Savage Yearning (Corona Pride Book 1)

by Liza Street

  “There are shifters in Africa,” Laura said. “I heard there’s this cool resort—”

  Dristan shook his head. “Are we seriously considering vampires?”

  “Do you have any better ideas?” Even now she was shaking slightly from the run and the fear. She hoped Dristan couldn’t see her trembling. “I realize it sounds crazy, but everything’s starting to make sense.”

  Laura didn’t know much about the history behind the shifter split from vampires, just that it had happened long ago, sometime in the late 1800s. The idea had been that the two different groups of supernatural beings couldn’t get along, so the vampires would stay in Europe and the shifters would stay in the Americas.

  “The missing people,” Dristan said slowly. “I bet they were taken by vampires.”

  “We don’t have any proof of that,” Laura said.

  “Do you have any better ideas?” he asked, mimicking her stance from a second ago, hands on hips. He looked funny like that, naked.

  Even now, with this new crisis, he could make her smile. Laura shook her head. “No, I don’t have any better ideas. You’re probably right. We need to get back to Marlana’s and let everyone know. This is major. We’re going to have to find out everything we can about vampires. The Guardians are going to have to rethink security.”

  “We’re all going to have to rethink everything.”

  She hoped he wasn’t talking about him and her. She’d meant what she said—she wanted him, and she was ready to admit it. But after ignoring him for so long, it might be hard to earn his trust again. Even while they’d been joined together, she’d read hesitation in his eyes.

  One step at a time.

  She took his hand, and he glanced over at her, surprised. Even after having sex—twice—he was surprised that she was being physically intimate. A wave of shame washed through her, at how badly she’d treated him.

  “Let’s go back to Marlana’s,” he said, tugging her forward.

  Not letting go of her hand. It was important.

  As they walked, he opened his mouth to speak. Laura waited, but he didn’t say anything.

  Guardian training had taught her patience, so as they walked, she continued to wait.

  “I’ll never be good enough for you,” Dristan said.

  “What?”

  “I’m never going to own two resorts, like Mateo’s family. I’m never going to be an alpha in a pride. But I’m not weak, Laura. I’m strong and content.”

  “I never thought you were weak,” she whispered.

  “Then what is it?”

  She took a deep breath. “I want to be a Guardian.” He looked like he wanted to interrupt her, so she said, “No, let me finish. The whole Guardian training was just supposed to kick my ass and make me prefer the option of going on an Exchange. But I fell in love with it. I want nothing more than to learn how to fight for and protect our pride. Right now, my schedule doesn’t allow for anything else, and while I’d thought our connection was great, I didn’t realize how powerful it was.”

  Dristan was still walking next to her, but he was looking at the ground. Laura’s heart ached—she wanted him to understand what she was saying, and she wanted him to trust her and be happy. Had she ruined her chances with him?

  “I was wrong, though,” she said. “I don’t know how we’re going to do this, whatever this is, but I want to try.”

  They walked in silence for a long time after that. The frigid morning air probably would have been too much for a human, and it was even getting to Laura. She shivered.

  “We should shift back into lions,” he said. “We’ll go faster, and we’ll be warmer.”

  “Good idea.”

  After they shifted, they continued to walk close together. She wished she knew what Dristan was thinking. Did he think she was selfish for putting such a high priority on the Guardian training? She’d felt selfish. Nina, her sister, had been making unhappy noises for months because Laura was so rarely available to hang out. Laura had no idea how she was supposed to make room in her life for a serious relationship.

  What she and Dristan had felt serious, though. She’d tried to make it casual, but that had backfired.

  It had backfired right against the door of Dristan’s Jeep outside of Hart’s the other night. It had backfired again, just a couple of hours ago.

  She didn’t want to stay away from him—couldn’t imagine a world in which she tried to ignore him, a world in which he moved on with his life and she wasn’t a part of it.

  Maybe they were mates. The lion part of her purred at the thought. If they were mates—if this was more than just messing around—then yes, it was definitely worth risking Marlana’s anger, worth getting banished from the pride. But now she needed to know what it meant to him, and what it meant as far as shifter laws, when the alpha didn’t approve of the couple being together.

  First, though, they needed to deal with the vampires.

  Eventually, they came to their clothes. Laura shivered as she shifted back to her human form and got dressed. Dristan was quiet, so Laura took her cue from him.

  From their clothes, it wasn’t far to Marlana’s. They skirted the edge of the pond and looked in through the giant rear windows.

  “Nobody’s around,” Dristan said.

  Laura nodded. “The party probably ended long ago. And nobody came to look for us? I mean, our cars are parked right out front.”

  “Maybe they thought we were off, you know,” Dristan said.

  Laura laughed. “I guess they wouldn’t have been wrong.”

  “We’re going to have to wake up the alpha and her mate. I’ll give that job to you.”

  “Before that,” she said, “just one thing.”

  He looked down at her in question. “What’s that?”

  Leaning up on tiptoes, she kissed him again. They didn’t have the time she wanted in order to convince him of her sincerity, but as he opened his mouth wider and slipped his tongue alongside hers in a warm, caressing dance of lips and tongue, she thought maybe he was getting the message.

  He started to pull away, but she grabbed his neck and hauled him toward her so she could press her lips to the corner of his mouth.

  “This is a promise,” she whispered.

  “Of more to come?” he asked, smirking.

  “Definitely.” She didn’t know how she was going to manage Marlana. Until Laura and Dristan declared each other as mates, Marlana could renege on her deal with Laura and send Laura off as an Exchange. Laura wouldn’t be able to see Dristan until she returned, and she wouldn’t be able to continue her Guardian training. She sighed. She wanted to be a Guardian more than anything. Protect the pride with her body and her heart, uphold their place in the shifter world, defend their territory. Now that was at risk, if she chose to be with Dristan.

  But she would somehow make this work. Dristan—he was worth it.

  Nine

  Dristan followed Laura around to the front of the house. His Jeep and her Acura were the only cars left. He checked his phone for messages, but it had gotten wet being left out overnight in his clothes, and it didn’t work. Frasier was probably worried. Or maybe he was ecstatic, thinking Dristan was finally spending the night with Laura again.

  Laura pressed the doorbell, then knocked. “Come on come on come on,” she whispered.

  The silence of the early morning was peaceful, only the sounds of their breaths and the sounds of water dripping off the roof as ice thawed.

  Laura rang the doorbell again and started to knock, but Dristan grabbed her hand. “I hear someone,” he said.

  Footsteps approached the door, and it opened. Jeff McKennon, Marlana’s mate, stood before them, his face haggard in the early morning light, brown eyes tired and ringed by dark circles. His gray-brown hair was sticking up at various angles. “What the hell is going on?” he asked. “It’s only six a.m.”

  “Emergency,” Laura said. “We have to talk to Marlana, now.”

  “She’s sleeping. What
kind of emergency?” He gestured them inside.

  Laura toed off her wet shoes and Dristan did the same. He exhaled with relief at how good the heated floor felt against his feet. He hated being cold, whether as a human or a lion. While he didn’t aspire to a rich lifestyle, as soon as he could afford a house of his own, he would install heated floors.

  Laura went straight to the kitchen where she fiddled with the coffee maker. It reminded Dristan just how at home she was with the alpha’s family. “Auntie,” she’d always called Marlana, which had cracked Dristan up. But Laura’s parents and Marlana and Jeff had grown up together as best friends.

  They’d all grown up with privilege; they’d all been wanted by their pride. Laura was just like them, and nothing like Dristan.

  He didn’t begrudge her for it—in fact, he wouldn’t wish his upbringing on anyone else. His mother forever harping on his father for not being motivated or dedicated enough. Dristan and Frasier had never felt like they were accomplished enough for their parents. Nothing was ever enough. Even being allowed to join the Corona Pride hadn’t been enough for his parents—they’d always wanted more. More status, a better house, and finally, more trust…which they’d later betrayed.

  “Please,” Dristan said to Jeff, shaking away the thoughts. The reason they were here was far more important. “We’ll make coffee. Wake up the alpha, because we have a problem and it’s huge.”

  His voice shook with panic, with the enormity of what they were facing.

  Jeff’s eyes grew wide, and he gave a quick nod. Finally he was catching on. “I’ll be right back.”

  Dristan rushed through coffee prep, listening to Laura’s directions on where things were. It felt so weird to do this mundane activity when all he could think about were vampires. Laura piled everything on a tray and together they went to the living room.

  Marlana and Jeff came in seconds later, Marlana in a robe, with her usually wild, tawny hair pulled back in a thick braid.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “We have a situation, Auntie,” Laura said.

  Marlana looked between Laura and Dristan, her expression showing disapproval. Dristan wanted to tell her that it was none of her business, but Laura continued, “It’s vampires.”

  Jeff had been reaching for a cup of coffee, but he froze midway there. “What?”

  Marlana straightened up. “Tell me everything.”

  “We went for a walk,” Laura said, “to get some air.”

  Marlana blinked slowly, but she didn’t interrupt as Laura summarized how they were chased and how there’d been no scents, how it had seemed they were being herded in a specific direction—likely for an ambush.

  “You’re certain it’s vampires?” Marlana asked.

  “No, we’re not certain at all,” Laura said.

  “It’s the only explanation we can come up with, though,” Dristan said. “And it fits with the disappearances.”

  Marlana grabbed the sugar bowl and dumped some into a cup. “We’re going to have to call for a lockdown until we figure this out.”

  Dristan held in his groan, but barely. A lockdown meant everybody came to stay here at Marlana and Jeff’s place. There were more than enough rooms because the estate was nearly the size of one of Julian and Gloria’s resorts, but to be stuck around other lions for any length of time could quickly turn torturous. Dominance, aggression—Dristan wanted none of it.

  Plus, he’d have to rely on his human employees to run the deli while he wasn’t there. He trusted them, but if a problem came up, he wanted to be there to handle it.

  “Start making the calls,” Marlana said to Jeff. To Laura, she added, “Get in touch with the Guardians. Let them know what they’re up against. First we get everyone here, and then we’ll figure out exactly what we’re dealing with out there.”

  Laura found her purse from the night before and brought out her phone. She settled next to Dristan on the couch, closer than she would have if Dristan were just a friend.

  Marlana’s eyebrows rose, and she stood up. “I need to shower and dress. I’ll be back in ten minutes. You two, try not to fuck on my sofa.”

  Ten

  The lockdown was in effect. Dristan paced the frozen ground between Marlana’s house and the pond behind it. This was as far as he, or anyone, could go during a lockdown. Only a few hours had passed, and he was already feeling stir-crazy. Luckily, he had a good human manager, Alex, to run the deli. Dristan had long ago explained that sometimes he might need to take off several days without any notice. Alex had understood, when Dristan talked to him on the phone this morning, that this was one of those instances.

  There were twenty-two people in the Corona Pride, and right now, every single one of them was at Marlana’s estate.

  Out of those twenty-one other people, he could think of only six who liked him. Frasier, Rafe, Mateo, Justine, Laura (on a good day), and Laura’s sister Nina. While he didn’t need a ton of friends to keep his ego happy, he reckoned it was probably better to have more friends when vampires were around.

  The back door banged open, and several Corona Pride members emptied out of the house, laughing. Dristan paused, recognizing Laura’s laughter. Low and musical. It made him shiver—not out of dislike, but out of longing.

  The others with her were Guardians—Agatha and her husband, Michael, and Chase and Doug Channing. He idly wondered where Ben was. Maybe napping after all the alcohol he’d consumed at lunch. The four Guardians and Laura stood in a loose circle and started a warm-up exercise. Something fluid, like a martial art. Aikido?

  Laura caught him looking. “Dristan, join us,” she said.

  Doug’s head of reddish-brown hair shook slightly. Of course the Channings wouldn’t want Dristan to join them. There was a reason Dristan had never been invited to become a Guardian: his parents’ betrayal had put their father, Emil, on bed rest for two weeks. With a shifter’s rapid healing, that meant Emil had been near death.

  The Channings had always been the Guardians for the pride, although Michael Corona, Marlana and Jeff’s oldest son, had joined them. Then he’d married Agatha Channing, and although the two didn’t seem crazy in love with one another, they were well-suited. Dristan wondered if Marlana had set up the match.

  Laura waved, gesturing Dristan over. She looked hot in her tight black athletic pants and top. What was more, she looked content. Happy. Huh. So she really was passionate about this Guardian stuff.

  “Nah, I was just going in,” Dristan said. “Thought I’d round up Fraze and Rafe for a poker game.”

  He’d been intending nothing of the sort, but nobody called him out on the lie, because other than Laura, nobody else wanted him there.

  A crackling sound came from the trees, and Laura, the Guardians, and Dristan all jerked their heads to look. It was just Marlana and Jeff, though—they’d gone on a circuit around the property as lions because Marlana wanted to think strategy while seeing the land. The two lions paused at a stack of folded clothing, and Dristan turned away to give them privacy to shift and change into their clothes. Everyone had seen everyone naked in this pride, dicks swinging, breasts jiggling, but Dristan would err on the side of overly respectful.

  He gave a half-wave to Laura, who nodded at him because her arms were currently bowed upward in a stretch. Then he stepped inside the house.

  The cloying warmth and scents of so many shifters hit him immediately. He would personally work hard to find and get rid of the vampires, because this whole lockdown thing really wasn’t working for him.

  He wasn’t five steps into the grand living room before Marlana and Jeff came inside.

  “Dristan, a word,” Marlana said. Her tired face looked grim and pale, making the mole by her right eyebrow seem more prominent.

  Stomach sinking, Dristan followed her to the kitchen, which was empty except for her daughter, Viviana. Viviana was just a couple of years younger than Laura, although she’d never been permitted to hang out with their group. Marlana had kept he
r close. Viviana’s pale blue eyes, a softer version of Marlana’s icy blue, sparkled with curiosity at the sight of Dristan and Marlana together.

  Marlana jerked her head toward the door, though, and Viviana didn’t need to be told in words. She hustled out of the kitchen.

  Dristan listened as Viviana’s steps faded away.

  Marlana spoke. “You and Laura.”

  If it wasn’t a question, fuck if he was going to respond. Dristan waited.

  “It’s not what we want for her. She’s too good for you.”

  Yeah, that sounded about right. Dristan nodded. He was just the owner of a tiny deli. One of the sons of a couple who’d tried to tear the pride apart with their ambitions. A nobody, really.

  And Laura? She was everything.

  “At least you aren’t a complete fool,” Marlana said. “She might scratch an itch with you, but we’re setting her up for better things. Once she sees what’s available to her, she’s not going to settle for you.”

  Marlana spoke as though she had some kind of inkling about Laura as a person. Maybe she did, Dristan didn’t know. But he did know that the only person who really knew what Laura wanted was Laura herself.

  Marlana’s ice-blue eyes were open wide, waiting.

  Suddenly he was filled with rage—rage that Marlana could speak to him like this, rage that everything Laura had told him this morning was now flung back into doubt, rage that his parents had completely screwed him and Frasier over because every move he and his brother now made was examined with distrust. But rage was something Marlana would be able to sense, so Dristan acknowledged it and sent it mentally away, replacing it with calm. Thoughts of working in the deli after a crazy rush, carefully putting everything back in its place, wiping down the counters, sweeping up spilled food in the prep area.

  “Thank you for thinking of me,” Dristan said after a long moment.

  “You have such impeccable self-control,” Marlana murmured, patting his cheek. “Don’t forget your dues at the end of the month.”