Pandora sighed contentedly. It was so nice to be held by him.
One minute he had a long, masculine arm draped over her waist, and in the next, it was the limb of a panther.
She bolted out of the bed with a shriek.
Dante flashed instantly back into human form. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Don't do the panther thing around me, okay? It really creeps me."
He frowned at her. "Why?"
"I… I just can't stand the sight of them."
He gave her a harsh, condemning stare that set her ire off. "You're one of us, baby. Get used to it."
She cringed at the thought. She was not in the same category as a Katagari female. They were crude and mean, and had no care whatsoever for anyone other than themselves.
"Oh, no I'm not," she said, growling the words at him. "I'm a human being, not an animal like you."
Dante narrowed his eyes at words that shouldn't hurt him and yet for some unfathomable reason did. He'd gone out of his way to be tender with her.
And what had it accomplished?
Not a damn thing except to have her disdain him over something he couldn't help any more than she could help being human.
There was nothing wrong with being a Katagari. He took a lot of pride in his heritage.
His kind was definitely superior to hers. At least they didn't lie, cheat, and steal for no reason.
Curling his lip, he climbed out of bed and flashed his clothes back on.
"Fine. Have a nice life."
Pandora jumped as he slammed out of her room.
"You too!" she called childishly, knowing he couldn't hear her.
What did she care anyway?
He was an animal. But as she headed for the bathroom, she missed the warm feeling she'd had when he held her. The sweet sound of her name on his lips as he carefully made love to her.
The way his tongue had stroked and soothed her.
Grinding her teeth, she forced the image away and went to shower. And as the water came on, she thought of Dante's brother who had yet to bring Acheron to her. He must have sent Dante to her instead.
How dare he!
She should have known better than to trust an animal. Why would one of them help her anyway?
Angry at both of them, and at herself for being so stupid as to trust them, Pandora regulated the water and started scrubbing with a vengeance.
Suddenly, the bathroom curtain was whisked open.
Pandora gasped as she spun about to find Dante standing there, blue eyes glaring at her.
"You never answered my question."
She sputtered at him. "Excuse me, I'm in the middle of a bath here."
"Yeah, I know, and I'll let you get back to it once you tell me why panthers bother you."
That was none of his business!
Tears burned in her eyes as her ordeal over the last two weeks overwhelmed her. Her unbalanced hormones didn't help matters any and neither did the fact that all she really wanted to do was go home.
Before she could stop herself, the truth came pouring out in wrenching sobs. "Because every time I see one of your people, you steal someone away from me whom I love and I hate all of you for it. Now your kind has taken me away from my home and my family so that I can either be a whore to the entire pack or a slave to one of you."
Dante felt an odd sensation in his chest as she started weeping. Not once in almost three hundred years had he felt such a sense of helplessness.
Such a desire to help someone.
"And what's worse," she said, her voice cracking, "I know I can't really go home because they'll just send me back here to the Katagaria pack that stole me. Panthers have taken everything from me. Even my virginity."
Dante turned the water off with his thoughts and pulled a towel off the rack before wrapping it around her.
"I don't know what I was thinking when I ran away," she sobbed. "Acheron won't help me. Why should he? And even if he wanted to, what could he really do? Dark-Hunters can't interfere in our business. I just wanted some hope. Something other than what is meant for me. I don't want to be a panther whore. I just want to have my own life where no one hurts or uses me. Is that so wrong?"
"No, Pandora," Dante said as he pulled her sodden body into his arms and held her tight. "It's not wrong."
He kissed the top of her head as he pulled another towel down to dry her hair.
Pandora hated herself for falling apart like this. She was normally calm and collected. But it was beyond her ability to cope now.
All she wanted was her life back. One day where she was again in charge of her body and her destiny.
One day of clarity.
What her people had done was wrong and she knew it. She hated all of them, Arcadian and Katagaria, for forcing this on her.
No woman should ever have her choice taken away from her.
She tried to stop crying as Dante rocked her gently in his arms. He was being much kinder than she deserved. Not even her own father would be so understanding of this breakdown. He'd never been the kind of man to tolerate emotional outbursts well and he'd trained all his daughters to suffer in silence.