Promised To The Pride

by Bonnie Burrows

  Kyle looked shocked by his brother. “Craig, you don’t have to do this. We can find another way, or another person, to do this. It doesn’t have to be you.”

  Craig put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and squeezed slightly. “I know that I don’t have to do this, but I want to. Not just to help you out, but our whole pride. It would be an honor to help lead the Anastas pride. I cannot think of a better way to serve our pride. Let me do this for you, big brother.”

  Natalie had never heard Craig be more sincere than he was in that moment. She had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he meant every word he had just said. She placed her hand on Kyle’s arm to get his attention and to get him to look back at her. “I think you should let him do it,” she told her mate. “Nobody says it has to be forever, but right now, Craig is someone you trust more than most anyone else, and so do I. With him running things in Anastas, we could build a strong alliance with the pride.”

  Kyle was quiet for a minute, and then he looked back over at his brother. “Craig,” he said, “are you sure that you want to do this? I don’t want you to do this just because you feel like you have to for some reason. You don’t have to.”

  “Kyle, I know that I don’t have to do this, brother, but I want to. I want to do it for you and Natalie, for our pride, and for myself,” Craig told his brother. “After all, this gives me the chance to step in and act as a pride leader. That is an opportunity I can’t pass up.”

  Natalie watched Kyle, waiting for his response to Craig. Kyle continued to stare at his brother for a moment as if he was trying to determine whether or not to believe everything that Craig had just told him. After a minute Kyle slowly nodded. “Alright, Craig you will run Anastas as their surrogate leader while I am here.”

  Natalie felt a weight lift off of her chest that she hadn’t realized was there until it was gone. She wasn’t going to lose her mate to another pride right after she had mated with him, and they were even going to make something good out of the whole situation. Obviously, they still had some details to work out, but she was confident in Craig, and she knew that they were going to make this all work in the end.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kyle

  Kyle had mixed feelings about letting his brother go to the Anastas pride to lead them as his surrogate while he continued to live with his home pride and his mate. He didn’t doubt his brother’s ability to lead the other pride, he just felt guilty for sending him away from his pride and his home. There was also the fact that he was sending Craig away from their mother, and Kyle knew she wasn’t happy about that. However, he could tell that Craig was serious about looking forward to the opportunity. His brother had always loved a challenge, and he was passionate about doing whatever was best to protect their pride. Having him in charge of the Anastas pride while they built this alliance was a great strategy. Kyle was still going to have to make regular trips to the Anastas pride lands since he would remain their pride leader, but with Craig there, he wouldn’t have to live there all of the time.

  Kyle and Craig had talked strategy after the meeting was over, and they decided that Kyle would go back with Craig the next day and stay while they got things set up for Craig to act as leader in his absence. Craig had already come up with a plan to move the Anastas pride closer to them, but he was going to wait to enact that plan until after he had the trust of the Anastas pride. Kyle liked the idea of them being closer; it would make the whole situation easier to navigate, not to mention the benefits for their own pride of having an ally so close by. Fifty miles wasn’t a lot of distance, but if they could get them even closer, that would be even better.

  During the meeting, they had also decided that Glenn would take Craig’s place as the head of security, or head guard, for Natalie at the pride leader mansion. Once Kyle and Craig had their plans together for the next day, Craig headed to meet Glenn and go over everything he did to turn over the job to Glenn officially. Kyle found Natalie at her desk, holding a cup of hot chocolate and staring off into space. When he walked in, he went around the desk and began rubbing her shoulders, trying to soothe some of her stress.

  Natalie sighed before she spoke. “Did you ever imagine this would be our lives? I mean, just a few weeks ago, our biggest obstacle was sneaking around behind Jason’s back to make sure he never found out we were more than friends, and now look. The both of us are pride leaders of two separate prides, we have a traitor who is a coward attacking us while we sleep, we are mated, and we’re sending your brother off to live with another pride. Who ever thought that so much could happen in just a few weeks?”

  Kyle kept rubbing Natalie’s shoulders while he replied to her. “Would you change it? If you could go back to the day we decided to get Jason kicked out of his position, knowing what we know now, would you change your mind and decide to let him remain in power?”

  Natalie turned around, pulled Kyle’s face down to hers, and planted a firm kiss on his lips. When she pulled back, she kept both of her hands on his face and looked him in the eyes while she spoke. “Kyle Becker, I wouldn’t change any of the decisions we made together. It was those decisions that allowed me to mate with the man I love. Having you as my mate makes all of this well worth the fight. Anything else would have been living a lie. I would do it all again, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  Kyle smiled brightly before he leaned back down and kissed her with everything he had. He bent down and lifted her out of her chair, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he wrapped one arm around her back and the other under her legs to hold her up. Kyle carried Natalie to their bed, never breaking their kiss the whole way, then he made love with his mate until they both passed out in each other’s arms.

  The next day, Kyle and Craig left for the Anastas pride bright and early. He wanted to get there, get Craig set up, and still have time to make it back home by nightfall. Natalie had tried to convince him that he should stay with Craig and the Anastas pride for a few days while everyone adjusted to the change in leadership, but Kyle refused. He understood her logic, and if it had not been for the fact that Cain had already proven to be a coward who liked to attack while people were sleeping, he would have followed her advice. Things being as they were, Kyle wasn’t planning on staying a single night away from Natalie until he knew that Cain was no longer a threat.

  Kyle had spoken with Dave telepathically to let him know they were on their way and for Dave to be ready to meet with them when they arrived. Given their incredible speed as lions, it wasn’t long before they arrived at the Anastas pride lands. Kyle was happy to see that they were not greeted by an angry crowd this time. Kyle and Craig made their way to the castle-like mansion that they had learned was the pride leader’s home when they were here before. Dave was there with a couple of other men, waiting to greet them when they entered the home. When they neared the small group of men, Dave made a slight bow in Kyle’s direction, and the others followed his example.

  “Pride leader, we’re glad you could come back and join us,” Dave said.

  Kyle was surprised by the sincerity he heard in Dave’s voice. Considering how Dave had behaved the last time they’d met, Kyle had expected resistance from him, or at least that Dave would be an asshole as much as he thought he could get away with it.

  “You can call me Kyle, and this is Craig.”

  Dave held out his hand to shake Craig’s hand. Kyle and Craig looked at each other, shocked by Dave’s polite behavior, but Craig shook Dave’s hand. “We’ve got a meeting room set up,” Dave told them. “If you’ll follow me.” Dave turned and headed down the hall, and Kyle and Craig followed behind him.

  Once in the room, Dave gestured to the head of the table for Kyle to sit, and Craig took the chair on his right. Once everyone took a seat and got quiet, Kyle addressed the room. “First of all, I would like to introduce myself. I am Kyle Becker, and this is my brother Craig.” Craig held up his hand and moved his fingers in a small wave motion when Kyle mentioned him. “As it turns out, I have foun
d myself to be your new pride leader. Understand that this was not something I planned, it just happened when I upheld my right as a male to protect my mate.” Kyle paused and waited to see if anyone at the table was planning to protest his words, or him being their pride leader in general. When they all just nodded at him, he went on. “As some of you may know, my mate is the pride leader of our pride back home, and I have no intentions of living away from her.”

  Dave’s eyebrows scrunched together when he spoke. “If you won’t be here, how do you plan to lead our pride?”

  “That is where Craig comes in,” Kyle answered Dave. “Craig will be filling in for me and essentially acting as your leader in my absence. He will report directly to me on a regular basis, and I will make regular visits to check in on all of you as well. I know that Craig will lead your pride just as I would. My hope is that we can combine our pride efforts here and back home to create a strong alliance between our prides, and hopefully one day, we can expand the pride lands so there is not so much distance between us. Having an alliance between the two prides will be good for both sides.”

  Dave and the others around the table nodded their agreement and made comments on the benefits of an alliance. Since everything seemed to be going so smoothly, Kyle decided he was going to go ahead and bring up the one topic he was afraid would separate them and cause some tension with his new pride. “Now, it will obviously take us a little while to get to know one another, but there is one issue that was blatantly obvious when I was here last that I want to address right away.”

  The men around the table looked to each other, mumbling and trying to discern what Kyle might be referring to, clearly not aware of any flaws in their behavior. Kyle worried that would be a bad sign and that getting these men to follow his rules was going to be difficult at best.

  Dave turned to him and asked, “What do you mean? I know we fought then, but we were following our deceased leader’s orders. We are a loyal pride and will follow your rule just as we have our prior leaders.”

  Kyle nodded. He hoped that it would be that easy, but regardless of loyalty to a pride leader, some things that people were raised to believe were hard to change. “Alright, well, I’ll get right to it then. It was clear when we were here last that the pride as a whole seems to look down on and disrespect females as if they are less than males.” He paused to watch everyone at the table. He saw a few of them shift uncomfortably in their chairs, and their facial expressions hardened a bit. “That form of thinking must stop. As you know, my mate is a female pride leader, and she is one of the strongest werelions you’ll ever meet. Our females should be respected and loved, not put down and considered weaker than us.”

  “But they are weaker,” one of the men interrupted.

  Kyle felt a wave of anger wash through him at the guy’s words, and he noticed Craig shift in his chair. When he looked at his brother, Craig’s face was turning red, and his mouth was pressed into a hard line. No doubt, Craig was pissed off, too.

  Craig was quick to reply, practically biting the man’s head off with his sharp words, which were let out like a growl. “Clearly, you missed my sister-in-law kicking your asses the last time we were here. She took out several of you on her own and never even broke a sweat doing it. Maybe we should bring her back so she can show you just how weak a female really is.”

  Dave stood quickly and held up his hands. “No, that won’t be necessary,” he said. He turned to the man who had spoken out and glared. “You will watch your tongue when our pride leader or his brother speaks. I witnessed the Cervella pride leader in action, and trust me when I say that female would rip your head from your shoulders before you had time to register she was near you.”

  It was obvious that several of the men around the table were surprised by Dave’s words, but they all agreed. The one who had interrupted Kyle even apologized for his outburst.

  “My apologies, pride leader. I meant no disrespect to you or your mate.”

  Kyle generally disliked it when they referred to him by title, but he was going to go with it for this particular pride member; maybe addressing him as leader would drill some respect into the jerk’s head. Now that the disruption seemed to be handled, he finished going over their plan.

  “Craig will be monitoring the pride for a few weeks to get to know you all, and from there, if any changes need to be made, we will all meet again. He’ll also be meeting with females within the pride and making sure they are not being treated unequally. Dave, I expect you to give Craig a tour of the pride lands and make sure he is introduced to all of the pride’s members within the next week.”

  “That is perfectly acceptable,” Dave agreed.

  “Good. Now, if you all will excuse me, I’m afraid I cannot stay tonight. We have some things going on at the Cervella pride that require my immediate return. Once handled, I will make sure to come back out and spend some more time with the pride to meet and learn about everyone myself.”

  “Excuse me, Kyle,” one of the men addressed Kyle when he went to stand from the table.

  “Yes.”

  The man was built like a warrior. Most male werelions were, but this guy was larger than most. He reminded Kyle of Craig in that sense. “My name is Joseph, sir. I noticed that Craig was obviously the Cervella pride’s head guard when you were here before. If he will be staying here, does that not leave your mate’s pride at a disadvantage?”

  “My replacement was selected and brought up to speed before we came here,” Craig told the male. “Trust me, he is quite capable of filling the responsibilities of the job.”

  “Oh, yes. I didn’t mean to imply that, just that now your other pride is down a fighter. I wanted to volunteer to go back with the pride leader to join the Cervella guards and protect you and your mate from those who wish you harm. I was present when your mate told Raul what had happened to prompt your visit here, and I would like to go back with you to help if those cowards make another attempt like that. It sickens me that some of our own brothers chose to aid in such a cowardly attack on your mate and pride.”

  “Alright, Joseph. You can come with me, but I warn you that your intentions better be sincere. I will not hesitate to eliminate anyone who poses a threat to my mate and our pride. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. If nobody else has anything to discuss right now, then we will be on our way.” Kyle waited a moment to make sure no one else wanted to speak up, and when he was sure no one did, he stood to leave.

  Craig stood as well, “I’ll walk you out.”

  Kyle turned to look back at Joseph, who had also stood. “I’ll wait for you out front while you gather things that you might need. Make sure you pack it in something that will fit over your back when you shift because I want to get back as soon as possible, so we will be running the whole way in our lion forms.”

  “No problem,” Joseph agreed. “I’ll be ready in just a few minutes.”

  Kyle nodded, and then he and Craig left the room and headed out to the front of the mansion. Kyle was surprised when his brother’s voice filled his head without him opening his mouth. “Kyle, please make sure you keep an eye on that guy. We don’t know who we can and can’t trust yet. This could be a plan to get close to Natalie and find her weaknesses.”

  Kyle always marveled at how loyal his brother was, even if he didn’t need the warning. He would never trust someone blindly when it came to the safety of his mate. Trust was something that had to be earned. He wasn’t going to give Craig shit about it, though, because he knew that his brother was just looking out for him and Natalie.

  “Don’t worry, little brother. I will keep a close eye on Joseph. What I want to know is how long have you known how to communicate with your thoughts, and why didn’t you tell me before now?”

  Craig gave Kyle his broad, arrogant smile and puffed his chest out. Kyle hadn't seen his brother’s arrogant streak for a while, and it was nice to see it shining through after Craig had been so serious for the past f
ew days. He didn’t want Craig to stop being himself all together, and he’d been worried that the sneak attack Cain had made on their pride might have changed his brother permanently.

  “I am skilled in many things, brother,” Craig told him, wiggling his eyebrows. Kyle just laughed. It was the first time he’d laughed since Cain’s attack, and it felt good. “Actually, I had Glenn help me last night when we were done going over his duties in my absence.”

  “Well, I’m glad,” Kyle told him. “This will make it easier for us to stay in contact while we aren’t together.”

  About that time, Joseph showed up with a book bag over his back, the straps left loose to make room for his size difference when they shifted.

  “All ready to go?” Kyle asked him.

  “Yes, sir,” Joseph smiled.

  So far, the guy seemed like he was being genuine, and Kyle hoped that didn’t change.

  “Please, just call me Kyle, Joseph. Where we come from, things are not so formal, and I prefer it that way.”

  “Got it,” Joseph nodded.

  Kyle told his brother goodbye, and then he and Joseph shifted and took off to head home to the Cervella pride.

  CHAPTER 12

  Natalie

  Natalie’s head was throbbing, and her vision was blurry. When she tried to look around the room, all she was able to make out was darkness. She tried to stand, but her body felt like it was being held down by some invisible force. From what she could smell, she was alone, wherever she was, but someone had been present not too long ago; their scent still lingered in the air. Natalie pulled in a deep breath, trying to determine if she knew the person who had left her in this room. Amy! Amy was the cook at the mansion. Natalie thought about how sick she felt and the fact that she’d obviously been relocated outside of her home, and probably outside of her pride’s lands all together since she wasn’t able to recognize any of the other scents in the room. If she had ever been there before, she would recognize the smells within the room. Amy must have poisoned her food. That would be the only way for the werelion to overpower Natalie and force her to leave her home. Awake and in full control of herself, Natalie was far too strong for most to take on.