Tarian Traitor

by T. S. Joyce

  His words clicked something into place for her. Something big. They made her think differently of what she’d gone through. She’d never thought of how she handled stuff, only that she managed it the best she could. She hadn’t known she was different in that way. “Orion?” she said on a breath. She swallowed hard and stared down at her hands so she wouldn’t get tongue-tied while looking into his eyes. “That was the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Also, you were wrong earlier.”

  “About what?”

  “You said I will be glad to be rid of you.” She dragged her gaze back to his icy blue eyes. “You were wrong. When you leave, I won’t be glad at all. You will be missed.”

  He didn’t respond. His face went unreadable, and he opened the door to a big office filled with monitors with different views of the facility. “This is home base for me,” he explained, leaning onto the massive mahogany desk and scanning the screens. “There are some very wealthy people who live on ranches around here. You would probably recognize some of them from TV shows or the radio. And this is the storage facility they use. Because of that, and because it’s common knowledge that we are a high-end storage facility, we get targeted.”

  “Targeted by robbers?”

  “Yep. My boss, Ron, hired me specifically because I’m a shifter. He wanted the extra senses after this place got robbed bad last year. I’m how he convinced the big spenders to stay with this facility. He told them he put a lion shifter as head of security. I have a couple of other people who take shifts so I can get some sleep and a day off every week, but Ron tries to keep me on the shifts that this place gets hit the most.”

  “Has anyone ever tried to break in while you’ve been here?”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t elaborate, and there was something stony in his voice so she asked, “And what happened?”

  Orion smiled and shook his head. “They won’t be robbing anyone else.”

  “Did you get hurt?” she asked.

  Orion cocked his head and frowned slightly. “You don’t care what I did?”

  “I know your heart. You do what you have to do and nothing more.”

  Orion lifted the hem of his shirt and angled his body toward the glowing computer screen light. There was a small, perfectly circular scar that had silvered with time and healing. She hadn’t noticed it before. It was right over his hip. When she traced it with her fingertip, he exhaled quietly.

  “Is that a gunshot scar?” she whispered, quiet as a breath so the camera wouldn’t pick it up.

  “Yeah.”

  “But I never heard anything about this. You’ve only been working here since the Tarian War. Four months, if that. Who knows you were shot?”

  “Just you and Ron.”

  “You didn’t tell the New Tarians? You didn’t tell your sister or anything?”

  Orion shrugged. “What could they have done?”

  “I don’t know. Taken care of you while you healed.” She turned him, looking for the exit wound and, yep, there it was on his back. That scar looked brutal. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to it, then straightened up. “I would’ve taken care of you while you were hurt. I would’ve made it easier.”

  His face was a study in shock, his eyes wide, lips parted. “Why did you kiss it?”

  “To make it better.”

  “Will you send me letters?” he asked suddenly. “When I have to go, will you send me letters?”

  “Instead of texts?”

  “Will you send me both?” He cleared his throat and scratched his bottom lip with his thumbnail. “I have a silly admission.”

  “Oh, my gosh, I love this game. Okay…” She straightened her spine and blew out a breath. “I’m ready.”

  “I’ve read the letter you left with the orange drinks a bunch of times. I kept it. I want more.”

  Well, knock her over with a feather! “Me, too. Wanna be pen pals? I will feel so cool being pen pals with a real-life Alpha.”

  He went still, and his eyes darkened. “I think your letters are gonna get me through something big.”

  His words broke her heart. They were so serious and sad. He didn’t want to leave, she could tell. He was going to have to live a life he hadn’t chosen. He saw hell coming for him, and he was searching for a light. She would be honored to be a light for him.

  “Can I draw cartoons on the letters?” she asked innocently.

  A smile cracked his face, and she was flooded with relief.

  “What kind of cartoons?” he asked. “Dirty ones?”

  She shoved his shoulder. “What kind of cartoons do you watch, perv? Next question, can I send you little presents in the letters?”

  “That’s a definite yes, but only if—” Orion jerked his head to the monitor and scanned three of the screens.

  “What is it?” she asked, the hairs lifting on her arms. She didn’t see anything on the screens. One was of a hallway with storage doors on either side, one was of the parking lot, and one was of a dark alleyway between two buildings. He was focused on the alleyway, but it was empty.

  The faraway echoing tink of metal hitting the ground touched Annamora’s sensitive ears, and Orion turned his head at the same time. “There,” he murmured, pointing to the bottom corner of a screen on the far right. A small black flashlight rolled into the frame.

  “Oh, my gosh, is this a robbery?”

  “No. He’s here for something different.” Orion pointed to the next monitor, and there was something that chilled Annamora to her bones. A lion’s tail ghosted the very edge as the predator walked just beyond the line of sight of the camera. Clever animal.

  A snarl ripped through Orion, and he strode for the door and yanked it open. “Stay here and lock the door.” And then he was gone.

  Okay, what should she do? It wasn’t a New Tarian, obviously. Orion had no problems with Ronin’s Pride that she knew of.

  A roar suddenly echoed through the building so loud Annamora covered her ears in surprise. Another lion answered from farther off, and she searched the screens desperately for Orion. A flash of white fur burst down one of the hallways with doors to storage units and then appeared on the next screen. Orion looked like he knew exactly where he was going. She sidestepped to the screens on the far left and…there! A massive tan lion was trotting in Orion’s direction. That wasn’t the terrifying part, though. It was the three lions that followed him.

  “Shit!” Panicked, she pulled her phone out of her sweatpants pocket and hit the text button. First name that appeared was Sora. Help!!! Send.

  That’s all she had time for before her animal started clawing at her skin.

  Help him! her lioness growled.

  Heart hammering, Annamora threw the phone onto the desk and bolted for the door. Four lions, four lions, four fucking lions! That was a small Pride against one! Not fair, not honorable.

  She ran down the hallway to the chorus of roaring. Orion had reached them. She could hear their death chants, their fury. She tripped forward and landed on hands and knees, but it wasn’t her clumsiness that had affected her balance this time. It was the lioness, done being hidden away. Annamora threw her head back and gritted her teeth against the pain as her body broke.

  One, two, three, I am the lion, the lion is me.

  She always chanted the same thing so she didn’t lose track of time. The pain made seconds drag on, but if she was done with her Change by the end of the chant, it was only a four-second ordeal. She stood the moment she was able to and ran down the hallway under the fluorescent lights. This place was a maze, but she had a beacon to follow. The sound of battle rattled the whole place. She was to the hallway with the rows of storage units now. The noise of her panting and her pounding heartbeat rivaled the snarling and roaring.

  There was a sharp turn at the end of the hall and she skidded into the wall, trying to find purchase with her claws on the concrete. Ahead of her, the ground was speckled with red and the air smelled like iron, fur, and fury, but there weren’t any l
ions. At the back of a large hangar lined with RVs, there was a set of double doors that were wide open. She scrabbled for it, faster and faster until her muscles burned. She was almost there, almost to the night air when it happened—BOOM! Something enormous slammed into her like a cannon ball. She snarled as she was blasted sideways. Anger overtook her lioness as an unfamiliar male herded her toward the back corner. His mane was a reddish color in the fluorescent lighting, and his eyes were a strange whiskey color instead of gold. His ears were flattened back, and when he got close enough, he swiped his claw out aggressively, backing her up. Annamora hissed and clawed back but he jerked out of the way. One side of his lip curled up, exposing his long teeth. There was blood on his long, curved canine. Did it belong to Orion? Just the thought of this asshole hurting him infused rage into her bloodstream. He charged again, using his size to bully her back, but she was done. Done with his game, whatever he intended. She used the power of her back legs to push up just as he charged again, and she latched onto him the second his claws hit her shoulder. She lost her mind. Snarling, roaring, raking his face with her claws. He tried to wrap his claws around her, but she knew this move. All males did it when they had a size advantage. He might be bigger, but she was faster. She spun out from under his grasp and latched her teeth onto his shoulder. He roared in pain and sank his claws into her ribs, but she only bit him harder, shaking her head to inflict as much damage as she could.

  The lion lurched backward, ripped from her grasp so hard it jerked her entire body. She had to release his shoulder in a rush so she could keep her teeth. In a flash of white, Orion slammed the lion onto the ground, pinning him onto his back, aiming his open jaws for his face. His eyes were as white as his fur and filled with bone-chilling hatred. There were two other lions charging Orion so he had no time for a kill bite. He pushed off the lion and spun, catching full in the chest the largest tan lion with a dark mane. As they both went up on their hind legs, warring with claws and teeth, Annamora could see every muscle ripple in Orion’s powerful body. She’d seen him fight in the Tarian War and the war with the Deadlies, but this was different. He was focusing on the one lion while the other two had circled away from them and were pacing out of range, like they were waiting for…something.

  Annamora trotted over to the lion she’d been fighting just to test, but he moved away from her, giving her a wide berth. What the hell? He was nearly twice her size, but he didn’t want to engage?

  The fight was loud, and the lion’s manes shook and twitched as they brawled.

  From outside, the flash of red and blue lights illuminated the room. Shhhhit. Cops.

  Red Mane was panting, his attention on the door and, suddenly, he curled in on himself and Changed. He stumbled upward in a rush. “Orion! Hunter! Stop!” He beseeched the lion nearest him. “Cale, get them to stop!”

  Cale and Hunter? She knew those names. Those were the Deadlies who’d been texting Orion. Stop. She had to stop him.

  Outside, the police were yelling for them to come out of the building. The engine noise of more cruisers filled the room, but Orion and Hunter were savagely mauling each other still.

  Cale Changed back in an instant, his body blurring from enormous predator to man, and on his hands and knees, the green-eyed man yelled Hunter’s name. But there were no Alpha’s orders in the man’s tone. There would be no stopping this fight without brute force.

  The police were yelling instructions. Cale and the other Deadlie dropped to their knees and put their hands behind their heads.

  She didn’t know what to do. So she charged the fight and sank her claws into Hunter’s back, clamped her teeth around the back of his neck and held on as he spun on her.

  A dart blasted deep into her leg and radiated pain. A cold sensation crept into her blood instantly, like she had ice water in her veins.

  “Stop!” Cale was screaming. “They can’t help themselves! Stop!”

  The police were yelling at the Deadlies, and suddenly three more darts stung her hind leg. Her limbs tingled, her blood chilled, and a numb sensation crept through her body like spiders crawling slowly through her. She lost her grip on the lion and was thrown backward. She hit the ground with an oof, the wind knocked out of her. What was happening? Her body wasn’t working right. Hunter detached from the fight and sat heavily onto his hind quarters, swaying.

  Orion was walking toward her, but he was unsteady, and all along one side of his body were syringes with little tufts of red feathers sticking out of them. Tranquilizers. Oooooh crap. This was braaaad. Baaaad. Thiiiiis wassssss…baaaad. She licked her lips to try and rid herself of the drunk feeling and the cotton mouth. Unsteadily, Annamora looked at her hiney bo, and there stuck four darts. The red feathers were kinda pretty. She was like a little red-butted bird. Wished she could fly right out of here. Flyyyy. Fly out of here. She felt like a dumpling. Like a chicken-flavored dumpling—sort of soft and mushy. Everyone was yelling so much. Ugh. Boys were so loud.

  Orion wanted to snuggle her. She could tell because he was belly crawling toward her, but all she could do was lay there staring at him, hoping he made it to her before his body stopped working. But he was moving at the speed of a gopher. Like a sleeping gopher? She was almost numb, and the police were flooding in. They all smelled like humans. Poor humans, didn’t even have fur. Didn’t even pee in the woods. Didn’t even…even… Orion? I want to go home.

  His paw touched hers, and he laid his head on the ground next to her. And her strong Orion, riddled with tranquilizers, still he kept his eyes locked on hers. It’ll be okay, Anna.

  Everything went dark except for Orion’s eyes. Those stayed bright white until she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore.

  I want to go home. With you, Orion. I want to go home with you.

  Chapter Ten

  “Where’s Annamora?” Orion asked Officer Davis who was discharging him.

  “She’s just now coming to.”

  “What the fuck did you give her? She didn’t have anything to do with any of this!”

  “Yeah, well, when we came in, she was latched onto another lion’s neck, so forgive us if we didn’t know she was an innocent,” he said sarcastically. “Fuckin’ Tarians. Do you know how many years I’ve had to put up with your shit? Besides, we gave you ten tranqs and her only four. All you shifters react differently. It’s not like there’s some magic dose to give you.” He shoved another door open, and now all that stood between Orion and fresh air outside was a short hallway with stale white walls, tiles, and an exit door. Out the small window, he could see the flash of cameras and hear the murmur of people.

  “I’m not leaving without her,” Orion said when they reached the door. “I’ll wait here. I won’t cause any trouble, but I don’t want her waking up alone.”

  “Look, the only reason you’re getting out of here at all tonight is because your boss, Big Ron, got you and your little scary-ass lion friends out of here. And since he’s the one who called us to Tanner’s in the first place, and since you didn’t do any property damage, we’re more than happy to get you the fuck out of our precinct. You are more than welcome to wait for her.” Officer Davis gave him an empty smile and shoved open the door. “Out there.”

  The flash of news cameras nearly blinded Orion.

  A strong hang grabbed his arm, and a familiar voice murmured, “This way.” Ronin, the Alpha of the New Tarians, led him through the mass of bodies yelling questions and sticking microphones in front of Orion’s face. He squinted against the flash of cameras, and when someone grabbed his shirt, he snarled at them, “Back off.”

  The crowd didn’t let up until he climbed into the back of a black SUV that Ford had lifted from the Old Tarian’s property. Ford was driving. “You good?” he growled, his eyes glowing gold.

  Good? No, he wasn’t fucking good.

  “Orion?” Ford growled as Ronin got into the passenger’s seat and slammed the door, nearly taking out several grabby hands when he did.

  Ford twisted in
the seat and glared at him. “You have to fucking talk, man. Are. You. Good?”

  “No. NO! Okay? I’m not good. Everything is falling apart right when I find a girl I want. My timing is the shittiest on earth. I killed my dad, and now I’ve inherited his shitty Pride. They aren’t going to stop until I’m king of the fucking degenerates. And all I want to do right now is go back in that precinct and rip every fucking wall down until I find Annamora. I had to watch her get tranqed tonight because of the shitstorm the Deadlies once again brought into this territory. And I know what I’m supposed to do. I know. I’m supposed to go back to the home I hated, the one that treated my sister like shit, and I’m supposed to be some Alpha like I give a shit what happens to that Pride. When I left, it was for a reason! It was for good. I liked it here! I wanted…I wanted…I want Annamora. Fuck. Ford, I wanted something for me. When have I ever asked for a single thing for myself?”

  “Never,” Ford murmured, staring at him with the saddest look in his gold eyes.

  Orion huffed a sigh and stared out at the people trying to see through the tinted windows. “It doesn’t even matter.”

  “Why can’t you bring Annamora with you?” Ronin asked softly.

  “If you saw how they treated Sora…how they sold her for an alliance like she didn’t matter at all, you would never ask me to put another woman in front of them. Anna deserves so much better.”

  “Anna,” Ronin repeated in a thoughtful voice.

  “Yeah. My Anna.” He didn’t know why he said that. Why he clarified. It just came out of his mouth and hung in the air between them.

  “What are you going to do?” Ford asked.

  Miserable, Orion shook his head, staring at a news reporter out the window who was doing a segment on camera and pointing to the SUV. “I’m gonna call a meeting with the Deadlies before they leave the territory.”

  “A meeting for what?” Ronin asked.

  Orion closed his eyes and remembered how Annamora had fought Roden with no fear. He remembered the claw marks on her as she’d slipped away under those darts. This was the uncertain life the Deadlies would give her. His and Anna’s expiration date was already here, way too soon.