it back!

  “Patience. That’s it.”

  Kiya felt his swollen flesh against her hand, then in her palm. She closed over it, hearing Taharqa draw a ragged breath.

  “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you.” Taharqa breathed as he pressed his cock against her entrance.

  Kiya panicked. It was too big. It was going to be as with the soldiers!

  She began to struggle under Taharqa and he pressed himself against her cunt, stroking her button with his cock, but not going further. “How does that feel? Good? Trust me. I can take you to paradise such as you have never dreamed. Feel this?”

  He stroked her button until another slide of creamy juice formed at the entrance of her cunt. Then he pressed his cock against her and the tip slid inside. He continued to stroke against her. “Do you want more? Tell me what you want.”

  “More!” Kiya gasped, pleading for him not to stop. His cock slid deeper. She felt full as never before. The burning of her maidenhead was nothing compared to the sensation of his large cock lodged within her, pulling back then thrusting again. She rose against him, urging him to ride her faster, deeper.

  Taharqa gauged her reactions and let his body move over hers accordingly. He had waited for this woman for centuries and now the time was here. He thrust into her to the hilt and was rewarded when Kiya locked her legs around him and bucked. He grabbed her ass and steadied her as he pumped against her, and with her, at the same time.

  Kiya felt a wave coming, but did not know what would happen. The spiraling in her stomach traveled to her cunt then back up. Suddenly she was gripped with a sensation so powerful she screamed Taharqa’s name, as he kept stroking her walls, finding her womb. Suddenly he stiffened above her, his muscles quivering as his balls released his seed and a hot spurt jettisoned deep inside Kiya, causing her to clasp at Taharqa to capture all his essence.

  They lay together, bodies twined as one. Taharqa voiced his thoughts. “You are satisfied? You will become my mate, the mother of my kind…our kind, the Felidaen.”

  Kiya laughed freely. “I am more than satisfied. I am yours. F
orever.”

  Chapter One

  Modern Day, U.S.

  The small, plump, red tabby moved gracefully along the window ledge of the high-rise hotel stepping gingerly, alert but unconcerned. It might have been a mere ten feet off the ground, rather than a daunting twenty stories, for all the attention it paid to the danger. The pouch tied around the furry neck was no hindrance and the cat paid no heed as if accustomed to the added bulk. Over the side of the balcony and through the open sliding glass door the cat slipped silently, a small ghost in the darkness.

  There was no hesitation in entering the hotel room and no confusion in the cat’s actions, almost as if it knew the way and belonged there. But this cat called no man or woman its owner. The draw cord to the drape moved in the breeze and the cat batted at it playfully before moving on inside. The darkness held no challenge as the feline scanned its eyes around the room disdainfully, searching systematically every surface, every piece of furniture.

  In mid-step the cat paused and cocked its head, listening. It raised its delicately sculptured head and sniffed the air, twitching its whiskers for extra sensation. There was the sweet smell of perfumed bath oil mingling with the humidity of a hot bath. A smell that was cloying yet unclean reached the cat, humans thought they were devoid of order after bathing and scrubbing. Silly people, they reeked no matter what they did. Just as the bed sheets emitted the acrid scent of sex no matter how many times housekeeping washed the linen. There was always an underlying trace no matter what, and these bed sheets exuded an aroma that virtually screamed sex had taken place very recently.

  The cat arched its back and leapt onto a chair, rubbing against it luxuriously. Humans with allergies were a favorite. When the room occupants came back from dinner and the man began sneezing, he would be clueless as to the cause. Sidetracked, he wouldn’t think twice about noticing the missing items. Satisfied, the cat jumped down. Its four paws became hands and feet, its furred lithe body became a skin in human form, as naked it rose to two legs and walked to the dresser. Upon opening the top drawer, assorted socks and ragged boxer shorts were obvious, but nothing hidden underneath met the strange reflecting eyes. The other drawers were soundlessly opened and neatly searched, everything carefully returned to its place. The bedside table? Perhaps it held the sought-after prize.