by N. D. Jones
Before Asha could say what she was clearly building up to, Sekhem Zarina’s gaze shifted to Ekon.
He gulped. Ekon had heard people refer to the lioness’s piercing golden eyes as beautiful yet frightening. He didn’t disagree. Ekon also refused to look away; to do so would be tantamount to rolling over and showing the alpha his belly. If he wanted to prove himself worthy of his post and Asha’s heart, it would begin with not cowering from a mother’s unrelenting scrutiny.
Seconds passed between them, with no one speaking or moving. Gazing into the eyes of a Shona lioness who’d lived 120 years, a little more than middle age by felidae standards, Ekon recalled Sekhem Zarina had chosen him to serve as Asha’s Second Shieldmane above older and more experienced members of the Shona pride. Her decision had brought honor to his house, and he’d vowed to live up to the faith she’d placed in his potential.
“As Asha grows into her role as sekhem, so too will you grow into your role as her First Shieldmane.”
Ekon hadn’t told anyone, not even Asha, of her mother’s plans for his future. He wondered if Mafdet knew of Sekhem Zarina’s intentions to elevate him to a post that by right should be hers. If Mafdet did, that could explain her standoffishness toward him.
Sekhem Zarina’s gaze slid from him to Asha. “You may take Ekon with you but do remember there is a proper order of things.”
“I know.”
“There are several kinds of knowing, Asha. Take heed to all of them. Now go before I change my mind.” Her eyes lifted to his again. “Protect her with your life, young Shieldmane. That was your pledge.”
“Always. Until the end,” Ekon voiced, repeating the same vow he’d made when he’d accepted the post as Asha’s Second Shieldmane.
Asha wasted no time hurrying from the room, putting as much space as possible between them and her knowing mother. That distance was a mere walk across the hall to her suite. But once the door closed behind them, the massive suite in front of them, the distance seemed much greater.
Ekon slumped against the door, his heart racing from how an antelope must feel after having escaped the clutches of hunting lionesses—a rare, lucky feat that wouldn’t reoccur.
A soft hand found his own and squeezed. “Mom’s growl is worse than her bite.”
Ekon laughed, a breathless hiccup unbecoming of Asha’s sworn shield. “No one in all of Shona would believe that, not even you. Your mother is scary.”
“She’s overprotective.”
Asha lifted the hand she held, curving it around her waist in very much the same way Khalid Bambara had held his mate. But Asha wasn’t his mate and, if they didn’t heed Sekhem Zarina’s warning, she never would be.
Ekon pulled his hand away.
This time, the female’s eyes that held his but with far less gold were Asha’s. With her, his strength abandoned him. Ekon’s eyes skidded down and away. “We can’t. You heard your mother.”
“Yes, I heard her.”
Asha grasped his hand again, tugging him away from the closed door and to a circular pit in the center of the room. He removed his sidearm, placing it under a cushion but within reach. They sat on a plush, leather couch in the shape of a semicircle. The burgundy color complemented Asha’s white and gold dress.
Picking up the remote from the table in front of them, the television in an open cabinet opposite the pit, Asha clicked the unit on. Sound blared but was quickly lowered.
“I thought we could watch a show. I like funny ones. But you can choose whichever one you want.” Kicking off her sandals and scooting close, Asha handed him the remote control and rested her head against his shoulder.
Ekon had never met a more even-tempered, sweet girl. She could be mischievous, sure, and a little obstinate, but nothing more than what was typical for an eighteen-year-old with a strict mother. At twenty, Ekon was little better, and he had far fewer responsibilities than Asha.
“Mom only wants what’s best for me.”
“I know.” Lowering his face, he sniffed her gorgeous mane of hair, tempted to run his hands through the dark, curly locks. She smelled of the countryside of his birth—lavender, moss, and with a hint of mint. “What do you want?”
“For you to hold me while we watch some awful but humorous television sitcom. Then for you to kiss me.”
“I shouldn’t have ever kissed you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
No, Ekon could never regret crossing the line with Asha ten months ago. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it. It’s just, I don’t want to mess up.”
“You won’t.”
“You only say that because I’m the first boy you kissed.”
Asha patted his chest. “You aren’t the first boy I’ve kissed.”
“Wait. What?” He shoved her until she sat up. “I’m not?”
“I never said you were.”
“True but—”
“You are, however, the first boy I’ve wanted to do more with than kissing.”
That stopped his mind from whirling and started his heart racing again. “You can’t go around saying stuff like that.”
Her smirk reminded him of what he already knew. “Okay, fine, we’re the only ones in your suite. But you know what I mean.”
“Actually, I don’t. It’s not as if I asked you to have sex with me right here and now.” A sure hand found his thigh and rubbed. “Unless, you know. We could. No one would know but us.”
“And your mate, if your parents don’t approve of our union.”
“They won’t choose my mate. They’ll weigh in on my decision, but they would never force me into an alliance not of my own choosing. Besides, I don’t have to be a virgin when I take a mate. I only need to be faithful to him, which I will be.” She patted his chest again. “You aren’t ready for us to become lovers, so this conversation is moot.”
Affronted, his eyebrows winged up. “Not ready? Who’s twenty and who’s eighteen?”
“Being twenty doesn’t make you ready. It just makes you two years older than me.” She nodded to the remote. “If you don’t intend on selecting a show, I’ll do the picking. Or,” she said and kissed his cheek, “we could kiss and touch and pretend we’re going to go all the way but know we really won’t.”
Ekon liked that idea, but her statement about him not being ready, despite his age, had pricked his pride a bit. The sad truth was that she wasn’t wrong. Him not being ready had nothing to do with Ekon having had sexual experience with only one person—a high school girlfriend who’d broken up with him a couple of months after graduation. His feelings had been hurt, but she’d warranted no stronger emotion, certainly not anger or even disappointment.
Asha, on the other hand, had a way of turning him into knots. Worse, she managed the act with subconscious effort, like calling him on his unvoiced fears, while also making herself vulnerable to him by revealing her own desires.
Ekon kissed her, lips gentle, tongue patient. When she opened for him, her moan a scratch behind the ears of his inner lion, he slid inside.
Licking.
Tasting.
Exploring.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Asha pulled Ekon atop her, thoughts of finding a mutually agreeable television show clearly forgotten. Her strong, lithe form felt wonderful underneath him. He doubted Asha would grow to her mother’s height. She certainly hadn’t inherited her father’s tall, stocky frame either. Compared to most felidae lionesses, Asha was considered petite. Although, at five-six, she was taller than the average human female.
To Ekon, there was nothing average about Asha—neither her thick mane of hair nor the way her kisses made him want to purr at her feet—and lions could not purr. But, for Asha, he would make it happen.
Him atop her, they kissed, hands roamed, but clothes stayed on. Well, her dress did. Ekon didn’t protest when Asha pulled off his suit jacket and tie and unbuttoned his shirt. No more than he complained when she rolled him over, straddled his hips, and kissed her way f
rom his shoulders down to his belly button. He did, however, moan and curse at the feel of her hand running over his erection through his pants.
He tensed at her exploring touch, and she giggled, the only reaction that gave away her inexperience and nerves.
“Have you done this before too?”
“No.” Her hand felt him again, and he fought not to explode in his boxers. “You’re big.”
“You only think that because I’m the first man you’ve touched like this.” He stilled her hand. Kissing was one kind of temptation but having her curious hand on him was pure torture. “What did you watch on cable after I left you last night?”
“What did you watch, when you returned to your suite?”
They stared at each other, neither blinking. But knowing what he’d watched until three in the morning had him releasing her hand and closing his eyes, permitting Asha to touch him all she wanted.
“I had no idea humans could be so inventive when it came to sex.”
“Yeah,” he croaked out, Asha’s fingers on the tip of his erection, circling the head and drawing precum. “They have the best pornos.”
“If you’d stayed, we could’ve watched one together. Will you let me see you?”
Ekon’s eyes popped open. He hadn’t needed to see Asha to know her humor hadn’t extended to her question. Like Sekhem Zarina, Asha spoke with a forthrightness that often brought one up short when not prepared for her bold—sometimes too bold—frankness.
“We agreed not to go all the way.”
“Seeing isn’t doing. But I would understand if you rather not. I’m curious, is all. You’re handsome. That I already know.”
Fingers traced his brows, arched and thick; his nose, long bridge with a wide base; and his lips, wide with a plump center. She stopped at his chin before gliding her hand to his neck then across his clavicle.
Ekon shivered.
“You’re strong. Your name is quite apt. But you’re also fit, muscular. Your chest is broad and your . . .” Her eyes lowered to the erection tenting his pants. “The rest of you is a mystery I want to solve. Not all of it tonight, unfortunately.” Dark eyes rose to his. “Have I shocked you? I didn’t mean to. I just . . .”
Asha made to roll off Ekon, but his quick hands to her waist stopped her. “Don’t go, and don’t be embarrassed. There’s nothing wrong with speaking your mind.”
“You say that now. But you didn’t see your face a second ago.”
“Your level of openness is rare. Sometimes, it takes me by surprise.”
“I don’t know any other way to be.”
“It’s not a bad way to be, Asha, but everyone isn’t like you and your mother. We aren’t all so brave.”
“Or arrogant.”
“That’s another word, I guess. But I don’t think that’s the right descriptor either.” With a gentle tug, Ekon encouraged Asha to lay atop him. “If I undress for you, letting you see all of me, I’ll want to do more than see you in return. You’re right, I’m not ready, and I don’t think you are either. There’s no rush.” Ekon tipped up her head so that she was looking at him. “Is there a rush?”
Asha shook her head, and he kissed the tip of her nose.
“Good. Then let me court you properly. I’ll have my parents speak with yours when we return home. It’s what we should’ve done in the beginning. Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Ekon hugged Asha tightly, his erection in need of release. “Find something to watch on the television that’s not porn while I’m in the bathroom.”
Asha kissed Ekon, not making it easy on him to use his hand instead of her virginal body to sate his desire. Setting her away from him, his willpower a thread on the verge of breaking, Ekon escaped to Asha’s en suite.
He groaned into the hand towel he shoved in his mouth as he came, spurting into his hand and over top of the open toilet. Mmm, the release felt good. Not as good as Asha’s hand stroking him to completion or being inside of her would’ve felt. But it was what he needed to get him through the next couple of hours, while they watched television, pretending they wouldn’t rather be having sex.
Hands washed and dried, clothes tucked in and neat, lust under control, Ekon walked out of the en suite, through the spacious bedroom, ignoring the queen-size bed, and back into the living room and . . .
Asha no longer sat on the couch in the pit. She stood near the front door. A door he hadn’t heard open or close. But it obviously had because she wasn’t alone in the room. A human male stood beside Asha, a gun pressed to her side.
Ekon snarled and stepped forward, claws and fangs extended.
The human lifted his gun to Asha’s head.
Ekon stopped.
“Calm down, kitty, or I’ll splatter her brains all over this white carpet.”
Chapter 3: Most Strong
Mafdet watched young Ekon follow behind an even younger Asha, smitten by the lioness who would one day become his sekhem. Asha would grow to rule them all, not that Mafdet would be around to see the young woman mature into the big paws her mother would leave for her to fill. Her time with the Shona royal family would soon come to an end. She’d done her duty, and she was tired. So very tired. But she’d made a promise to Zarina to watch over Asha, teaching Ekon all he would require to replace her as First Shieldmane. Until that time, she would continue to use her blades and guns in the service of the Shona Kingdom and the royals who’d given her a home and a purpose when, for too long, she’d had neither.
“Come sit with us.”
At the behest of her sekhem, Mafdet joined Bambara and Zarina at the rectangular marble table in the living room, sitting opposite the couple who, as always, claimed a position next to the other. Once upon a time, she’d had a mate as devoted as Bambara. But that was ages ago.
“Would you like for me to reconfirm your meeting with Ms. Choi or inquire as to whether she could meet earlier than the scheduled luncheon?”
Bambara appeared to consider Mafdet’s question, while Zarina’s reply took only seconds.
“No. Thank you for the consideration. It would be nice to return home a few hours earlier. But Mi Sun isn’t local. She’s flying in to meet with us tomorrow morning. Out of respect, we should give her time to rest before engaging in business. I would like for you to finalize everything for our departure, though. Ideally, I would like to leave for the airport as soon as our business with Mi Sun concludes.”
“Of course, I’ll have Virith—”
Her walkie-talkie crackled. Virith’s voice, the very Shieldmane she’d been about to suggest for an assignment, boomed through the radio.
“Virith to Mafdet. Virith to Mafdet.”
She sprang from the table and rushed across the room to where she’d left the walkie-talkie.
Bambara and Zarina also got to their feet. They must’ve heard the same in Virith’s husky voice.
Anger.
Worry.
She picked the walkie-talkie up off the floor. “Mafdet, go ahead Virith.”
“There are unauthorized humans in the hotel.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Some are dressed as hotel workers but not all.”
“Where are you? Where are the others?”
Bambara and Zarina crowded around the walkie-talkie she held, staring at it as if it would show them the intruders Virith had described.
“Watane is pinned down on the ground floor. Adul should be somewhere on the eighth floor, and I haven’t been able to reach Nochari. He should be on the same floor as you. Have you seen him?”
Mafdet knew what Virith meant by seen him. While the hotel contained its own security cameras in all public places in and around the building, Shieldmane security protocol twelve dictated Shieldmane use their own cameras. So, Mafdet had tasked Nochari with installing Shona security cameras in strategic locations throughout the hotel, including the floor where they stayed and its stairwells, and every major hotel entrance and exit.
�
�I haven’t seen Nochari. I’m with the khalid and sekhem in their suite.”
With the Shieldmanes scattered throughout the hotel, no one was in the suite they used as their security control office. She had eyes on nothing beyond this suite and her alphas.
“Is Ekon with the hafsa sekhem?”
At the mention of Asha, everyone’s eyes darted to the closed suite door.
Bambara bolted toward it, followed by Zarina and Mafdet.
Gunfire erupted on the other end of the walkie-talkie, shaking her up but not slowing her down. Her cheetah speed had her beating Bambara to the door. Mafdet reached for the handle. Stopped. Sniffed.
Only Bambara’s arm around Zarina’s waist prevented her from opening the suite door. “Don’t. Can’t you smell that?”
“Gas?” Zarina questioned. Her outstretched hand stilled on the door handle.
It was. Mafdet didn’t know what kind, but she could hazard a guess. “Probably thanol.”
“Basilisk Smoke?” Zarina followed Mafdet’s and Bambara’s retreat. “Is that the same poison that was used against your—”
“The same one.” With it seeping under the door, the scent closer, stronger, she knew for certain. “We need to stop it from getting in here.”
“We need to get my daughter.”
Mafdet didn’t disagree with Zarina, but they would be useless to Asha if they succumbed to the toxic vapors. Thankfully, Bambara’s concern for his daughter’s safety hadn’t clouded his judgment.
He tossed Mafdet and Zarina thick towels he’d retrieved from the en suite. “These should slow it down some, but I’m not waiting in here while whoever in the hell is out there runs free.”
“I’m calling Asha’s room.” Zarina pointed to Mafdet. “See who you can contact who has eyes on the intruders. Bambara, your lion.”
The khalid didn’t require his mate’s order. He’d already ripped his shirt off by the time she’d uttered his name.
It went unsaid that Mafdet would be in her human form. Her skills were better suited as a human, just as the khalid’s lion was his more formidable shape. Zarina, on the other hand, was descended from the original line of Panthera Leos. Her strength, stamina, and speed remained the same, no matter her form.
