by Vivi Andrews
reach maturity and no longer will the
females be required to remain with the pride their entire lives. We will foster
relationships with other prides to
provide other opportunities for our
young, rather than seeking isolation in a
world that is steadily closing in around
us. Like any species, we must adapt or
face extinction. We are powerful
predators, but our social evolution
leaves much to be desired. We can learn
much from our human neighbors in
matters of tolerance and understanding.”
Though many were still caught up in his
words, the restless rumblings in the
crowd were growing now.
“I do not threaten our traditions,” he
assured them. “The Hunts will continue,
but instead of my mate leading the Hunt and selecting those who are allowed to
participate, it will be thrown open to all
who wish to participate, but required of
none.”
Ava felt a surge of relief at his words.
The only thing worse than not being
selected for the Hunt, in her opinion,
was being selected and then struggling to
keep up with the stronger, faster
lionesses. She’d always thought it was
horribly unfair that her slighter weight
had not translated into superior speed.
There ought to be some advantage to
being the runt.
“My mate will be my voice in the pride
when I am not here, but there will be no more ruling by force, no more bullying
the weaker members.”
Ava snorted to herself. How Landon
expected to be able to enforce the no-
bullying rule was beyond her. Changing
the format of the Hunt was one thing, but
he couldn’t just wave a magic wand and
eliminate the hierarchy of strength within
the pride.
“We are both animal and man. We are
capable of civilized—”
“Heresy!” A rough, sickeningly familiar
voice cut across Landon’s, shouting from
the back of the amphitheatre.
Ava turned, along with most of the rest of the pride, and watched as Landon’s
banished predecessor, Leonus, stepped
out of the shadows. She looked around
for his enforcer and ever-present
sidekick, Kato, but the hulking bully was
nowhere to be seen.
“Lions rule by strength,” he roared,
approaching the platform as the pride
members parted like the Red Sea to
allow him to pass. “If they do not, then
what right have you to rule over me,
Landon King?
Would you change our very nature, boy?
Is this what has become of my pride in
three short months?
Anarchy over tradition? A destruction of the very values that make us what we
are?”
Landon’s voice rose, calm and
confident, over Leonus’s. “I do not
demand that you change your values. I do
not even demand that you live by my
rules. Only that you do so if you continue
to live here, at Three Rocks.”
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“Throwing others out of their homes
now, boy?”
“We all have a choice. Live here honorably, or live elsewhere however
you please.”
“The only honor is in victory,” Leonus
shouted. “I have returned to challenge
you to reclaim mine.”
A collective gasp swept through the
pride. It was not unheard of for
supplanted lions to return to challenge
those who had taken over their pride, but
Landon’s victory over Leonus had been
almost laughably easy three months
earlier when Landon had been half-
starved from the uncertain life of a
nomad and Leonus had been at full
strength. Now that their positions were
reversed, Leonus could not hope to
succeed. Not fairly, at least.
Ava looked around again, wondering
where Kato was hiding. She was not left
to wonder for long.
A roar not heard in the pride for three
months echoed across the amphitheatre
from behind the platform. Leonus shifted
right behind her and suddenly her
brothers swept her away from the
platform. Ava caught a glimpse of
Landon, already in his lion form, being
knocked from the platform by Leonus’s
huge enforcer. They landed in a tangle in
the space Ava and her brothers had just
vacated, and Leonus leapt forward to
swipe at Landon, claws out.
Ava cried out in protest before her view was once again blocked by her brothers.
She stared at their immobile backs in
shock. Why weren’t they helping
Landon? This was no true challenge, no
fair fight.
How could they just stand by and let him
be mauled?
She spun, scanning the crowd, looking
for others springing to his aid. She saw
Shana, standing back with her head
tipped to one side as if watching a
sporting match, with no real interest in
who came out the victor. At the back of
the crowd, she could see Zoe shoving
her way to the front, but by the time she
got there…
Whereas Ava was right next to the action, separated only by her brothers,
standing with their legs planted wide.
She reached for the tie on her sarong,
shifting and snaking between Caleb’s
legs before the fabric had time to flutter
to the ground.
As she darted forward into the cleared
area, Landon, his golden coat spotted
with blood from the claw marks across
his shoulder, shoved with his powerful
hind legs, throwing Kato’s bulk off him
and rolling clear of Leonus’s snapping
jaws. He scrambled away from them,
freezing in a defensive crouch when the
small white lioness suddenly appeared
at his side.
Leonus and Kato squared off against
them, hesitating now that the odds had
been leveled against them.
Ava snarled, trying to look formidable
and less like a puny little weakling who
had never fought for anything in her life,
never dared dispute her place in the
pride. Landon stepped forward, his body
shielding hers from the aggressive
males, but she would not let herself be
protected. Not at his expense. She
stepped forward with him, all but
shaking with fear but determined to stand
by him.
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55
Vivi Andrews
Then suddenly Caleb appeared at her
other shoulder, shaking his red-black
mane. Tyler roared from Landon’s side
as her other brothers prowled forward,
aggressively circling Leonus and Kato.
Zoe broke from the crowd in time to
feint at the would-be usurpers, hissing
> and barking. With a ripple of movement,
the rest of the pride quickly took their
lion forms, crowding around with bared
teeth and claws.
Landon drew himself up and roared, the
fierce vocalization echoing in the
amphitheatre. The shadows of that roar
chased his attackers as they turned tail and fled. Zoe and Michael leapt after
them, intent on driving them out of the
Three Rocks territory. Half a dozen
others quickly joined them, eager for a
run.
In the chaos that followed their
departure, as some shifted back to human
form and others celebrated the pride’s
victory in lion form, Landon nipped
Ava’s ear to get her attention and herded
her away from the roiling crowd to the
relative privacy behind the platform.
He shifted back to human form and she
followed suit, accepting the sarong he
whipped off the shelf behind the
platform and wrapped around her.
Careless of his own nudity, his eyes raced over her as if to assure himself she
was whole. Ava’s did the same, her eyes
drawn again and again to the gashes
across his shoulder where Leonus’s
claws had gouged him.
“Those cuts look deep. You should—”
“It’s nothing,” he said roughly, brushing
aside her concern. “What were you
thinking?”
Ava blinked, startled by the abrupt
question. “What?”
“You could have been hurt, Ava.”
“You were being hurt, Landon. What did
you expect me to do?”
His face twisted, his expression
conflicted, as if he couldn’t decide
whether he ought to be angry or elated.
“The lioness who is brave enough to
fight at my side, throwing all concern for
her own safety out the window, is my
true mate, Ava.”
His words were like treasures, but Ava
knew better than to think she’d be
allowed to keep them. “I’m not strong or
fast…”
“No. You’re smart and brave. And you
tell me when you think I’m being a
foolish idealist.”
“You are,” she insisted. “The pride won’t accept me as your mate any more
than they will accept all your other
changes.”
“They will accept you and you will help
me show them how to accept the other
changes.”
“Landon,” she sighed. It was a lovely
dream, but one of them had to stay
awake and face reality. “The consort is
never someone like me.”
“No, but maybe she should be.”
“And if the pride won’t accept me?
What then?”
“Then we find another pride. It isn’t so bad, you know, being a nomad. I would
rather be an Alpha without a pride to
rule than to rule this one without you.”
He cupped her face between his hands.
“Be my mate, Ava. Be my love. Be all
the things that only you can be. Please,
just say yes.”
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He was a fool. It would never work, but
staring into the gorgeous green-gold eyes
of the man she loved, she couldn’t think
of a single reason why. All she could
think was what a miracle it was that he wanted her, lowly little Ava. He saw her
answer in the tiny feline smile curving
her lips before she gave him the single
word that would seal their fates.
“Yes.”
Landon whooped and swept her up
against his chest, spinning her around
until she was laughing and dizzy. When
he stopped spinning, he continue to hold
her pressed tightly against him, her feet
inches off the ground. His lips brushed
across hers, a soft question. She
tightened her arms around his neck and
answered him the only way she knew
how, with her mouth on his. Passion
spiked instantly, sharp and hot between
them, even though her heat had long since subsided.
When she pulled back, they were both
breathless and the light in Landon’s eyes
promised that she would not be given a
chance to catch her breath back.
“I suppose we’d better introduce you to
the pride,” he said, slowly easing her
feet back down to solid ground.
Anxiety tangled in her stomach. That
was the one hitch in her perfect dream.
He had said he would be her mate
without a pride, but he obviously did not
believe they would repudiate her as his
mate. What would he do when it came
time to put actions to his words? Would
he choose her? Or the pride he had fought for and won?
Landon leapt up onto the platform,
tugging her behind him. As Landon
raised his hands for silence, Ava looked
out over the crowd. Those who had run
off Leonus and Kato had returned. She
saw Zoe looking unbearably smug and
her brothers frowning up at her as
Landon held her hand tightly in his own,
preventing her retreat.
She didn’t hear the words Landon called
out over the crowd. Her nerves buzzed
too loudly in her ears.
She saw surprise on many faces, frowns
on some—her brothers among them—
and, amazingly, smiles on more than a few. The buzzing in her ears diminished
when Landon raised their entwined
fingers to his lips, brushing a kiss across
her knuckles, and a rough cheer went up.
Ava flinched a little at the sound,
blinking owlishly. They were cheering
her? Pathetic little Ava?
“Now, to the Hunt!” Landon shouted. A
thousand golden hues of fur sprang out in
the crowd as the pride shifted. Zoe was
among the first to tear out of the clearing,
leading the charge toward the poor cattle
herd on the menu tonight.
As the amphitheatre emptied, Ava
looked at Landon, still standing beside
her, watching his pride depart with an
easy smile on his lips and her hand clasped tightly in his.
“Wouldn’t you like to join them?” she
asked softly.
Her lover, her mate, turned to her and
smiled wickedly. “I only have one kind
of prey on my mind tonight.”
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Vivi Andrews
Ava smiled, feeling a female, feline
power she had never known before this
man came into her life.
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
She leapt from the platform, shifting in
the air, and landed on all fours in a run.
She heard a masculine chuckle transform
into a distinctly leonine sound and the
sounds of pursuit behind her, but she did
not look back. She raced through the
compound toward his bungalow, feeling
him close on her heels,
knowing he was
letting her win, matching his pace to
hers, but she didn’t care. For once it
wasn’t about being the fastest or the
strongest, just about running with her
mate. Laughter she couldn’t express in
this form bubbled in her heart like
champagne.
She bounded up onto the front step of his
bungalow inches in front of Landon, shifting as he did. His arms wrapped
around her and he pressed her against
the door, his stunning heat and strength
warming her to her core. His mouth
closed over hers. Ava’s dizzy happiness
would not be contained and she laughed
against his lips, coiling her arms around
him.
She felt him fumbling for the doorknob.
He drew back from the laughing kiss, a
small frown pinching his eyebrows as he
raised his hand between them. Dangling
from his fingers was the green-gold
pendant.
Ava gasped and Landon arched his brow
in question.
“What is it? Some kind of pride mating
medallion?”
Ava laughed. “Something like that.” She
raised her hand and cupped the pendant
in her hand, smiling to herself. Shana
must have run here to leave it for her.
Ava’s eyes filled with tears and she
blinked them back, surprising herself by
how affected she was by Shana’s small
concession. Landon was still frowning,
now with concern. She reassured him
with a blinding smile. “You know, love,
I think your idealistic fantasy might just
have a chance of working.”
His frown eased into a cocky grin. “I
never doubted it for a second.”
She held the pendant up next to her
mate’s eyes, comparing the color. She
sighed, “Perfect.”
He traced the curve of her face with one
finger, his eyes trained steadily on hers.
“My thoughts exactly.”
She raised up on her tiptoes to meet his
kiss, a wild dizzy heat spiraling through
her body at the first brush of contact. He
shoved the door open and swept her into
his arms. Landon carried her across the
threshold and kicked the door shut, all
without lifting his mouth from hers. Ava
curled into his arms, a feline smile
curving the mouth he held captive, and
purred.
He laid her on the bed, lowering himself
beside her and she stretched like the cat
she was, at home in her skin and in his
arms.
“So there’s only a risk of shifting at
climax when I’m in heat?” she asked him
as he nuzzled the side of her neck,
inhaling deeply.