“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Tariq said as he secured the door. He turned to see Reyna flinging off her shirt. Immediately his cock stiffened in anticipation and he reached for his belt buckle. “You were reading my mind.”
His eyes widened when her knees buckled. Cursing, he leapt forward. The stress of meeting her father must have been too much for her delicate system. Tariq stretched out his arms and caught air. She was gone.
Bemused, he glanced around, certain his eyes deceived him. No, he wasn’t mistaken. She’d teleported without a word to him of her intentions. Before he could panic, reason kicked in. He’d check their link, track her, and follow her to wherever she’d ‘ported.
Tariq reached for their bond and got…nothing. She’d shifted into her feline form. Had she done it intentionally to keep him from pursuing her? Frowning ferociously Tariq wondered, had he told Reyna he couldn’t sense their bond when she was in her cat form?
They had many conversations as she’d convalesced but it was the ‘get to know you’ type common among the newly bonded. They’d spoken of their likes and dislikes, their interests and business concerns. They’d talked about friends and family. For instance he knew how close Reyna felt to the four women she ate lunch with every day.
Tariq had refrained from discussions about their relationship and what he expected from her as his blood mate. Since he was still trying to get Reyna to commit to him, there’d been no talks about their future together. No rules of what he considered acceptable behavior established. Everything had been tentative and exploratory. He’d gotten to know Reyna, the woman, and been happy with all he discovered.
Now she’d gone and pulled a stunt like this.
Didn’t Reyna realize they were now a unit—two halves of the same whole? Blood mates couldn’t be apart from each other for very long. The craving for the company of their other half became too intense. The bond between them created a magnetic field which was constantly at work, pulling them together.
Tariq paced the living room.
Maybe she simply needed space, he reasoned. Because she’d spent so much time isolated as a child, his Heart’s Blood was a bit of a loner. They’d spent the last seventy-two hours constantly in each other’s company. Partly out of fear on his part, Tariq admitted. He’d been afraid to leave her alone and her unstable medical condition had provided him the excuse he’d needed to keep her in sight.
He’d give her a few minutes of privacy—thirty minutes max—and then he’d go looking for her. The most logical place to find her would be her lair. It was her safe haven, her refuge from the world. The more Tariq considered the more certain he became that’s where she’d headed.
An hour later, Tariq returned from Reyna’s lair. His temper was stirred. She hadn’t been there. No one had seen any sign of her in days. There wasn’t a male or female over the age of twenty-five living in Reyna’s den, and they’d all been scared to death of him.
He called Jorlan. Something he should have done to begin with.
“Tariq, is something wrong with Reyna?” Jorlan asked, jumping straight to the point.
“She’s not with you?” Tariq asked.
“Reyna? No, I haven’t seen her since I left your place. Isn’t she there?” Jorlan asked, sounding concerned.
“Reyna ‘ported out over an hour ago. She’s in cat form so I can’t track her,” Tariq said, allowing a hint of the frustration he felt to enter his voice. “Can you telepath her? I need to know that she’s safe.” Reyna had told him in their cat forms, the Felini spoke mind-to-mind.
“I can try, but I doubt it will do any good. Our range is limited. If she’s more than a mile away, she won’t hear me. Reyna’s the only one who can broadcast unlimited distances,” Jorlan explained.
“If you would, please. It would ease my mind. Alvaro stopped by to speak with her and Reyna disappeared immediately afterwards. I hate thinking of her out there alone somewhere, upset.”
“All right. Give me a sec. I’m still at the office. Don’t want to have to explain the presence of a two hundred pound cougar in the building.” Tariq heard the sound of the phone being set on a hard surface, and then the muffle of clothing being removed. It took a few minutes before Jorlan returned to the phone. “She’s not answering. You said she’d shifted into her cat?”
“Yes.”
“Has she shifted any in the last couple of days?” Jorlan asked. He had the phone on speaker and from the sounds, Tariq assumed he was dressing.
“No, not since she collapsed,” he said.
“Then she probably went for a run. The cat doesn’t like to be cooped up. With Reyna I’m sure it’s even more of a problem because she only recently went through the change,” Jorlan said, relief in his voice.
“Are you telling me there’s a cougar running through the streets of the city,” Tariq asked, outraged and astonished.
Jorlan laughed. “No, we have woods and protected forests where we hunt and run. Reyna could have gone there, or she could have done what she did before, leapt to the main Felini hunting grounds in the desert. Either way, once she’s got it out of her system she’ll return. Be patient.”
“That particular word is not in my dictionary,” Tariq snarled and disconnected the call.
The need to find Reyna and be with her ate at him. Like an addict needing a hit, it crawled beneath his skin and plagued his mind. He stalked from one room to the other, unable to settle, barely able to focus.
Knowing Enrique would have a shit fit if he took his frustration out on the furniture again, Tariq slammed out of his apartment and went looking for some business to occupy his mind. Maybe he could entice one of his masters into sparring with him. He could use a good fight.