Tamed for the Lion

by Annabelle Winters

  Lacy moaned as she felt her nipples harden into points as Darius sucked and licked every inch of her breasts. Then slowly he lifted her boobs and licked the warm, hidden space beneath them, making her squirm as his tongue made its way lower, lower, circling her belly button, coating her smooth tummy with his saliva, going lower until she could feel his breath warm and heavy against her stiff little clit.

  “Investigating?” she muttered, trying to look down at him but then giving up when she felt his strong hands hold her thighs and ass pressed firmly to the warm wooden floor of the boxcar. “Investigating what?”

  “The source of this intoxicating scent,” Darius growled from between her legs. “Ah. Found it. Yummy.”

  “Ohmygod, you pervert!” Lacy shrieked, leaning her head back and laughing as she felt Darius sniff her like a sick, twisted beast. But then the laughter was gone, because he’d pushed his face right in there, his nose driving through her matted brown curls, his tongue landing on her clit just right, flicking it back and forth as Lacy almost choked in ecstasy.

  She came just as Darius opened his mouth wide, his thick warm lips kissing her dark nether folds, his tongue somehow still working her clit into a frenzy as he took deep, heaving breaths like he couldn’t get enough of her scent, her feminine, her sex. He was still holding her hips down with his strength, and Lacy thrashed and moaned, bucking her hips into his face as her climax whipped through her like a storm.

  But it was a storm that was only just rolling in, she realized as her vision blurred and her pants and gasps grew louder. Because now Darius’s tongue was rolling around the wet lips of her sex, coaxing her feminine juices out of her like he wanted to drink her nectar, swallow her down, not just claim her but own her, consume her, make her part of him!

  “Oh, God, Darius,” she wailed as she felt his tongue coat every part of the secret space between her legs, her soft inner thighs, the entire length of her crease, all the way down and around to her dark rear pucker. She was so wet she couldn’t tell if it came from her or him, their juices were so intermingled. All she knew was that she was ready. She needed him inside her. Any part of him. Every part of him. “Oh, Darius, please. Please!”

  As she spoke Darius lifted his face up from between her legs, and through tear-filled eyes Lacy looked down along her shuddering, glistening body. Her eyes rested on his cock, and she almost came again when she saw how erect he was, how thick his shaft was, how massive its head. He was oozing from the tip, and as Lacy watched, a heavy bead of his pre-cum dripped down onto her bare belly, just above her dark triangle, the thick natural lubricant pooling on her skin like a royal seal.

  He’s marking me, she realized as she felt both the woman and the animal in her accept him, accept their mate. Oh, God, he’s marking me. And now he’s going to . . .

  Then she could no longer think, because Darius reached down and pressed the head of his cock to where his pre-cum had pooled, dragging his heavy erection down towards her slit. Lacy felt her wetness pour out of her like a tap, and she wasn’t sure if she was coming again or if she’d never stopped coming. It felt like a continuous orgasm, a steady buzz of ecstasy that had taken over both body and soul, woman and bobcat, human and beast.

  “You’re so wet, Lacy,” he groaned, and Lacy just nodded dumbly as she looked down past her glistening boobs to the naked lion Shifter about to claim her. Every muscle on his body was flexed as he fisted his massive cock and rolled its oozing head around the outer rim of her vagina, slowly opening her up. “So goddamn warm. I want to feel you from the inside. I want to claim you from the inside. All the way inside. Every inch of me inside every inch of you. I’m going to open you up, Lacy. Open you up and fill you.”

  Lacy choked back a swell of ecstasy as she caught a glimpse of Darius’s heavy balls beneath and behind his thick shaft, and an image of him emptying himself into her valley bubbled up in her with such clarity that it felt like second sight, like she was seeing the future, gazing upon eternity, looking forever right in the eye.

  And then her mouth hung open as Darius finally placed his cock directly in front of her parted slit. He took a long breath and looked her deeply and lovingly, his golden gaze penetrating her soul as he slowly pushed himself into her.

  Lacy felt the bulbous head of her mate’s cock enter her vagina and stop. She looked up at him and nodded. Then he nodded back, and with a firm, unflinching thrust he drove into her, breaking her seal, entering her boldly, claiming her from the inside, the first, the last, the only.

  The only.

  8

  Even if it were only this once it would be enough, Darius thought as he drove into her with a gentle power that felt like it carried everything he had. The admission that this was the first time for both of them seemed trivial, almost meaningless, like they’d always known they were waiting for each other even though they couldn’t possibly have known. Not unless magic existed. Not unless fate was real. Not unless time was an illusion, with past and future existing at once, both with equal footing in the universe.

  “This is real, Lacy,” he whispered into her hair as he pressed his weight down on her soft, wonderful body and pushed in so deep that he could feel himself opening up new space inside her. She felt so tight against his thickness that Darius was scared he might hurt her at first. But she opened up for him like a flower opens for the rain, and his lion roared inside him as the man filled his mate, took his woman, claimed his queen. “This is real, and it’s forever.”

  He pumped slowly and carefully into her, closing his eyes and reveling in the feeling of discovering her from the inside, the head of his cock dragging against the upper wall of her vagina as he moved back and forth in time with the chug and rattle of the train. The sun had sunk below the horizon, casting a warm, red glow across the African skies. Shadows were dancing on the red-painted metal walls of their moving bed-chambers, and Darius grunted as he felt his balls begin to tighten in preparation for a release so explosive that he wondered if it would destroy them both, perhaps destroy the world itself.

  He kissed her again just as the thought disappeared, leaving nothing but pure, unfiltered ecstasy. And then he was coming, the orgasm coming smoothly and silently like a lion stalking its prey, taking its time with the hunt, getting as close as possible before bursting from the shadows like a streak of gold lightning.

  “Holy mother of—” he managed to mutter before his eyes rolled up in his head and his body tensed up so tight he lost the power of speech and sight all at once. His muscular ass clenched, and he roared in delight as he felt his mate sink her claws into his back and tighten her legs around his thighs, her body locking him in as he began to pour his seed into her warm depths.

  Lacy screamed into the night as Darius thrust with all his might and then held firm, his neck straining as his balls delivered his thick semen into his mate, his cock flexing inside her with each spurt, filling her so completely that he could feel their combined juices flowing down his shaft, coating his balls, marking them both in their fated bond.

  They came together as the train blew its whistle as if signaling to every beast in the jungle that the lion had taken its mate, the king had claimed his queen, that fate had won yet again, as if it was proof that the universe and every event in it was perfectly planned.

  Perfectly planned, Darius thought with a grin as he collapsed on top of his mate. He could hear the beasts of the jungle call out in the night as if they could sense the magic of two fated mates coming together, and he heard Lacy sigh as his weight pressed down on her like a security blanket.

  “Perfect,” he whispered, kissing her smooth cheeks and exhaling against her neck. “My mate in my arms. My cubs in her womb. The jungle all around us. Perfectly planned.”

  But then the train’s whistle sounded again, three times in quick succession, and immediately Darius’s eyes flicked open as his lion’s senses went on high alert. He could feel Lacy’s bod
y tense up beneath him, and he knew her bobcat was sounding the alarm as well.

  And as the train suddenly slammed on its brakes, sending up a horrible screeching noise as the metal wheels ground against the hot steel rails of the tracks, Darius remembered something his grandparents had said when they’d been teaching the young lion about fate and the universe, destiny and meant-to-be:

  “Yes, the universe always has a plan to take you to your destiny,” Grandpa had said. “But the catch is that you’ll never know the plan until it’s all said and done.”

  “That is the beauty of the universe,” Grandma had whispered, a darkness flashing in her wise old eyes as Darius had looked up in awe. “Perfectly planned, but perfectly unpredictable.”

  Perfectly unpredictable.

  9

  All her bobcat’s plans went flying out the open door of the train-car as Lacy felt Darius leap off her with a lightness that surprised her. But Lacy was on her feet too, every sense of hers on high alert as the train screeched to a halt in the dark African night, the locked metal wheels sending sparks zipping through the blackness like lightning from below.

  Lacy fought back a sudden rush of emotion, an image of her sister coming through to her mind’s eye. God, in all of this she’d almost forgotten about her own sister! How was that possible? How was that right?!

  The answer came to her in a flash as she looked at Darius standing naked, his back to her as he leaned out the open door of the boxcar. His muscular back was lit up by the dark light of the half-moon, and she gasped when she saw three long clawmarks in his skin, deep and fresh, the blood looking black in the muted moonlight.

  Then she felt her bobcat hiss inside her just as she became aware of Darius’s seed slowly oozing down the insides of her bare thighs, and along with it came a realization that made her shiver.

  “You betrayed me,” she muttered to her bobcat, her eyes going wide in panic as the guilt of forgetting about her own sister whipped through her like a snake. “In your rush to bond with your mate, everything else took second place! Animal instinct won out over the responsibilities a human has to her family! That can’t be right!”

  Right and wrong has nothing to do with it, snarled her bobcat, its defiance both angering Lacy and terrifying her at the same time. She’d been in control of her animal so long she didn’t even remember what it was like to actually have it oppose the human in her! It’s just nature. Survival. Reproduction. Our sister is making the same choices as we speak. Out here in the jungle, it’s every bitch for herself. And we are in the jungle now, honey. Listen. You hear it? You hear them?

  Lacy swallowed her anger long enough to listen—not that she could have ignored the sounds anyway: they were too damned loud.

  Sounds of the jungle.

  The jungle gone wild.

  “What’s happening?” Lacy said, striding over to Darius and standing behind him. She touched his back, blinking at the long clawmarks she’d left in his skin when the lion had taken her, claimed her, filled her. “What in God’s name is going on?”

  “I don’t know,” growled Darius, his body stiff and tight, the hairs on the back of his head standing at attention, his golden mane fluttering in the breeze. “But we need to Change. And we need to do it now.”

  Lacy blinked as the sound rose to a deafening cacophony that sounded like every animal in the African jungle was screaming at the top of its lungs. She could hear the wails of the wildebeest, the rumble of the rhinoceros, the bellowing of the baboon packs as they swung through the thrashing trees. Every bird was awake, from sparrows to vultures, and Lacy swore she heard the snakes slither and hiss, the rodents scurry and squeak, and even the frogs of the forest ribbitt their way to wherever they were going.

  “It’s a stampede,” Lacy said in disbelief as she tried to look past Darius into the darkness. “Something must have spooked them.”

  Darius frowned and shook his head, his eyes narrowed as he squinted into the black night. “A herd of cattle can stampede. A pack of baboons can get spooked. But this . . . this is unnatural. Every beast of the jungle losing its shit at the same time? Can’t happen. No way, Lacy. We need to get out there and see what’s going on. Change now, Lacy. You’ll need your cat.”

  Lacy swallowed hard as that feeling of being betrayed by her animal came bubbling up again. Her head was spinning, and she felt her heart pound as once again the reminder that her sister was missing came rushing back along with splinters of guilt. She could feel her bobcat snarl and claw inside her, like it was trying to get out. But Lacy also felt the human in her clamp down with the force of her will, and her eyes went wide as she felt conflict like she’d never felt before.

  “I . . . I don’t think I can,” she stammered, her heart pounding harder as the anxiety rose. The sounds of the stampede were getting closer, the cries of the animals sounding like a nightmare, a scene straight out of the Book of Hell! Perhaps this was the Apocalypse happening! “Darius, I . . . I can’t do it.”

  Darius turned, his face twisted, his eyes narrowed, head cocked as he looked at her. “What do you mean? Just Change, Lacy! You’ve done it a million times before! Just relax and let your animal come forth! You’ll be ripped to shreds if you don’t!”

  But Lacy could feel herself clamping down, seizing up, and she wasn’t sure if she’d lost control of her animal or her human! All she could do was stare up at Darius, blinking as she shook her head, trying to hold back the tears. She couldn’t understand what had happened! She was strong, wasn’t she? She’d always been strong! Always been in control! What the hell had just happened?!

  The sounds of the stampede had risen to fever pitch, the thundering footsteps of the elephants pounding the earth so hard that the train itself was shaking like a matchbox. The combined howls of every animal under the sun sounded like something unholy, and Lacy staggered back from the open door, gasping as she shook her head. She wasn’t scared—that much she knew. And although there had been that moment when she was furious at her animal for letting her forget about her sister, it wasn’t that either. All her life she’d been able to control her Changes, call her animal forth at will. Her bobcat had always responded with glee when it was called forth. But not now. There’d been a moment when it had tried to get out, but now she could feel it retreating inside her as the sounds of the stampede drew closer.

  “All right,” said Darius, nodding once, his jaw set tight, his eyes swirling with the power of his lion. Lacy could already see the beast inside him roaring to get out, and she knew she’d have to rely on her mate right now. “Get back. I’ll handle this.”

  Lacy just nodded dumbly, hating herself as she retreated to the corner of the boxcar. This wasn’t her! She wasn’t some weak, helpless woman who needed to be protected! She could stand toe-to-toe with any man, any beast, face any challenge, win any battle! She didn’t need a man to fight for her! To protect her!

  “I . . . I’m sorry!” she mumbled, still shaking her head in disbelief as she felt herself come undone. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”

  “It’s not you,” growled Darius as he turned back to the open door of the boxcar. “It’s your animal. I feel it in my lion too. There’s some strange power at work here. Something dark. Unbalanced. It’s confusing our animals. Spooking them. We’re Shifters, so I think it hasn’t affected our animals as badly as it has these poor stampeding beasts. But it’s messing with our internal balance, pulling our animals away from our human side, trying to split us apart from within.” Darius glanced back at her, his eyes blazing as he lowered his voice to a whisper. “But we can’t be split apart, Lacy. Not now that we’re mated.” He sniffed the air, cocking his head and listening to the roar of the stampede. “And the animals aren’t heading for us. They’re going past the train, deeper into the jungle. Stay here, Lacy. You’ll be safe here. I need to see what’s happening.”

  Lacy swallowed hard and nodded. A part of
her wanted him to stay, and she could see that he wanted to stay with her too, that his lion wanted to protect its mate. But there was another instinct she could sense in Darius, an instinct that was driving him to understand why the beasts of the jungle seemed to have gone insane suddenly.

  He’s the King of the Jungle, whispered her bobcat from inside her, its voice sending a feeling of calm confidence through Lacy. And a King needs to know what’s threatening his kingdom. We will be safe here. I almost lost it for a moment, but I’m all right now. The lion was right: It was me, not you. I felt a strange urge to come forth and join in the stampede, run wild with these dumb beasts. But then I pulled back. We are mated, and the lion’s seed is in us. The power of our coupling created a bond too strong to be broken by whatever force is doing this. Let the King go into his jungle. He will return to us. He will return to his Queen.

  Lacy nodded as she felt her heartbeat slowly wind down, her breathing starting to relax as she felt herself come back into balance. Suddenly she realized that she could Change now if she wanted. She could call her bobcat forth and run alongside her lion. But now wasn’t the time. It was still early in their coupling, and Darius’s lion might be distracted by the need to protect her out there in the dark jungle. She could take care of herself for now. The lion needed to take care of his kingdom.

  “Go,” she said softly, nodding her head and setting her jaw. “I’ll be safe here. My cat’s back. Go, Darius. See what’s happening in your kingdom.” She paused and took a long breath. “In our kingdom.”

  And the moment she said those last three words, Darius’s face broke into a grin, his eyes shining with admiration, with pride, with . . . with love! She nodded again, understanding that she was now his primary concern, but she would never be his only concern. And she didn’t want to be his only concern! They were King and Queen of the jungle! They would never have the luxury of just disappearing into some cave and raising their children without worrying about what was happening outside!