The Lion Kings (novel): a BBW Werelion Menage Romance

by Renee George

  CAGE scanned the woods searching for any trace of Zaria. Gus, who had the best nose of the group, picked up the girl’s scent shortly after they’d started the hunt. At the center of the woods, the trees, oaks and silver maples, stretched tall, arching together as they fought for their place in the sun. They were the strong. The survivors. Cage understood the will to live.

  He could barely constrain the unease coiling through his muscles as he worried for Zaria. She was a smart girl, quick and agile, and with a brain to match. Why hadn’t she returned to the carnival? She wouldn’t get lost. She was leogenus, and while they didn’t have the best noses in the shifter world, they were still capable of matching most animals with their tracking abilities. Zaria could have sniffed her way back in the dark.

  Adam stalked the trail thirty feet ahead of him, and he raced to catch up. He’d never seen Adam so vulnerable. Not even when they’d lost Clary, and that was saying a lot.

  As the two of them passed the backside of the trees and crossed over the highway, the strain grew palpable. So far, Zaria had followed their path to the motel with near precision. Could the answer be this easy? Would they find her somewhere around the dilapidated building? What had Little Bit been thinking when she’d gone after them in the first place?

  Up ahead, he saw Maddie’s station wagon in the parking lot of the motel. It was easy to spot, considering there were only two vehicles, and the one that wasn’t hers was a white pick-up truck. He quickened his stride to match Adam’s pace. Gus stayed close without trying to overtake them. Smart man.

  Neither Maddie nor Adelaide were at the station wagon. Cage gestured to Gus. “Go check with the clerk. Adam, check the rooms.” When Adam didn’t question the directive, Cage added, “I’ll go around back. See if I can find Maddie and Adelaide.” A small hope trickled in as he wondered if they’d found Zaria and were already headed back to the carnival. He shook it off, knowing it was ridiculous before he’d even allowed it to take hold. If they had found Zaria, they’d wouldn’t have left Maddie’s car behind.

  Jesus. His heart gave a lurch as he realized the pain inside him was from Maddie’s absence. He flashed to earlier when he’d held her in his arms, inhaled her delicious scent, and tasted her lips, tasted her sex. Adam had been right. Loving Maddie had not been a betrayal of Clary. If anything, it was more proof of how important Clary had been to him. If she hadn’t come along, would he have even known how to love Maddie? Clary had taught him what it meant to give himself to someone else, and when this was over, he planned to give every bit of his being to Madeline Granger.

  Dust kicked up with a brisk breeze when he rounded the backside of the motel. He didn’t see Maddie or Adelaide, but he could faintly smell Maddie’s heady scent. They’d trailed away from the motel down a street to the north. He allowed himself to shift slightly, enhancing his ability to pick up scents and tried to find Zaria’s.

  If the girl had been through there, her trail had already faded. So, instead, he focused back on Maddie’s scent, and went after her.

  MADDIE’s lung were on fire from running, something she wasn’t used to doing at all. When Adelaide had caught a whiff of her daughter she’d taken off in a sprint. It had been all Maddie could do to keep her in sight. She had followed Adelaide a full mile before she’d seen the woman go inside a white mortar building with a brown, buckled roof.

  “Adelaide,” she yelled, but there was no stopping the woman—a mother on a mission to find her child. The building was a farm supply store. The front window had tape holding the cracked glass in place, hiding the “F” in Farm. The lock on the door was busted, and Maddie went inside. “Adelaide,” she said quietly. The room was dim and smelled of sweet oats and other grains. As she made her way through shelves of tools, bags of feed, and various small metal cabinets, Maddie saw a glimmer of light shining around the outer edges of a back door. Outside, Adelaide stood, staring up at a tall grain silo at least forty feet tall. It had a ladder leading up to a hatch at the top with a single bolted door at the bottom.

  “You think she’s in there?” Maddie asked, afraid of the answer.

  Adelaide didn’t speak. Tears brimmed her eyes, and Maddie suspected the worst. If they looked in that bin, would they find Zaria? And would the little girl still be alive?

  Maddie reached out and took Adelaide’s hand to give her comfort.

  The first hint of vision came like a whisper in her mind, then once again, she found herself transported in time.

  ADAM is long gone. It’s all I can think about as I lay next to Mamma. She’d stopped breathing sometime during the night, but I haven’t worked up the courage to tell father. Will he take his rage out on me? Will he blame me for not taking care of her after he dumped her on the lawn last night? He’d worked her over good. Worse than ever before.

  I snort sardonically. Of course, worse than ever. After all, she’s dead. “Oh God.” I cover my mouth. My mamma is dead. I am alone. Except for father. If only she’d been stronger. If only Adam had stuck around. Why did he leave? Father says, Adam wanted to leave. He says, Mamma and me were too much for him to take care of.

  Adam.

  I am fourteen, which means Adam is eighteen now... if he is still alive. I hope he isn’t, and my hope makes me angry. I don’t want him out in the world having his own life. Not without me. I am here in this empty place. Lying next to my empty mother.

  The door opens softly, almost too soft to notice, but I look over anyhow. My father is standing in the small frame. His large body takes up all the space, and blocks out the living room entirely. His face is somber, almost remorseful. Almost. He holds his arms out to me.

  “Come, Adelaide.”

  Obediently, I rise from the bed. I don’t even glance back at the shell that was once my mother as he escorts me from our home.

  MADDIE felt a sharp pain as Adelaide slapped her across the face.

  “Stay out of there!” the blonde shouted. “Stay out of my head.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maddie said quickly, trying to ignore the sting. Guilt clung to her like tar on an aluminum roof. What she’d witness had been acutely personal, and Adelaide had every right to be upset. But Maddie hadn’t tried to get the vision. It had just happened. “I didn’t mean to...”

  Adelaide seethed. “You have no right.”

  “What you went through...” Maddie said, searching her mind for the right words. None came.

  An expression of horror crossed Adelaide’s face right before she balled up her first and punched Maddie in the side of the head.

  AFTER Maddie regained consciousness, the world was a hazy fog, as if she couldn’t get her brain jump-started. A sharp pain pierced the back of her head, making her moan. It felt as if she’d been hit by a two-by-four… several times. Her arms and legs, heavy as sand bags, were hanging loose, and it took a few seconds to see she was getting farther and farther from the ground.

  Adelaide was carrying her up the ladder of the silo.

  “Wait,” Maddie muttered. “Wait.”

  Adelaide ignored her and increased her grip around the back of Maddie’s thighs. When they reached the top, Maddie tried to struggle, but she kept slipping in and out of awareness. Surely, she wouldn’t be carrying Maddie up to the top if Zaria was inside. Nausea roiled her stomach and bile burned as it crested her throat. She dry-heaved but nothing came up. Why was Adelaide carrying her up the silo?

  Adelaide dropped her on the slightly slanted roof, and blocked Maddie from sliding with her foot. The clang when Maddie hit her head on the steel surface rattled her teeth. Next, Adelaide opened the hatch.

  “What are you doing?” Maddie asked, sounding groggy even to her own hears. A flash of adrenaline made her more alert when Adelaide began shoving her through opening.

  Maddie tried to grasp Adelaide, catch the rim of the hatch, anything to stop her from dropping, but it all happened startling fast, and Adelaide had strength and speed over her. Maddie screamed as she fell almost twenty feet, landing hard on a slippe
ry slope of dried corn. Outside the bin, she heard Cage’s startled shout.

  Then Adelaide looked down at Maddie, a pall of darkness covering her expression, and said, “Hurry, Cage. She’s fallen in the bin!”

  14

  WHEN Adam got to Room 110, he could smell Zaria all over the door. He turned the handle, and it opened without a key. They must have left it unlocked in their rush to leave. Tentatively, he stepped into the room.

  “Zar?” He could hear a soft whimpering coming from the bathroom. “Zaria,” he said with more alarm. He crossed the small room quickly and flung open the bathroom door. The stained, yellow shower curtain was closed, and the crying was going on behind it. He pulled the curtain back. Zaria sat in the tub, hugging her knees. Her tear-streaked face was red and blotchy. Her swollen eyelids told him that the crying had been going on for a while.

  “Are you okay, Zar?” He scooped her up in his arms, patting over her arms, her back, and her legs as he checked for injuries. Her clothes seemed okay. Nothing torn or ripped. No attack marks anywhere. “Did someone hurt you?”

  She threw her tiny arms around his neck and sobbed against him. An ever tightening fear twisted his gut. “Tell me, Zaria. What’s happened?”

  “That woman,” Zaria managed through stuttering, ragged breaths. “She can’t be your queen. She just can’t.”

  “Are you talking about Madeline?”

  “Yes,” the little girl said with a hiccupping sob.

  Maybe she was afraid that Madeline would lessen her role in his life. “You know,” Adam said, using a finger to push aside strands of her long, pale hair clinging to her wet cheeks. “Having Madeline in my life doesn’t mean I love you any less. You’re still my girl. You know that right?”

  Zaria pressed her face into his chest again and transformed into a lion cub. Adam turned her gently to avoid getting claws to the chest. “Well, that’s one way to end a conversation.” He stroked her fur. “Shift back now.”

  She stayed in lion form.

  “I don’t know how to get you home like this, Zaria.”

  Still, she stayed fully furred.

  “Damn it,” Adam cursed. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom and threw it over his niece. When he got outside, he whistled for Gus.

  The lanky leopard shifter came running. “You found her,” he said, surprise evident in his raised brows.

  “Yep.” Adam was still peeved she wouldn’t shift back to human.

  “And she’s a cub.”

  “Yep,” Adam said again.

  Gus held up his hand. “Okay. I’ll drop it.” He shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “You want me to get Cage and the ladies?”

  Adam shook his head, holding Zaria tight as she squirmed in his arms. He really wanted to go get Cage and Madeline, to be near them. The longing he’d felt since the interrupted mating, and not just a sexual longing, made him feel as if he were a V-8 truck without a steering wheel—all power and no direction. He needed Madeline. Almost enough to tell Gus to take Zaria back on his own. But his niece was strong and squirmy, if she got loose from either of them, it might take both to retrieve her.

  She was definitely acting like she wasn’t ready to go back to the carnival. And having a fully shifted lion cut outside the carnival was dangerous... For all of them. “We need to get her out of the public eye. Besides, everyone is supposed to meet up in less than an hour. They’ll catch up.”

  It was less than an hour, he reminded himself. Less than an hour before him and Cage could once again hold their queen.

  CAGE’s roar echoed off the steel walls of the bin as he fell through the hatch. No, not fell. He’d been pushed by Adelaide. God damn it! He threw out his arms and legs, bracing himself to take most of the impact in his limbs instead of landing hard on Maddie. He tried to stand up, but the mountain of grain kept him off his feet.

  “Adelaide!” he shouted. “Get a rope and throw it down.”

  Adelaide stared at him, sheer horror in her expression. The four-foot opening framed her betrayal. “I’m sorry, Cage. I’m so sorry. I never want this to happen. Never wanted to hurt you.”

  “Adelaide!” he yelled again. The magnification of his voice shook the grain around them, and Maddie started to slip under.

  Then the light went out. Adelaide had closed the hatch. She’d closed the god damned, fucking hatch. Once again, Cage found himself caged. The darkness clawed at his hard won shields. Terrible things happened in dark. At least that’s how it had once been for him.

  Maddie moaned beneath him, and Cage shifted to one side of her. He had to stay calm, stay in control, but somehow that message hadn’t quite made it to his frantically beating heart. He fought to stop the gorge of panic rising from the pit of his stomach, through his chest, and choking him.

  “Cage,” Maddie muttered.

  He pulled her into his arms. He could smell blood. The back of her head was wet and sticky with it. This hadn’t happened in the fall. Adelaide must have hit her first. He suppressed the hysterical laughter threatening to burble from his throat.

  It was dark. Bad things happened in the dark. He moved his legs, and a slide of the dried corn sounded like rain against the metal. There’d been a door at the bottom of the bin, but it was buried under at least fifteen feet of corn. And even if Cage could get to the door without the grain suffocating Maddie, it was bolted from the outside.

  No way up. No way down. No way out.

  He could feel his lion pushing its way to the surface, sensing Cage’s need to hide. Joe Armando would come to him in the dark. He enjoyed damaging Cage, watching how fast he could heal himself with a shift. It had started when Cage had been six and didn’t end until he was sixteen. The day Adam had saved him. The day he’d saved himself. He’d torn out Joe’s throat, relishing the thick texture of his blood as he drank him down. He’d eaten most of the man’s chest and part of a thigh before Adam had been able to penetrate his hungry rage.

  The memory made him shudder.

  Cage’s eyes adjusted enough to see Maddie’s open gaze glittering in the dark. Oh no. She knew. She’d seen what he’d done—what he was capable of doing to someone else. His pulse hammered in his ears, the strong whoosh of blood like pounding waves inside his skull. She would never want him—love him. Not now. How could she? He was no better than the men who’d raised him. A monster.

  His hands shook as he pulled away from Maddie, giving her space. He didn’t want her to be afraid. Not of him.

  A soft hum rose from the darkness, and it startled Cage from his self-revulsion.

  Maddie’s voice was barely above a whisper when she sang, “Let me call you sweetheart. I’m in love with you.”

  “Maddie,” Cage said, unsure how to respond to her strange reaction.

  “Let me hear you whisper, you love me too.”

  He felt her grip his waist when he tried to pull away again. “I’m no good, Maddie. I can’t even save us.”

  “We’ll save each other,” she said. “Just hold me, Cage. I’m cold.”

  Alarms went off in Cage’s head. It wasn’t cold in the bin, and he was generating enough heat to warm a small room. “Tell me what’s happening. How do you feel?”

  “My head hurts, and I feel sick to my stomach.”

  The blow to head must have given her a concussion. Like Clary. He struggled to fight back the fear. He and Adam couldn’t lose Maddie. Not now. Not like this. If only they’d completed the mating, she’d be stronger. Maybe strong enough to survive. “You have to live, Maddie. I can’t do this without you.”

  “Do what?” she asked. Her voice had gone sleepy.

  “Live.”

  He saw her blink as if his declaration had woke her up. “Oh Cage. You have to live.”

  “Tell me about the song.” He wanted to change the subject, to keep her talking.

  A lazy smile played on Maddie’s lips. “I wish I could see you.”

  Cage smiled. “This craggy face.”

  “You are handsome. Maybe the
most handsome man I’ve ever seen. You and Adam are gods among men.”

  The snort of a laugh from Cage surprised them both. “Gods, huh? Does that mean you’re our goddess?”

  Maddie shook her head and gave a wincing “ow.” “I am your queen.” She kissed his palm when he laid it on her cheek. “You are my king.”

  “I command you to live.”

  “I’m trying,” she said. “Why is Alice still with the carnival?”

  The question surprised Cage. “Because she’s one of Adam’s saves. Like me. You. All of us. Why do you ask?”

  “I saw what she did. How she lured you to the well. How could Adam let her stay after that?”

  “He didn’t know. I never told him.”

  “But Adelaide knew.”

  He felt the shame come back. He’d attacked Adelaide. He could have killed her. “Adelaide had followed Alice and me. She’d had a small crush on me at the time, and her curiosity saved my life. After… what I did, she didn’t want to come between Adam and me, so she kept it to herself.” He caressed Maddie’s face, reassuring himself she was still with him. “It wasn’t long after that Adam broke it off with Alice. The woman can be vengeful. I made a deal with her. If she left Adam alone, I’d never tell him what she did.”

  “Uh hmm. Makes sense…” Maddie said, drifting again.

  The weakness in her tone scared Cage. He had to keep her talking. Keep her awake. “Tell me about the song, Maddie.”

  “What song?”

  He smiled to lighten his words. He didn’t want her to hear the worry in voice. “The one you were just singing.”

  “Oh, that one.” He felt her hand brush his arm, and he slipped his hand in hers as she continued. “My gram used to sing it to me when I was a little girl. It just popped into my head. I thought it might…distract you.”

  Clever girl. She’d obviously seen what had happened to him in the well. Her song had helped him to stay in control, and he loved her all the more for knowing the right thing to do for him, even in her injured state.