“I supposed it’s what comes of having competitive twin brothers who can’t stand when the other wins. Just be glad neither wants alpha.” Turning so no one could hear or read lips, Geo leaned in close. “Cedro has become quite proficient with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so watch his feet and don’t get caught up in the rhythm of the movements. And expect him to shift.”
“Good advice.”
“And perhaps it’s time for the families to see your might. You’ve never opened up, not even with idiot gardener there. Had you done so, his skull would have cracked on impact with the ground.”
“We don’t need to start a war. Just make a statement.”
“He isn’t going to fight like a gentleman. He is out for blood.” Gio snorted. “Yours.”
“Good. Makes two of us.”
The next two challenges tested his patience, grueling and long they continued well past a normal match. The twins as always fought until both fell, battered, bruised, and with a few broken bones. For this reason, challenges left prides weak. As in past years, the twin who lost the year before stood now victorious.
The third of the challenges ended in a choke out, but not before blood coated them both. His betas now stretched around the arena perimeter. No one, least of all his betas, trusted the South American pride. Ricardo, their alpha, was a cruel and racist lion who’d ruled his pride with an iron fist for close to two hundred years. He believed in the purity of the species and had banished any who mated with humans or other shifters to became gabcha. As prime, Leo had little recourse except banishment. But the undercurrent of change could be heard. The prides under Ricardo’s rule did their best to stay off his radar, but they stayed in constant contact with Leonidas’s office. Yet no one had yet come forward to challenge the alpha. “Let’s get on with this.”
“Cedro has challenged the prime.” Geo’s voice once again rang through the arena. “Cedro, your challenge has been accepted. Please air your grievance.”
Cedro rushed to the Center with the cheers of his fellow pride. “I challenge Leonidas for the position of Prime, his rule has made us weak. Even the fates now believe it’s okay for a prime to take hymania to mate. What does that say of their belief in our species? It is time to retake our people. We must banish the hymania and gabcha.”
His blood boiled with every insult, especially the continued referral to Kalista as hymenia, which translated from the old language of the lion as human excrement, the greatest of insults. The clouds parted and the sun landed on Leonidas as he lifted his face to the light, allowing the power of it to infuse him. When the first punch landed, he remained centered and prepared. Cedro’s fist met with the palm of his hand, forcing the other man to the ground for fear of breaking his wrist. The swipe kick which followed, Leo had not been prepared for but should have been. As he got to his feet he caught Geo’s droll I told you so expression.
For the first few minutes, he took the abuse as well as he gave, but he spent the time learning his opponent’s technique, the reach of his legs and the pattern of the movements. Cedro had learned what his prime’s fighting style had been. What the other man couldn’t have known, Leonidas spent every year training in a secret form of combat, only his two top betas knew which one and acted as sparing partners.
Where Leonidas had only been warming up, Cedro showed signs of muscle fatigue. Ten minutes in, Cedro shifted and attacked before Leonidas could respond in kind. It didn’t matter the other man had just broken protocol. This became personal. No one would let the man become prime now, but he would have to come out of the ring alive. He didn’t know how the other man got his pants off, but unless he could get his off as well, he couldn’t shift and fight on an equal footing. He would be tied in the confines of clothes, hindered in his movements.
As Cedro opened his large jaws and went for the jugular, Leo gripped the animal’s top and bottom jaws, Leo forcing the mouth to open wider until the beast grunted. Taking a different tack, Cedro scratched, opening a large gash on his arm. Roaring, Leonidas put his foot in the center of the lion’s chest and shoved, sending the animal across the ring to slam into one of the corner poles. Starting toward him, Leonidas demanded, “Shift.”
As he picked up speed, he repeated the command, and those within fifteen yards of him were impelled to shifted. Cedro lay on his side, naked and human. He attacked when Leonidas came within two feet, but the prime countered the leg swipe by leaping through the air. Leo came down with a punch to the jay. Gripping the man by the neck, he forced him into a roll. With one hand around Cedro’s throat and the other on his thigh, he lifted the man over his head and slammed him down on his knee. Cedro’s back cracked, and he crumpled to the ground in a heap.
Leonidas backed up, his chest heaving as testosterone ran through his system. He threw his arms out with a roar as the betas removed Cedro from the arena. Turning away, he froze. His mate stood at the edge of the crowd. After their eyes met, she spun and ran, away from him.
“Fuck.”
“You are needed at the arena.” A person she had never seen before entered Leonidas’s room.
“Who the hell are you?” Jaison demanded placing his body between her and the intruder.
The newcomer puffed out his chest. “I’m the new prime’s beta.”
“What?” Cosima jumped to her feet. “That’s impossible.”
“What is he talking about?” Kalista’s head hurt.
“He is saying Leo lost the fight.” Jaison paced at the door. “Get your shoes on, Kali. I need to get there now.”
“What are you going to do?” Danial demanded.
“He’s lying, but on the slight chance that prick cheated and won, I’ll challenge him myself.” Jaison stared down the other man until he took a step back. “And I will do it right now.”
Kalista jumped from the bed and slipped her feet into her canvas shoes. She didn’t quite understand what happened, but someone daring to enter Leonidas’s room uninvited sent a powerful statement. “Is he hurt?”
“He was alive when I left him,” the intruder said.
“What does your heart tell you?” Cosima asked, her voice soft and calm yet edged with concern and pleading for answers.
“He lives. But he’s furious.” Kalista headed out of the room. “Has he lost everything?”
“No, not the business, but I’m not sure about the island, as our family has been prime for centuries. The island might be family owned, pride owned, or group owned,” Cosima babbled.
Helena raced into the room. “Is it true what they are saying?” she sobbed.
“I don’t know.” Cosima hugged her sister before pulling away. She gripped Helena’s shoulders, forcing the younger woman to focus on her. “You must stay here, do you hear me. With Danial.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Danial said angrily.
“I need you both to watch over each other. If Cedro has taken the prime, then you’ll not be welcome in the arena and you, Helena, do not need those images in your head.”
“I’m not a child.” Helena contradicted the statement by stomping her foot.
“Listen to me,” Kalista said, trying to keep her voice calm when all she wanted to do was run to her lover’s side. “Do this for me. Stay here and keep Danial safe.”
“If Danial stays, then you should, too. You are both—outsiders,” Helena demanded, stomping her foot.
“Her presence is required,” the intruder announced.
“Damn it. Kali now,” Jaison demanded.
Kalista followed him, running as fast as she could, but the third time, he slowed to let her catch up, she called, “Go, Jaison, just go.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
She arrived at the arena out of breath. Holding her side, she stood on tiptoe, but couldn’t see past the crowds. They chanted Leonidas’s name and cheered. He couldn’t have lost then, but she still couldn’t see anything.
As the crowds moved to the far end of the ring to follow the fight
, she noticed five men in a triage tent at the other end. Her nurses’ instinct kicking in, she approached. One man lay with an ice pack to his head but no visible injuries. The other four were covered in blood and beaten to a pulp.
“Leonidas?” she asked one man, lifting the edge of his bandages.
“Shhh,” the man hissed, pushing her hand away. “I’m missing the fight.”
“Let me assess your injures. I’m a nurse.” She drew on a pair of gloves from a box on the table next to him.
“Bugger off, I can’t see the fight,” another said when she tried to check his wounds.
The first man started coughing then coughed under his breath. “The queen.”
“What are you… Oh.” Her current patient looked between Kali and an opening in the tent. “Can it wait a minute? This is bloody awesome.”
The only things bloody were these men and it wasn’t awesome. “Did you bathe in blood?”
She leaned down to peer through the opening. Leonidas beat the hell out of the man on the ground. Choking him as the crowds cheered him on. No longer the caring lover she had come to love, the protective man who saw to her every need, this stranger worked the crowd up with violence. In a final show of power, he lifted the other man over his head and brought him down over his knee, snapping his back like a twig.
Her heart seized, and she feared she might vomit. Leonidas let out a powerful roar letting the world know he had won. “I don’t understand.”
She stumbled out of the tent, and as she made her way to the edge of the ring, her world crashed around her.
When his eyes met hers, she became his prey. His golden orbs glowed, and they were locked on her. He moved her direction with the determination of the victor claiming his prize. Terror engulfed her, fight-or-flight urge kicked in for a second time with him. This time, flight won. She wanted to get away, off the island and back to her life. She ran until her lungs burned and still she continued. Into the villa and up the stairs. She threw open the door and ran to the closet. Her bag lay in the corner with all her stuff in it. She needed her passport. Where was it? The clock taunted her, she had fifteen minutes until the next boat left.
When she turned from the closet, she found Leonidas standing in the door, covered in blood. “Kali.”
“Where the hell is my passport?”
He reached for her but when he noticed the bloody hand drop it. “Please let me explain.”
“Explain what? How do you plan to explain away what I saw? I want to leave. Give me my passport.” How many men had left the ring broken at the hands of Leonidas? “Now.”
“Jaison, get Kali’s passport.”
“Alpha?”
“Just get it,” he roared. He placed his palms up to her. “Please listen to me.”
“Get out of my way.” The walls started closing in, and she very much feared she might have a full breakdown if she didn’t get out. And all the while her soul battled to throw her arms around him and never let go. She had become some pathetic woman who would stay with a man no matter his evil. “Move.”
He bowed his head and stepped to the side. She ran past him and spared him one last glance before she took the stairs. He stood as still as a statue.
Jaison met her at the bottom of the stairs with her passport and a plane ticket. “This is an open-ended ticket in your name. It’s round trip.”
“I won’t be back.”
He cupped her hands around the ticket. “Open your heart and let things heal. Don’t close off the possibilities.”
“I thought he was dead, that the other man had killed him.”
“They lied. A well-played ruse to get you to the arena so you would see a side of our people we had shielded you from. Leo had no choice.”
She nodded then shook her head. She needed to get away before she turned on her heel and ran back upstairs. “Thank you, Jaison, for everything.”
“You’ll be back.” He gave her a cocky grin, lifting her bag. “I’ll see you to the mainland.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I need to.”
“Please don’t.” If he spent the ride convincing her to return, she feared he would soften her reserve.
“The boat, then.”
She nodded, too choked up to say anything. She stepped onto the dock as the boat was preparing to depart. Two others joined her. As they pulled away, she glanced up at the villa, pulled by a stronger force than her willpower. He stood on the balcony of his room, watching her leave, proud and strong, hair blowing in the wind. The image would be forever burned in her memory.
Chapter Seven
Leo is a walking thunderstorm
Eight days later
The hospital coffee tasted like mud. And, with every cup, it seemed to get worse. Her father had been moved back, diagnosed with pneumonia, just days after his transfer to rehab. Since her arrival, she hadn’t left his side. She told her brothers she needed to make up for her being on a dream vacation while they worked and took care of their dad. She tried to react normally to their teasing, hide her pain.
In truth, her heart broke. He’d called four times a day. Eight a.m., noon, four p.m. then at eight p.m. with the schedule of the boat to the island. Until today, when her phone remained silent. She supposed he’d given up. Why wouldn’t he? She hadn’t answered any of them. She’d let every single one go to voice mail. By dinnertime, she realized no more calls would come. She wasn’t ready to talk with him but, stupidly, she still wanted him to keep trying. The silent cell phone left her desolate and angry at herself for expecting him to fight harder than she had.
Her life had become conflicted.
His silence added to the disappointment of discovering yesterday she wasn’t pregnant with Leo’s baby. So, now, she had no reason to talk to Leonidas again. Yet, the very thought of never seeing him again tore her in half.
She poured another cup of coffee and wondered how many sugars she would need to make it palatable. The family waiting room at least gave her a chance for a change of scenery. Even if it held only a couple of vending machines, coffee pot, and two round tables with chairs. The door opened, and a pair of very tall gorgeous twins entered. “What the fuck, Liam,” one of them said.
“Would you keep it down? I told you Siobhan wouldn’t be happy to see us.” Liam closed the door enclosing her in the small room with the two men.
“Because you didn’t tell me you had pissed her off the last time we saw her.” The man not Liam went to pour a cup of coffee seemly oblivious to Kalista’s presence. “What in the feckin’ hell?”
Liam, on the other hand, had noticed her. “Please excuse my brother, ma’am. He’s an arse.”
“It’s fine. It’s a bit of a relief to have people not talking in whispers and being polite.” She turned to face them and offer a smile, but on her last word they both froze and, like mirror images, their jaws dropped in unison. “Do I have something on my face?”
“Kalista, what are you doing here?” they asked in unison.
“Have we met?”
“Well, we’ve never been formally introduced, but we met ye last week on the island.”
Ah hell, the island. Had she been so engrossed in Leonidas she couldn’t remember meeting these two? Another reason why she should stay away. “Sorry. I don’t remember.”
“Of course, you don’t. We were in rough shape, covered in blood. Broken noses.” The twin she had yet to name elbowed his brother with a good-natured jab.
Liam pushed the other away. “Hell, Silas broke me bloody arm.”
Mystery solved. Silas and Liam were their names.
Silas shrugged as if breaking his brother’s arm didn’t rate. “And you broke my ankle. Fair game.”
“Bloody good fight this year.”
“When you took the one hit, spun, and landed on your feet, it was brilliant.”
“Stop,” she demanded and, to her surprise, they did. “Are you trying to make me believe you were the two bloody and beaten men by the…” She
couldn’t bring herself to say it. Thinking about the fights brought her near tears.
“Of course we are.”
“How?” She examined their perfect straight noses, and neither wore a cast or sported any bandages. “I don’t understand.”
“Didn’t Leonidas tell you how quick we heal?” Silas asked.
“You would have thought he would have told you a little something about it.” Liam asked, “Didn’t you ever wonder why Leo never seemed to have a scratch on him after his matches? I mean he’s good…”
“Better than good.”
“You’re right he’s feckin grand. But not untouchable. Even he gets injured.”
“Of course this ankle did take a bit more time to heal than normal.” Silas moved his ankle in a circular motion. “No biggie. Good as new in a couple of days.”
“No biggie? Your ankle should have taken weeks to heal.” Panic edged her voice.
“What has our prime tell you about us?” The two men blurred into one. She no longer knew who spoke.
“I don’t think he told her much.”
“Did he send you here?” she demanded.
“Did who send us here?”
“Leo?” Who else?
“Why the hell would he send us for you? Jaison or Gio, maybe, but not us.”
“Then what the hell are you doing in North Carolina? At the one hospital I happen to be at.”
“We could ask the same of you. What are you doing in the same hospital, on the same floor our sister works at?” Liam cocked his head at her.
“Your sister?”
“Yes. Dr. Siobhan Hennessey.”
If they had said one of her father’s doctors she might have lost her shit, but she’d never heard the name before. “Oh.”
“And why are you here and not on the island with your mate?”
“My father suffered a stroke.” She decided if Leonidas hadn’t explained to his people her reason for leaving, he had his reasons, and she would not go against it.
“Oh, I hope he’s on the mend.” Genuine concern entered Liam’s voice, or maybe it was Silas. “What can we do for you?”
Her Billionaire Lion: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Leo Page 10