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the Kapok tree, and, clinging to the branch, called out to the only man who mattered to her. Solange Sangria, the woman who had never needed--or wanted--any man, of royal blood, powerful in her own right. A warrior renowned and feared.

In her human form, in her own voice, born of desperation and need, terrified that her dream lover might be real and going into danger to sacrifice his life for his people, she lifted her voice to the heavens, allowed the skies to carry it far and wide. She humbled herself before the forest dwellers to save him--to save herself.

"Don't leave me!" The cry was torn from her throat, from her soul, her anguish spilling like the blood of her family onto the ground where everyone she loved had been slaughtered and she'd been left alone--the last hope of justice for the women and children of her species.

The sound of her voice lifted the birds from the canopy and spread through the forest like the wind, filling every empty space, her sorrow so acute the very trees shivered and the animals wept with the rain.

Chapter Three

But then beyond hope, you came into my dream . . . Glowing eyes like a cat, but fierce need like a child. Your warrior heart, loyal. Your anguished, "Don't leave me." Your head in my lap: Csitri! Strong and wild.

DOMINIC TO SOLANGE

The birds went quiet. The monkeys ceased all sound. Even the insects held their breath. Everything in the forest stilled. Color burst behind Dominic's eyes, blinded him, even within the body of the eagle, so that for a moment all he could see was vivid, acute colors, every shade of green, dazzling reds and violets, the flowers on the trees drenched in water and bright beyond all imagination. His stomach clenched and shifted, nausea rising like a tidal wave, the colors so bright they beat at his mind after centuries of seeing in shades of gray.

He thought the eagle would be a protection, but the colors had nowhere to go, no way to disperse behind the eyes of the bird, beating at him, filling his mind, overwhelming him with the various shades of brightness. The macaws stood out on the branches, staring at him curiously as he sailed to the ground and shifted into his own form. Dominic staggered, pressing one hand to his roiling stomach and the other up to shield his eyes. There was no way to stop the colors--it was as if a dam had burst in his brain and every conceivable shade and tint, every hue, mingled and fought for supremacy.

Sorrow lived in him, breathed in him. Regret. Fear. Shock. Every emotion that could be felt hit him in the next wave of attack. He went to one knee, trying to process, to sort out what he was feeling and what she was feeling, the emotions so overwhelming they left him disoriented and vulnerable. His lifemate was alive--was here in this rain forest somewhere close. His dream woman, the woman he had courted so slowly, building trust between them, was real, not the insubstantial myth he thought her. No. His denial was low, his shattered call back to her.

This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not after so many centuries. Not when he'd given up and committed to a path that would destroy them both. She couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening. He had only days to live. If he touched her, claimed her, bound them together, she would be locked to his fate.

I am destroyed if you leave me. Her voice filled his mind, the tones soft and so achingly familiar. Why hadn't he considered that she was real? She'd been in front of him the entire time and he hadn't realized it.

A thousand years he'd walked the earth looking for her. Lifemate. He could taste the word in his mouth, feel it in his soul. He'd been alone for so long, walking an honorable path, one he had chosen, but he had wanted her--no, needed her. The darkness called to his soul. A thousand men, many his friends and kin, had seen their death at his hands. There had been no solace, nowhere to turn, only the memory of honor and the fading hope that she would come to him.

How many times had he walked the night in need? Save me. He had thought himself insane at times. The haunting loneliness, the call of evil always pulling at him, that need to feel something--anything--was so overwhelming