by L M Lacee
Ocean nodded as she gathered clothes to change into for the day. Claire wrapped Parker then placed her in the carrier. Within minutes Ocean was dressed, the room tidied and they were walking out the door.
Breakfast was at a diner called Rockabilly’s. The girls loved the old style fifties booths and decor. The waitresses in bright authentic costumes made them sigh with longing.
Conor and Saul sat in a booth three across and back from Oceans. Saul glanced over at the table and back into Conor’s eyes. “So that is her then?”
Conor grunted in reply, never the most talkative in the morning. Sleeping as his lion on a hard surface made him grumpy although the sight of his girls who were looking around wide eyed made him think about smiling. Not so much his chirpy talkative brother who asked. “So you gonna introduce yourself?”
Another grunt as answer almost made Saul laugh before he said. “Looks like her hands are okay, must have got them fixed.”
Conor took his eyes from his mate and stared at his brother, golden eyebrows rose over amber eyes.
“What?” Saul grinned as he said. “Everyone knows, if it was meant to be a secret, you went about it wrong.”
Conor had no one to blame for Saul’s reasoning. Not even the ones in the gym last night who had heard him talking to Saul and Claire. No, the fault was his or at least his own beast’s fault. He who had given the game away by lying across her threshold guarding her door last night for the whole town to see.
His lion was impossible to miss, but Ken had not been the only one to have seen him last night or this morning. It was enough for all the tongues of Dragon’s Gap to start wagging. “Just saying!” Saul said with a grin.
“Don’t!” Conor rumbled, suddenly he stiffened as did Saul when the diner door opened and several female lionesses walked in. At a quick count there were eight and they were hunting.
As Saul had pointed, out people knew that Ocean and her young were now Conor’s, therefore untouchable. For Ocean to be challenged before he had claimed her as his mate was uncalled for.
Unfortunately as Neila sauntered past Conor and Saul with a smirk, she knew his hands were tied. If he stopped the challenge before it started, it would show everyone in the pride Ocean was weak. If he stepped in at any time, it would do the same. He had no option but to let this play out. Claire looked to where the females entered and said to Ocean. “Okay, so I know something, and I was going to ease into talking to you about it later today while we looked at the house.”
Ocean eyebrows rose as she asked. “What would that have been my new friend?”
Claire grimaced as she hurriedly said. “The Lion that slept outside your door…”
Ocean cut her off. “Is my mate, yes I know? Would that be the big intense guy with the amber eyes and golden hair?”
“Ahh! Yeah and…”
“The eight lionesses walking towards us are going to call me out!”
Claire grinned as she asked. “Shoot, what don’t you know?”
Ocean looked at the warmed jug of syrup. “If the maple syrup is natural?” Claire laughed as Ocean looked at her wide eyed daughters. “You heard that?”
“Yes.” Paige whispered as she held Kadee’s hand who looked terrified as she nodded.
“Now listen to me, the male over there seems to be my mate and your new daddy.” They both grinned at the face she made when she said the word daddy. “What is going to happen is I am going to be challenged.”
“Why?” Asked a trembling Kadee as Paige shivered with worry. Ocean ran her finger down each of the girl’s cheeks in comfort. “Probably because he is the pride leader and they want to test his mate. To see what I am made of.”
“That is stupid.” Kadee said softly. “I don’t like it, there are eight of them.”
“I know and you are right, it may be stupid but it is the way of their species. They have issues we do not understand, going back generations. Things like this will stop when people realize we are more than our base animals, until then we go with what is happening.”
“Why does he not stop it? If he is the leader.” Paige asked softly.
Claire said. “If he does, it will be worse for your mom. They will think she is weak and attack you or her later. They could think she cannot defend you. They may say she cannot keep you as she cannot defend you. Do you see, he has to watch and wait like we do?”
“It is dumb.” Kadee mumbled fearfully.
“We won’t go!” Paige told her bravely. Ocean’s eyebrows rose again. “Of course you will not go anywhere. You will sit there and listen and watch. This could be you one day. Hopefully not, but if it ever happens you will need to know how to handle it. But in saying that, if Claire orders you to do something you will do it without question. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes.” Both girls answered. Ocean shrugged. “You are young and believe me when I tell you, your new father, his brother and our new friend Claire, will not allow a finger to touch you. Just watch. It will be okay.”
Claire hurriedly whispered. “Not a finger, trust me.” Both girls nodded and Kadee asked softly should we tell them the Dragon Lord is our uncle?”
Claire smiled. “Not now but we will keep that in reserve it’s always good to have information that they don’t have.”
“Yeah like reinforcements.” Paige whispered.
By this time the eight females had arrived, a female stood and cocked out her hip in an insolent pose. She was obviously the leader, thin, big-breasted, big hair which again seemed to be the fashion. She wore tight revealing clothes that left little to the imagination. Her eyes were blue with a ring of amber around the iris. Her face was long and narrow with high cheek bones. Ocean thought lack of food shaped them rather than because she had naturally sharp cheek bones. At the moment her bright red lips were in a pout.
She looked constipated Paige thought as she and Kadee frowned at her. Paige’s eyes hardened slightly as she looked at the other seven females. They were all young. There were two that were not much older than her and the others all looked skinny. It was as though they were starving. Predators should not be hungry. Ocean told her and Kadee that predators like lions went crazy if they stayed hungry too long.
These females looked hungry and slightly crazy. Why? She wondered. There was no need not to eat at the Gap. Food was plentiful, and she doubted people would turn a hungry lioness away. They must know it was not good to have hungry predators around the town. Then she looked at the leader. Oh! She saw why they were all like that. She was skinny so they had to be like her. Paige bet she did not let them eat, she had seen that kind of girl at school. The bully usually was the leader. It was a pack or pride thing apparently. It was stupid.
The lead female looked over Ocean and the girls, she smirked at Claire. Her voice was as Ocean thought whiny, it grated along her nerves. “Lady Claire why are you here, eating at our diner, surely a step down for you?”
“I go where I want Neila. I do not answer to you, and you do not own this diner. You own nothing your Leo doesn’t allow.” Claire stated as she looked at her blandly.
Ocean knew she had her gun on her lap as did the lionesses. A gun would not normally halt an attack unless she was an excellent shot, but they would let her think it did today. Tomorrow or the next day maybe a different thing. Ocean was sure Claire was well aware of that fact and that she knew she had an enemy. So Ocean would make that enemy go away, an enemy of my friend is an enemy of mine! Was a motto she had lived by, her entire life. Ocean stood and the eight shuffled back. “So Claire my friend, introduce me?”
Claire flipped her hand the lionesses’ way. “Ocean Walker meet Neila something or other, I never bothered to learn her last name and I don’t know the others.”
This made the lioness Neila snarl and again when Claire said. “She believes she is the Alpha female of Dragon’s Gap.”
Neila hissed. “Walking a thin line here liaison. The dragons are nowhere around now are they?”
Claire smirked at her
and placed her gun on the table top. “Try me bitch!”
Neila moved slightly, Ocean moved as well drawing her attention back to her. She looked Ocean up and down. “What are you?”
Ocean sighed. “Tell me what you want. I have not eaten yet, and it makes me antsy.”
Neila sneered. “Just wanted to see what kind of skank Conor has got himself hooked up too?”
The others with her laughed or twittered some hesitantly as though they laughed because it was expected, rather than they wanted too. Poor scared lionesses. Ocean thought. “Skank really! Me. I am not the one wearing slut lipstick. Now am I.”
Before Neila could swing her fist she had readied, Ocean hit her with two short jabs to the chest. And then as she bent over to get a breath. Ocean grabbed her throat and took her to the ground as she calmly said to the others when they moved closer. “I will kill her. Then you. So think really hard which way you want to go here?”
Claire stood in front of the table a gun in each hand Huh! She had two, Ocean knew then that Claire was a very good shot.
Ocean with her hand around the gasping female’s throat said. “Now you listen to me, you made me tell a lie which I hate doing. I told my healer I would not use my hands to punch for two days, and I broke my word, so guess who gets to pay for that?”
The lioness wheezed a breath in and out as Ocean snarled. “So because of that I am going to tell you how this is going to go down. I am dragon. I will kill any who comes after mine. Any of mine so take this as a warning. She looked at the other seven lionesses and the people in the diner. Bypassing Conor’s intent stare. “That is a warning for all of you here. I give only one!” She released the female and stood. Neila looked up at her and whimpered, then asked. “May I get up?”
“No remain there!” Ocean looked over the seven nearly emancipated females. “You who follow her may continue to do so but not here. You will leave Dragon’s Gap. Do not let me see you here after today. Now you may get up Neila.” She stood slowly her head bowed in submission. “May I stay?”
Ocean turned her back on her as she said. “No, I will not trust you. You had no right to challenge me until after my mating. You tried to shame or expose me and your Leo. You are contemptible. If you pull that knife Neila, my mate will kill you or my new friend will. Unless I don’t rip your throat out first.”
Neila hurriedly took her hand from her pocket when she saw the hardened face of Conor as he and Saul walked over. Conor nodded to Ocean and Claire, he looked at Neila. “Saul, see Neila and whoever is going with her out of the Gap. Make sure they are gone by midday. Talk to Johner about the ban.”
“Yes Leo.” Saul said, he, like several of the others did not like Neila. They had suffered her because of her brother Migel. He was well liked.
Saul asked Conor. “What of Migel?”
“Give him the choice.”
Neila screamed at him. “You can’t do this. We will die if we leave here.”
Conor’s face became harder. “You should have thought of that. I am tired of your behaviour. I warned you Neila, your brother warned you. The matrons and Lady Grace warned you. You were here because of your brother only. Today challenging a female because you thought you had the right was a step to far.”
“It was for us.” She whined “I know you want me. I am a pure lion not like that, a dragon.” She snarled twisting her face into a sneer of disgust as she looked at Ocean with malice in her eyes.
Conor’s voice became ice as power bled into the tones as he said. “You and I were never together, here or anywhere. Your wishful thinking makes a fool of you Neila. Have some dignity and leave like the pure lion you say you are.”
“You can’t do this to me.” She hissed. “I will kill you.”
Saul said. “Repeat that again, so I can kill you and not worry about your ban.” Neila screamed loud and long until Claire slapped her. “Shut the hell up!”
Neila snapped her lips closed. Claire nodded to Saul. “Drag her if you have too, just get her out of here.” She looked at Neila and said. “You brought this on yourself. Now leave.”
Neila growled out. “I did nothing wrong. It was my right to challenge.”
“No it was not but you chose this action. Now you reap the rewards your foolish choice granted you. Banished from Dragon’s Gap as of midday.” Conor told her. “Saul take her and any of the others that wish to go with her.”
Saul and two other deputies who had arrived grabbed an arm each and dragged Neila from the diner, two of the females ducked their heads and left with them.
Ocean looked at the remaining five young females. “You five go and find a table and eat anything you want. Do you have money?” They shook their heads no. Conor peeled off several bills for each of them. “Go and eat.”
“Yes Leo.” They whispered. Claire told them. “Come to my office at two today. I will find you a place to live and decide what to do with you.”
“Yes Liaison Claire.” A young female with orange hair and a thin face with round brown eyes answered for them all. “Thank you.”
She and the other four looked at Ocean three of them had tears running down their faces. Freedom did that Ocean thought as she felt sympathy for them, they looked lost and alone. Softly she said. “I am Lady Ocean. These are my daughters. Paige, Kadee and Parker. We are now part of Dragon’s Gap pride, your pride if you want it, but you have to earn it. That means you have to add to the pride by doing what you can, if that is school or work we will help you succeed in your endeavors. Be honest with Liaison Claire this afternoon please.”
“Yes Lady Ocean.” Said the same female. They hurried to a table and quietly started looking at the menu. Conor growled softly from his chest as he asked no one in particular. “How the hell did I let that happen?”
Kadee said. “Because you are busy, our Grandpa had the same problem. You have to learn to delegate!”
He looked down into her upturned face and smiled a slow smile. “You are very wise for one so young.”
“I know, don’t worry about it now, we are here to help you!” She told him. Conor grinned as he asked Ocean. “May I join you?”
“Of course.” Ocean motioned to a seat. Her heart beat a fast tattoo against her ribs. Dear Goddess the male was startlingly handsome, even with the light scar that ran along his jaw line. Conor took a seat beside Kadee making her move closer to Paige. Ocean had quickly taken her seat beside Claire leaving no room for Conor beside her. She turned to Claire “Let me know what they need?”
“Of course.”
Conor cleared his throat and said. “I am sorry.”
“Why?” Ocean asked.
“For all of this, it was not how I was hoping our first meeting would go.”
She shrugged trying for nonchalant and hoping she pulled it off. “Were you never going to introduce yourself or were you going to haunt us at night?”
He smiled at her. “No, I was working on it.”
“Huh!” Paige laughed. “Working on it, mom you even scare lions.”
CHAPTER EIGHT:
T hey decided to visit the estate as soon as breakfast was over, it was a ten minute drive from town when they turned into the driveway they came to a set of wrought-iron gates that were closed, and it was obvious to see that the gates were shaped into the wings of a dragon. Kadee tapped Paige. “Look, she pointed to the gates both girls grinned as Kadee said. “That is so cool!”
Claire and Paige hopped from her truck as Ocean grinned admiring the gates. “Now that is lovely.”
“Conor will be sad he is not on them. We should have a lion as well.”
Ocean pulled on her bottom lip as she thought about what Kadee said, there were going to be lions living here probably. She was right there should be a lion as well. “I will talk to Claire, if we decide to buy. She may know of someone who does iron work.”
“As if we won’t, look at this place?” Kadee grinned.
Ocean shrugged. “The house could be a stone pile of rubble you don’
t know?”
“Nope, it is a castle, seriously a dragon that has gates like that would build a castle.”
“You seem quite sure of that?”
“I am.”
Her assurance made Ocean smile as Claire and Paige climbed back into the truck, they drove through the now opened gates. Ocean as well as the girls fell in love with the property as soon as they drove further along the paved driveway the lush rolling hills and groves of trees, there even seemed to be an orchard and what looked like a stream and pond.
Conor pulled up behind her as Kadee and Paige tumbled out in their excitement. He pulled open Ocean’s door and grinned at her as Claire met them around the front of the truck. “Well, they like it.” Claire stated as they looked after the two girls who stood looking at the large brick wall that seemed to encircle the property.
“You guys look.” Paige pointed in awe at the wall. “Do you think it goes around the whole place?”
Ocean shrugged. “Who knows?”
“Conor?” Kadee asked as she stared up at him. Conor quirked up one side of his mouth figuring as this was the Dragon’s Lords former residence it would be so. “I would say yes but we could ask the seer she knows everything.”
Claire sniffed with disdain at his words. “I do not know everything, if I did I would know where my shadow hides his chocolate. Now that would be everything.” The girls as well as Ocean laughed at her pout.
“Seriously who owned this place? It is beautiful and are you positive they want to sell?” Ocean finally asked. Claire nodded and bit the bullet waiting for the explosion to come as she said. “Yes, they do, and it once belonged to the Dragon Lord, he lived here over seven hundred years ago. Which is why it needs some TLC.”
Kadee did a small dance and crowed. “Knew it… knew it had to be someone important.”
Claire looked at Ocean waiting for her anger instead she received a shrug. “Glad he wants to sell it, from what I can see it looks ideal. Conor what do you think?”
“It has possibilities.” He agreed surprised as well at her easy acceptance. Claire smiled at her agreement. “The Dragon Lord walled in fifty acres, the rest is accessed through gates along the perimeter of the fifty acres.”
