At this point, his patience was growing short. His natural instincts to mate with her were going into overdrive, and his lion was ready to be one with his mate. He broke the clasp of her bra and removed it before reaching for her panties and ripping them off. Without the barrier of her panties, the scent of Natalie’s arousal was overpowering, and he growled loudly before lifting her and wrapping her legs around him again. When he kissed her this time, it was not soft and sweet. It was hard and carnal as both of their animalistic instincts to mate were kicking in. Feeling Natalie’s skin against his own was the most incredible thing he had ever felt up until then.
Kyle walked to the bed and laid Natalie down on her back. He crawled up the bed between her legs and then he began kissing her. He started at her lips then worked his way down her jaw to just behind her ear. Her breathing picked up.
“Aww, Kyle,” Natalie called out his name and gripped his arms.
He smiled against her neck then kissed his way down to her breasts. Using his tongue, Kyle lavished each one of her nipples, swirling the tip around Natalie’s hard nubs. She gasped and arched her back, pushing her breast firmly into his mouth. While he sucked and nibbled on one, he was caressing the other with his hand and using his thumb to tweak her nipple, stimulating both of her breasts at once. Kyle moved his face back up and sealed his mouth over Natalie’s while he moved his hand down between her thighs. When he brushed his fingers across Natalie’s most sensitive flesh, she was already soaking wet. Feeling how wet and turned on for him she was nearly made him lose it right them.
“Shit! Natalie, you’re so wet, baby.”
“Kyle,” she said on a moan, “I want you. Now.”
Kyle didn’t wait for her to say anything else. He held himself up above Natalie on his forearms and kissed her while he slowly pushed his thick length inside of her. She was so hot and tight that he had to concentrate to keep from losing control and slamming into her.
“Natalie, you feel amazing.”
Natalie wrapped her arms around his back and dug her nails into his skin while she arched into him, working to take him in deeper. When she spoke, her words were broken by her heavy breathing and moans. “Kyle … more … ahh.”
Kyle moved up so that all of his weight was supported on his knees and grabbed Natalie’s hips, pulling her body up and better aligned with his new position. She wrapped her legs around him, and he thrust inside of her, making them both cry out. Kyle thrust hard and deep, picking up his pace as pleasure overtook his whole body. He could smell both of their scents mingling and becoming one as he thrust again and again. Natalie’s body began to quiver, and he felt her tightening around him as her release drew near.
When he felt Natalie’s body begin to spasm around him as her climax ripped through her body, she threw her head back and screamed out his name.
“Kyle! Ahh!”
Watching Natalie’s face when her pleasure hit and hearing her scream his name in pleasure was all Kyle needed to reach his own release. Pleasure shot through him from the base of his spine as his climax tore through him, and he thrust wildly into Natalie, riding out the pleasure.
“Natalie, shit!”
Kyle buried his face in her neck while he thrust inside of her a couple more times until they had both worked through their last shocks of pleasure.
Kyle lay down and pulled Natalie to him so that her head was resting on his chest, just below his chin. He took in a deep breath, enjoying the thick scent of their newly mated bond; it was perfect. He kissed the top of her head. “I love you, Natalie.”
She sat up slightly and looked at him with a big smile on her face. “That’s Mrs. Natalie Becker to you, sir.”
Kyle started laughing, and Natalie joined him after a second. They had done it. Natalie was officially his mate, and he couldn’t think of anything that could possibly make him happier.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Natalie
Natalie laid on Kyle’s chest and closed her eyes. She pictured him in her mind—what he had looked like when she’d removed his clothes and he’d stood before her naked for the first time. From his short, messy brown hair, to his golden eyes, his body was perfect. His arms and legs were solid muscle, and his rock-hard abs came down, forming a V that led right down to his massive length. He was just as gorgeous on the outside as he was on the inside, and now he was all hers for life. When Natalie fell asleep, she still had a smile spread across her face as she thought about her mate.
***
Bam!
Natalie and Kyle shot up out of bed and shifted to their lion forms before their feet hit the ground when the loud sound of something slamming into the wall woke them from their sleep. Craig stood in their doorway in his human form, sweating and breathing heavy. What had Natalie on edge more than anything else was the blood she smelled, and when she took a good look, she realized that the blood smell was coming from Craig. She looked him over and realized that it was not his own blood, thank goodness, but he did have someone’s blood smeared over him.
“There’s an attack!” Craig shouted.
Kyle quickly shifted back into his human form, but Natalie remained as she was. If they were under attack, she was going to be ready to defend her pride.
“What the fuck do you mean, an attack?” Kyle’s voice was loud and strong.
“A group of werelions charged the mansion and took out two people before anyone knew that there was a threat,” Craig told them. “I heard the commotion, and I was able to take a couple of them out, and a couple of the people who work in the mansion heard and joined in.”
“Why would our own kind attack us?” Kyle asked.
“It’s not just our own kind. Some of them are our own people.”
Natalie growled loudly. It was completely unacceptable for their own people to pull a surprise attack and randomly kill members of their pride. If they wanted to challenge her as the pride leader, then they should call her out, not sneak up on unsuspecting members of the pride and kill them without any cause. Natalie projected her thoughts to Craig. She wanted to know who the cowards were from their pride because she was going to end them.
“Who’s out there from our pride, Craig?”
“Jack, Cory, and Cain. There could be more, but they are the ones I have seen.”
They heard growling and the sounds of fighting coming from downstairs. Kyle quickly shifted back to his lion form, and Craig did the same right after him. Craig took off down the stairs with Kyle and Natalie following him. The three of them jumped right into the fight when they made it downstairs. The first two lions Natalie took down were not from their pride, and she did not know them. All she knew was that they were hurting her people, and she wasn’t going to stand by and allow them to keep it up. When she turned around and saw Jack fighting Amy, the cook for the mansion, she felt rage coursing through her veins. It was a lot like the rage that had taken her over when Jason and his goons were trying to gang up on Kyle.
Just like she had done then, Natalie felt herself grow to twice her normal size. She let out a loud roar and took off after Jack. The sound of her roar made the house shake slightly, and it was enough to get Jack’s attention. He turned just before she got to him, and he reared back on his hind legs and swung his claws toward her. Given her current size, which was larger than any other lion around, when Jack hit her, it stung but did no real damage. What it did was piss her off. She raised her own claw, prepared to rip into Jack, but Kyle came barreling toward them and plowed into Jack before she made contact. Kyle sunk his teeth into Jack’s neck and yanked his head, ripping out his throat. Jack’s limp body fell to the ground.
He looked back at Natalie, and she heard his thoughts, “I felt your rage.”
“He was about to kill Amy,” Natalie told him with her thoughts. “She’s just a cook here. There is no reason for them to hurt our people. If Cain wants to be the pride leader, he needs to challenge me and stop being a coward.”
She was looking at Kyle when he lifted his he
ad up just slightly, and when he looked over her shoulders, his eyebrows creased and he growled. When she felt his anger rush through her body, she knew what he had meant when he’d said he had felt hers. Kyle leaped past her, and she heard the sound of another lion growl just before the sound of Kyle slamming into them. She knew it was Cory before she turned by his scent. As a member of the same pride, lions usually knew the scents of everyone else. Once they knew a scent and who it belonged to, they never forgot it.
Natalie didn’t have time to follow Kyle after Cory because two more lions, whom she did not recognize, came after her and Amy. She had no idea what pride these lions belonged to, but she hoped they would be able to find out. Maybe if they could figure out the pride they were from, Natalie would be able to make contact with their pride leader and find out how these lions wound up fighting against her pride with Cain. She pounced on one of the lions while Amy took on the other. With the lion pinned under her claw, she projected her thoughts to him and hoped that he came from a pride where this particular skill had not been oppressed by their leader as it had been in her own for so long when Jason was in charge.
“Who are you? What pride do you come from?”
A low growl escaped from the other lion as he lay pinned beneath her. “None of your business, bitch!”
Natalie pressed her claws into his throat. Not enough to kill him, but enough to cause him serious pain and get him talking. “Listen to me, you piece of shit! Unless you want me to relieve you of your head, then I suggest you tell me what pride you are from.”
He continued to struggle against her for a minute but gave up when she pressed against his throat harder. “ANASTAS! I’m from the Anastas pride!”
Even through his thoughts, she could hear that he was screaming out. Amy had taken out the lion who had attacked her, so Natalie turned to her to take care of this one. She didn’t want to kill him, not unless she really had to. He had given her the information she wanted, so she wanted to keep her word and not kill him, as long as he didn’t do anything else to prompt it.“Amy, get someone to help you take this one down to the basement, and lock him up.”
Amy nodded and went to get someone to assist her while Natalie kept the lion held down until she returned. When Amy returned and took away the lion Natalie had pinned down, Natalie went to find Kyle. She could sense exactly where he was now that they were mated, and she ran to him. When she got to Kyle, he was facing off against another lion from the other pack and Cain. They were circling him, and she watched as the strange lion swiped Kyle’s back legs, ripping into them with his claw. When Kyle automatically turned in response to the pain, Cain made his move and went for Kyle’s throat. Natalie plowed into Cain just before he landed the blow to Kyle, and the force of her hit sent him flying into the wall across the room and busted the sheetrock. Cain did not get up immediately, and with him seemingly knocked out, Natalie turned to check on Kyle just in time to see him ripping through the other lion and the lion’s lifeless body hit the ground, dead.
The quick second that she was distracted was enough for Cain to make a move on her. Before she turned her head back in his direction, she felt the searing sting of his claws ripping through her chest. Natalie let out a house-shaking roar and turned to look down at Cain. She was still double her normal size, which meant she towered over every other lion there, including Cain. The stinging pain radiating from her chest where Cain had just hit her fueled her anger. Something about her expression must have displayed her rage for Cain because he was slowly backing away from her and cowering under her glare.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” she told Cain with her thoughts.
Cain glanced to the side, and she looked over her shoulder to see what was happening. Another lion slammed into her side and attacked her. Natalie made quick work of slamming her claw into the lion’s head and ending his life, but when she turned back for Cain, he was gone. She took off following his scent, but when she found him, he was running full speed away from the mansion with several of his new lion friends right behind him. She followed until she saw that they were leaving the pride’s land. Natalie would have continued chasing them down, but she found one of her people hurt near the mansion’s gate. When Natalie went to check on the lion, she rolled her over to see who it was. There was so much blood that Natalie wasn’t able to distinguish the scent to figure out who she was without looking. When she rolled over the injured lion, Natalie couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Alice,” she cried out in her thoughts.
She didn’t even know that Alice had been at the mansion. Had Cain sent lions into the town to attack even more innocent members of the pride? She was going to kill him for this.
She needed help to get Alice inside and cared for, so she mentally called out for Kyle. “Kyle, hurry. It’s Alice. I just found her bloody and unconscious at the gate.”
He didn’t respond with words, but she could sense him coming to her in a hurry. When Kyle got there, he didn’t waste any time before he shifted back into his human form and lifted Alice into his arms. They may look much smaller in their human forms, but they were still incredibly strong.
“How did Alice wind up here? I will fucking kill Cain for this!” Kyle was pissed. His normally handsome face was marred by anger.
“I don’t know, but I agree,” she told him. “We have to find him and eliminate him. He cannot be allowed to do this again.”
Kyle ran inside with Alice’s unconscious body in his arms. In her lion form, she looked huge in his arms, but she couldn’t shift back because she wasn’t awake. Natalie followed him, and they took her to their room and laid her on the bed. Natalie called out to the town doctor with her thoughts. “Paul, we need you at the mansion. Alice Perkins is hurt bad, and she’s not waking up.”
“I’m on the way,” Paul sent back.
Natalie was momentarily shocked. She was so used to the people of their pride not using their telepathy gifts that she sometimes forgot the older members of the pride still knew how to do it; they had just been forbidden to do so for years while Jason was still around.
Natalie quickly shifted back into her human form and threw on the first set of clothes she found. She sat on the bed and pulled Alice’s head into her lap, not caring that she was getting covered in Alice’s blood. Within a few minutes, Paul arrived, and he got right to work.
Kyle was pacing at the end of the bed, and occasionally, he would glance over at them on the bed. He stopped suddenly and turned to Natalie with a sad look on his face.
“We need to tell Glenn. He should be here with her right now.”
Natalie nodded. She was trying to stay strong. All of her anger about what Cain was doing had kept her emotions in check for a while, but now that she was sitting in her bed and holding her friend’s head in her lap while Paul fought relentlessly to save her life, Natalie’s emotions took over. Without realizing it, she began crying; tears streamed down her face. Alice was hurt because Cain wanted her position, and he had taken it out on the pride instead of just challenging her properly.
Kyle must have sent the message directly to Glenn through his thoughts because he showed up within no time in his lion form. Natalie was sure that he did that to get to Alice faster. When he shifted back to his human form, he had no concern for the fact that he stood naked in front of Natalie, Kyle, and Paul.
“What the hell happened?” Glenn demanded.
“We were hoping you might know how this happened to her,” Natalie told him. “There was an attack on the mansion, and I found her just outside the gate. I wasn’t expecting her here this morning, so I don’t know how she wound up in the fight. Do you know if they went out in town attacking people?”
“I don’t know,” Glenn responded. “I didn’t see anything. Alice and I weren’t together. She was supposed to be on her way to the store.”
“She must have seen them charge the mansion and intervened,” Kyle interjected. “She was on her own out there. None of us knew that they were
here until they got inside.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Glenn asked Paul.
Paul didn't stop what he was doing to look at Glenn when he responded. “It's still too early to tell, but I promise you I am going to do everything in my power to help her.”
“Glenn, would you like to hold her?” Natalie asked Glenn, gesturing to where she was sitting with Alice's head in her lap.
“Yes, please.”
Natalie carefully moved from under Alice, and Glenn quickly moved in to replace her, holding Alice. Natalie walked over to Kyle, and he wrapped his arms around her while she buried her face in his chest. After a moment, she turned to look back at Alice and Glenn. Glenn held his mate’s head in his lap and stroked her fur while he whispered to her, telling her how much he loved her. Natalie wasn’t sure how much time passed before Paul stood from the bed, wiping Alice’s blood from his hands with a rag.
“That’s all that I can do right now,” Paul said. “I will monitor her for a few days, but I think she is going to be fine. Her advanced healing should kick in soon, so I am hoping she will be able to shift within the next few hours.”
Glenn held out his hand to Paul, and Paul shook his hand. “Thank you, Paul,” Glenn said. “I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I lost her.”
Paul squeezed Glenn’s hand. “I know, friend. I am glad I could help.” He turned to Natalie and Kyle who still stood in each other’s arms. “I’m going to go downstairs and see if anyone else needs my help. I will be back to check on Alice in an hour or so, as long as nothing holds me up down there.”
Natalie moved away from Kyle and gave Paul a hug. “Thank you so much.”
Paul gave her a slight squeeze. “No need to thank me, Natalie.”
He stepped back and nodded to her before leaving the room and heading downstairs to look for anyone else with injuries that needed assistance.
“We need to find Cain and stop him and whoever else is with him,” Kyle said. “We’ve got to figure out where they are before they have the chance to do this again.”
Promised To The Pride Page 6