Promised To The Pride

by Bonnie Burrows

  That got everyone’s attention, even Kyle’s mother. She walked back over to Kyle’s side and looked to Albert for answers. “Well, Albert. Go ahead and spit it out. What did the chronicles say? I think we all need to know who our true pride leader is.”

  Albert just looked at his daughter, and based on the sad look on his face, Kyle was pretty sure he already knew the answer. It was Patricia, Natalie’s mom, who spoke as she walked out of the kitchen to stand beside her husband. “When the challenge is won by forfeit, the original pride leader must offer a sacrifice to the challenger.”

  “But isn’t that why they have to bare their throat to the challenger?” Craig asked. “Jason did that. I saw it myself.”

  “That is a part of it, yes, but it isn’t enough,” Albert answered. He pulled his wife into his arms and held her. Kyle saw that this news was upsetting to Natalie’s parents, just as it was to her. “The sacrifice needs to be more corporeal. It could be something as simple as Jason spilling his blood and offering it up to Kyle, or something else like that.”

  “Well, he didn’t do that,” Cynthia said. She looked at Kyle and then to Natalie. Kyle could see the sadness in his mother’s eyes. It was pretty obvious to them all what this meant. “So, Kyle is not our pride leader.”

  Her words were spoken so softly that if there had been any other sound in the room when she spoke, Kyle might not have heard what she said, but he did. It wasn’t that he had not already figured it out for himself based on what Natalie’s parents had just told them, but it was still something else to hear it from his own mother.

  “If Kyle isn’t the leader, then who the hell is?” Craig asked.

  As usual, he lacked any sort of tact in the way he asked the question. Usually, Kyle laughed at his brother’s way of just saying whatever he thought before thinking about how others might react. Right now, he just wanted to slap his brother. How in the hell had his brother missed the most important piece of their whole discussion?

  Kyle pulled Natalie tight against his chest. He honestly wouldn’t have been upset if he had only found out he couldn’t be the pride leader. He hadn’t challenged Jason because he explicitly wanted that role. He had only done it because he could not find any other way to keep Natalie from being forced into a mating with the asshole. The only reason he was upset about the news was because he knew what it meant. Since he had not been truly made their pride’s leader when Jason gave up, that meant that the lion who killed Jason was now the true pride leader. He looked around the room at everyone, and then he stopped when he met Craig’s eyes and said, “Natalie.”

  Craig looked confused. “Natalie what?”

  “Craig,” their mother butted in to set Craig straight, “what your brother is telling you is that Natalie is our new pride leader.”

  Kyle watched his brother’s expressions change as he took in that information. He went from shock, to disappointment, and finally a wide smile spread across his face. That was when he lost Kyle. He had no idea what his brother was smiling about, but he did know that it better not be some joke at Natalie’s expense. It was obvious how upset she was right now, and if Craig did anything to make it worse, then they were going to have a problem.

  “Seriously? Natalie is our new pride leader. Why aren’t you all more excited about this? Guys, we have a female pride leader now. This is amazing news!”

  If Kyle thought that Craig was trying to be an asshole, then he would have kicked his ass right then, but it was very obvious that Craig was completely serious. His brother was practically bouncing on his heels. When Kyle really stopped to think about it, he had to agree that it was actually pretty amazing that they had a female pride leader. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if there had ever been a female leader in all of their pride’s history.

  “Has there ever been another female pride leader in the past?” Kyle asked.

  “It has not happened very often, but yes, there have been a few,” Albert told them. “There have been times when the outgoing pride leader had no male children, so the role passed on to their firstborn daughter.”

  Natalie wiped off her face and seemed to be getting her emotions together after nearly having a total breakdown. “Kyle, I understand if you are upset with me.”

  Kyle jerked back slightly. He was completely thrown by her statement. He couldn’t imagine what he had done since he got there to make her think he was upset by her. “Natalie, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I am not upset with you.” She had stepped away from him when she’d asked her ridiculous question, so Kyle pulled her back to him and gave her a quick kiss. He hoped that his actions would back up his words and that she would believe him when he told her he wasn’t upset.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek up against his chest. “I messed up, and now you aren’t the pride leader. You did all of this to save me from Jason, and I took the one thing you would have gotten in return away from you.”

  Kyle couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently, she was confused about his motives because he had never given a shit about being the pride leader. He would have done the best job he could, and he was certain he would have been a better option than Jason, but he had been successful in achieving his true goal, which had been to keep Natalie from mating Jason. “All I ever wanted was to save you from a life stuck with that jackass. Now that we have made sure that won’t be happening, all I want is to be with you. I don’t care if I am pride leader or if you are. As long as I get to be with you, then I am right where I want to be.”

  Kyle pushed Natalie’s face up so she was looking at him, and he leaned in and kissed her tenderly. When Natalie pulled back from his kiss, she smiled at him and said, “I love you, Kyle Becker.”

  He pushed her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I love you, too, Natalie Owens.”

  They had a brief moment where it felt like it was just the two of them, but Craig was quick to ruin it and spoil the moment. “Okay, you guys have to stop before I gag. Seriously, could the two of you be more sickly sweet?”

  Natalie rolled her eyes and leaned around Kyle to flip off his brother. “Craig, you are such an ass,” she told him.

  “Natalie,” her father called. “Watch your language, young lady. You might be the pride leader now, but I am still your father.”

  Kyle fought not to laugh while Natalie’s dad scolded her. Here she had just killed four lions and became the new pride leader, but her dad was still chastising her for cursing.

  “On a more serious note,” Kyle’s mom said, interrupting Natalie’s chastisement, “when and how are we going to tell the rest of the pride that it is Natalie who is the true pride leader and not Kyle?”

  “Mom, I think we should just wait until tomorrow to deal with that,” Kyle told Patricia. “It has been a really long day for the whole pride, and people are with their families tonight. Let’s have dinner and discuss that in the morning.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Natalie

  Natalie was still reeling with the fact that she was the new pride leader. Never in a million years would she have thought that she would see a female pride leader, let alone that it would be her. According to her dad, she was also the very first female to become pride leader by defeating the former leader. The few females that had become leader had done so because their fathers were leaders who had never fathered any male werelions. She had no clue how they were going to tell everyone in the pride that it was her, not Kyle, who was now their pride leader.

  Kyle was meeting her this morning so that they could plan out the best way for her to tell everyone about her being the pride’s new leader. She had not gotten much sleep the night before, and she couldn’t wait for Kyle to get to her house. She was nervous, but she was also ready to just get the announcement over with. To top it off, she was going to have to move into the mansion. She had never lived alone, and she was nervous about it now. If she was completely honest, she wanted Kyle to move in with her right away as well. It was no se
cret that they planned on being together now that Jason was out of the picture and Natalie was no longer obligated to be his mate. They would have to talk about their relationship and when they wanted to move forward and take the next step, but that could wait for now.

  She was happy when she heard the sound of the door opening. She heard a couple of voices when Kyle came in and realized that he had brought Craig and their mom back with him. She guessed that she should have expected that, but for whatever reason, she had woken up with some dream in mind of her and Kyle doing this together. With her emotions all over the place like they had been since last night, it was probably some crazy girly part of her that was hoping they would get to talk alone so that they could discuss their relationship. With everything going on, she still couldn’t help but feel incredibly relieved at the knowledge that she would never be forced to mate Jason or anyone else. If Kyle had become the new pride leader like they had planned, then it would have been a given that Natalie had to mate him when she turned twenty-one in just a couple of weeks, since she was promised to whomever the pride leader was on her birthday. With the way things had turned out, it was now her choice, and for some reason, that made it seem even better to her. The idea that she might have a say in the male she ended up mating and spending the rest of her life with was a notion that she had never entertained, since that choice had been made for her before she even knew boys existed. Now, when she agreed to be Kyle’s mate, he would know that it came, one hundred percent, from her heart.

  Kyle walked in and gave her a warm hug and a quick kiss. “How are you doing this morning?” he asked her, brushing the hair back from her face.

  She loved it when he did that. Smiling up at him, she answered, “I’m fine, Kyle. How about you? Still okay with how everything turned out after sleeping on it?”

  “Of course I am. As long as you’re happy, so am I.”

  Craig made a gagging sound with his finger pointing in his mouth. “Seriously, you two, it is way too early in the morning for your sickly sweet banter. I love you guys, but I think we should get this show on the road.”

  Patricia smacked Craig on the back of his head. “Son, I swear, sometimes I don’t know where I went wrong with you.” Craig feigned a look of hurt, pretending his mother’s words had caused him some emotional harm. Natalie was trying not to laugh at him since he had just been making fun of her and Kyle, but the guy was just so easily funny. “Oh, don’t give me that fake sad lip. Everyone knows you are full of it anyway.”

  “Mom!” Craig tried to sound offended, but again, it was just funny.

  Patricia rolled her eyes at Craig and turned to Kyle and Natalie. “Despite your brother’s ridiculous way of saying it, Kyle, you really do need to get the record set straight with the pride. It is possible that some of our older members may have already done like Albert did, and they have figured it out on their own. You don’t want Natalie to start off on the wrong foot as our new leader, and if you two wait too long to tell the pride members the truth, some will feel you were being dishonest and trying to hide it. It is important for a leader to have the trust of the pride.”

  Kyle nodded and looked at Natalie. “I agree with my mom. After having someone like Jason as our leader for so long, the last thing we should do is start you out with the pride feeling any distrust toward you.”

  “Alright,” Natalie agreed. “How do you propose we get them all together to tell them? It seems like something we should definitely share with our people in person.”

  Kyle smiled at her like he was up to something. “Well, I thought you could send out a message to everyone to come to the mansion tonight around seven. That will give them time to relax and have dinner with their families before they come to hear the news.”

  Natalie looked around the room at Craig and Patricia to see if there was some kind of joke she was missing out on, but they were both listening intently, and Patricia nodded in agreement with Kyle’s suggestion. She looked back to Kyle, who was waiting to hear what she thought. “I think it is a good idea, except for the part where you said I could send out a message to everyone. How in the hell am I supposed to do that? I don’t think electronic communication is appropriate for this situation, and I don’t know any other way for me to tell them all about this on the same day.”

  “You can project your thoughts to them like my mom did before yesterday’s challenge,” Kyle told her.

  Natalie’s eyes grew wide, and she looked at him like he was crazy. “You know that I don’t know how to do that, Kyle. Maybe your mother would be willing to do it again.” She turned and looked at Patricia expectantly. She was hoping Kyle’s mom would just agree with her suggestion so that they could all move on, but that was not the case. It would seem that Kyle had not been alone in thinking that she could do it.

  “If you put your mind to it, then I know you can do it just as easily as I can,” Patricia told her.

  “But I don’t have the slightest clue how to do it. If I did, I would have done that last night to warn Kyle that Jason was about to attack him from behind. I wouldn’t have made the choice of knocking him away and killing him myself.”

  Kyle grabbed her hand and walked her back to her bedroom where it was just the two of them. It was far from the first time that Kyle had been in Natalie’s room, but something about not being destined to mate another lion made her all too aware of the fact that they were alone and there was a bed just a few steps away from them.

  “What are we doing in here, Kyle?”

  “I am going to help you figure out how to project your thoughts to everyone else. I thought it might be easier in here where we didn’t have my brother and mom staring at us.”

  Natalie plastered a fake disappointed look on her face. “And here I thought you just wanted to take advantage of me now that I am a free woman.” She glanced at her bed and then wiggled her eyebrows at Kyle jokingly.

  He laughed, and she loved the sound of his laughter. It was just what she needed to help break down some of her nervousness. “No, not today, babe. Today, we announce you as our pride leader. Tomorrow, maybe …” Kyle wiggled his eyebrows at her, mocking what she had just done to him, and then Natalie was the one laughing.

  “Okay, I guess it’s time to get serious.” She walked over to her bed and took a seat on the edge. “So, what do I have to do if I want to share my thoughts with everyone?”

  Kyle sat down beside her and placed a hand on her knee. “It is actually a lot easier than you would think. I cannot believe we have never figured it out before, but my guess is that our minds weren’t open to it because we didn’t know.”

  “Alright,” Natalie took a breath and relaxed. “What do I do?”

  “It might help if you close your eyes this first time so you’re not distracted,” Kyle told her. Natalie did as he suggested and shut her eyes. “Now, just think whatever it is you want to say while you envision the people you want to talk to hearing it.” Natalie opened her eyes and looked at Kyle like he was talking in gibberish. “I know, I know, it sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. Just give it a shot.”

  Natalie pursed her lips, not sure if he was giving her the best instructions. He did just figure out how to project his own thoughts to others the night before. She probably should’ve asked his mother for help. She closed her eyes again and gave it a shot. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to feel different when she successfully communicated with anyone else, but she didn’t feel anything other than silly right then. She opened her eyes and looked at Kyle. “Well, did it work?”

  “I don’t know. Did you feel the connection between your mind and whomever you were trying to talk to?”

  “No. It just felt like I was thinking with my eyes open, and since I was trying to talk to you, then I am definitely going to say it didn’t work.”

  “Just give it one more try. You need to clear your mind. If you keep thinking that this is crazy and cannot work, then it isn’t going to happen for you. You need to be open-minded
and believe that you can actually do this.”

  “But what if I can’t? Surely there are people in our pride who just don’t have this skill, and maybe I am one of them.”

  Kyle took her face in his hands and looked her right in her eyes. “You can do this, Natalie Owens. I believe in you, and there isn’t anything you can’t do if you set your mind to it.” He kissed her chastely on her lips and pulled away, smiling at her.

  Kyle’s words had definitely made her feel better, more confident. Natalie decided to give it another shot with more positivity this time. She closed her eyes and concentrated. After a minute, she felt Kyle’s face against her cheek and his breath across her ear when he softly spoke, “I want everything with you, and as soon as all of this leader change stuff washes over, I will make you mine. Forever.”

  Natalie felt a chill rush through her body, except instead of making her cold, it had the opposite effect, and her body felt hot. When she opened her eyes and looked at Kyle, she could see that same heat reflected back at her through his eyes. “You heard me?” she asked him. It was practically a whisper, and truly, after what he had just said to her, she already knew the answer.

  “Yes, I did.” He smiled brightly and pulled her into his arms. “And trust me, I cannot wait to make you my mate and start living our lives together.”

  Natalie leaned in and kissed him. It was soft at first but turned heated and more passionate after a moment. Kyle ran his tongue along her lips, and she opened her mouth. He moved his tongue in her mouth, slowly caressing hers, and she eagerly met him stroke for stroke with her own tongue. He tasted amazing; like freedom. Kyle moved on the bed so that he had his arms pinned on either side of her, and when she started leaning back, he moved with her until he held himself up so that he was hovering over her while they continued to kiss. If her body had been hot a moment ago with just his words, she was on fire now.