The Lion's Castle (The Lion Princes Book 1)

by Chase, Leslie

  "Father, she did come back on her own," Victoria said, voice as cool and collected as ever. "The least you can do is listen to what she has to say."

  For a moment, Anna thought he would hit her instead, and wondered how that would work out for him. Their father kept himself in shape and was a strong man for his age, but Victoria had dedicated herself to her martial arts lessons with the bloody-minded focus she'd brought to everything else in her life. He had made her into a dangerous fighter for the cause, and she was decades younger than him.

  Perhaps fortunately for everyone involved, the stranger interrupted before it came to that. Laying an immaculately manicured hand on the shoulder of Anna's father, he spoke in a strong, deep voice.

  "This is not the time, Thomas," he said. His voice resonated with power and authority, and while he spoke gently there was no mistaking that he was giving an order, not making a request. "Let the girl speak. The past is behind us, and we need intelligence to plan for the future."

  Thomas — Anna found it strange to hear him called by his given name, he had always been father or Mr. Hall — bared his teeth in a snarl, but subsided. He lowered his hand and stepped back, shaking his head.

  "Of course you're right," he replied, making a visible effort to keep calm. Anna blinked at that, and even Victoria looked uncertain. Their father never backed down from a challenge like that, and certainly didn't defer to someone else's judgement. Whoever this man is, he must be very important to the Cause. Or there's something else going on that I don't understand.

  "Now, Anna," the newcomer continued. His eyes flashed under the brim of his hat, and Anna could see the hate in his eyes, as deep and abiding as her father's. The calm, clear, gentle voice was a deception, a trick that made him sound reasonable, and that made him all the more dangerous. It made her shiver, and more than anything else she wanted his attention to move elsewhere. "I want you to tell me everything that happened to you. Everything you know about Prince Roman Alexander."

  * * *

  Roman sat as still as he could, controlling his breathing and resisting the urge to jump up and pace his rooms. Doctor Reim fussed at his shoulder, carefully checking the wound, and he hardly wanted to disturb the man at his work. Still, his anger was at its boiling point, and it was difficult to avoid acting on it.

  "Ah, my prince," the doctor finally said. "This wound is not too serious, and whoever treated it before me did a fine job, but you must rest it. You have already torn it open once while it healed, and now that I have stitched it shut, you should keep your arm as still as you can, please. There will be a scar, but not a large one — if you follow my instructions."

  He didn't sound like a man who expected his patients to do as they were told. Not a great surprise, given that he was my grandfather's doctor, Roman thought, nodding. I shall have to try and do better than he did.

  "Thank you, doctor," he said aloud, carefully and slowly flexing his arm. There was a clear limit to its movement, and he winced as he approached it. But he had some movement, and the bandage wasn't going to get in the way too much. Maybe the scar will work as a reminder to not trust too easily.

  "I will leave you to your work, your Highness," the man said with a small smile, backing away and bowing. Roman nodded back at him, dismissing him, and reached for the phone again. His brothers needed to know about the danger they were all in.

  It took help from Sophie to arrange a conference call using the ancient phone systems of the castle, and again Roman found himself annoyed by the backward nature of the country his family ruled. It was one thing to honor the old ways, but another entirely to use technology decades out of date. He shuddered to think what that meant for the people who weren't royalty, or otherwise rich — the phone system had to be even worse for them. Good communications could make lives easier in so many ways. Hell, it could save lives, and his people had to do without. Did they even know what they were missing?

  It took him a moment to notice that he was thinking about the citizens of Leotania as his people, and shook his head. When had that happened?

  He put the thought out of his mind for the time being as the operator connected the call. Both of his brothers were on the line, and he had to focus on the immediate business now. A quick run-down of the situation later, and the three of them sat in silence, his brothers trying to digest what he'd told them.

  "That's messed up," Gabriel growled finally. "God damn! I'm sorry, Roman."

  "Yeah," Mattias said, his voice heavy. "I'm sorry to hear about that, but you're better off knowing about it. Now you can move on, get her out of your life."

  As though that were simple, Roman thought. As though I can just forget about her.

  "That's not what I want to talk about," he said, hearing the snarl in his voice. "It's too fresh, okay? We need to talk about this gang of murderers. They'll be waiting for you too, as soon as you get off the plane."

  "We're both ready to come home," Gabe said, "And I'm not going to let them scare me off, Roman. We know they're around, so we'll take precautions and we'll be fine. Really this is good news: we have a lead on them for once. Send the guards to chase down Anna and her snakes nest of a family, and with any luck, we can roll up the whole lot of them."

  Roman tensed, his fingers digging into the wooden arm rest of the antique chair he sat in.

  "I'm not sure that the security guys are up to this," he said, slowly and carefully. It took an effort not to snap at his brother. "They are bodyguards, not detectives."

  What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I getting angry at the idea of them hunting her down, at just the idea of her getting into trouble? Forcing himself to unclench his hand, he realized he'd left claw marks in the wood. His lion was fighting him, wrestling for control, and anger boiled inside him. Why do I still want to protect her?

  "They have to have someone who can work this kind of case, Roman," Gabe said. "They must have done some work like this for Grandfather. Or maybe the city police do it for them, I don't know. Ask someone. We can't just let this go, you know that as well as I do. Maybe better: they've tried to kill you twice."

  "And she saved me both times! I am not going to hunt her down like wounded prey, not when I owe her my life. We'll track them down some other way, and that's that." His voice rose to a roar as he spoke, shocking his brothers to silence for a moment. Roman glared at the phone, baring his teeth and shaking with emotion. He was as shocked by his outburst as they were; he hadn't planned to say any of that.

  This time it was Mattias who broke the silence. "Damn, brother, you still have feelings for her, don't you? Look, she can't be your fated mate. If she was, she couldn't have plotted against you, could she?"

  "This is not something you can be wrong about, Matt," Roman said, taking a deep breath to regain control. His anger cooled to a low simmering background of rage. "You'll understand when you meet your own mate, I guess. I didn't even really believe in fated mates until I met her, but now I'm sure she's who fate had in mind for me. Just my damned luck that she turns out to be an assassin."

  "In that case, you just have to try to put her out of your mind," Mattias said, more sympathetically. "Sit this one out. Gabe and I will deal with it when we get into the country, and you don't have to be involved. Trust your brothers, we won't do anything to harm her if we can avoid it."

  "We'll keep her out of it," Gabe promised. "You just get your rest and heal up, you've been through enough."

  It was almost tempting. Almost. But as Roman thought about it, he realized that he couldn't do it. She was his responsibility, and he wasn't going to just hand that over to someone else, no matter how much he trusted his brothers.

  "No," he said, voice firm and hard. "I love you both, and I trust you. But this is my mess, and my fate. If anyone is going to deal with her, it's got to be me."

  Both his brothers tried to object, but he didn't give them a chance. Slamming the handset down before they could get in a word, he took a deep breath. He might not know what he was going
to do, but he knew one thing. If anyone was going to hunt down Anna, it was going to be him.

  19

  Anna held the room spellbound as she told them what had happened. Not every detail, of course — a lot of what had happened between her and Roman wasn't the kind of thing she'd be comfortable discussing with anyone, let alone her father. But there was enough to keep them interested, and it felt good to get this off her chest. As she spoke, she allowed herself a faint hope. Maybe they'll see that Roman isn't the enemy, not really. We can work together for the good of the country.

  Even as she thought it, she knew she was being optimistic. Her father had dedicated his life and his family to the violent overthrow of the Alexander dynasty. It was hard to believe that he'd be satisfied with a compromise.

  Still, at least he was listening intently. Maybe there was hope. The stranger was even more focused on her words. He was the one who pressed her with questions, asking after details that might have escaped her otherwise.

  "He said you are his fated mate?" The man leaned in to ask the question, eyes burning. Now that she could see his face better, he looked even more familiar. She couldn't place him, but the sense that she should be able to haunted her.

  "Yes," Anna said, blushing deeper. "I'm not sure what that is, but that's what he said."

  "Well, well," he said, sounding pleased as he leaned back again. "That's an unexpected complication, but it offers all manner of opportunities. Wouldn't you agree, Thomas?"

  Anna's father nodded reluctantly, while Victoria looked unconvinced.

  "It sounds like a superstition to me," Victoria said, folding her arms.

  "Oh no, it's quite real. Inconveniently so, sometimes," the man replied, and Anna thought she heard a touch of bitterness in his cultured voice. "It is, in any case, an excellent resource for us now. We shall lay a trap for our prince, and he will walk straight into our hands for dear Anna's sake."

  "Weren't you listening?" Anna burst out, frustrated. "He isn't our enemy! He doesn't want to be King, he just wants what's best for Leotania. We should all be on the same side here, and if we can't do that, we ought to just leave him alone."

  The stranger's eyes narrowed and his smile tightened. Fear shot through Anna, but she stood her ground, glaring up at him. She'd been faced with an angry lion earlier, and after that, she wasn't about to let one man frighten her into silence.

  Her father stepped forward, his anger written across his face for all to see. But was that a little doubt too? Anna wasn't sure, but she allowed herself to hope. "You do not get to make that decision, Anna! This man is the enemy of the people, he's a shifter and a monster and accursed by God. He cannot be trusted!"

  Before she could argue, the stranger blocked his path with one hand. Casually confident, he held back her father effortlessly and stepped between the two of them.

  "Thomas, don't let your daughter rile you so," he said, voice silky-smooth. "Anna can't help it. The magic of the shifter has made her his creature, and there's only one way to free her now. His death."

  Anna's heart skipped a beat at that, the casual assertion of it as fact. She knew better - she wasn't thinking any differently than she had before she'd met Roman. Her feelings for him weren't some spell he'd put on her. It was knowing him that had made the difference. Plotting the deaths of faceless tyrants was one thing; it was different when she'd met the man and knew he didn't deserve to die.

  A glance at her sister told her that Victoria had her doubts, too. But she had always been a good soldier for the Cause, and didn't get involved in the argument.

  "I came home to help you, father," Anna said, trying reason again. "To help our country! Killing someone who hasn't done anything against us isn't justice, it's not fighting for freedom, it's just murder."

  "He's bewitched you," her father spat the words. "You always were the weak one, Anna, but don't worry — we'll save you from him. You, and our country too."

  "You're the one who's not thinking straight! Listen to yourself — you don't want what's best for the country, you just want to be the hero who stood up to the bad guy, no matter how many people that kills. I won't have any part of this."

  He couldn't have looked more shocked if she'd grown a second head. Staring at her, his face clouding and mouth opening and closing wordlessly, Thomas looked almost funny. But there wasn't anything amusing about the deadly look in his eyes.

  "I will not be defied by one of my own daughters," he hissed in a quiet voice, far more frightening than shouting would have been. "I'll pray that whatever evil he's worked on you can be lifted, but until you are free of him, Anna, you will have to be watched carefully."

  He gestured to Victoria, a quick cutting motion with his hand, and she stepped forward to grab Anna. There was still a hint of doubt in her eyes, but she didn't let that stop her from doing as their father ordered. Anna didn't resist — she knew perfectly well that she'd be no match for her sister in a fight. They'd trained together, at least until Anna had given up on those lessons embarrassed by her constant defeat.

  The stranger put his arm around Thomas's shoulder again, and Anna saw the smirk on his face. He was amused by the family squabble rather than bothered by it, and her instinctive dislike of the man grew to rage.

  "There is only one way to break this bond that the monster has put on your daughter," he said, repeating himself, his voice soothing and comforting. "Death will break it. Her death, or his."

  The calming purr of his voice was enough to relax Thomas. Anna saw the anger drain from her father, replaced with a grim determination. Over his shoulder, she saw the other man smile, baring teeth that looked too sharp for his face. There was, Anna knew with a certainty she couldn't explain, something wrong about him. He was too pleased with himself. Even now, her father saw the fight as a grim duty to his country, but this man had something else in mind, something bigger and more dangerous.

  "Don't trust him," she blurted out, but her father was already turning away and Victoria's grip tightened, holding Anna in place when she tried to follow. "Please, father! You can't do this."

  "Keep still, sis," Victoria said, an edge in her voice, and Anna knew better than to struggle. Victoria sounded agitated, and that meant she'd be looking for a fight. "It'll all be over soon."

  * * *

  Roman sat in the castle garden, back against a tree, thinking hard. He couldn't plan in his offices, they were too confining, too formal. He'd thought that the fresh air might help, that being outside might give him the perspective he needed.

  It wasn't helping as much as he'd hoped. What he wanted, more than anything else, was to retreat into his lion form and lose himself in his animal. Just forget about his responsibilities and the unpleasant duty he'd taken on.

  But he couldn't, for two reasons. First, he had taken on that duty, and he wasn't about to shirk it. His brothers would be glad if he did, he knew. They wouldn't hold it against him, and they'd be relieved that he wouldn't be putting himself in danger.

  He'd never forgive himself, though.

  The second reason was simpler: his lion was as upset and angry as he was, and shifting wouldn't make him feel any better.

  He sighed, stretching his injured arm and looking around. He remembered this garden from his youth, when it had been a magical place to run and play. His parents had loved it too, and he could almost see them there, proud lions pacing the grounds as he and his brothers swarmed around them. Happy days, days he'd almost forgotten until he was here again.

  I wish I'd showed Anna this place, he thought before he could catch himself, and then snarled at himself. There was nothing he could do to put her out of his mind.

  Tomorrow, he told himself, he'd go back to the city. He'd take with him a few of the castle's security guards, hard-faced men loyal to the memory of his grandfather, and with them at his back he'd be able to track down the people who had attacked him. The trail might be cold, but he was in no mood to be subtle about his investigations, and someone would know something.
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  It might not be a good plan, but at least it was a plan. If he couldn't come up with something better, that's what he'd fall back on.

  What he'd do when he caught up with the enemy was another matter. After their failure to protect him, the security forces wanted to prove themselves, to wipe out the forces who dared attack the royal family. Roman could understand that, and it appealed to his sense of vengeance. But what if Anna was there? What about her sister?

  Sighing, he heaved himself to his feet and looked up at the darkening sky. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, he told himself. No point in borrowing trouble by thinking about it now.

  "Your Highness?" Sophie's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I'm sorry to intrude."

  "What is it?" He regretted snapping at her instantly — none of this was her fault, and if she was here she must have something important to say. But she took his rudeness in stride. Doubtless she got worse from Grandfather.

  "There is a phone call for you, sir," she said, a note of worry in her voice. "I think you should take it at once."

  Roman frowned, turning and stalking towards her. "I told you I didn't want to be disturbed," he said. "What's so important that it can't wait till I come in?"

  To tell the truth, he didn't mind being given something else to think about. Anything rather than worrying about Anna. Her reply cut his relief short.

  "You have a phone call, Your Highness, from Anna's sister," she told him. "I have already called the chief of security."

  Sophie's office wasn't far from the garden, and Roman crossed the distance in record time. Sophie wasn't far behind him as he rushed inside and skidded to a halt in front of her desk. The security force's commander was already there with two of his guards, one working some equipment that looked like it belonged in the '70s. Trying to trace the call, Roman thought, but he couldn't be sure.

  Picking up the receiver, he growled "Hello?" into it.