“All I hear is mumbling.” Annamora pouted out her bottom lip and replaced the glass on the table. “Is Jenny-texts-a-lot really Ronin?”
Emerald snorted as she opened his texts.
Em? Can you just tell me you’re okay? I’m going insane.
Two hours later:
Something big is happening, can you get to a safe place? Away from everyone?
Em? Fuck, I need to know you’re out of the way.
Fifteen minutes ago:
We’re here.
“Oh, nooo!” Now was the time for panic.
“What?” Annamora asked.
Should she tell them? Should she trust these Old Tarian lionesses, sitting up in their cots and staring at her with glowing eyes as round as dinner plates? What was the right decision here?
“Someone’s coming!” Maris whispered, running toward her cot.
Shit! Emerald dove for her own cot, and she and Annamora both threw their covers over them. And right before the door opened, Emerald shoved the cell phone under her arm and closed her eyes. Her heart was pounding so hard as the door creaked open. She didn’t dare open her eyes, but she heard him. Heard the footsteps on the floor as he walked along the feet of their cots. She inhaled, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Not Derek and not Orion. And not Ronin. Those, she had memorized.
The clomping boot steps faded away, hesitated at the door, and then the door clicked closed. Something felt off, though. The air still felt too heavy, so she kept perfectly still, kept her eyes closed, slowed her breathing.
Her lioness had pinpointed the exact spot in the room where he was. She could feel him watching her. A soft snarl rattled up her throat before she could stop it.
“You feel different,” Cassius rumbled.
Not being able to see him was the worst part, so she opened her eyes.
“So green. I wonder will you give our cubs those eyes of yours?” Cassius was crouched in the corner, elbows on his knees. It was dark in here, so all she could see was the outline of his form and his glowing gold eyes.
“Could you be any creepier?” she asked. Okay, she didn’t even understand where she’d gotten the courage to talk to him like this. Something was really wrong with her lioness.
The phone vibrated against her arm, and she hugged it closer to stifle the sound.
Cassius stood and flicked on the light switch. Emerald winced and blinked hard, wishing her eyes would adjust fast.
“Listen to that heartbeat race,” he murmured.
“Mmmm, the answer is yes then. You can get creepier.”
“Keep it up, bitch. You’re just making my blood boil.” He canted his head the other way, narrowing his eyes on her. “You are much more interesting than you were before. I assumed you were a mouse, but you don’t feel like a mouse. Your face looks better. Quick healer.” Why did he sound so suspicious? He walked over to her and dragged his gaze down her body. Kneeling slowly, he murmured, “I think you will be very fun to break.”
Emerald didn’t even try to stop the snarl in her throat. She offered him an empty smile to match his. “I think you already did.”
“Hmmm.” He leaned forward and parted his lips to say something more, but the door opened.
“The rest of the council is asking to see you,” Orion murmured. He looked as pale as a ghost, and his nearly-white gaze flickered to Emerald, and then back to his Alpha.
In disbelief at what Orion had just said, she asked, “The council?” Please let there be some mistake.
The soulless smile stretched across Cassius’s entire face. “Take heart, my queen. Not only have you landed yourself the most powerful Alpha, but I’m the head of the new council as well.”
No combination of words had ever made her feel quite as sick as those. “No,” she uttered in horror.
“As of today, the council is complete and in charge of the lion shifters again. First order of business is to annihilate the weak Alpha who took you from me and killed my Second.” His voice was a gritty snarl, and his eyes swam with insanity. “Ronin dies tonight, along with every member of his Pride who fought against me.” And as he stood and walked away, his voice echoed behind him. “I win.”
Emerald laid there frozen as Orion closed the door.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” Annamora whispered.
“This is really bad!” another of the lionesses whispered, sitting up.
“What do we do?” Annamora asked. “If they snuff out the New Tarian Pride, we are all stuck. There will be nowhere for us to run!”
Fingers flying, Emerald typed out, Ronin, I’m fine. I’m fine!!! Run and hide! Send.
Two seconds went by with no answer, and it was too much.
You can’t be here. Send.
The council is back. Send.
Cassius leads them. Send.
They’ll kill you! Send.
The only answer was a sudden yelling and chaos outside.
And then the cabin rattled with the roaring of the lions.
Emerald bolted for the door, but it was locked. She yanked on the doorknob so hard it broke off. So she put her fingers through the hole she’d made, rested the sole of her foot against the wall, and yanked at the door. It splintered.
“What do we do?”
“You stay here or you fight,” Emerald said, just as the door gave way and came flying inward. Huffing breath, she rounded on the girls. “You want a better life? You protect the ones who can give that to you. If you are fine being treated like the shit on their shoes here? Then you stay in this room and do nothing. We always have a choice! The Old Tarians tried to convince us we don’t, but we do. And tonight, that’s your choice. Pick a Pride. Choose wisely because your quality of life depends on it.”
The girls looked terrified. These weren’t Old Tarian warrior lionesses. The dominants here had been replacing them gradually with females who were submissive, who they could control. These weren’t fighters. But they’d asked what to do, and the rest was up to them.
Annamora and Sora stepped forward at the same time. Tears were staining Sora’s cheeks, but she lifted her chin primly and said, “Orion, get out of the way.”
It was then that Emerald felt it—the heaviness behind her. She turned to find the platinum blond man with the scary ice-colored eyes glaring at her, his lip snarled up, and his canines too long. Too sharp.
“Sora—”
“I cannot be treated like this and survive. I choose to survive.”
“Me, too,” Annamora rushed out.
He looked at Emerald, who shrugged and said, “I’m mostly here to fuck shit up.”
One of the girls snorted behind her, but she didn’t know who because, currently, she was blowing right past a growly Orion and sprinting for the front of the house. Inside of her, Fury, as her lioness had apparently deemed herself, was ready, waiting for the signal to take her skin. She needed logic, though, first.
Step one: Find Ronin.
Step two: Save Ronin.
Step three: Bone Ronin.
Step Four: Have, like, seven baby Ronins.
Step Five: —
Ack! An impossibly strong hand went around her throat and forced her through the open doorway and out onto the porch. The edges of her vision blurred as Derek pulled her to him. His breath was hot on her face when he asked, “What the fuck have you done?”
“Nothing…yet,” she choked out, gripping his wrists, trying desperately to pry him off. She couldn’t breathe!
Ronin’s voice was in her head. Fight dirty.
Emerald took her hands from his wrists, grabbed his shoulders and slammed her knee upward into his fragile little ball sack as hard as she possibly could.
The whoosh of air from his lungs and the creaking high-pitched grunt he made would’ve been funny if he still didn’t have his hands around her throat. Emerald made a fist like Ronin taught her and blasted him against the jaw before he recovered. Again and again until his hands loosened on her neck and he fell backward over the porch railing. In the halos of light between the big house and this one, there was war. Lions were engaged in an all-out to-the-death brawl. She couldn’t tell who was New and who was Old Tarian Pride, but her heart stuttered in her chest when she saw him—Ronin. Her Ronin, because that’s what he’d always been. Her hero. The one she’d remembered all this time for his kindness. He was hers, there when she needed someone to step in. To step up. To stand up…for her. For what was right.
He came out of the shadowy woods, jeans slung low, rage in his blazing eyes as he strode toward Cassius, fists clenched, blond hair disheveled, his face twisted into something not quite human. He felt so heavy he filled the entire clearing. Stunned, she watched as Cassius roared an inhuman sound from the other side of the clearing. The chaos of war around them didn’t matter. They were only focused on each other. Cassius, big, dark, soulless Alpha intent on bending people to his will. Ronin, light, strong, steady, protective, knew the value of every Pride member...she’d never witnessed a fight between good and evil like this.
Ronin’s speed as he bolted for Cassius stole her breath away. And as he launched himself through the air, his lion ripped out of him and clashed so violently against Cassius’s animal, she felt the power of their hatred in her chest. She gasped at the raw brutality of their fight—two titans latched onto each other with their claws. Ronin raked his weapons across Cassius’s skin, sank his teeth into him, slapped those monstrous paws against the dark Alpha. Their paws dragged long tread marks through the snow, exposing the black earth underneath like some Jackson Pollok painting. In moments, of the snow was speckled and splattered in red.
Motion caught her attention. As she watched a dozen more lions charging from the shadows, barreling straight for the Alpha fight, she chanted under her shaking breath, “no, no, no.” Some deep instinct told her they weren’t friends. The scarred-up monsters were the new council, here to protect their alliances, here to defend their new throne.
Old Tarians didn’t fight with honor.
Rage pulsed through her veins. Now? Fury asked inside of her.