by Renee George
“I see.” The Rex stood up. He gestured to his guards. “Let her go.”
They didn’t look happy, but they complied with his order. Next, he strolled from the platform, walked across the arena to Shane and stood in front of him. Lance moved in behind the Rex in a defensive position, one he’d probably taken many times.
“I didn’t know that Lila was pregnant. I wouldn’t have left you behind.”
“He’s a fucking mongrel,” the Regina spat. “I’ve had enough. Kill him!”
“No,” the Rex countermanded. He put himself between his son and his enforcer. His eyes widened with shocked surprise when Lance’s knife went sank into the base of his skull.
Two guards grabbed Shane’s arms, and he shook himself loose. His muscles shifted and bulged, bones snapping and reforming as fur sprouted fine, but dense along his skin. His clothes tightened and ripped as his body grew more than double in thickness and a least a foot more in height.
Lance shifted just as easily.
He was a lion too, his main a mixture of rust and black hair. His half-form was large, bigger than Shane’s. Shane drew strength from his rage. He would win.
Lance was a pure brute, launching himself at Shane, roaring and snapping as he reached, claws out, for Shane’s throat. Shane easily sidestepped the telegraphed attack. He spun, hitting the other werewolf in the back, using Lance’s own momentum to send him crashing to the ground. The large werelion raged in frustration. He quickly turned on Shane, sweeping a leg and catching Shane’s ankle.
The wind whooshed from Shane when he hit the hard dirt. Lance didn’t waste a second. He jumped on top of Shane, his claws carving painful and bloody runnels into his chest.
A scream pierced all the other sounds. Scottie. What was she doing here? He looked around and saw her and Tig held by two men. A blow knocked his head into the ground.
Scottie screamed his name again. No. She couldn’t be here. She should’ve been safe. He had no choice now. He had to win. Shane threw up an arm at the next crushing blow and pushed with his knee, bucking Lance off him. He latched on to the enforcer’s chest with his teeth.
Lance howled. He punched his massive fists into the sides of Shane’s head, trying to break his hold. Instead, Shane clamped his jaws tighter. He could feel pure bone beneath his teeth, and if he weren't careful the muscle would come away, and he’d lose the hold he’d gained. Lance made the option moot when he put his hands on the either side of Shane, and using his legs and arms, sprang away from Shane, leaving him with nothing but muscle and blood in his mouth.
Frustration ground his guts. Lance Stringer would die.
****
Scottie watched helplessly as the man Tony had identified as Lance Stringer killed his own Rex and attacked Shane. When he’d jumped on top of Shane, she struggled to get free from the guy holding her arms.
“Let me go!” She kicked her foot back, but the man was quick and well trained. He easily sidestepped her attack. “Shane!” she shouted and watched Lance punch him in the back of the head.
When he Shane turned the table on Lance, by biting into his chest, Scottie rejoiced. The celebration was brief as the enforcer got out of the hold and sprung away to circle around for another attack. Her captor had moved her, Tig, and Tony down near the action. The intensity of the fighting had everyone’s attention. She heard someone say they were “impressed with the boy’s fighting skills.” Mostly, they couldn’t believe Shane had lasted this long against the Pride’s enforcer.
A hand grasped her forearm and yanked Scottie sideways. The Regina, a woman as tall as her mother, wrapped her arm around Scottie’s chest and put a knife to her throat.
“I’ll kill your woman,” she shouted at Shane. “I’ll—”
Scottie didn’t wait to listen to the rest of the threat. She thrust her up to break the hold then dropped down to a knee as she drove her elbow into the woman’s gut. When the Regina doubled over and dropped the knife. Scottie kicked out and landing a blow to the Regina’s head as she rolled away from her. Pain blossomed in her stomach as she got back up to her feet.
With the bitch queen on the ground, Scottie moved quickly, putting several onlookers between the two of them. She watched Shane drop down and give a low sweeping kick to Lance’s legs, effectively taking him down. He glanced at Scottie then, his face full of fear and pride and love. She gave him her bravest smile. “Kick his ass, honey!”
“You got it, kitten.” The exchange, unfortunately, had given Lance time to recover his feet. He grabbed Shane by the back of his neck and hit him in the jaw hard enough to rattle his teeth. Shane snarled, throwing an elbow into Lance’s wounded side. The enforcer was strong, unbelievably so, but Scottie had to believe Shane was stronger.
Scottie knew the enforcer believed sheer force would win the fight, but she knew better. Overconfidence would be Stringer’s weakness. She had to stifle another scream as Shane took a punch to the head that sent him careening backward. He landed flat on his back, but when Lance pounced again, Shane had already rolled away. He huffed, blood flying from his flaring nostrils. Lance charged again, but this time, Shane leaned to one side, threw out a leg, and with both hands yanked Lance off balance. He used the enforcer’s stunned surprise to finish the fight by clamping his teeth against his throat.
The entire crowd stilled as they waited for the finishing blow. Shane snapped Lance’s neck and let his body drop dramatically and unceremoniously to the ground. “It is finished!” he roared.
“Kill them,” the Regina shouted to her people. “What are you waiting for?”
“The Rex claimed him as heir,” someone said. A few others muttered their agreements.
A disheveled woman walked up behind the Regina. It took Scottie a minute to realize who it was. “Mom?”
Lin balled her hand into a fist and said, “Shut up, Mercellas, you stupid bitch,” the cold-cocked the Queen B right in her sourpuss kisser, leaped on top of the woman, and snapped her neck.
“Whoa,” Scottie said. “Go, Mom.”
Chapter Ten
It had been two weeks since the Rex’s death and the Leone Pride, for the most part, had accepted Shane as the new Rex. The ones that didn’t were given permission to leave with expediency. Terrence Jensen had driven up from the Southeast Territory. He and Shane brokered alliances between the Leone, Grayslake, Redby territories. It would be a long road for Shane’s people, and damn did it feel weird calling them his people, but he would bring them into the twenty-first century if it killed him.
Scottie, understandably, had spent most of her time with her mom. When she’d maneuvered away from the former Regina, she’d reinjured her stomach wound, and caused some internal bleeding. Luckily, the Itan’s brother Isaac, a true Healer, had come for a visit and was able to help her. After ten days of bed rest, Scottie was doing much better.
On the topic of the Pride, he worried she wouldn’t want to join. To be his Regina. He couldn’t blame her. The antiquated ideas of the Leone were why her father was dead.
“You’ve got a strong woman,” Isaac had told him.
It wasn’t something he’d needed anyone to say. Scottie’s strength wasn’t the issue. Her willingness to give up a life of independence—that was the issue.
He knocked on her bedroom door.
“Come in,” she said. She wore a pale, pink camisole that set off her green eyes and made them look like jewels. Her delicate cotton candy pink lips were turned down at the corners as she gazed up at him from the bed. “You come in here to gawk or talk?” she asked.
Shane grinned. “Both.” He closed the door behind him as he entered the room. “You sure do look pretty today, kitten.”
“Don’t you even try to sweet talk me. I haven’t seen you in two days, Shane Largos, and Rex or no Rex, if you want me to be your girlfriend, you won’t miss another day.”
He frowned. “I don’t want to be my girlfriend.”
Her chin dimpled. “You don’t.”
“Nope.”
He shook his head and sat down on the bed. “Uh-uh. Not in this lifetime.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Other than your thighs wrapped around my face…”
“Shane!” Her eyes widened, and she slapped him on the chest.
He laughed. He loved the way Scottie made him feel. Most of the time it felt as if he had the world weighing heavy on his shoulders, but one smile from her and his burdens seemed to float away. “What I really want is to lay down beside you every night and have you in my arms as I fall asleep. I want to wake up with you every day and know that with you I can get through anything. That life’s challenges are minor obstacles as long as you are mine. I want to kiss you, and hold you, and make love to you every day of the week, maybe even twice on Sunday.”
“Wow.” She wrinkled her nose. “You sound like you got it bad for me, Mr. Largos.”
“I got it bad and then some, Ms. Monroe.” He dipped his head and kissed her, relishing the sweet taste of her lips. “I love you, kitten. What I want most of all, is I want you to marry me.”
****
Scottie’s throat was suddenly hot and tight. “You love me?”
He blinked down at her, his golden eyes soft with sincerity. “More than anything.”
She’d only known Shane for a couple of weeks, but she felt the same way about him. Every time they were apart it felt like she was missing a piece of herself. “I love you, Shane.”
“Enough to be my Regina?”
“Will you claim her already?” Tig shouted from the other room.
Scottie should have been horrified, but she pretty much felt the same way. “Yes,” she told Shane. “Enough to marry you. Enough to be your Regina. And enough to take your mark.”
Shane’s hand slid up her side, and Scottie’s body reacted: her nipples tightened and her pussy heated… wet. He stood up and stripped his shirt off first then his shoes, socks, and pants until he was standing in front of her wearing nothing but black briefs. He definitely looked like an Olympic swimmer, and with the size of his cock, Scottie knew she’d be awarding him the gold.
He knelt on the floor in front of her and slid her camisole up and over her head. He cupped her breasts, taking one nipple into his mouth then moving to the other for a rough lick. “These are awesome.”
He looped his fingers into the waistband of her matching pink shorts and pulled them down her legs. She wore white lace panties underneath, and Scottie watched the slow smile spread on his lips as he parted her thighs and licked the wet crotch of the fabric. “Mmm, you are delicious.”
“Oh dear.” She bit her lower lip to keep from climaxing right then and there. He spread her knees farther, his thumbs biting into her inner thighs. His tongue laced itself under the panties and slid along the folds of her pussy. Placing his arms against her back, he lifted Scottie until her knees were over his shoulders. He nibbled and teased her aching clit.
“Wowzers!” She rocked her hips forward wishing the fabric between his mouth and her throbby bits was gone. “There is too much clothing between me and your mouth."
Shane’s looked up at her, pure male satisfaction in his eyes. “Your wish is my command.” His canines dropped down, sharp and long. He bared his fangs then bit into the white cotton and yanked, ripping her underwear right off.
“Sweet Jesus,” she murmured, her aching clit grazing against his chin and teeth.
His tongue swiped the folds of her sex, twice. She could feel him grinning against her flesh. He sucked and licked and nibbled her pussy until his face shined with her cream.
“Feels so good.” She squirmed forward, her hands grappling with his hair, pulling his face against her. Unexpectedly, something amazing happened. Shane’s tongue slipped inside, and she could feel it, thickening, lengthening, filling her tightly with its heat. He began to thrust, his teeth grazing and bumping her clit with every inward push.
“Oh, God, Shane. Shit. This is…” The tip of his tongue fluttered against the spot just inside her channel, and her whole body shook as pleasure exploded inside her.
Shane continued his erotic oral assault, plunging, fluttering, in and out until a second orgasm hit her just as hard as the first. She screamed as her hands braced against the bed and her body quaked with ecstasy. After the last bit of her orgasm faded, Shane eased his tongue from her.
He rose up between her legs and pulled her close enough that they could share the same skin. He smoothed her sweat-drenched hair back from her face and kissed each eyelid. “Your pussy tastes so sweet.”
He lifted her breast to his mouth and sucked her rigid nipple. The action triggered after effects of the orgasm, sending little shockwaves straight to her clit.
“Yes, yes,” she murmured. “I need you inside me.”
“I want that,” he said, kissing her neck. “I want you so much.”
He wrapped his arm around Scottie’s waist, surprising her when he lifted her up and crawled with her onto the bed. His rigid cock rubbed against her thigh as he positioned himself between her legs. He stared down at her, and she could see his lion lurking just below the surface. She allowed her tiger to join in the pleasure as Shane entered her in one quick motion.
She cried out as the sheer size of him stretched her wide, but it was a cry of joy, of complete joining, one mate to another. Her lips mashed against his once more with fired passion. Nips and bites flitted along his throat, chest, abdomen, as Scottie worked her lower body over Shane’s erection. A throaty hum of delight escaped from her as she rocked against him.
Scottie’s mouth met his as a fresh, hungry desire filled her. She wanted to weep her joy at being in his arms. Every stroke inside her caused a rush of blood to her groin. The strain on her engorged clit felt wonderful and painful at the same time. She bit her lip as his amber gaze bore straight through her. Keeping hers fixed on him was a much tougher task with every plunge of his rock-hard length, and he was relentless.
“Yes, yes,” she mumbled because it was all that she could manage, other than grunts and moans of pleasure. “Shit.” Her eyes started to glaze, and a sharp tug of her hair snapped her to attention. “Shit, this feels so good.”
“Mine,” he rasped, his thrusts solid and deep. “You are mine.”
“Yes, yes, oh, hell, yes!” she said. Shane’s face widened, and a fine sheen of fur sprouted along his skin. When he bit down into her shoulder, Scottie cried out again as her back bowed. “Shane!”
A wave of spasms wracked her, and a frenzied euphoria danced through her body. Grinding herself onto him, she milked his cock for every ounce of pleasure, riding the ecstasy as pain and pleasure burned through her body.
Shane’s orgasm tore through him. He flung his head back, and a roar ripped from his throat. He held her tightly, almost vise-like until the last of his hot seed was spent inside her womb.
They held each other for a long moment, neither of them saying a word, just the pure, unadulterated, and silent happiness of the claimed.
“It’s about fucking time!” Tig yelled from the other room.
Scottie covered her mouth. She’d forgotten Tig was in the other room. “Oh my gosh. I was really loud,” she whispered.
Shane grinned. “Yes. Yes, you were.”
****
One year later…
“Go to papa, Simba,” Scottie said.
Shane smiled at her little joke and the horrified expression on Mia Abrams’ brown eyes as the Grayslake Itana gasped. “You didn’t name your son Simba.”
Scottie laughed. “No, of course not. His name is Aslan.” She handed the boy over to Shane.
Mia put her hand on her hip. “The Chronicle of Narnia.”
“His name is Michael Scott,” Scottie said, a playful smile on her lips. “We named him for my father.”
“Hey, Mikey,” Shane said, making a face at the baby and eliciting a giggle. The boy had been born one-hundred and thirteen days after he’d claimed her. It didn’t take long after that for their son to shift. A lion cub
with tiger stripes.
Though Grandma Lin and Great Aunt Tig and Uncle Tony didn’t join the Pride, they remained a huge part of Scottie’s life. And since Shane had opened the Leone Territory, it had become less of a haven for inbreeding. Half the werecats left after Shane became Rex, but the half that stayed were flourishing and almost every day cat shifters from all over petitioned to join the Pride.
“Itana,” Shane said. “You’ll get used to my wife’s sense of humor.”
She balled her fists on her hips and peered down at Mikey. “He is really adorable.” She poked his belly. “Little pudgy thing.”
“Just like his mamma,” Scottie said.
The Itan and his wife had come at Shane’s invitation. As a human-raised werelion, he was more used to breaking bread with a homegrown barbecue than breaking heads.
Scottie took Mikey back from Shane. She and Mia went to the opposite end of the room to coo and play over the kid. Showing off their son always made Scottie happy. He smiled. How much his life had changed in the past year. He’d come here expecting to die, and in a way, he had. The old Shane no longer existed, and the new Shane was never so glad to shed the old baggage.
Ty Abrams handed Shane a beer as they walked to the back deck. In the yard, children played and adults laughed and shared a community. Something the Leone Pride had never had before Shane and Scottie.
“You did a good thing here, Largos,” the Itan said.
“Thank you, Abrams.” Scottie snuggled up under Shane’s arm.
“Yeah,” Scottie said. “Who’d have thought two bastard mongrels could unite a Pride.”
Shane looked down at his wife. I had been her idea to open the territory and run it like her family had run the sanctuary. And it worked.
“You did.” He kissed her soundly.
She kissed him back. “We did.”
The End
About the Author
Renee George is a USA Today Bestselling author of cozy mysteries, paranormal romance, erotic romance, contemporary romance, and romantic comedies that highlight varying themes. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, man-child son, two sweet dogs, and a senile cat.