Tuesday Teaser 7/21/15

I’m putting out the Tuesday Teaser a little earlier than usual since I’ll be out tonight, and once I’m home I’ll be busy. So, without further ado, here is poor Kit.  🙁  or  🙂 Which do you think?

Kit lay on the ground, the pain of his broken and shredded leg throbbing in time with the beating of his heart. Olivia, his one and true mate, was leaving him. She rejected him. She had left him while he slept, and ran to escape him when he found her. She had begged the men of her pride for his life, but hadn’t demanded to be allowed to stay with him.

Her pride would never allow him to court her now. He watched with tear blurred eyes as they hustled Olivia quickly away from him. For one moment, his mate looked over her shoulder at him, but at the direction of her elder, she turned away from him, giving him only her back. Defeated, he let his head sag to the ground and wept.

Dawn was breaking over the eastern hills when Devlin found him. In his half-cat form he didn’t heal as fast as his pride mates, but faster than his human form would heal, so the broken bone in his lower leg had only begun to knit and the slashes in his skin were barely closed. Devlin leaped the last few feet to him and crouched over him, whiskers quivering while he gave him a thorough visual examination before shifting back to human.

“Kit,” the other man said sorrowfully. “How long have you lain here?”

“Two hours. Maybe three.” The tears he’d thought he’d run out of leaked again from Kit’s eyes. “They took my mate. Her pride—her family came and took her away from me.”

Dev smothered a curse and carefully stroked a hand over Kit’s wounds and the broken leg. “How badly are you hurt?”

His leg didn’t hurt nearly as much as the burning hole in his chest. “My body will heal. My heart will not.” Kit began to shift back to human, but Devlin stopped him.

“No, you’ll heal faster in your cat form. You need to get strong again so you can go after your mate.”

“I can’t.” Despair dropped his head back to the ground. “The one she called Dad said he would kill me if he saw me.”

“So don’t let him see you,” Devlin advised. “Can you sit up?”

Kit did, wincing as newly healed skin split again. “You think I should steal her back?”

Devlin propped him up. “That didn’t work very well the first time. Do you think Olivia will accept you the second time?”

“No.” He hung his head, pain from his broken heart slicing like claws through his chest. “She said I should have courted her like a civilized human.”

“Then that’s what you should do.”

Kit clenched his teeth closed over a moan of pain when Devlin heaved him up over his shoulder. His head, hanging down Dev’s back, throbbed. “I’m not civilized or a human.”

“Then learn to be.” Devlin began walking carefully back toward their pride. “Do you want your mate or not?”

Could he learn to be what she wanted? The idea circled his mind, dodging doubt and yearning. “Yes, but I don’t know how to be human,” he confessed.

“Justin will help. He and his human mate can teach you.”

For the first time since his mate had turned her back and walked away from him a spark of hope flared. His pride mate Justin had found his mate among humans and had left the pride to live with her human family. Yes, Justin would help him. He and his human mate would teach him how to be a civilized human. Kit hated the idea of being tamed, but winning his mate was worth it.

Kit closed his eyes against the early morning sun and took a deep breath. He had to concentrate on healing so he would be strong enough to go to Justin. Kit had a mate to learn to court. He would not fail.