Rancher Lion: BBW Lion Shifter Paranormal Romance (Cedar Hill Lions Book 3)

by Zoe Chant

  “You didn’t really think I was just going to let you walk off, did you? Let you hit one of my guys in the face and run away?” Colfax clicked his tongue, as if chiding a wayward child. “You know how things are with my pack. You do the wrong thing, you get punished. We’ve gotta keep our standards up, after all. Make sure we’re setting a good example, in case anyone else gets it into their heads to try anything.”

  Sasha swallowed. Now she remembered – she’d guessed as much, back at the house. Colfax wasn’t one to let any act of defiance go unpunished. No matter how small the infraction, he’d see to it that it was dealt with. Harshly.

  Shaking, half from cold, half from fear, Sasha clenched her fists.

  Joe.

  The name sprung into her head. Oh God, she wished he was here right now. He’d said he would keep her safe, and she’d believed him. Would he come for her now? Would he know how to find her?

  Sasha recalled how powerful his lion form had been, how magnificent. As a man, he was huge too – taller even than Colfax, and far more heavily muscled. He would have been more than a match for even Colfax and Larssen together.

  Please. Please… Joe, find me.

  In that moment, she didn’t care that Joe hadn’t told her that he was a shifter. The only thing she wanted was to feel his arms around her, telling her that everything was okay, and that she was safe…

  As if intuiting what she was thinking about, Colfax let out another low, cold laugh. He crouched down so that Sasha could see his face, the hurricane lamp illuminating it from below. The effect was terrifying, exaggerating all the lines in Colfax’s craggy face, turning it into some kind of grotesque Halloween mask.

  “Larssen,” he barked out, though his cold eyes never left Sasha’s face.

  “Boss.”

  Again, Sasha heard the sound of feet hitting concrete, as if Larssen too had dropped down from the same high place.

  “I reckon you brought a ton of trouble down on us when you dragged this filly back to our lands.”

  Sasha finally managed to tear her eyes away from Colfax’s terrifying visage as Larssen came into view. He crouched down a little behind his alpha, and Sasha could see he was nervous, though he was trying to hide it.

  “She seemed perfect to begin with, boss,” Larssen said, trying to sound confident. “No family, no money, no one to come looking for her. She didn’t complain much – how was I supposed to know?”

  Despite her fear, Sasha let an angry sneer cross her face. That was Larssen through and through: he looked tough at first, but it was all just a front. He was nothing – a completely worthless scoundrel.

  “You shut up, Larssen,” she spat. “You’re a liar and a snake. You’re not even fit to call yourself a man.”

  Colfax laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “Well, seems like maybe she’s got you pegged, Larssen.”

  Larssen let out an uncomfortable laugh, as if trying to tell whether his alpha was joking or not. By the look on Colfax’s face, though, Sasha didn’t think he was.

  “Luckily for you, I’m in a forgiving mood,” Colfax continued after a moment. “And you better thank your lucky stars your father was a good man. If it wasn’t for the good he did me, rest his soul, you’d be paying a much higher price for being such a stupid ass.”

  Larssen wasn’t laughing anymore. Sasha watched as his feet shifted nervously.

  “What’re you planning, boss?” he asked after a long, awkward moment.

  Colfax was quiet, seeming to consider his answer. Sasha held her breath. At first, she’d thought Colfax was nothing but a run-of-the-mill thug – but now she saw she’d been wrong. His eyes were cruel, yes, but there was also a kind of evil intelligence glimmering in them.

  “Well, thankfully, we do have one thing on our side,” he said, after a short silence. “And that’s that this lion fella is an honorable idiot. I can already tell he’s going to do things the lawful way. And that means he’s predictable, the same way all of them are. And that means we can get the drop on him.”

  Sasha sucked in a quick, horrified breath. Get the drop on him?

  She knew there was only one person they could be talking about: Joe.

  Did that mean… was it possible that...?

  Colfax was speaking as if it was already a fact that Joe was on his way here. She was absolutely sure they hadn’t had time to travel out to his pack lands – they had to be somewhere much more close by to the ranch. Which meant Joe couldn’t be too far away either.

  Sasha shook her head, trying to clear it as thoughts crowded into her mind, each one clamoring for priority.

  But that doesn’t make sense. If Colfax wants to make an example of me to his pack…

  Get the drop on him? Are they trying to set a trap?

  How do they know Joe is even coming? Did they see him? How can they know…

  And what do they mean, ‘lawful’?

  Again, Colfax seemed to anticipate her, in that uncanny way he had. He smiled as if her thoughts were visible to him, floating in the air around her head.

  “That’s right – I got that mate of yours figured out right away. He’ll do things by the rules. And that’s why we’ll win. Because rules are only so helpful as long as you can use ’em to your advantage.”

  Sasha still didn’t understand. But thinking back over what Lincoln had said about them ‘trespassing’ on his lands, and the way Colfax had broken off his chase on that first night, things were starting to come together in her head.

  “Why did you – that first night, you stopped at the borders of the ranch,” she said. “Why? You could’ve just come and got me. Why then, and not now?”

  Colfax looked at her, as if he was considering whether to bother answering or not. In the end, he shrugged. “I wanted to get the lay of the land, find out what we were dealing with. And no point in charging onto some other shifter’s territory and getting beat up over it if you’d just kept wandering and eventually come out on the other side.” He laughed, a harsh, rasping sound. “If I’d known the pride would take you into their home and their protection, maybe I just would’ve run the risk of jumping the fence and finishing things right there.”

  Sasha shivered, realizing just how close she’d come. From Colfax’s expression, she didn’t doubt for a second that he meant it.

  “So… you and Larssen… coming to the door…”

  Colfax shrugged again. “Distraction. We knew they weren’t going to give you up. ’Specially not if you’re really that one’s mate.”

  He means… I’m Joe’s mate. Is that how Colfax knows he’ll be coming for me?

  Sasha glanced up, looking around the cavernous room where she was being held. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the dim light, she could see it was some kind of massive storage shed, all concrete and tin, stacked high with barrels, lengths of rope, and other detritus from the usual business of running a ranch. Maybe it was abandoned, or maybe Colfax had sniffed out that the owner hadn’t been up here for a while and was unlikely to be anytime soon.

  And she could see now that Colfax and Larssen weren’t the only ones here. Aside from the man who’d grabbed her out of the bathroom, there were at least five other men here. That meant eight, in total. Provided there weren’t more men outside, in which case it could be many more.

  Against one.

  At best, it would be eight against three, if Joe brought Mason and Lincoln along, and there were no other Blackwood Pack members around.

  There wasn’t any kind of immediate way Sasha could see of freeing herself or getting help. For the moment, she was helpless in Colfax’s clutches.

  And worse, she had no way of warning Joe that he was walking into a trap.

  “Maybe he won’t come,” she said, her voice wavering. Two conflicting desires battled in her heart. There was nothing she wanted more right now than for Joe to walk through the door – to feel his strong arms around her, and to hear his deep, soft voice telling her that she was safe.

  But on the ot
her hand, knowing that Colfax and his men were here, waiting for him…

  Sasha shuddered.

  Maybe she had been mad at him before for not being straight with her about what he was. But the idea of him being hurt… pain suddenly swept up through her chest, making her throat burn. She couldn’t stand the idea that he might be injured, perhaps badly, because of her stupid past mistakes.

  She couldn’t bear it.

  Squeezing her eyes closed, Sasha tried to remind herself that Joe was a massive, strong man – and an even more massive and strong lion. She had no doubt he could fight off Colfax, Larssen, and whoever else he needed to.

  But she also knew that they weren’t planning on playing fair.

  Joe was walking into a trap.

  “He’ll beat you,” she muttered, trying to force her voice to sound more sure than she felt. “All of you. You’ll be sorry you did this.”

  “Well, your faith is touching, sweetheart,” Colfax said. “But I don’t plan on giving him the chance. Make no mistake – we’ve done this kind of thing before. And we know how to take care of men like your mate. Don’t we, boys?”

  “Yeah, sure thing, boss!” Larssen exclaimed, though the other men in the shed remained more or less silent, aside from a few low mutters of agreement.

  Sasha moved her head slightly to look at Larssen, hatred boiling in her stomach. “How could I have ever thought you were worth a damn,” she spat. “Joe is ten times the man you are – than you ever could be. I don’t know what I ever thought I saw in you.”

  “Well, you’re quite the little spitfire, aren’t you,” Colfax said, amusement in his voice, as Larssen simply looked side to side uncomfortably. “I don’t think I trust that mouth to stay quiet on its own. Maybe I’d best do something about that.”

  Reaching into his back pocket, Colfax took out a roll of silver tape, tearing a strip off with his teeth. Sasha tried to pull away, but it was impossible – Colfax simply grabbed the back of her head, holding her still, before sticking the tape over her lips, sealing them shut.

  “There, much better,” he said, satisfied. “Now I can be sure you won’t try to say anything stupid when our hero shows up.”

  Sasha could only try to spit hatred at him with her eyes as Colfax sat back from her, smirking. But the smirk quickly faded and was replaced by the same cold, hard expression she knew when one of his men, standing behind him, spoke up.

  “Boss. He’s here.”

  All humor, cruel as it had been, had left Colfax’s demeanor now. He stood, fists clenched, muscles bunched.

  “All right,” he said, in his distinctive, raspy voice. “Boys, you get ready.”

  No sooner had he spoken than Sasha heard the door to the shed burst open. A low, ferocious growl seemed to fill the air, despite the cavernous space.

  And then, a huge, golden lion stepped through the door, eyes blazing, teeth bared, head lowered.

  It should have been a terrifying sight – and it was.

  But Sasha knew that she had nothing to fear from the magnificent beast. He was hers. He was her mate. And he’d only ever use his strength and power to protect her.

  Somehow, despite her earlier fears, she knew it was true. She felt it instinctively.

  Perhaps that was a part of being mates – or perhaps it was simply the memory of how kind Joe had been to her. How gentle and good.

  Sasha supposed, in the end, it didn’t matter. She knew it in her heart.

  But she also knew that in a few minutes, Joe would be fighting for his life – and, very likely, hers too.

  And it was all her fault.

  Joe. Oh, Joe.

  Sasha moved her eyes frantically, struggling against her bonds. She had to warn him. She had to find some way…

  After staring at Colfax for a long moment, obviously wary, the lion suddenly jerked back a little, transforming smoothly, its mane becoming Joe’s light brown hair, massive paws becoming hands. The lion’s green eyes became Joe’s dark brown ones.

  But they didn’t for a second lose their look of ferocious anger.

  There was no doubt about it: Joe, for all his gentleness, was pissed as hell.

  He stood, tall, tanned, and muscular in the doorway, every sinew of his body on display, straining against his skin in the effort not to simply leap across the room and tear Colfax limb from limb.

  Looking at him, Sasha felt hope surge in her heart. Surely, not even Colfax could beat him in a fight? Not even Colfax and all his men?

  “You’ve stolen my mate.” Joe’s voice was low, and throbbing with anger. “I’ve come to claim her back.”

  Colfax, standing with his back to Sasha, let out a long, cold laugh. “And I already told you – she’s a member of my pack. You can’t have her without my say-so.”

  Joe shook his head. “Bullshit. She was never a member of your pack, and you know it. She came to you because she was lied to, and then you trapped her there. There was no free choice.”

  Listening to Joe’s words, Sasha slowly began to realize that perhaps there was far more to shifter rules than she had first suspected. She’d just assumed that all shifters did things the way the Blackwood Pack did – the law of the jungle. But from what Joe was saying about free choice… perhaps she’d had it wrong. Perhaps there was more to it than it seemed.

  Colfax shrugged. “Well, that’s your opinion. I say otherwise. She’s my pack, and that’s all there is to it. If you want her, you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

  Joe shook his head. “The mated bond trumps that. It wouldn’t even matter if she was your pack.” He bunched his fists. “But sure. Let’s do this the old-fashioned way, if that’s what you want.”

  Sasha struggled, trying to make even some kind of sound through the tape over her lips.

  That’s exactly what Colfax wants! she tried to mentally warn Joe, hurling messages via ESP as hard as she could.

  She had a pretty good idea that the old-fashioned way meant a knockdown brawl. And she was certain that was the opportunity Colfax was going to use to launch his trap.

  Colfax shrugged. “One on one fight, then?” he asked, leaning back on his heels and eyeing Joe off. “Shifter form or human?”

  “Your choice,” Joe answered.

  “Don’t seem that fair to me to do it as a shifter,” Colfax said, laughing lowly. “Unless I can nominate a champion.”

  Joe narrowed his eyes.

  Don’t do it!!! Sasha screamed in her mind. Couldn’t Joe see that something was amiss here?

  But no, she realized – that was what Colfax was banking on. He’d called Joe an honorable idiot. And maybe he was right, at least about the honorable part. Joe was too good a man to see what he was walking into, or to suspect the depths of Colfax’s double-crossing nature.

  “All right, a champion,” Joe agreed, speaking slowly. “But you know the rules: if I win, you leave. You never return. And you never come near Sasha again, whether or not she’s on our land. And whether or not she decides to stay with us and join our pride.”

  Sasha felt tears springing to her eyes. She wished she could tell Joe that of course she’d stay with him. She was his mate. And he’d come for her. She never wanted to be away from him again.

  She’d been wrong to condemn all shifters, as if they were the same as Colfax and his crew. She was sorry – and she planned to show Joe just how sorry.

  If only both of them could get out of this alive.

  “Naturally.” Colfax’s voice was oily. It made Sasha shudder just to hear it. “I accept that – as the rules of shifter law.”

  Sasha struggled again. Joe’s eyes went to her – deep brown and beautiful. He looked at her a moment, as if trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. Sasha’s thoughts pleaded with him to see what was happening, and for a moment, his eyes flickered. His eyebrows drew together, as if he realized something was amiss – but then Colfax’s voice rang out through the shed, and the moment was broken.

  “Wade!” he yelled. “
Get out here. You’re my nominated champion.”

  Sasha couldn’t turn around very far to see, but soon, it didn’t matter. Wade lumbered into view: a massive, heavy-set, broad-shouldered bear of a man.

  Which Sasha supposed was fitting – because in the next moment, he’d transformed into the most enormous brown bear that Sasha had ever seen. His claws, clicking on the concrete floor, looked longer than her whole hand, and his body, covered in matted, shaggy fur, was massive and heavily muscled.

  Before she could catch her breath, Joe too had shifted, his body changing faster than Sasha could see. The two animals faced off, growling, heads lowered, eyes intent, their teeth bared.

  Sasha stared. Even against Joe’s lion, the bear was huge. But…

  Sasha already knew all about bears – her Uncle Lou had made sure of that, in case she ever ran into one out in the woods. Sasha wracked her brains for everything she knew about lions, from the geography and science books she’d learned from as a child. They weighed less than a bear, but they were designed to hunt and take down prey bigger than themselves. They had sharper claws and fangs. They were more agile.

  But they gained most of their advantages from stalking and ambushing their prey. How would a lion match up in a fight with another large apex predator? And could Joe’s teeth get through a bear’s protective layers of fur and fat?

  Sasha didn’t know.

  And besides that…

  Even if Joe beat the bear, Colfax had said they had a trap waiting for him.

  Sasha could only imagine that meant an ambush of some kind, if it looked like Joe was winning the fight against their bear. Or just if it was taking too long. Or whatever other reason Colfax thought of.

  Sasha had never felt more helpless in all her life. And she hated it.

  She had always considered herself self-sufficient and good in a crisis. She’d saved her Uncle Lou’s hide once or twice when they’d been out in the woods, and encountered charging animals.

  But now, she felt she couldn’t do a thing to help.

  Joe and the bear were circling each other warily in the wide open space of the storage shed. They were clearly sizing each other up, each getting a feel for the other’s movement. The bear made a sudden feint and Joe reared back, making a quick swipe with his paw before he realized that the bear was still out of range.