Lost Roar

by Zenina Masters

  Nicia beamed. “Thank you, Grandpa.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. Brax has authorization to work outside his pack’s territory. You need to get the same authorization from the lion guild and answer to the shifter council alone.”

  Braxton nodded. “He’s right. I was going to mention that as soon as we got the official authorization.”

  Helena scowled. “Authorization for what?”

  Nicia snickered. “I put a clause into our mating contract. You two have to approve of him or he goes his way and I go mine.”

  In unison, they straightened and said, “We approve.”

  Braxton exhaled and pulled out his cell phone. “Please excuse me.”

  He sent a quick text and then put his phone face down on the table before he lifted Nicia’s hand to his lips for a quick kiss.

  She smiled, and her grandparents exhaled in relief as well.

  Helena smiled. “So, you need your trousseau. Well, in this case, it is your trust account.” Helena’s smile faded, and she quickly got to her feet. “I will bring the coffee.”

  Anderson waited and then leaned forward. “It was Nancy’s trust account. We transferred it to your name after the seekers found out about you.”

  Braxton asked, “Seekers?”

  “Those lions had been sniping females from anywhere they could find them. Nancy was taken at a truck stop on her way to a job in Kansas. They found her car but no one could find her. It was like she had dropped off the face of the earth until she turned up at that hospital, twenty years later.”

  Braxton nodded. “So, seekers found the trail?”

  Anderson nodded. “The doctors told us that Nancy had given birth, and we wanted to find the child. Against her family’s recommendations, Helena hired every seeker within three hundred miles of the hospital. Nothing. When one of them asked to scent Nancy’s clothing, we knew she had found something, but she told us that Nancy had run across three states and stolen clothing before she collapsed.”

  Nicia kept her mouth shut. She only knew bits of this story.

  “The seeker backtracked from the emotions that Nancy left on the fabric and announced that we had a granddaughter and she was in danger. The lion guild stepped in and stopped us from doing anything. They were waiting for someone inside to make a move. Someone inside the compound had to ask for help, and we had to wait. When Leandiir escaped and asked for help, she was the trigger to unifying prides from all over the continent. I had to be there, and I was.”

  Braxton looked over at Nicia, and she gave him a tiny smile.

  Anderson leaned back as Helena returned with the coffee on a tray and a computer tablet.

  Helena smiled. “Don’t let me interrupt you. I like hearing this part.”

  “Well, I knew Nicia by scent. She smells like her mother and grandmother. I crept up in my lion form so that the others could get past me once I had subdued her. She smelled weak and sick, so I didn’t think there would be much of a fight. Nicia was watching me from the shadows.

  “I walked toward her and tried to introduce myself, but she wasn’t going to let me pass. She slammed into me hard enough to send me end over end. When she backed up, I could hear the chain rattling and smell the blood coming from her. Every move tore the collar deeper into her neck.

  “I didn’t want her to keep hurting herself, so I shook off the ache of the tackle and fought her until I pinned her, my jaws on the back of her neck.”

  Nicia smiled and said softly. “Mom used to do that when I was throwing a tantrum or chasing things I shouldn’t bite, it calmed me.”

  “I shifted and unbuckled that collar, throwing it away as the moon lit the metal shards on the interior. With the metal inside her body and her unable to heal, she hadn’t been able to shift back to human. What followed was the slowest shift I have ever seen. It looked painful, but when she was done, I saw my granddaughter for the first time.”

  He was tearing up again and Helena patted his hand. “Andy is a big softy. Nicia was really sick and the mage guild had to bring out some healers. Her voice sounded like a baritone that smoked twelve packs a day, and they fought the infection and the scar tissue until we have the charming even tenor that you hear today.”

  Braxton winced. “The scars were worse?”

  Nicia took his hand under the table.

  Helena looked at him like he was dim. “She was in a cutting collar for over a year. There was more scar than neck when the raid occurred.”

  Nicia smiled. “Helena couldn’t come on the raid because she wanted to tear his throat out.”

  “Who?”

  “My father. He bought my mother from the kidnappers and kept her captive for over two decades. He does need to die, but Anderson didn’t want her to do it.”

  Braxton squeezed her hand. “Thank you all for this. It is good to have an eye on the past.”

  Helena and Anderson sat shoulder to shoulder and leaned into each other. It was obviously a habit that had grown over time.

  Nicia wished that she and Braxton developed that kind of closeness, but right now, she just wanted to get to the actual mating. It was weighing on her mind.

  Helena picked up the tablet and flicked her fingers over it. “There. The first instalment is in your account. A monthly stipend will be deposited into your account from this moment onward. It is just the interest. We don’t want to mess with the principal at your age.”

  Helena turned the tablet to Nicia, and Nissy stared at the amount. “Twelve thousand dollars a month?”

  Helena smiled. “Just enough to keep you solvent. You can buy a car, a house, a gun. Everything is in your name, Nicia Mooring.”

  Nissy sat back and tried to imagine what the hell she was going to need over a hundred thousand dollars a year for. Her mind was a blank.

  Brax’s phone rang, and he excused himself to speak briefly with the person on the other end of the line. He grimaced and nodded as if the person on the phone could see him. With a shift of his thumb, he hung up. “A transporter will be here in ten minutes. Your meeting with the lion guild will be immediate and from there, we are to proceed to the shifter guild.”

  Helena blinked. “That’s fast.”

  Brax grinned. “I am very popular and the hunters are delighted to have a lion in their midst. Yours isn’t a species that often joins in.”

  Anderson leaned back with his coffee cup near his face and his legs and arms showing complete relaxation. “We are a busy people.”

  Nicia giggled.

  Helena looked like a beam of light had just dazzled her eyes, and Anderson rubbed her back. He smiled. “Yes, we approve. Definitely.”

  Braxton reached out and rubbed the back of her neck, and Nicia couldn’t really argue with her grandparents’ sentiment. She approved as well.

  Chapter Seven

  Nicia faced the head of the lion guild and his mate, or her mate. It was hard to see which one of the couple was in charge. Norman and Ystine looked very normal for people who radiated with power.

  “Guild Master. How are you this fine afternoon?” She smiled and inclined her head politely.

  “I am a little confused. I have heard that you have gone to the Crossroads and come back with a mate, but he isn’t one of ours?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not even feline. He’s a wolf, and he is waiting just outside.”

  Ystine smiled, “You look happy.”

  “So far so good. Frankly, if I would have mated with a lion, I would have seen Wells every time he came near me. That would not have ended well.”

  Norman flinched and conceded. “You have done what is for the best then. Your mother was an extraordinary woman, and I wish you nothing but the best.”

  Nicia narrowed her eyes. “I hear a but in there.”

  Ystine sighed. “You are going to be severed from the lion guild. We will allow you to visit with friends and family, but you cannot call upon the guild for help. Do you accept this condition?�
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  Nicia bowed her head. “I appreciate what the guild did for me. I will forever be in your debt.” She swallowed and looked at them. “But if I need to walk free to move into my future, I will turn and leave this room today with a light heart.”

  Norman grinned and got to his feet.

  Ystine came after him, and Nicia was surrounded in a group hug. “You cannot call upon me as guild master, but you can always count me as friend. Go out and find your future.”

  Released from the hug and her link to the lion guild, she signed her resignation and left the way she had come.

  Brax was waiting to hug her, but she didn’t need comforting.

  She smiled. “I feel lighter.”

  He laughed. “Good. Keep that attitude. Now, we face the shifter council.”

  Two floors, three halls and nine doors later, they knocked on the door, and the buzz of the opening made Nicia blink. “You know, I always thought that the guilds and councils would be in some sort of underground cavern, not a high-rise in the middle of an urban centre.”

  Brax opened the door. “Move with the times or die.”

  “Clever. Is that embroidered on a cushion in here?” She entered the richly appointed boardroom and faced thirty men and women who were looking at her expectantly.

  Norman was sitting in one of the seats. He winked at her.

  A man with dark hair and lean features that resembled an older version of Brax tapped a gavel on the table. “Nicia Mooring, it is our understanding that you have severed ties with your guild.”

  “I have.” She could smell all the different animals that the shifters embodied, and it was like being trapped in a fresh zoo. Is that panda?

  “We also understand that as your mate is embroiled with the shifter council, you are interested in achieving the same status for yourself.”

  She frowned. “If you are referring to being a hunter, I always have been a hunter. I am just enthused about the possibility of being paid for my efforts.”

  The room filled with amused chuckles from the representatives.

  The gavel tapped again. “We are disposed to accept your offer to answer to us. Do you have any conditions?”

  “I do not wish to be separated from Braxton by any significant distance. I have just gotten him and I want to keep him close.”

  The man chuckled.

  Braxton put his arm around her waist and squeezed. “I agree with her condition. As a mated pair, we will be working together. Separating a team is not a good idea.”

  The councillors spoke quietly for a few minutes. Finally, the representative nodded. “I will agree to your terms. Now, come forward, sign the document and provide a blood sample for the anchor stone.”

  “Anchor stone?”

  The wolf smiled; she was sure of his species as his eyes flicked and paled in amusement. “You place your blood on the stone, we give you a charm under your skin, and when you have found your target, you bring them here. Braxton will show you how it all works.”

  She swallowed at the thought. Well, if it were how things worked, she would do it. The first thing came when she signed her name.

  The wolf councillor looked at her. “You didn’t take his name?”

  Nicia smirked, “Not yet. We haven’t been joined in the human world yet. I will think about it.”

  He sighed and looked past her to Braxton.

  “So, how are you related to my mate?”

  The councillor smiled, “You figured that out?”

  “You look similar and at close range, you smell similar. I know you are a wolf, but I would guess you are his uncle?”

  Braxton let out a chuckle. “She is very, very good.”

  The councillor nodded. “I am understanding everyone’s opinion of her. I look forward to her success.”

  A block of obsidian was put down, and the councillor said, “Put it between your palms. It will do the rest.”

  Nervous, she picked up the block, and her hands were flattened on two of the six sides. Suddenly, the damned thing bit her!

  She put the block down as quickly as she could, and the stone turned from black to ruby red. Nicia scowled and looked at the marks on her palms. The pinpricks were healing but small, dark spots were left where they had been.

  Braxton put his arm around her. “If you clap or press those two precise pinpoints together and think about the shifter council headquarters, the tiny fragments will pull you here and anything you have in your embrace.”

  “So, a hug cues the transport?”

  “The hug, plus the contact, plus the thought. They have made it as precise as they could. Now, I will show you where we end up when we transport.”

  She nodded and turned to the door.

  “Pick up your stone. You will need to set it in the floor.”

  He waited while she grabbed the biting stone.

  “Don’t worry. The piercing and embedding was a onetime thing. It doesn’t need to happen again.”

  She made a face and held it gingerly as she walked away from the rapidly emptying council room. “They just showed up for me?”

  “Yes, getting a new hunter is a very big deal. They needed to know what you looked like so that if their agents are involved in a retrieval, they know who not to shoot at.”

  “I am guessing that there is also some kind of dossier involved.”

  “You are very smart.”

  They entered the lift and went right to the basement. The basement itself was a huge open area with only the support posts to break up the vast expanse of concrete and the strange patterns on the floor.

  “Stay away from the edge of the rings. Each ring with a stone is registered to a live hunter. Not all are currently active, but the stone locks the circles to anyone who doesn’t have that blood signature.”

  She blinked. “So, it becomes a prison cell.”

  “Yup. All you have to do is roll free of it and your catch is locked in place until the keeper comes and takes them into custody.”

  They walked past a few more rings before he stopped. “This one is mine. The one immediately across from it is available.”

  Nicia followed his directions, and she slid the stone into the slot waiting for it on the outer ring. There was a click, the circle began to glow and she felt a matching pulse in her palms. “Wow.”

  Braxton was on the outside of the ring, and he reached up and physically knocked on the barrier that met his touch.

  “Double wow.” She got to her feet and reached for that barrier, but her hand passed right through it. Nicia went back and forth across the exterior of the ring before reaching out to touch the barrier around Brax’s circle. It felt like cool stone. “That is amazing.”

  “I am glad you are impressed. It took transporters three generations before they came up with that charm. Now, it is time to get your kit.”

  Two floors up, a charming woman handed her a cell phone, walkie-talkie, handcuffs and procedure manual. Nicia lifted her eyebrows. “Do you have a Taser back there?”

  The woman grinned, “Only on request.”

  “I am requesting.”

  “I am filling out the forms.” The woman laughed.

  A few minutes later, Nicia had her Taser and the charge packs for it. She was given a belt covered with pouches and sent on her way.

  Nicia exhaled and shrugged. “So, what happens if your target has injured someone?”

  “You call an ambulance and get the perpetrator away for justice.”

  “So, you just leave them?”

  “No, you stabilize them first.”

  She scowled. Leaving a victim did not sit well with her. If it happened, she would make up her own procedure. Braxton would just have to learn to accept her quirks. After all, they were on their honeymoon.

  Chapter Eight

  Nicia fought the urge to punch Braxton, but she let him carry her over the threshold of the hotel’s honeymoon suite.

  Once insid
e, he placed her gently on the bed and then went to close, bolt and lock the door.

  He peeled off his clothing, and she did the same. No sense pretending, she wanted him inside her, and given the tremor in his hands, it wouldn’t be long until it happened.

  With a final kick to send her panties flying onto the pile of her clothing, she smiled and beckoned Brax with one finger.

  His torso was marked with a few scars that showed severe damage to his flesh. As she stared, he crawled on top of her, kissing his way from her belly to her jaw. Nicia trembled as he kissed her. She focused on not clawing at him and parted her legs for the nudging heat of his cock.

  “You aren’t ready yet.” Brax groaned.

  “Then, kiss me again and we will figure out what needs to happen.” She stroked his chest and his shoulders before bucking and twisting until he was on his back and she was flattened against him.

  She couldn’t help her laughter. He looked so surprised.

  “How strong are you, Nissy?”

  She shrugged. “I honestly couldn’t say. It is always there when I need it. I think it comes from living in my other skin for so long.”

  He nodded as if it made sense, but she was slowly writhing around on top of him, using his skin to stroke hers.

  Her nipples pebbled into diamonds while she slowly twisted against him, rubbing her cheek along his and nipping his neck. It was a matter of trust for predators, and he tensed but let her nibble her way down to his torso.

  Her rough tongue lapped at his skin, taking in his taste until he filled her senses. She worked her way down to his erection, and she slowly drew her tongue across the sensitive head.

  He groaned and grabbed for her hair, but just as she was about to wrap her lips around him, he pulled her away.

  “No, I want to be inside you.” He lifted her, flipped her to her back and lay between her thighs on his belly, pressing his nose into her sex with no warning.

  His hot breath, lapping tongue and low growling combined as the ultimate aphrodisiac, and she gripped his dark hair and held on tight as she gasped and bucked. His tongue stroked deep and lapped at her. He was cheating just like she did. His beast was in for the mating, just as hers was.