by Crymsyn Hart
“There is nothing to be sorry about,” Mason said. “Soon you’ll be out of my hair for good and your men here will have no other choice but to join our pride even if they are second-class to the other lions.”
“You just want to claim our assets so it’ll fatten your pockets,” Dallas snarled.
Pierce hadn’t opened his eyes yet, and Orianna was worried about him. She felt along the bond they shared. He was still alive, but in a deep state of unconsciousness.
Her brother kicked Dallas in the back. “Shut up!”
Dallas grunted, but held tightly to Pierce in an attempt to protect him from the idiots who had kidnapped her. Ryker remained very still. The muscles twitched in his face. When he looked at her, both eyes had turned amber. The flesh had receded around his cheeks. He stood up.
“I will never swear anything to you. Now let her go before something happens.” Ryker slowly advanced toward Mason.
Mason stood next to a lamp and then flipped the switch. When the light touched her, she screamed. It felt like the sun was shining directly on her. No matter how much she struggled with the ropes, she wasn’t able to get away. Orianna watched as her skin began to blister and then char. The little hairs on her arms caught fire. The agony was so overwhelming it forced her teeth all the way out. She bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out.
“Leave her alone!” Ryker screamed and rushed toward her.
Mason put the light closer to her arm. She screamed as the flesh broke open and blood oozed out. The skin peeled back and fell to the ground like ash, which exposed the white bone underneath. She struggled in the chair as she tried anything to escape. All her instincts said for her to hunker down in the shadows. The pain was so intense that she could barely stay conscious. Stars flashed before her eyes, but she didn’t pass out.
“We also discovered that ultraviolet lights work on vampires, but they have to be a high wattage. We tried smaller wattages while she was asleep. It’s amazing what technology can do and how some things are still surviving just like vampires. You would’ve thought they would’ve been outed by now. Then again, the shape-shifters haven’t either.”
“Shut it off. Please stop this torture,” Ryker urged.
Mason pulled the light away and then switched it off. It felt like she was doused in cool water. The peace of it was something she wished that she could feel forever. Her skin itched, and the nerves were trying to regrow. Her body was trying to heal, but there was no blood left. The alien inside of her was seeping into her being.
“Kneel before me and swear your loyalty to me,” Mason demanded.
“Ryker, no,” Dallas cried.
Sadness rushed over Orianna as she witnessed Ryker put under this kind of torment. He glanced up and she saw something in his eye. Just as he was about to kneel, he took a swipe at Mason and caught his cheek. Three long scars marred the flesh. Dexter and Lee rushed to Mason’s aid. Ryker pulled off the noose and went toward her. He began to untie her hands but was only able to free one of her wrists before he was flung across the room by Mason. Orianna ripped her other hand free from the ropes. Cable marks were burned into her skin. She struggled to get her legs free. The small effort weakened her. Lee and Dexter came to Mason’s aid, leaving Dallas with Pierce, who had been lying silently. Pierce sprung on Lee and pinned him to the floor. Ryker stood up and pushed Mason through the sliding glass door. The sound of shattering glass filled the room. The events around her made her dizzy because they were happening so fast.
Patrick dashed to assist Mason, but Dallas pounced in front of him. Orianna stumbled a few feet and leaned against the wall to watch the outcome of the fight. Mason and Ryker seemed evenly matched in size, but she wasn’t sure how they would do if their cats were unleashed. She didn’t want to see Ryker or the others hurt any more. They rolled around on the ground, but the scent of Mason’s blood where the glass had cut him was driving her crazy. Ryker struck Mason, which knocked his head back.
Her ex-mate grimaced in pain and then started laughing. “There is no way that you could best me in a bout for leadership.”
“I don’t want leadership of your pride. All I want is for you to leave my mates alone.” Ryker raised his hand again and separated cloth and skin with his claws. The scent of the blood enticed Orianna. She was losing control. Her consciousness was slipping away. She licked her dry lips and slid down the wall toward the source of the blood. Before she could stop herself, Orianna had crawled over to Mason. The alien persona of the vampire was creeping into her personality more than it had ever done before. The walls around her cat were falling down as well. She couldn’t grasp onto any rational thought. All she could see was the blood. She licked her lips one last time. For the first time in her existence, she let the hunger engulf her completely.
Chapter Fourteen
Ryker sat on top of Mason’s chest and let the rage of everything that had befallen him and his mates wash over him. The other man was hurt worse than what Mason was letting on because of the amount of blood that was pooling underneath his back. Ryker figured he had a large piece of glass lodged in his back. Orianna growled and edged through the broken sliding door with no cares of the scattered glass. She had a wild look about her eyes. The light and the ropes had damaged her so that he barely recognized her. Her skin was chalk white, and her eyes blazed red. Her face was pointier and her fingers had grown longer and thinner. Instead of two fangs, all her teeth were jagged points. The caring woman he had come to know was no longer there. What Ryker sensed was the cat and also the vampire. It seemed the two of them were becoming one, if that were possible. Even her scent had changed, a mixture of the musk from the lioness and the edge of decay from the vampire in her nature.
“Don’t let that thing near me!” Mason roared out and tried to wiggle away from her. The fear in his eyes was something he never expected to see in the big man.
“You deserve what you’re going to get. I knew I was right about declining to work on your sculpture. You know that, don’t you?” Ryker said. “He’s all yours,” he said to Orianna. Mason tried to escape the predator advancing on him. The muscles in his face rippled. In the woods surrounding the house, Ryker sensed others watching the confrontation. There were many heartbeats thundering around them, too many scents for him to discern who was who. The whole pride had come and waited on the outskirts of the property to see if their pride leader would fall.
“Tell them the truth!” Orianna grumbled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mason rose to his knees.
“Tell them how you hired the vampires to attack me.” Her voice had somewhat normalized.
Mason shook his head. “They’ll never believe it. You’re dead. Who cares now? I’m pride leader in their eyes.”
“Even if you tried to kill her regardless of whether her mother made her off-limits to anyone if she stayed off pride land? Or kidnapping her because she owns all of the pride’s assets?” Ryker asked loudly so the others could hear. Hisses and low roars came from the surrounding woods. The bushes parted beside him, and a woman and an older lion stepped out onto the lawn.
Orianna looked at the elder pride members. “Mason wasn’t content with being the mate of the next pride leader. He wanted to rule all by himself and get all the money because he’s a greedy asshole. He hired the vampires and had them attack us. They left him alive, and he had me killed. But I rose, and here I am.”
The old woman looked at Mason. “Is this true?”
“Of course not. She’s telling you this because she’s a monster.”
“She never lied to us when she was part of this pride. Why would she lie to us now?” the elder woman asked. The cat next to her grunted in agreement. More lions materialized from the forest and gathered around Mason.
Orianna advanced on him, slowly following his every move. Her form was roiling, changing into that of a cat. When it happened, it was the smoothest shift Ryker had ever seen. Her skin and bones seemed to roll together seamless
ly until what stood before him was the largest lioness he had ever laid his eyes on. His mouth dropped open when he saw it, and then he closed it. Mason lunged at Orianna, switching his shape into a huge lion. He swiped at her, but she advanced on him. When she growled, Ryker saw that her fangs were longer and sharper than a normal lion’s. Her claws caught Mason on the underside of the jaw. She licked the blood from the deadly daggers. It seemed to perk her up a bit.
My God. She said she would never shift again, but here she is. She’s amazing. I was wrong about her. His liger wanted to mount her right there and fuck her. She was a beauty in the works. His cock hardened because she was everything that he had wanted.
Mason and Orianna circled one another. The pride gave them a wide berth. Her jaws stretched into an even-larger smile. Mason stayed out of the reach of her claws. Ryker held his breath as he waited to see what would happen. Orianna flicked her tail back and forth. Her ears lay back on her head, and she hissed. The muscles in Mason’s body bunched. His eyes narrowed. He swung at Orianna. She dodged out of the way, but he pounced on her back in that moment and wrapped his jaws around her throat. She yelped in pain. Ryker went to help her, but the elder put up her hand.
“This has been a long time coming. She deserves her vengeance.”
“What will you do if she wins?”
“We will see. To see her shift is awe-inspiring. I understand that vampires can’t shape-shift. Being dead and all. It seems Orianna is more of an anomaly than we thought.”
Ryker watched as Orianna twisted and got her claws across Mason’s face. Mason shook and dislodged from her throat. Relief flooded Ryker. Orianna shook her head and hissed.
“She has a heartbeat, too. If you listen, you can hear it.”
“Impossible!” the elder exclaimed.
Orianna jumped first and enclosed her legs around her ex-mate’s throat. She sunk her fangs into his fur where his neck met his body. Mason tried to shake her off, but she lodged to him. She opened her mouth wider as it wrapped around his throat. A loud crack filled the night. Mason lay still underneath her. When that happened, her lion form retreated and she was human again. Mason slowly reverted as well. Orianna still had her fangs buried in Mason’s throat. Ryker watched in fascination at how she drank from the body. After a minute, she looked up and wiped the remaining blood from her lips. Some of her wounds had healed. She was completely naked from the shift. She gave him a small smile, took a few steps toward him, and then crumpled at his feet.
Ryker didn’t care what the elder of the pride thought. He raced to her and cradled her in his arms. He held her to his chest. Another woman rushed from the house with a blanket in hand. She swathed it around Orianna. Ryker tucked the blanket underneath her and made sure she was close to his heart.
“Mom never liked Mason and didn’t understand what Orianna saw in him. Neither did I,” the woman said. “Bring her inside.”
“You’re her sister?” Ryker asked.
“Patty. I was the only one in the family who still talked to her when she was banished. Come inside, out of the cold, where she can rest. Your wounds need tending to, as do your mates’.”
Dallas and Pierce were both still holding Patrick and Lee. Dexter was surrounded by other members of the pride. Her brother spat at them when they walked by.
“The elders will take care of the three of them. Patrick, you never should’ve sided with Mason.” Patty went inside the house, and Ryker followed.
Orianna’s skin remained warm. Her heart was beating. It was slow but steady. Whatever the reason, he was glad that she had come through the ordeal alive. Now the elders of the pride had to negotiate who was going to run the pack. Honestly, he wished that responsibility wouldn’t fall on her. Ryker didn’t want to lose her to the pride when he had just discovered that he, too, loved her.
Dallas and Pierce followed them upstairs to an empty bedroom. The stench of death lingered in the house, but the overwhelming scent was that of Mason. Underneath that he caught Orianna’s faint scent the way she was now. When they went into the room, his senses were enveloped with her. It was the warm perfume of when she had been human. All he could picture was her stretching out in the sun the way that she had described to him. Ryker yearned to smell the fragrance of her hair when it was full of the sun. But he knew that would never happen. They laid her down on the bed. Ryker waited for her to wake up. He glanced back at Patty. He could see the resemblance to Orianna, but it was Patty’s eyes that reminded him of Orianna.
“She’ll sleep for a little while, I think. Are you the one who was holding out on accepting her as a mate?” she asked Ryker.
His other two mates glanced at him. He shifted on the bed and looked at Orianna’s sleeping form. “I was, but I had my reasons.”
“Do you feel that way now?”
The weight of their stares settled on his heart and made him feel guilty. He hadn’t realized that Orianna had told anyone about them. “No. I don’t feel that way now. My cat was ready to welcome her with open arms, but I wasn’t so sure. Orianna being a vampire was something that I had to get past. Last night was the turning point when she helped me and my other two mates reconcile. I saw something else inside of her and wanted to do everything in my world to protect her. If I didn’t, these two would have my head. How do you know about me?”
Patty smiled. “There are such things as cell phones.”
“I realize that. What has she told you about us?”
Patty pointed at Dallas and smiled. “Dallas, you’re the hot and heavy one. Big hands and full lips. She told me all about you.”
Dallas blushed, and Ryker knew it took a lot for him to do that. He ran his fingers over her hand. “I can’t help it. Always been that way with beautiful women.”
“What did she say about me?” Pierce asked.
“She said that you were her pussycat. She loves both of you very much. That isn’t something she assumed she could do after Mason. I always thought he was a prick. I never thought he ever loved her. She just talked herself into loving him because she hadn’t found anyone. I think she was waiting for you three, or else she wouldn’t have shifted. It was your love that made her heart beat. My mother had mentioned this might happen to her. It’s why she wanted Orianna to stay on and be pride leader before the elders banished her with Mason’s help.”
“How is that possible if she is a vampire?” Ryker asked.
Patty’s eyebrows knitted together. “Our mother was a bit of a prophet in some sense, and she was connected to her daughters. Leadership has been in the female line of this pride for the past ten generations. My mother said to Orianna when she was married that even if she had died, she still had a connection to her cat. All she had to do was believe that it was there. My mother told me once that she saw my sister being death’s bride, but she remained among the pride. I didn’t understand then. She’s a vampire with a heartbeat, who has three men who love her and that imparted to her the courage to get past the block in her mind. What I really think is, when she turned, a mental cage was erected around her cat. Legends have told us that vampires can’t shift and they are our enemies. So she locked the cat off even more. By releasing the lioness inside of her, her heart started to beat. Shifters have to feel the life coursing through us to connect with our inner animal. You gave her the boost she needed to be alive again.” She stopped and touched her sister’s cheek.
“I’ll let you be with her and with one another. I am sure the elders will be deciding what to do with my brother and the others. I’ll let you know if they make a decision in regards to what to do with Orianna.” Patty left the room so they could be with Orianna.
Ryker’s two mates looked at him. A long silence spread between them as Pierce took Orianna’s hand and brought it to his lips. A moment of jealousy struck Ryker in the chest, but this time it was because he wanted to be doing that to her. I don’t have to be envious of Pierce, because he wouldn’t hurt Orianna. Neither will Dallas.
“I didn’t think I
’d ever see her shift. Do you think it’s true what her sister said about Orianna being able to shift all the time now?” Pierce asked.
Dallas shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe now she’s some kind of a hybrid. Whatever she is, she’s magnificent—and she’s ours. Don’t you agree, Ryker?”
He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his hand over hers. Her skin was still warm. Her heart hadn’t stopped its steady rhythm. The musk of her cat clung to her flesh. Ryker watched her chest rise and fall every few minutes. Whatever was alive inside of her was making sure that she was healing. What would happen when she woke up? He stretched out his mind and felt along the connections he shared with his two mates and found there was another bond there with Orianna. Through that link he sensed the alien presence of the vampire and the cat. The two sides of her nature were merging into a single entity.
“Yes. She is beautiful. And I’m sorry for not seeing that before, when you first brought her into the house. I was an asshole, and I apologize. Seeing her in action was magnificent. But now I’m not sure if she’ll accept me as a mate because I was such a bastard to her.” He shook his head, and sorrow squeezed his heart.
“We can work on it.”
Ryker sucked in a breath and looked at Orianna. The brightness to her eyes reflected that she was alive, but there was also some emotion that he couldn’t read. Pierce’s excitement nearly overwhelmed him. Her injuries were still apparent. Pierce tried to lift her up, but she let out small cry of pain.
“What did I do?” His mate pulled away.
“Mason crushed some of my ribs when he had me in his death grip. Shifting back didn’t help heal the injuries. I think something is hurt inside. His blood barely gave me enough to start healing.”
“Then you can feed from me.” Pierce offered his throat to her.
