Cadence's heart momentarily stopped. She was going after Jasper? Was she that desperate to have him that she would take out the competition? Behind her Carl laughed, his deep tones running across Cadence's skin.
"Always the selfish bitch, aren't you, Jo?"
"Always." Jolene snapped her teeth at Cadence, who flinched. Then she laughed. "She's all yours, Carl. I'm going to have some fun with her boyfriend."
"And I'll have a lot of fun with this one." Carl crowded Cadence from the back and put his arms around her. His erection prodded Cadence in the back and she wriggled to get away. "She can give me all the children that I need."
That sent Cadence into a panic. She tried to get out of his arms but Carl held onto her tightly.
"I'm not having your children." She snapped, digging her elbow back into his stomach but to no effect.
"Oh, yes, you are." Carl bent his head and began nuzzling her neck. "I'm not settling for anything less."
When Jasper did this to her, Cadence felt warm and her whole body tingled. With Carl, she wanted to get out of there. She was trying to crawl out of her body just to get away from him.
"Then it'll have to be over my dead body." She hissed, twisting out of his grip. Carl let her go, watching her with some amusement.
"I don't think you want that." He whispered.
Cadence didn't want to die but she wasn't going to sleep with Carl. She thought of Jasper, wishing that he was there right now. He was right; going searching for her story had landed her in trouble.
Why did she have to be stubborn and not listen to him?
"Let her go."
That was music to Cadence's ears. She turned, looking past Jolene, and saw Jasper emerge from the trees. In the flickering flames from the fire, his expression was furious, his eyes completely golden.
Mattie and Dorian appeared behind him. Their eyes were also glowing and Cadence somehow knew that this wasn't from the firelight.
Carl smirked, not seeming to care that they had been disturbed.
"Well, well, Rex Jasper. I was wondering when you were going to turn up."
Cadence was confused. She looked from Jasper to Carl and back again.
"Rex? Jasper, what's going on?"
"You didn't know?" Carl laughed, Jolene giggling. "I cannot believe you didn't know. Your boyfriend here is Rex of his Pride. Do you know what pack a pride is?"
Then it all began to fall into place for Cadence. Heart sinking, she looked at the man she loved. And the man she thought he knew.
"Lion."
Chapter 7: The Truth Comes Out
Jasper wanted to go to Cadence, hold her tight and not let go. He wanted to tell her things were going to be okay. But she was within reach of the wolf Alpha and Jolene stood between them, a smirk on her pretty face.
He couldn't believe they hadn't figured that Jolene was a wolf shifter. Every shifter gave off a scent, easily recognizable. Somehow Jolene had disguised her scent so she wasn't detectable. Jasper couldn't get over the fact he had nearly been duped by the little bitch.
He focused on Carl, who had pulled Cadence against him and was holding her despite Cadence's attempts to pull away.
"Let her go, Carl." He snarled.
"Why should I?" Carl flashed him a grin. "I can have fun with her if I want to. It's not like it's going to be permanent since she hates shifters."
Jasper felt his fangs coming out but held back the change. Cadence was his priority here, not a fight.
"She doesn't need to be here."
"She came onto my land uninvited." Carl thought for a moment. "Well, I say uninvited, more like unknowingly. My dear sister set me up with this one."
He nodded at Jolene, who gave Jasper a saucy finger wave.
"Hello, darling."
Jasper was glad he had seen through her before she got her talons into him; he would never knowingly sleep with a wolf shifter, especially not from Carl D'Aoust's pack. Beside him, Mattie stepped forward. Always the peacemaker, her voice was in softer tones.
"Carl, see reason. Cadence doesn't belong here. Let her go."
"Sorry, Mattie. Much as I like you I'm afraid I'll have to refuse." Carl's arm tightened round Cadence's waist. "She belongs here with me. This is my territory. I can do whatever I like with her."
Cadence flinched and she looked at Jasper, pure fear in her eyes. She reached out to him.
"Jasper."
Jasper clenched his fists at his sides. He was the Rex, for crying out loud. He needed to be more dignified.
"Cadence is mine, Carl." He growled. "She's my mate. You have no claim to her."
He saw Jolene flinch and Cadence's eyes widen. Carl looked amused.
"She's your mate? Really? Then where's her mark?" He forcibly moved Cadence's head from one side to the other, showing her bare neck with no marks.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot. The little girlie doesn't want anything to do with shifters. No mark means she's fair game, Jasper." Carl smirked, his fangs flashing in the firelight. "I bet I can get her pregnant quicker than you can get your mark on her."
Cadence whimpered and sagged in Carl's arms, who hoisted her up and held her flush against his chest. Jasper snarled and launched himself at Carl, his lion preparing to shift, only to be hauled back by Mattie and Dorian, who wrestled him away.
"Don't, sir." Dorian murmured in his ear. "He's doing it to get a rise out of you."
Young as he was, Dorian had sense. Jasper knew he was right. Carl was trying to get him to lose control. If he did, he might forget his purpose and hurt Cadence. He couldn't attack Carl when Cadence was that close.
"Jasper, please." Cadence's face was streaked with tears. She was looking at him pleadingly. "I want to go home."
"I want to go home." Carl mimicked. "You're already home, honey." He bent his head and nuzzled her neck, holding tight to Cadence as she tried to get away. "We're going to have a lot of fun."
Cadence sobbed and sagged in his arms. Jasper felt helpless. He wanted to tear her out of Carl's arms and get her away but he knew Carl would harm her as much as he would fuck her. Cadence was more important than getting his pound of flesh from the Alpha.
Carl looked up and glared at him.
"Get lost, Webster. This is wolf territory, not lion. You are trespassing. Leave now or there will be a fight on your hands. And the council will know who's to blame."
Jasper knew he was right. He was trespassing on someone else's land. It would be him getting the reprimand, not Carl. Because Cadence didn't have his mark she was fair game. It would be another thing entirely if she bore his bite but she didn't.
He wished he had been able to do that before.
Mattie touched his shoulder.
"Do a dummy, Jasper." She whispered. "We've got your back."
Jasper knew what she meant. They had done it before. And it worked.
"Call the enforcers and notify the council." He murmured. Aloud to Carl: Fair enough. We'll go."
"And the girl stays with me."
Jasper looked at Cadence, trying not to flinch at the hurt and betrayal in her eyes. She thought he was leaving her. He wanted to reassure her but that would give the game away. He swallowed and turned away.
"She stays."
"Good boy. My sister might come along later to say thank you."
Jasper swung back, seeing Jolene saunter towards him as she undid the front of her jumpsuit. Repulsed, he roared in her face, making her back up suddenly.
"She comes anywhere near me and I'll rip her to pieces." He snarled. "Then you really will have a war on your hands."
He turned and walked away, Mattie and Dorian at his back, trying to ignore Cadence's screams following him.
#
Cadence curled up in the back of the car as she sobbed. When Jasper had turned his back on her and walked away, Carl had dragged her out to another clearing, where he had his car.
He had claimed he wanted some privacy for what he had to do so he was taking her to his home. Cadence fought and struggled but Carl wa
s too strong. He simply slapped her once and Cadence shrank away.
Jolene was in the passenger seat next to her brother. Jasper's declaration that he would rip her to pieces if she came anywhere near him gave Cadence some comfort. At least she wouldn't be able to get her claws into him. But she seemed to be scheming over something and Cadence didn't like that.
She didn't know if she should care about Jasper any longer. He had walked away from her, not even bothering to fight for her. Dorian had gone as well, as had Mattie. That had hurt just as badly. Mattie was her best friend and she had refused to help. Cadence could feel the double betrayal.
Especially now she knew all three of them were lion shifters. She couldn't believe she had missed it. They had covered it up really well, especially Mattie. In the three years they had been friends Cadence had suspected nothing.
They had probably been put in place by Jasper to keep an eye on her. Make sure she didn't say what she wanted to say. Cadence wasn't sure what she was angrier at: the fact they had befriended her to keep an eye on her or that they had not told her about their secret.
Jolene turned and fixed a hateful stare at Cadence.
"I don't know what Jasper saw in you." She said nastily. "You're such a dull, fat little girl. You wouldn't have kept his attention for long."
"And you would?" Cadence didn't point out she and Jasper had been together for three weeks. "He doesn't like pretentious."
Jolene chuckled.
"Oh, I think he will. I'll have him wrapped around my little finger by the end of the week."
"He knows what you are and from what I know the lion and wolf shifters aren't friends." Feeling braver Cadence sat up. "What makes you think he'll go to you willingly?"
Jolene smirked.
"I'll think of something."
She was about to say something more when Carl swore and screeched the car to a halt. Cadence put her feet on the back of his seat to stop herself from pitching forward onto the floor. She sat up and saw a man silhouetted in the headlights. She recognized his build.
Jasper. He had come back for her.
"What the...?" Carl snarled and turned off the engine, keeping the headlights on. "That bastard. Wait here." He barked at Jolene. Glancing back at Cadence in the rear-view mirror, he flashed his fangs. "Looks like your ex-boyfriend can't take a hint."
Cadence watched, her heart in her mouth, as Carl climbed out and strode round to the front of the car, gesturing angrily at Jasper.
"I thought I told you to get..."
He didn't get any further when Jasper's body began to glow. He launched himself at Carl and Cadence gasped as he shifted in mid-air, hitting Carl in the chest. Carl was knocked to the ground and Jasper darted away, prowling round in a circle away from him.
Cadence couldn't take her eyes off him. In lion form he was magnificent. She had never seen anything like him. Golden fur with darker fur for his mane, muscles moving powerfully under his hide. He looked incredible.
Carl got up from the floor. He snarled and howled as he shifted, turning into the biggest wolf Cadence had ever seen. He leapt at Jasper and the two beasts collided. Cadence wanted to look away, knowing what was happening.
But she couldn't look away from the fight that unfolded, Jasper and Carl swiping at each other with their huge paws. They looked like they were evenly matched and neither of them were getting the upper hand.
Jolene unbuckled herself and jabbed a finger at Cadence.
"Stay here. If you come out, I'll kill you myself."
Then she was out of the car. Cadence sat up and saw her change into her wolf, not as big as her brother, and bound towards the two alpha males. Suddenly she found her voice.
"Jasper, look out!"
Jasper turned and met Jolene head on as she launched at him, snapping her teeth in his face.
Cadence couldn't watch. She didn't want to see the man she loved get torn apart by these two wild animals. If she was going to be the Alpha's captor she didn't want to witness what he could do to another shifter.
She heard the screams but she kept her hands over her ears, her eyes shut tight. They seemed to go on forever, a never-ending sound inside her head. She wanted them to shut up, to stop screaming.
She didn't want to hear her lover getting torn to pieces.
The back door opened and someone reached in, touching her leg. Cadence screamed and kicked out. Her leg was caught and she was dragged across the seat. She struggled but she was hauled upright and Jasper's voice penetrated her head.
"It's okay, Cadence. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
Shaking, Cadence opened her eyes. Jasper was there, kneeling in front of her, his naked body glowing in the moonlight. He was sweating and covered in blood but he looked unharmed. Cadence swallowed.
"Where are they?"
"They're not going to be coming after you anymore." Jasper stroked her face tenderly. "It's over."
Cadence wasn't so sure about that.
#
Jasper drove Carl's car back to where he had left Mullen and urged Cadence into the back, telling Dorian to get Cadence's car back to her apartment. For that night, Cadence was coming home with him.
He knew how close he had come to losing her to those scumbags. That had shaken him to the core. Walking away from her, seeming to leave her to the wolves, was the hardest thing he had had to do in a long time.
Now he sat in the back of his limousine, dressed just in jeans as he rubbed a towel over his body to get rid of the sweat and blood. He needed a hot shower. Perhaps he could persuade Cadence to join him.
But from the way she was huddling in the corner of the seat, as far away from him as possible, Jasper knew what she was thinking; he was a shifter. She had been in a relationship with the one thing she hated. And the knowledge had hurt her.
He wished it could make it go away. He wanted to reach across and hold her to make the problems go away. But Cadence was refusing his touch, flinching if he came near her.
The drive home was silent and eventually they arrived at Jasper's house. Mullen pulled up in the drive and got out. But he didn't open the door. Jasper was grateful; his driver seemed to know that he needed a few moments with the woman he loved.
He loved her and here he was looking like he was about to lose her.
"Cadence..."
"I want to go home."
Cadence huddled closer into the seat, looking at him with a mixture of fear and hate. The look felt like a punch to the gut.
"Cadence, hear me out. I didn't tell you right away because I knew you'd react this way."
"Because I've been dating a monster?" Cadence snapped.
"Not all shifters are monsters. I told you."
"A lion ripped someone apart in front of me. I told you all of that. It chased me and tried to kill me." Cadence swiped at fresh tears falling down her face. "What was that other than a monster?"
"So you tarnished the rest of the shifter community with the same brush." Jasper snapped back. His temper was fraying, wanting Cadence to understand. "We're not all like the one who attacked you." He paused. "He's been dealt with, by the way."
"How do you know?"
Jasper knew he would have to tell her sometime. He didn't want her misconstruing everything that had happened between them.
"Because I was there. My father's pride was in the same area as yours when I was growing up, before I moved to Cincinnati and established my own pride."
He saw her eyes widen and knew he had her attention. He sighed. "And you've got it the wrong way round. You wandered into the woods and a rogue lion shifter - one of my father's man - was roaming the place. He saw you and thought you would be a treat for him. I was tracking him and came upon him when he was about to kill you." He swallowed and looked down at his fists clenched on his knees.
"So I killed him. He changed back to human form, which is what happens when a shifter dies. What you saw was your attacker being dealt with. You didn't witness a killing and then get chased. You we
re chased and then saw your attacker die."
There was silence. He knew Cadence was trying to take this in. It was hard for someone who was so sure about something, so adamant, to believe a different version of events. But what he had said was the truth and he wouldn't change it just to suit her needs.
Shifters were not all monsters and she had to know that.
"So you saved me."
Jasper looked up. Cadence was sitting up. She didn't move closer to him but she wasn't looking as defenceless. The hate also seemed to have dwindled in her eyes but not much.
"Yes." He croaked.
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
"With the way your mind was distorting the situation, would you have stayed close to me? No, you would've run away accusing me of something I didn't do."
"You killed a man."
Jasper growled, which had Cadence shrinking back.
"I killed a rogue shifter who was about to kill a defenceless child. If a shifter goes outside the rules, we've set then their clan is entitled to dispose of them. My father was the pride's Rex then. He made sure the shifter got a burial and made periodical checks on you. When you moved he thought about you often. He hoped you were fine." He rubbed his hands over his face.
"I didn't make the connection between you and that incident until you told me about it."
The car became heavy with silence. Jasper felt it like a physical thing on his shoulders. Cadence was taking too long to speak. He wanted her to say something, anything, even if it broke his heart. She just needed to say if she forgave him.
It seemed like an age before Cadence finally spoke.
"So what are you going to do with me now? Threaten me with silence?"
Jasper stared.
"Why would I do that? I want you to stay. With me."
"Why?"
Jasper took a chance. He moved closer and took her hand, which was unresponsive under his touch. He didn't look away as he revealed his feelings.
"Because I love you, Cadence. My lion knew as soon as he saw you that you were my mate." Of all the people his destined mate had to be a shifter-hater. It seemed like fate was laughing at him.
Romance: The Lion's Chosen Mate: BBW Lion Shifter Romance Standalone (Hunky Shifters Book 1) Page 7