The Leopard King (27 page)

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “It really was for the good of the pride. At first. I never meant to…”
Love him.
But if she said that aloud, then it would become inescapable fact and not the mate bond or hormones, or the sweetness of curling up with the same person night after night. “…take him from you.”

That was how she finished the sentence, and it was also true. “I never coveted him,” Pru went on, trying her best to believe that. Innate honesty forced her to whisper, “I wanted what you had, I admit. Back then, I wanted it with Slay. But… not anymore.”

Staring at Dalena’s smiling face, Pru crossed the room and tried to straighten the picture, but she ended up yanking the nail out of the wall. With a faint sigh, she set it on the ground.

“I don’t know how you feel about any of this… or how I’ll face you later. Right now I’m pretending your silence means everything is all right, and that if you can’t bless me, you’ll eventually forgive me.”

For a long moment, she hesitated, but there were only ghosts here. She turned for the door and saw Slay hovering outside, one palm flattened on the wall.
How much did he hear?
From his devastated expression, she suspected he had been there for a while.

“Were you looking for me?” she asked.

“I saw you come in, and I was worried the building might be unsafe.”

She knocked lightly on the wall. “Seems solid enough.”

“Yeah. Well. While I have you here… since I don’t know when we’ll talk next, given that shit is pretty crazy…” Such pauses weren’t like Slay, and he kept fidgeting too, shuffling his feet so the movement carried his face in and out of shadow. “I just want to say that I finally understand it’s over.”

Pru stared at him. “You… what?”

“All this time, I’ve been nursing some faint hope—that maybe you were teaching me the hardest lesson ever. But considering what I just heard… well, anyway. I’m sorry. If I’d known that sending you meant losing you, I’d have gone myself. And I would’ve taken on my whole family for the right to stand by your side. For what it’s worth, I made sure you got to the retreat safe, I even watched you mount the steps, one by one.”

Once, this would’ve meant everything.
Then it clicked.
So…
Slay
was watching me? That’s what Dom saw?
Realizing how much Slay had cared in retrospect, it tasted bittersweet.

“All right,” she said softly. “And thank you. I’m glad we can close the book now.”

“I won’t say it’s with no regrets. But I’ve squared things in my head, and I don’t want to strangle Dom anymore.” He managed a smile that struck her as both awkward and painful.

Huh. His eyes don’t do anything to me now. And while I
know
he’s handsome, I don’t feel it like I used to, down in my bones.

“Sounds like progress,” she said with a shadow of her old warmth.

With that, Pru stepped past him because more talk would just open the door to pointless speculation about might-have-been. She could tell Slay wanted to ask—
what if I’d done things differently? What if
—

But that never led to anything good.

After Dom calmed
a small group of pride mates who wanted to go after the Golgoth he was hiding, he joined Raff’s crew because some manual labor sounded like exactly what he needed. He had limited intel about how bad it was up north, and he couldn’t spare many men for multiple scouting runs. They’d lost too many already in that strike. While it probably struck the other leaders as cowardly, he couldn’t react in anger, leaving his people even more vulnerable.

God, I’m tired.

The sleep he’d snatched with Pru was only a drop in the bucket, and they were working so hard to make the hold livable that they weren’t remotely ready for a battle. The bright side was that Callum’s war bears were standing by and Princess Thalia of the Eldritch would be arriving with her honor guard sometime tomorrow, if Gavriel could be believed. That also meant more mouths to feed on reduced available provisions. Wearily, he dragged another flatbed of rubble out of the building, exchanging nods with the wolf lord as he went by.

On the next run, he bumped Raff’s shoulder. “Thanks for staying. You didn’t have to.”

“Your pretty mate begged,” the wolf lord said. “If I’d turned her down, she’d have gotten on her knees, and that’s not something I let another man’s woman do for me.”

Dom balled his hand up without realizing it. Because it was Raff, the info came across filthy, but as shock trickled over him, he realized he had
no
fucking idea where Pru’s limits lay. She’d done so much for him—and the pride—already that he didn’t know how he’d ever repay her, even with his whole lifetime. He’d been so focused on the weight on his own shoulders that it never registered that she was silently working her ass off to carry half that burden.

She even
told
you, more than once.

Suddenly Raff laughed. “You had no idea, huh? That woman only looks soft. She’s got the Order of Saint Casimir working on the hothouses.”

“Seriously?”

Eyes glinting, the wolf lord shook his head in remembered amusement. “I watched the whole thing. That war priest was all like, ‘Give me battle or give me death’, and Pru pats him on shoulder and says, ‘You’d have more energy for combat if we had more to eat, wouldn’t you?’ Poor bastard turned bright red; pretty sure he’s never been that close to a woman before.”

“She’s resourceful,” was all he could manage.

“She’s solid gold,” Raff corrected.

“I think… I’ll look for her.”

“Good call. We’re losing the light soon, and my boys have drinking and gambling to catch up on.”

“Thanks again,” Dom said.

As he headed off, the wolf warriors trickled out of the residential hall, all sweaty and exhausted. The small mountain of broken plaster and masonry attested to Pru’s efficacy, and he couldn’t wait to see her. Words boiled in his head, and he didn’t even know which ones should take precedence. Mostly, he just had an overwhelming urge to thank her. Maybe she was sick of hearing it because he’d definitely said it before. The rest of the pride had written him off, practically rubber stamped him with
NOT AS STRONG AS HE SHOULD BE
, and when he first came back, he’d occasionally glimpsed surprise that he was still alive: still walking, talking, and making reasonable decisions. It sucked to know they’d considered him a lost cause.

Fairness forced him to add,
Except Slay.
Dom was here in the hold, searching for Pru, because Slay had cared enough to send the woman he loved the most to achieve the impossible. He couldn’t even fathom what he could do to make things up to his second, but that quiet debt was part of why he hadn’t broached the subject of Slay’s entanglement with Lord Talfayen and the traitorous Eldritch.

Sooner or later, I have to ask. But not now.

Since Pru might be volunteering with the wounded, he checked out the medical center, now markedly cleaner, and the patient ward had been repaired to the point that it looked like a hospital again and less like a war camp. The staff was still overworked, however, and they rushed around him with minimal acknowledgment.

I could get used to this.

It made sense that she would be with her surviving family during her brief moments of leisure, so he peeked into the room that housed her Aunt Glynnis and her young cousin. At first glance, Jilly didn’t seem too badly injured, but Dom could see that her vitality had been extinguished. For reasons she couldn’t understand, she’d lost her both her parents, her uncle, and her brother still hadn’t woken up. Jase must be somewhere else, hooked up to tubes and wires. He realized then that the pride prepared too little to care for Latents and kits, focusing far too much on the abilities gained after a successful shift.

I have to address that.

The older woman scented him, and her head came up, but her watchful expression melted in a sad but welcoming look. “We’re not sleeping. You can come in.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t visit sooner.”

“From what Pru tells me, you’re trying to be twelve places at once as it is.”

Before he could reply, Joss rushed into the room carrying a tray. “I know you’re tired of soup, but you have to eat, okay, sweetheart?”

In reply, Jilly turned away from everyone else in the room, rolling to face the wall. Both her grandmother and Joss tried to get the little girl to take a few spoons, but she only shook her head and maintained an awful silence.
This is the kind of emergency I never would’ve seen without Pru.
It was so easy to get lost in grand gestures and the big picture, but nothing would ever be more important than the pride’s smallest members.

“Let me try,” he said.

The women exchanged a look, but neither objected. Rather than start with a spoon, he perched on the edge of Jilly’s bed and set a hand on her back. He didn’t pet her or press, just maintained that quiet contact for a good five minutes. Since this was exactly what his mother had done when he balled up in a grievous mood, he smiled when Jilly finally rolled over to give him a dirty look.

“What do you want?”

“Nothing,” he said.

Since that obviously wasn’t what she expected, she sat up, preparing to argue. “Liar. Everyone wants something.”

“All right. I want this soup. I’m really hungry.”

“That’s mine,” she said, outraged.

“But you’re not eating it.”

“I am too.” She yanked it away from him and gobbled four big bites before she realized her grandmother was smiling, but hunger kicked in, and she fumed as she emptied the bowl.

Afterward, he didn’t move from Jilly’s bedside and smoothed the hair away from her forehead.
Her whole world went up when the bombs went off. Poor kid. No wonder she’s pissed.
At first she made cranky faces at him, but he noticed when the ice of her anger melted into tears that trickled from the corner of her eyes.

“You want to tell me?” he asked.

She paused for a few seconds. “If you ask Grandy and Joss to go first.”

“Are you reporting to me as pride master and not your cousin?”

“Yes,” Jilly said.

“Right then. Are you well enough to go for a walk with Joss?” he asked Glynnis.

“Of course. I’m not even getting treatment anymore.” Her face said she was looking after Jilly because this kit needed her most.

The two women went out and shut the door. When Jilly seemed sure they had no witnesses, she said, “I want you to punish somebody.”

“What happened?”

“When I was in the room with Jase and not Grandy, someone came and looked at him. Then he said…” her chin trembled, eyes overbright, “…that the rock should’ve just killed Jase, that he’ll never…”

Well, shit.
It was too much for a little girl to carry, but she hadn’t wanted to give it to her grandmother. Like Pru, she’d probably been worried about hurting someone else. Dom gathered Jilly close as she cried, until her face was sticky and red, and tears spangled her lashes.

This is what family feels like.

“Tell me what he looks like, and I’ll hunt him down,” he whispered.

Jilly described the visitor to the best of her ability, and it sounded like one of the wolves, which made things a little more complicated, but he didn’t doubt Raff would see the asshole disciplined. Eventually his small cousin drifted off against his chest and her kinfolk came back.

“You’re good with children,” Glynnis murmured.

“Since Jilly needed me, I’m glad I came, but I’m looking for Pru. Have you seen her?”

Joss stared at him, wide-eyed. “Didn’t she say good-bye?”

“What?” His blood froze solid.

T
his was the
biggest operation Pru had ever participated in.

Since she’d been on mission precisely once, that wasn’t saying much, but when Magda asked if she wanted in on the scouting run to make sure the road was clear for Princess Thalia, she volunteered in a heartbeat. After being abducted by that damn Noxblade, she was still eager to prove herself. Nobody had questioned her status as pride matron, but she wouldn’t feel right about using the title until she returned from a successful op like a warrior.

Probably, she should’ve said something to Dom first, but she’d suspected he might object. So as a result, she told Joss and Aunt Glynnis, then headed out to join the squad; they were thirty strong, mostly pride mates she knew only by sight. Hugh was the one exception, and she was surprised to find Caio on active duty, but he was still lithe for such an old lion.

The security chief made a tough call about traveling in cat form, as it would leave them vulnerable if they needed to shift later. But ambushes would also be easier, and there was no need to haul weapons. If things turned for the worse, they’d also be better equipped to scatter and make their way back to the hold separately. As usual, Pru was the smallest among the big cats, but it allowed her to get lost in the bodies running north. At first, it all seemed quiet. Magda took point, leading with an assurance that inspired everyone who followed.

Half of the snow had melted, leaving the ground a wet, muddy mess, and the conifer trees filled the air with a faint pine tang, much more obvious to an ocelot. Squirrels chattered overhead, tracking their incursion, and a fat one rained nuts down on them as he raced along various limbs overhead for a good five minutes. Hugh let out a warning rumble, and the squirrel thought better of provoking a big group of cats.

Despite the potential danger, it felt good to run after being in lockdown. The chill wind sang through her fur, carrying tales from other forest life. With great resolve, she ignored the interesting stories and kept pace with her squad. Three hours in, Pru heard the first rumble of what should be Princess Thalia’s convoy. A glance at her pride mates’ swiveling ears told her they heard it too. Magda led them off road, as there was no guarantee that this was the Eldritch royal just because it
should
be. Pru got that as she crouched in the underbrush, hoping that the vehicles would be moving slow enough to confirm their make; the first zoomed by, and she was 90% sure she recognized Eldritch colors and tech. Each seemed to be running a minute or so apart, not tightly clustered.