by Fel Fern
Leopards of Leopold 2
Claiming Their Vagrant
Having a black leopard in a pard is considered unlucky. Having two means double the bad luck.
Following the footsteps of her brother Lars, it was only natural for Lexie Marsden to take to the road. A trail of murders leads her to Leopold City, to her domesticated brother, and to leopard mates Noah and Mason. Lex knows she has to keep moving forward, but there's something about the two men that prevents her from leaving Leopold City.
Pard Enforcers Noah and Mason thought they had everything they ever wanted until fate dropped an inked, pierced, and mouthy biker chick on their lap. Lex isn’t the kind of woman or cat they’d usually go for. The black leopardess would claw their eyes first before allowing them to mate her, yet they’d do anything and everything to acquire the missing piece of their triad.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 20,908 words
CLAIMING THEIR VAGRANT
Leopards of Leopold 2
Fel Fern
MENAGE AND MORE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage and More
CLAIMING THEIR VAGRANT
Copyright © 2015 by Fel Fern
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-764-0
First E-book Publication: February 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
To my readers, I’m forever grateful for your support. I hope you enjoy reading Noah, Mason, and Lex’s story.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About the Author
CLAIMING THEIR VAGRANT
Leopards of Leopold 2
FEL FERN
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Lexie Marsden woke to the sound of wailing police sirens and to something thick and wet against her cheek. Her nostrils flared at the recognizable smell of coppery blood. She jerked upright, snarling. Lex was instantly up on her feet. The motion sent her head reeling, probably from the vast amounts of alcohol she consumed hours ago.
Living life as a road nomad with no home to call her own meant she was always ready for trouble, but more often than not, trouble came to her.
She pawed at her cheek. The wet thing on her cheek was blood.
Fuck, what did she just get into now?
The bed and the room she was in was dark, but the overwhelming smell of blood nearly made her gag. Her panther instincts rose to the surface, making all the hairs on her back stand. She wasn’t just in trouble. Lex was in deep shit.
The sirens continued to wail outside, and she had a feeling they were for her. Lex firmly kept the contents of her stomach in, even after seeing the slumped dead body on the bed beside her. The man was maybe twice as old as she was, probably in his late forties. He was naked except for the claw marks across his body.
The gouges at the artery on his throat and thigh stared back at her. This was insane. She couldn’t have killed him. Lex might have done her far share of illegal things over the years to survive, but she wasn’t a killer.
The more she racked at her brain, the more her headache worsened. It felt like someone had repeatedly bashed her head in with a baseball bat. She sniffed at the corpse, ignoring her recoiling stomach. Male. Musky feline scent, and something else. It was another scent not belonging to her or the dead guy. There was a third person who’d either bailed on her, or killed the man, pinning the murder on her.
Murky memories of last night rose to the surface. The businessman, was his name Jared or Jake? She couldn’t even remember.
“He was a black panther, too. Fuck.”
Lex drove for her clothes, which were still carelessly discarded on the floor. Before the cops were knocking at Jared’s apartment, Lex was dressed and running out the apartment’s corridors and into her parked bike by the curb. In minutes, she had straddled her bike and was hitting the highway out of the city.
The feel of the night wind against her face and the engine purring between her legs made thinking easier.
“Think, Lex. Think hard.”
Black panthers were considered unlucky and were outcasts in any leopard pard. They weren’t the ideal mates for leopard shifters, so they seldom got any action from their own kind. She and Jared went at each other like there was tomorrow. The sex had been rough, good, and sufficient. The lingering claw marks across her back were testament to the fact.
Neither Jared nor her wanted anything more than a quick fumble, so why was he dead? Jared mentioned something about a killer
down south with a preference for black panthers, and Lex had occasionally come across the same rumors in her travels.
A chill ran down her spine. Lex didn’t think there wasn’t any truth to the rumors until tonight.
“I should feel so damn lucky.” But Lex didn’t feel lucky one bit.
Other parts of her body were beginning to ache, telling her the injuries weren’t obtained from a single night of wild sex. She could feel the trickle of blood down her back and front, but they didn’t seem serious. The injuries confirmed the fact there had been a struggle the night before in Jared’s apartment, but it wasn’t a fight she’d won. Did the killer leave her alone, thinking she was dead, or perhaps she got lucky, and he ran out of time? Then there was the other alternative. The killer left her alive for a reason. Damn. There were too many questions and no answers.
Lex wasn’t sure why she steered her bike to a particular direction. She headed north, to Lyon City, and to her brother. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d spoken to Lars.
They were close when they were younger, when they were two cursed black panthers growing up in their mother’s pard. A pard who’d scorned them, treated them like shit, and was eager to toss them out once their mother died. Lars had always protected her when they were kids. He tried taking the blows meant for her, but he couldn’t take all of them.
They first took to the road together, but she didn’t like Lars’s overprotectiveness. He, meanwhile, didn’t like the way she lived, and how much she took after him. It was inevitable they parted ways, but here she was, years later, running back to her older brother for help.
“Peachy.”
Lex let out a choking sound of disbelief. For a moment, the loneliness threatened to swallow her. Lex was alone and she’d always been alone. She had nowhere else to go. No pard, no friends, and no other family to run to, except her brother.
Last she heard, her road-bound brother had taken over an entire pard and was happily domesticated by a leopard queen and her consort. No shit. Lex couldn’t believe the rumors at first. She never pegged Lars as the sort to join a pard, let alone rule one.
“Didn’t you tell me no one was going to tame you, big brother?” The sound of her bitter voice startled her.
Fine. Lex didn’t want to die just yet. Her pride could take a blow. She’d drop by Lyon City, see how her brother was doing, and warn him about the panther killer. Maybe Lars knew some folks who could help her disappear for a while.
Chapter Two
Noah Winters was locking up the garage for the night when he heard the sound of a motorcycle engine. The garage was where most of the leopard shifters of the Leopold pard worked at, but most of them had left for the pard meeting their new king was holding.
Leopard pards were ruled by a triumvirate, and after Noah’s king died, their pard queen and her consort sought another. Lars Marsden was the equivalent of a werewolf alpha in the leopard shifter culture, and he was their second king after their first died.
The black panther turned out to be better choice then Noah expected. After they’d discovered their old king and a couple of the pard enforcers died because of another leopard shifter’s treachery, Lars ran the pard on a tight ship. Lars didn’t mind occasionally getting his hands dirty either.
Fine with Noah. If ruthless was what his pard needed, then ruthless it was.
He and the other enforcers had been working with Lars closely over the past few months, and Noah had unofficially become the king’s right-hand enforcer. He did what was needed, no questions asked. Besides, Noah was beginning to form a friendship with the man, and he could see how much Lars loved his queen and consort.
Noah checked his watch and cursed softly under his breath. His mate, Mason, was going to call him again and nag him about being late. Not his fault. Noah had been stuck under the belly of a Rolls-Royce Wraith for the better part of the week and he’d finally gotten the engine of the beast to purr.
The sound of a bike engine humming quietly behind him made him turn. He finished locking up just in time to see the bike being parked on the curb. The metaphysical leopard inside him stirred to life, and both Noah and the cat scented the air.
The telltale coppery scent of blood combined with the heady smell of feline musk made him snarl. The rider was a female cat shifter, but fuck, even though his warning bells were ringing, she smelled so damn sharp. Sharp and fine.
The female rider wasn’t wearing any helmet. She dismounted stiffly, throwing one booted and denim-clad leg off the machine. Noah was betting underneath that form-fitting leather jacket she was hurt and bleeding, but he couldn’t help but notice what a body she had.
She was tall, slender, but had all the right curves Noah wanted in a woman. She also had nice hips and tempting, luscious breasts. As she came underneath the harsh street lamp, Noah could see more of her.
Her dark hair was plaited to a single braid, and when she directed her smoky gray eyes at him, his cock perked up in his grease-stained jeans. Her face was all sharp angles and lined with a number of piercings. Noah could see ink peeking from her neck and her hands.
Every inch of her screamed bad and wild, and all that wildness called to him. It lured his leopard out into the open.
Hunger stirred inside of him, alien and unsettling. Noah always knew he loved both men and women, but after finding and claiming Mason as his mate, he’d never hungered for anyone else’s touch again. Except hers. Noah didn’t just want to touch. The dominant cat inside him wanted to caress, possess, and claim.
Fuck. Just who was this woman?
“I’m looking for Lars Marsden. Someone told me I can find him here.”
Gods, even the sound of her voice tightened things inside of him.
“Who’s asking?” Noah crossed his arms, trying to think with his head and not his prick.
One pierced eyebrow rose. “I don’t have time to fucking screw around with a horny cat.”
Noah narrowed his eyes at her. “Believe me, sweetheart, the last thing I want to do is screw you.”
She surprised the hell out of him by not lashing out at him. Her lips curved into a smile. Her very kissable and fuckable lips, Noah decided.
“Your dirty little cock says otherwise, darling. I can feel your leopard straining to rub itself against mine.”
“Has anyone ever told you have a dirty mouth on you, woman?” Noah growled.
Questions raced through his head. Was this woman related to his new king? He didn’t like this one bit. The woman standing in front of him was no submissive or weak cat. She wasn’t exactly a leopard queen, but he had a feeling she was damn close.
“You have no idea what I can do with this dirty little mouth of mine.”
“I’m not going to ask you politely again, woman. Who are you, and what are you to Lars?”
She met his gaze coolly and steadily. Noah was annoyed as hell he wasn’t able to read the expression there, because he could usually read most people.
“I don’t have time to play fucking twenty questions, asshole.”
She was walking away from him, which wouldn’t do. Noah was done being patient. He stepped toward her direction, drawing on his supernatural reflexes. In seconds he had her body pinned against him. She was fighter, he’d expected that, but Noah didn’t expect her to fight dirty.
His hands closed on one of her wrists, but he didn’t see the blur of her elbow ramming into his gut.
Being one of the pard’s enforcers, Noah had taken worse hits. He grunted, closing his hands on both her wrists this time. He must’ve weighed twice as much as her, and all of the extra weight was muscle. She twisted, kicked, and fought against him like a rabid animal.
Noah tightened his grip on her.
“Settle down, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want answers.”
She snarled back at him. Her gray eyes were still narrowed, but she stopped moving after realizing he was simply just holding her. This kitten’s used to danger, to fight or flee. Just what
kind of life has she led?
Noah decided he wasn’t being fair either, by demanding answers from her, so he went for the truth.
“My name is Noah, Noah Winters. I’m one of the enforcers of the Leopold pard, and I just want to know what you want with our king.”
“King?” She sneered, sounding half amused and half incredulous. “No one makes a black panther their king unless they’re fucking kidding around.”
There was also a deep-seated bitterness in her voice Noah had to wonder about. It told him she knew Lars on a deeper level than he’d initially assumed.
“No one’s kidding around. He may be an odd choice, but he’s the right one. The pard bonds between him, our queen, and our consort make us strong. You don’t feel like you’re connected to any pard, so you don’t know what it’s like.”
The woman sagged against him, and he could smell her hurt and vulnerability on much different level.
“You’re right. I don’t know.”
Guilt rammed into him at the sound of her soft voice. Damn. The last thing Noah wanted to do was to hurt her on an emotional level.
“And I don’t fucking care.” Strength returned to her voice and her body. When she pushed him back furiously, he let go of her.
He evenly met her challenging gaze, not speaking. Noah waited for her to speak first, to explain herself.
Finally, she let out a frustrated breath. “I just want to find my damn brother.”
Noah stared at her for a few seconds, uncomprehending. His metaphysical beast nudged at her gently, coaxing her own feline out. Noah could almost see it now, the beautiful black beast lurking inside her. It was snarling back at him and his cat with furious green eyes.
