Destined to the Pride

by Kristen Strassel

  I raised an eyebrow. I’d asked Leo repeatedly on the way here to tell me what that lion had said about me but he refused. “We’re still doing this?” I asked.

  “We expected enemies. The mountain is too big to be run off by one pride,” Dylan said, not making eye contact with any of us. “But I think they’re hiding something about that ski area.”

  “It looked like whoever ran it forgot to come back.” Ari sat up and stretched. “Even back then, that stuff was worth a fortune. And why hasn’t anyone taken it?”

  “They said they didn’t like people. Or does, apparently,” I added. Leo’s arm tightened around me. “That Bid guy was at the coffee shop the other day. He’s the one who kept Linnea away from us.”

  “Great,” Dylan groaned. “No wonder he mentioned the trouble on Soldier.”

  “He’s still willing to listen to what you have to say,” Ari added, settling against Dylan’s body. “He knows Linnea’s trouble. He said he’d warned her before.”

  “He seems like a pretty level-headed guy,” Leo said. “And once he hears our plans, he’ll know we’re not like the rest of the Soldier pride.”

  “We’ll go back, find Bid, and reason with the lions,” Dylan finally looked at Leo, and some of the anger started to fade. “They weren’t the leaders of the pride.”

  I shivered. “They threatened me badly enough that Leo attacked over it. They chased us off the mountain. You think you’re going to reason with them?”

  Dylan rolled his eyes. “You’re going to get that wherever you go. You want to be with my brother? Get used to it.”

  Ari shook her head. “There was no excuse for what they said.”

  “What did they say?” I demanded. If they were going to keep talking about it, they needed to tell me.

  Leo’s body went stiff under me. “That if we didn’t get you out of there, every one of them was going to take a turn with you,” he growled. “They won’t get away with that.”

  “Why are we even talking about still going there? I think it’s pretty obvious they don’t want us.” Or me. I got up and went over to the window. “I can’t spend every minute of my life wondering if I’m going to get attacked. And neither can you, Leo. There’s too much at stake. We’re surrounded by mountains. One of them has to be safe.” Or at least not have any connection to Linnea.

  Leo came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I considered pushing him away, but I wanted him more than I wanted to be stubborn. He rested his chin on my head and rocked me back and forth gently. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was when he looked out the window. “No one ever said this was going to be easy.” He kissed my head. “But it will be worth it. We’ll find the place where we belong.”

  “I want to go home.” I sighed. “And we don’t even have one right now.”

  Chapter Eleven

  LEO BROUGHT ME TO A hotel that night. “You deserve to sleep in a real bed.”

  I closed the door behind us and leaned against it. I closed my eyes and relished the silence. “Best idea ever. No drama, nothing to think about, we can be us.”

  “I miss us.” Leo dropped our bags on the luggage cart then came back to the door for me. I’d expected him to kiss me, but instead he picked me up and carried me to the bed. “And now I can have you all to myself.”

  He crawled up the mattress, purring as he moved along the length of my body. His lips were so close but they never touched me. The tease was making me crazy. I writhed underneath him, trying to trick him into making contact, but he was having his way with me. Classic Leo. Gods, I missed us.

  “You know I’ve only stayed in hotels before for my gymnastics competitions.” I propped my head in my hand as Leo stripped out of his shirt. “That’s a nasty gash.”

  “Yeah, that bastard got me pretty good.” Leo ran his fingers gingerly along the scab, wincing when he made contact. The skin around it was still angry and pink. He raised an eyebrow. “So only stayed in hotels with a bunch of little girls, huh?”

  “Yeah, my parents never had the money to take us on vacation. Four kids and a stay at home mom. They’d pitch a tent for us in the back yard, and we thought that was an adventure.”

  “And you won’t stay at my cabin?” Leo rolled back on his heels and shook his head, suppressing a smile. “What if we stay in a tent instead?”

  “I’ll take the cabin.” I turned away from him. “Anything but Mount Deception.”

  Leo leaned back down to me, brushing the backs of his fingers along my face lightly. I was drawn right back to him, and he took my breath away. The unruly blonde curls, hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and those lips. Full and pink and always begging for me to kiss them.

  “I wish I’d never told you what those guys said,” his words were soft and he’d started to purr. “That pride is weak, and threats like that are desperate. They’ll never touch you.”

  “That’s what we thought on Soldier Mountain.” I swallowed hard. “I’m tired of being a liability.”

  “You’re not,” he rumbled. “We’ll straighten this mess out, and we’ll get that ski area going. This time, we’re not going to hide you away. They’re going to accept you.”

  “What is it about this place that you guys want so bad?”

  “We’d never be able to start a place like that from scratch. And if I do what I love for the rest of my life and be able to take care of you.” He finally kissed me on the cheek. “I’d be really happy.”

  “I want that for both of us.” Talking about this made me hungry for the taste of his lips.

  Continuing his theme, he didn’t come close enough for me to reach him. His face hovered right over mine, and he ran his fingers along the line of my jaw while he studied me. He purred faintly, the sensation tripping shivers all over my skin. “You’ve changed,” he said softly.

  “What do you mean?” I braced myself for what came next. This sounded dangerously like it could be drama. We should’ve left that behind with Dylan and Mount Deception. I considered ripping the rest of his clothes off before he had a chance to elaborate, but then it would drive me crazy until I found out.

  “You would’ve never challenged a strange pride before.” He leaned in and placed a line of butterfly kisses on my collarbone. “And the way you stand up to Dylan, it’s sexy as hell.”

  I closed my eyes, concentrating on the way his lips felt against my skin. “Every lion but you looks at me and sees their next kill. I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out how I can beat them. I can’t. I hate it. But I’m not going to go down without a fight. If all I have is my words, I’m going to use them.”

  Leo propped himself up on his elbows, his hair a mess, and his eyes glittering. “A lot of the cougars say you’re brave like it’s an insult, but I think they’re actually intimidated by you. You were a total outsider, and you didn’t care what they thought. A weaker woman would’ve left that mountain after the first time she was challenged.”

  Our eyes locked. The electricity that flowed between us could set this entire hotel on fire. “You were worth the fight.”

  “Thank you.” His words were husky. “You have no idea what it means to have someone who will risk absolutely everything to be with you.”

  No more words could possibly express how we were feeling. Leo’s breath was hot on my skin, and I writhed underneath his weight, pulling at his clothes. I didn’t want anything to keep us apart ever again.

  Leo had been injured more in the scuffle with the Deception lions than I realized. Angry purple blotches dotted his body, and I tried to be gentle with him, I really did. But it wasn’t that kind of night. Leo gathered my sweater in his hands, and I lifted my hands over my head so he could get it off me. But instead he tore it from my body, the yarn splitting across my chest. A growl caught in the back of his throat. He straddled my hips, snapping the wire between my bra cups and pushing them to the side before he lowered his head to my breasts.

  He licked and sucked and nipped with absolute urgency.
I moaned, the sharp contrast of the sensation of his hair tickling my skin while he devoured me was going to drive me out of my mind. His had cupped my other breast, running his fingers lightly over my nipple.

  I couldn’t get enough. I tangled my fingers in his hair, holding his head close to my body so if even if he thought about stopping, he didn’t have a chance to get away from me. But Leo had other plans, he worked my fingers away from his head and laced his fingers through mine. When we were first together and he had yet to claim me, he used to hold my hands while we did this because he didn’t want me to touch him. He’d wanted control. It’d frustrated me to no end until he explained why he’d done it. But tonight didn’t feel that way at all. Instead it felt like a union, like our bodies were meant to work together in wild abandon.

  He brought my arms up over my head as he sunk lower down my body. I sucked in a sharp breath as he kissed me right above my slit. As hungry as he’d been minutes before, now he was shockingly gentle with his tongue, circling my clit so slowly I grinded my hips to try to get closer to him. Every time he licked and prodded, the little explosions started in my brain and sunk lower into my core. Leo was going to make me come by using his tongue, and he knew it. When he slipped his tongue inside me, swirling hard against my inner walls, I couldn’t control myself as the waves of passion rocked through me.

  As I caught my breath, Leo climbed up my body, letting go of my hands and rubbing sensation back into my arms. He kissed me sweetly on the lips and I tasted myself on them. He cradled me in his arms and I cried out as he entered me, wrapping my legs around him, and never, ever wanting to let go.

  Chapter Twelve

  CHLOE’S GRANDMOTHER looked at me like I had three heads when I walked into town hall with Ari. Growing up, I’d spent as much time at her house as I had my own, so I could read her pretty well: she had a lot of questions and she didn’t approve of whatever it was she thought I was doing.

  “I didn’t know you two knew each other.” Grandma’s words were slow. Yes, we were close enough that’s what I called her.

  “I’m helping Ari out with some articles.” It wasn’t exactly true, but it cut off one line of questioning. Leo had dropped me off at Ari’s while he and Dylan went back up to Deception to find and reason with the lions we’d encountered yesterday, and we were working on the administrative end. If I kept myself busy, I couldn’t think about how much I hated this whole idea.

  “How are things on that mountain?” Grandma raised an eyebrow, and even though her question was for me, her eyes were fixed on Ari. “Chloe told me you had some trouble.”

  Of course she would have. I couldn’t be mad at Chloe because I knew she had my best interests in mind. “Everything’s fine now,” I assured her. “The season’s over and we’re staying in town.”

  “Does your mother know that? I saw her this morning. She didn’t say anything to me.” Grandma turned back to me, tapping her pen against the counter.

  “Not yet.” I forced a smile. This was the first time I’d seen Grandma since I’d gone out in the forest for The Mate, and I didn’t expect her to be so judgmental. It hurt. A lot. “Like I said, I’m helping out Ari, and we were hoping to find a deed on some county property.”

  “I’ll be sure to tell her I saw you.” Grandma looked over her glasses as she put them on. “What’s the property you’re looking for?”

  “It’s on Mount Deception.” Ari took over for me, thankfully. I was steaming. The herd was upset I’d mated with Leo, but it was more than that. This was how they always treated me, and among the many things I could be thankful to Leo for, was making me see how I’d been held back all my life. “It’s the ski area. I’ve done some research, and I couldn’t find a more specific name for it than Mount Deception Ski Area.”

  Grandma pressed her lips together as she searched her computer screen. “I don’t see anything listed for it. I haven’t heard anyone even mention that place since I was a little girl. There’s a good chance it’s abandoned property. I’ll have to check the archives, which could take a couple of days, as you know, because it has to go to the county records.”

  “If it’s abandoned property, how would someone go about claiming it?” Ari asked.

  “First they’d have to try to reach out to the last known owner. If they don’t respond, and I have a feeling there’s a very good chance of that, you can petition the state for the deed. Whoever wanted the property would have to pay any back taxes owed.” Grandma looked between the two of us. “Why do you two care about an abandoned ski area?”

  “It’s a story I’m working on for The View, Marie,” Ari said before I had a chance to put my foot in my mouth and caused more trouble. “Is there a form I can fill out for the archivist?”

  “Let me grab it for you.” Grandma sighed. “Please tell me you’re going to see Chloe while you’re in town, Daphne. She’s starting to get overwhelmed with planning the ceremony. It’s right around the corner.”

  “I’ve been talking to her every day.” I tried not to sound defensive, but I was very aware my best friend was bonding in a month. I might have mated with a lion, but Leo hadn’t given me a lobotomy. “I ordered the dresses for my sisters, and I got confirmation from rental people for the tables and chairs for the backyard.” What Grandma didn’t know was Chloe also didn’t want her butting in too much, so I had to let her know I had this under control.

  “I know you’re both mated and bonding, but you’ll always be my little girls.” Grandma almost made me feel bad. Almost.

  “I’m curious.” And terrified, but I had to ask. “How hard is it to get a bonding license?”

  Grandma’s mouth dropped. Crap. “Normally, it’s just filling out paperwork. But Daphne, you’re not getting one.”

  “Why?”

  She flipped up her palms like it was obvious. “You can’t bond out of species.”

  That’s what she thought. I didn’t say goodbye to Grandma before turning on my heel and storming out of the building. Ari came out a few minutes later and found me leaning against the hood of her car, my hands covering my face.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “That was pretty brutal. I thought you said she was like family.”

  “She is. Or was. I don’t know anymore.” I peeked through my fingers. “I never expected her, of all people, to react like that.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I told her how great everything is with you and Leo, and that you’re both crazy about each other.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I uncovered my face and hugged myself. “I don’t care if they accept us or not.” Gods, I was angry. “I can’t wait for this bonding ceremony. They’re all going to act so fake to our faces and then freak out behind our backs. Actually, they won’t even bother with the fake part, since the people who are supposed to care about me the most aren’t holding back. And this is after always being told that I had to accept any buck who was my mate, simply because it was fate. It didn’t matter if he didn’t love me or treated me badly. It was forever.”

  “I don’t envy you. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” Ari smiled sadly. “The only thing you can do is show your herd that you’re meant to be with Leo. They’ll see the way he treats you at Chloe’s ceremony. You have to prove them wrong.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I TOTALLY EXPECTED Leo to taste like blood when he came back from the mountain. Surely he’d sunk his teeth into someone’s flesh either for sport or out of necessity.

  He didn’t, and I took that as a good sign. I put my arms around his neck and let him pick me up the floor when he kissed me. “How did it go?” I asked, my feet still dangling off the ground.

  “Good.” He raised his eyebrows like he knew he was going to have to convince me of this. “We found Bid and talked to the lions from yesterday.”

  I groaned. “Did you tell them I said hi?”

  Leo put me down and swatted my behind. “They apologized. Once there was no confrontation, they were much cooler
this time.”

  “They’re twins, too. Jackson and Jonah,” Dylan added. “And I was right, they aren’t the leaders of the pride. That’s a guy named Traver, who’s, ah, very business minded.”

  Both brothers were trying not to laugh. “So what is he, in the mob or something?” Ari asked.

  “Not exactly. He’s got a huge marijuana field, which was illegal until recently. That’s why they’re not happy about uninvited guests. There are some companion businesses, too, which they only eluded to.”

  “Interesting.” Ari drummed her fingers against Dylan’s arm. “So you went in there, played nice, saw the weed, and now they’re on board with the ski area?”

  “We explained what we had in mind, something that’s an alternative to regular ski area, and they were interested,” Leo explained. “They ran off the last owner when Traver claimed the mountain. Bid’s been guarding it ever since because if anyone found out what was going on up there, they’d be raided. But not anymore. Now that everything’s legal, Traver’s been thinking of trying to monetize what he’s got up there, so it’s a good experiment to see who will come.”

  “Almost everything,” Dylan said quietly with a smirk.

  “Are there any other animals up there besides lions and bears?” I asked. I wanted Dylan to elaborate on the illegal thing, but if I asked him, he knew he’d sidestep it. I was still seething from seeing Grandma today and wasn’t in the mood for his crap. I’d find out soon enough.

  “It sounds like it’s pretty diverse.” Dylan sat with his legs spread wide and his elbows resting on his thighs. His long hair hung in his face, dirty from shifting. Ari crawled next to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. He closed his eyes and purred before continuing. “You saw the bear den yesterday. I didn’t see any deer, but they told us they were there. And get this—they all work together.”