Fated for the Lion (7 page)

“You feel amazing.” Ethan raised his eyes to meet hers. His
dusting of a beard had thickened and turned a deep shade of red-brown.

She nodded, unable to make her throat work for words. Lena
ached with the need to move. She needed to claim her mate, ride him until they
both collapsed in tired delight. She pressed her face into his neck, and
gathered his scent. She wrapped herself around it, savoring it with each
breath, and let it stroke her need.

She lifted her hips, sliding his cock free from her body as
she climbed. It took the sheer will necessary to summit Everest to pull herself
from him, and she only managed by knowing it was a temporary separation. A
groan tore out of Ethan, and she changed direction.

She echoed his groan as he slid back inside her, stroking
against her walls and searing pleasure into each inch of her he touched. She
paused to catch her breath when their hips met again. Catching her
bruise-kissed lip between her teeth, she pushed back up.

Up and down, their hands tangled together on her hips, they
moved her. Her pussy clenched around his cock, unwilling to part from him. Each
fall brushed her clit against him, sending a sharp ecstasy through her.

“Yes!” She moaned, unable to seal the exclamation inside.

She crashed down his length harder, and rolled her hips to
draw out the pressure on her clit. Her pussy shuddered around him. She rose and
fell, adding circles of her hips to the rhythm.

She steadied herself on his chest again, and her claws
pricked into his chest. The fresh droplets of blood on the air called to her
lioness. Lena increased her pace, and her shudders grew longer with each
meeting of their hips.

Panting, she moved faster still. Her pussy clenched and
milked him, twitching as her clit hit him just right. Heavy pants filled the
room. Ethan dug into her hips and used his grip to force her harder down his
length, his hips rising to meet her thrusts.

Need spiraled through her body and warmed every inch of her
skin. Her nipples tingled and tightened, and her clit throbbed. She needed him
inside her, pounding away until her release overtook her. But first she needed
to claim him and make him hers.

Ethan snatched control from her. He held her hips steady,
pumping himself faster and faster into her awaiting and aching depths. His eyes
flashed gold, and he pushed upward, still rocking his cock into her. But now he
was close, arm snaked around her back and hand on her shoulder to drag her
down.

“Cum for me, sweetness. All over my cock. Cum for me and
I’ll sink my teeth into you.”

A full-body shudder claimed her, limbs twitching with the
need to obey. Her body begged for the release. She just needed to do one more
thing before she could let go...

Hers. She would make him hers. She belonged to him, and he
belonged to her.

Each inch up and down, every moan and sigh from their lips,
edged Lena closer to her release. Her body shifted with the hard rhythm Ethan
tore from her body, hard and fast and designed to give as much pleasure as he
took.

Lena flashed her fangs. Her lips rose in a snarl of
pleasure. “
Mine
.”

She couldn’t hold back any longer. She nuzzled Ethan’s skin
at the place where his shoulder met his neck. The place where she would mark
him and claim him just as solidly as he’d claimed her.

“Cum!” Ethan ordered, and the world spun away from Lena.

She snarled as her pussy exploded with pleasure. It radiated
outward and upward, melting her muscles and bones into jelly. The burst of
pleasure took her breath away, but allowed for her lioness to control her. Her
fangs snapped into his shoulder at the same instant she felt the bite of his
teeth into her mate mark. Wave after wave of bliss rolled through her, dousing
her head to toe.

His heart pumped him into her with each beat. She worried
for a second that she’d bitten too deep or too hard. She was new to having a
freaking lion in her brain, after all. Instinct took over, and her canines
retreated back into her jaw. She lapped at his wound, mixing her saliva with
his blood.

He groaned the moment her tongue touched the wound. She
pulled back, worry written on her features. His hand roughly shoved her back into
his neck. The mark was already sealing closed. A new, pink scar was all that
remained.

Ethan pumped a handful of times more before stiffening
inside her with his own roar of release. The last waves of her orgasm washed
through her as she felt the pulse and twitch of his cock within her. Her
lioness was close to the surface from their claiming, and purred with the
second claiming of their body.

She felt more than heard Ethan purring into her shoulder as
she floated gently back to earth. She rubbed her cheek against his new mark,
and shivered when his hand released her shoulder and stroked softly down her
back.

“Perfect.” He whispered.

She pushed at him, and draped herself over his chest when he
settled them down against the bed. She needed to be as close to him as
possible, and snuggling her face into the spot she’d left on his skin seemed…
“Perfect.”

Lena woke to sunlight streaming through the window. A large
window set against a very high wall. With freaking draperies hanging at the sides.
Her sleepy thoughts cleared, and she remembered the past day’s events.

She carefully probed at the bit of something in the back of
her mind. Her lioness wasn’t a morning cat, either. She stirred, and curled in
on herself. It wasn’t ready for the day to begin, and she agreed. She stretched
in the ridiculously large bed, and wondered if Ethan knew how to sleep in
something smaller.

“Oh, good. You’re awake.”

The voice raised her hackles and put her lioness immediately
on high alert. Emily. The one she’d put in her place yesterday. She glared over
the edge of the blanket. The other woman smiled pleasantly from her spot seated
in the corner, but Lena’s cat raised her lips in a growl.

“Ethan had to leave for some emergency business, but he
wanted me to let you know your friend has arrived. Jessa, I think is her name?”

A genuine smile lit Lena’s face, and she relaxed. It’d be
good to see Jessa. She needed to apologize for her behavior at the diner. She
wondered if it’d be against the rules to let her know about her furry side,
then shrugged. She was Queen; she got to decide the rules now.

Still, she was miffed that Ethan allowed Emily in their
room. Ethan didn’t like her in his space, and she certainly didn’t want her
there. She tingled with unease. How long had she sat there and watched Lena
sleep?

Well, there wasn’t much else to do but put her in her place.
Again. Lena steeled herself before throwing the blanket off her naked body. Let
Emily look at what Ethan chose. Let her see he preferred curves to sticks. Let
her rumble with jealousy. Lena doubted she’d try anything after her display of
dominance at the pride party.

She padded silently to the pile of clothes Ethan had taken
from her yesterday. There was a duffle somewhere with extra clothes, but she
wasn’t going to walk around the entire house naked. Showing off in front of one
grating woman was quite different than advertising herself to everyone who
stayed over. Besides, she didn’t think Ethan would want to be alpha to a pride
of blind lions after he was done ripping out all their eyes.

She ran her fingers through her hair and undid the more
terrible tangles before turning to Emily. The blonde woman dropped her eyes
almost immediately, but Lena thought she saw a heated glare. She shrugged. Let
her pout. It wouldn’t win her any friends.

“All right. Take me to Jessa.”

Emily led her down the great stairs, and through the
kitchen. The house had almost swarmed with people yesterday, but Emily was the
only soul in sight. She tried to scent for others, but the air was thick with
cat smells. She couldn’t identify if they were old or new. It unnerved her.

Emily nodded at a kitchen door that opened to a small
garden. Lena breathed deeply and caught the comforting smell of herbs. She
could get used to an herb garden outside the kitchen. She didn’t get a chance
to enjoy the familiar smells before Emily urged her on and down a heavily
shaded path.

“Where are we going?” The lioness had alerted to…something
on the air. She watched Emily’s back carefully as she picked her away down the
path. The tree and shrub growth weren’t regularly maintained and encroached on
the path.

Emily glanced over her shoulder with an unassuming smile.
“Oh, to the guest house. We don’t normally let non-pride members in the house.
Safety first.”

Lena frowned. She’d dealt with conniving women who thought a
woman like her—thick—didn’t deserve someone or something. Putting
them in their place once generally didn’t stop the behavior. Maybe lions were
weird. Emily certainly didn’t act like there was any problem between them. Her
lioness still stood on high alert.

They burst from the path into a small clearing. A nearby
house was almost hidden by ivy covering the stone walls, and trees pressed down
on the grey roof. She could barely make out the shape of a door nestled between
thick columns of vines. Emily nodded her forward, and Lena took a few cautious
steps past the woman. She felt a pang of guilt. Jessa didn’t deserve to be
hidden away to this extent.

Emily struck from behind, and Lena felt the jab of a needle
in her neck. Her lioness roared with rage, and she echoed the call. She felt
the beast flooding through her skin as it had at the diner, and she gave way to
her shift

Nothing happened.

The lioness roared again. Pain and confusion mixed with the
rage.

“Just a little something to keep your she-cat locked up for
a bit. Nifty little drug, isn’t it?” Emily’s tone was almost chipper. She
dropped the syringe to the ground. “Our guests understandably don’t want to be
ripped to shreds.”

“Guests? Where is Jessa?” Lena demanded. She sniffed the
air, and her stomach almost turned. She called herself every name in the book
for not thinking to test the air before then. The scent she picked up was like
sludge, thick and greasy and male. Underneath the heavy scent of crazy was
something softer and feminine. Jessa really was there.

“What are you doing, really?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Queeny?” Emily sneered at the title. “A
fat, bitten lion isn’t good enough for Ethan Sanford. He needs someone with
class and sophistication, and the breeding to go with it.”

Lena barked a laugh. “And that’s you, right? As if he’s
going to believe you had nothing to do with my disappearance.”

Emily shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. But he won’t have you
around clouding his judgment.”

She dug sharp fingers into Lena’s arm and shoved her
forward. The door creaked open with a struggle, and Lena wondered how often the
small apartment was used. Judging by the air thick with dust, not often. And
the path they’d taken had been overgrown. She felt panic start to grip her at
not being found before Emily completed her plan.

Then she spotted Jessa. The other woman was still in her
hospital scrubs. She lay face down on the dirty floor as if she’d been tossed
there like a broken toy.

Lena yanked her arm out of Emily’s hand and rushed toward
her friends. Rough hands grabbed her arms again, and her stomach threatened to
spill its contents. She struggled in midair against them, but they held her
easily. Her lioness raged inside her, pacing and pushing against her skin but
unable to do anything more.

“Easy there, kitty cat. You don’t want to end up like the
freak, do you?”

She growled. How dare they call Jessa a freak. They’d pay
with slow rips to their guts, if she had any choice. Just after she was done
pulling Emily apart piece by piece.

She exhaled slowly and stopped struggling. They set her down
on the ground.

“Well? Go get the van. You need to hurry.” Emily urged.

Lena followed the men with her eyes as they disappeared out
another creaky door. She wondered if that way led to a better used path, if
they were able to bring a van close. She noted the looks they exchanged when
Emily ordered them around. They had the look of stereotypical military men;
muscles bound in dark, tight clothes that didn’t do anything to hide the
weapons they carried. Keeping with the stereotype, they didn’t like a little
blonde girl bossing them around.

Alone, she turned her attention back to Emily. Maybe if she
taunted her long enough, Ethan would find her. She didn’t doubt he would slice
through the mercenaries with no problem. “I’ve dealt with bitches like you my
whole life. You just can’t stand it when your men like it in the gutter, can
you?”

It struck a nerve, and Emily struck her. Her blow landed on
the side of Lena’s face. She tasted blood at the next pass of her tongue over
her lips.

“You’re nothing but a distraction.” Emily spat.

Gravel crunched outside, and Lena’s hope faded. The men
walked back inside and hoisted Jessa to her feet. She wobbled between them and
her head lolled from side to side with the weight of unconsciousness. Red rage
filled Lena’s vision. She’d kill Emily for hurting her friend.

When they returned, they had rope in their hands. They tied
her hands behind her back, and her feet together. The men took her between them
and dragged her outside as they had Jessa.

Lena expected to blink at the sudden bright light of
outside, but the tree and shrub coverage kept the spot shady and concealed. The
unmarked black van was parked close to the building. It didn’t look like a proper
parking spot, or at least hadn’t been used in a long while. Grass nearly topped
the wheels. Above the tree line, Lena could see the tops of the towers of the
main house.

They slung her into the back of the van, and she wiggled to
get closer to Jessa. She couldn’t draw her friend onto her lap and hurts, but
she could huddle close and glare at everyone outside the van. Her lion hunkered
down and waited until she could pounce.

“Might be, we take three back to the base instead of two.”
One of the men said and leered at Emily.

Emily danced back a few steps, and Lena got a whiff of
sudden acrid nervousness. She didn’t trust the men. It put Lena on even higher
alert.

“That’s not what we agreed. You have the two. One lioness,
and one mystery. I’m sure your army boys will love figuring that one out.”

Lena shifted her eyes to the still unconscious Jessa. What
mystery did Emily know about her?

Emily shushed the others, and turned her head back toward
the main house. Lena strained her ears, and thought she heard a vehicle coming
up the long drive way. Emily cursed, and turned back toward the men. “You took
too long. Wait here until I come back and give you the all clear. They’ll see
you drive by if you leave now.”

***

Ethan could smell the wrongness in the air when he arrived.
He hadn’t been on the road very long before a call from Sam came in. His second
had no clue about the emergency meeting with one of their clients. All the
lions of the pack had returned to their homes to give the Alpha and Queen some
privacy, and Sam made sure the business was being handled, though he admitted
there wasn’t much to be handled on a weekend.

Ethan threw open the large doors to his home. He marched up
the stairs to his suite, and halted when he found Emily in the room. There was
no trace of Lena. Even her scent was faint in his nose. His lion bristled at
Emily being where their mate should be.

She minced across room with an air of grace about her. He
snarled when she reached for him, and he wrapped his hand around her bony
wrist. She had no meat or soft curves to her, not like Lena.

“What have you done?” He growled.

“I don’t know what you mean.” She bat large eyes at him and
smiled innocently.

The bones in her wrist crunched together and she winced.
Ethan let some of his lion flow through him, and the beast demanded Emily’s
response. She whined and tried to fight the command from her Alpha, but Ethan
held her still.

He hated to use such force on anyone. He’d rather everyone
behave nicely, but that didn’t happen in the real world.

He knew Emily took issue with him mating and turning Lena,
but she wouldn’t actually do anything, would she? His lion bristled again,
reminding him of their empty den and the interloper they’d found there, not
once but twice. Emily absolutely would do something to harm their mate.

It didn’t matter if she had ideas he didn’t reciprocate.
She’d been a handful since he accepted her in the pride. She didn’t even show
herself at Lena’s introduction until well after everyone had exchanged scents.
She made herself very clear that she didn’t accept Lena as Queen.

He changed his hold on her, walking her in front of him with
his hand firmly on the nape of her neck. She danced in his grasp until his
claws pricked her skin so near the life-giving arteries. She blew her breath
out hard and pointed. Out the bedroom, of course. Down the stairs. Outside.

He roared for all to hear. The Alpha was coming, and he was
not pleased.

If he found Lena hurt at the end of the path, he’d snap
Emily’s neck.