121
" As she had stated earlier, he wasn't an animal. Well, he was, but there was a side of him that was more than instinct as well. There was the strategist, and soon, there would be the seducer.
No battle was won purely with a show of strength, he told himself as he left her room, closing the door quietly behind him. Every battle won was done so with the right strategy as well as the proper weapons.
He simply had to determine when and where to begin the first skirmish. "
― Lora Leigh , Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15; Feline Breeds, #13)
123
" Imagine the love you feel for your child, and then multiply that by a thousand. Imagine what you felt the first time you gazed upon her, and knew that God had given you the most perfect gift to complete your life, and multiply that again. That is what you are to me. That is what I felt the first moment I saw you. Unlike humans, Breeds live for the small gifts, the little kindnesses fate would hand to us. We search for them. We cherish them. The moment I saw you, the animal inside me roared in triumph, the man melted in the face of the woman who stared back at him.
"That was love, Rachel. It was acceptance, the knowledge that what I feared the most, what I ached for the most, was now standing before me, and reaching out for it, claiming it, could destroy everything I am."
She shook her head desperately. "Love doesn't happen like that. It takes time. It builds."
He nodded slowly. "It can happen like that. It can build slowly. It can come like a gentle rainfall, or it can slam into you like a tsunami. You are my tsunami, love. "
― Lora Leigh , Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15; Feline Breeds, #13)
125
" No" she jerked back, stared up at him.
Her eyes were like thunderclouds. He'd never seen them like that. Shock and fear filled them. Her face was paper white. Her body shuddering.
"Don't you leave me!" She gripped his shirt and tried to shake him, tears falling from her eyes. "Don't you leave Noah."
His head lowered. He touched her lips with his and knew this woman held the best part of him. The memories of the husband he had been, the man he had been. He couldn't destroy that. He refuse to.
He pushed her to Jordan slowly, loath to let her go. To release her. Knowing that releasing her was the only way to save the memories she held.
"Don't you leave!" She screamed the order, eyes blazing, her lips trembling as tears fell and hysteria threatened to overwhelm her. "If you leave me, Noah Blake, if you don't come back when this is over, don't bother coming back at all.
He touched her cheek. Ran his thumb over her lips. "You are the best part of me," he whispered. "Always remember that, Sabella. The best part of me."
Before she could grab him, hold him to her, he pulled away, grabbed one of the rifles Mike had set on the table across the room. And left. "
― Lora Leigh , Wild Card (Elite Ops, #1)
126
" Bella. "Nathan Malone is dead." He caught her shoulders, shook her.
"No!" she screamed back. And she couldn't hit him. She wanted to, and she couldn't.
"look at me," he yelled. "Look at me, Bella. What happened killed the man you loved. All that is left is this. The man you see now.The name name I carry now. Anything else is no possible."
"No!" She pulled away from him, stumbled to her feet, and shook with the rage pounding through her. "The name may be dead, but you are not dead. "You weren't just a SEAL," she cried. "You weren't just a friend, or a son, or a grandson, or a brother. You weren't just a warrior." She clenched her fists, pressed to her stomach as the agony swell up through every cell of her body. "You are my husband. My lover.
It doesn't matter if your name is Nathan, Noah, or hey fucking you, you are my my lover. My soul. My heart. "
― Lora Leigh , Wild Card (Elite Ops, #1)
129
" Oh, now my Erin, she'd smile down on me no matter where I walked." Grandpop smiled that little smile again. "But I'd be separated from her, and I'd feel that separation in my soul, you see?"
Nathan shook his head.
Grandpop sighed. "You have the Irish eyes, boy. One of these days, you'll see from eyes, not your own, feel with a heart outside your chest. Wild Irish eyes. Nathan. When you love, love well and love true, and take care, lad, because those Irish eyes are windows into not just your own soul, but the soul of the one you love." Grandpop looked out at his Erin's grave.
"And when you lose that heart, you can't leave the places where your memories are the best. And if I left her, I'd not be buried beside her. "
― Lora Leigh , Wild Card (Elite Ops, #1)
130
" If you want me, come fight me," she suggested with a laugh. "I dare you."
Every Coyote there perked up.
"A thousand on the girl," the leader murmured.
"Shut the fuck up, Dog," Malcolm raged furiously.
"I got your thousand on the prick there. He has muscle where she doesn't." Loki took the bet before turning to the other two. "Mutt, Mongrel? You two in?"
"Thousand on the girl." Gray Eyes took him up on it.
"Thousand on the prick." The last one accepted the bet.
Malcolm was shaking with fury.
Diane smiled in anticipation.
"Knives or fists?" she asked, knowing his strengths as well as his weaknesses.
"You fucking whore," he snarled.
"Take the challenge or walk away," Dog snapped. "We won't take her without the fight."
God love a Coyote's heart and his love of a good challenge or a good bet.
"I win, we walk away," she demanded as she kept her eyes on Malcolm.
Dog's smile was clearly anticipatory, but he nodded easily. "Whip his ass and you walk. He whips yours--you run. How's that?"
Diane gave a sharp, firm nod as she smiled at Malcolm. "It's a bet. "
― Lora Leigh , Lawe's Justice (Breeds, #18; Feline Breeds, #15)
133
" My mate, my coya, will be making her official vows this spring. And pray to God she's alive to make them, or every damned one of you will die for being stupid."
"And you, Alpha?" Cavalier growled furiously. "You did this to her, not those of us who face you now. You placed suspicion on her shoulders by rejecting her. Your men only followed your lead."
Del-Rey pinned him with primitive fury. "I'll already be dead, Cavalier," he informed him. "A man doesn't live without his soul. Take that woman from me, and that's what you'll see. Exactly what the Council strove for. A Coyote without a soul. "
― Lora Leigh , Coyote's Mate (Breeds, #13; Coyote Breeds, #2)
137
" He jerked the door open, ignored Leo’s suddenly furious growl and stomped back to the observation room. As he pushed through the door, Leo on his heels, he faced Elizabeth as she turned from something Ely was saying.
He gripped her shoulders, bent and kissed her forehead gently. “I’m heading home, Mother. Please get Father off my back and out of my life for a day or so if you don’t mind. I do have family matters to take care of now.”
Ignoring her surprise, he turned and stalked past Leo, back to the hall, and out of the small building that served as Sanctuary’s pre-detaining building.
Calling Leo “father” didn’t sit well, but he was a Breed, created, not born, trained rather than raised. He wasn’t Jonas. After tonight, he would never call Leo “father” again perhaps, but he wouldn’t deny him any longer. "
― Lora Leigh , Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15; Feline Breeds, #13)
140
" Micah knew the power of a look. When two people touched from across a distance, that touch could be frightening, wary, or a stroke of gentleness. He stroked her gently. He never let his eyes dip below her chin; rather, he let himself take in every nuance of expression, every shift of each facial motion, the flicker of her lashes, the shadows in her eyes, the tension in her small body.
She was like a bird ready to fly. Poised at the edge of her seat, her body stiff and prepared to run. "
― Lora Leigh , Maverick (Elite Ops, #2)