Page 19 of Loving the Lion

“She—I—.” The man gurgled his answer

“You might want to give him enough air to speak.” This came from behind Bachar, and the amused tone told him it wasn’t Tarek. Keair had finally decided to make an appearance. He spared the tiger shifter a brief but telling glance. He would deal with his second-in-command’s notable absence of the day before later.

After he found his mate.

He did as Keair suggested and eased the grip on the man’s throat, even lowering him slightly until his toes touched the floor. “Where?”

“She wanted to borrow a car.” The words were innocently spoken, but the man refused to look him in the eye.

“And where did she go?”

“I didn’t ask.”

At that point, Bachar was torn between throwing the useless human against the nearest wall or shredding his throat with the claws that had appeared at the tips of his fingers.

“Allow me, Alpha. I believe, perhaps, you asked the incorrect question.” Keair held out his hand and Bachar handed the man over. Keair’s fingers closed around the other man’s throat as he leaned in close. “Where did you send her?”

“I, I—.” The man struggled in earnest now, the golden glow in the tiger shifter’s eyes deadly.

“You did send her somewhere, now didn’t you?” Keair opened his mouth to reveal a set of fully distended fangs. They were long and white and wet. His face had also started to morph, his cheekbones elongated as he partially shifted. His long claws cut into the flesh of the man’s throat, and soon rivulets of bright red blood slowly spilled from the man’s throat and coated Keair’s hand.

“They wanted her. Knew she was his.” His eyes darted back to Bachar, a plea written in the beady depths.

“Who?” Bachar’s cat was now under control, easily allowing Keair to gather the information. Both the cat and the man knew the tiger was a formidable presence. When deciding which shifter would lead his security force, it had been a difficult decision. Both Keair and Tarek were more than qualified for the job. However, Tarek had that edge about him that allowed him to complete Bachar’s somewhat harsher commands without question. Keair argued with Bachar over simple matters of business. He’d known the tiger would question his every move should it involve a matter of life or death.

“The Group.” The man didn’t have to say anything more. The Group was the name the community had given to the humans determined to drive away the shifters. It had been formed when the shifters had first been given the land. Bachar had thought it had mostly disbanded until about three years ago when trouble had started again.

“Fuck.” Bachar scraped his hand through his long strands of hand, tugging on the ends in frustration.

“We’ll find her.”

Bachar knew he was close to completely losing it when he realized he hadn’t noticed Tarek approaching.

“Let me take care of this piece of shit, and we’ll leave.” Tarek motioned a member of the hotel’s security team forward. Keair’s face and voice had returned to normal, but he still dangled the man from his hand. With a laugh, the team member, also a shifter, removed the human.

The three men didn’t say a word as they stripped and quickly shifted. If any humans had happened along at that moment, they would have gotten an eyeful of three very handsome and well-endowed males. Within minutes, a lion, tiger, and wolf stood in the hotel lobby. The three animals moved forward as the doors were held open, running swiftly into the cold air. They had a woman to find. And not just any woman. The alpha’s mate.

Sally cursed as the four wheel drive continued laboriously up the winding stretch of road. For the past half hour, she’d had her doubts that it would even be able to make the treacherous climb. When she’d first seen it, parked in the back of the hotel, next to the dumpsters, she’d almost gone back inside. It had been covered in mud, a large dent on both the front and back driver’s side doors. There was no way this was one of the vehicles Bachar used on a regular basis. His fussiness when it came to the finer things in life would not have allowed him to be seen in what was just a step up from Sally’s beat-up, old compact car back home.

But, she’d reasoned with the heavy snowfall that most of the regular vehicles were probably in use, shuttling hotel guests and staff to town and back. Who was she to complain? At least the man had given her a car. Despite the fact that she had spent the night in the alpha’s bed, that didn’t make her special.

Well, it had certainly made her feel special she thought, her body moistening as she remembered last night. She wondered briefly if there could possibly be a repeat once she found her brother.

Probably not. They’d been thrown together under a strange set of circumstances. She had no illusions that last night had been just that, one night. She was just grateful that he had found Nick and that Nick hadn’t suffered any injuries from his adventure. A wolf pack had found him and taken him in according to Bachar. But that didn’t mean the boy was getting off Scott-free. Yes, he was a teenager, a teenager with a very old soul, and he was a wolf shifter, but he was still her brother. And she was still responsible for him.

Running away hadn’t been the answer.

Her hands tightened on the wheel. Not that she knew what the answer was. Maybe, Bachar could help her. Help them both. Maybe the wolf pack would be willing to give Nick shifter lessons. Well, that sounded dumb, Sally thought. And condescending. She forced back the tears as uncertainty started to overwhelm her again.

No. She was strong. She’d proven that over and over again during the last few years. She’d survived the loss of her stepfather and mother, gotten her degree, worked hard to provide for herself and her brother. And hadn’t freaked out, much, when said brother had shifted with no warning. She was strong.

As she gave herself the much-needed pep talk, she realized she was about to miss the last turn off. Even as she started to slow down, she heard the roar of a vehicle come up behind her. Wincing, she eased her foot off the gas, thinking it might be Bachar. He’d warned her not to leave the hotel last night, but she hadn’t thought the same warning would apply today. It had stopped snowing so that danger had passed.

But she had a deep, down feeling that he wouldn’t like to be disobeyed in any sense. Or, that he would like her going off to find her brother herself. She’d done that for two reasons. She truly didn’t want to bother Bachar with her issues, and she really wanted to get her brother and leave the shifter territory as quickly as possible.

The vehicle behind her slowed even though there was plenty of room for it to pass. The windows were darkened so she couldn’t see who was inside. It didn’t look like one of Bachar’s, sharing the same run down condition as her borrowed one. She gave her turn signal and prepared to make the turn. Before she could, the front end of the car following her hit her rear bumper.

“Crap,” she squealed, thinking she hadn’t given them enough notice before slowing down and they had slid into her. When it slammed into her car again, she knew that wasn’t the case.