The Lion Kings (novel): a BBW Werelion Menage Romance (11 page)

WHEN
Adam got to Room 110, he could smell Zaria all over the door. He turned the handle, and it opened without a key. They must have left it unlocked in their rush to leave. Tentatively, he stepped into the room.

“Zar?” He could hear a soft whimpering coming from the bathroom. “Zaria,” he said with more alarm. He crossed the small room quickly and flung open the bathroom door. The stained, yellow shower curtain was closed, and the crying was going on behind it. He pulled the curtain back. Zaria sat in the tub, hugging her knees. Her tear-streaked face was red and blotchy. Her swollen eyelids told him that the crying had been going on for a while.

“Are you okay, Zar?” He scooped her up in his arms, patting over her arms, her back, and her legs as he checked for injuries. Her clothes seemed okay. Nothing torn or ripped. No attack marks anywhere. “Did someone hurt you?”

She threw her tiny arms around his neck and sobbed against him. An ever tightening fear twisted his gut. “Tell me, Zaria. What’s happened?”

“That woman,” Zaria managed through stuttering, ragged breaths. “She can’t be your queen. She just can’t.”

“Are you talking about Madeline?”

“Yes,” the little girl said with a hiccupping sob.

Maybe she was afraid that Madeline would lessen her role in his life. “You know,” Adam said, using a finger to push aside strands of her long, pale hair clinging to her wet cheeks. “Having Madeline in my life doesn’t mean I love you any less. You’re still my girl. You know that right?”

Zaria pressed her face into his chest again and transformed into a lion cub. Adam turned her gently to avoid getting claws to the chest. “Well, that’s one way to end a conversation.” He stroked her fur. “Shift back now.”

She stayed in lion form.

“I don’t know how to get you home like this, Zaria.”

Still, she stayed fully furred.

“Damn it,” Adam cursed. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom and threw it over his niece. When he got outside, he whistled for Gus.

The lanky leopard shifter came running. “You found her,” he said, surprise evident in his raised brows.

“Yep.” Adam was still peeved she wouldn’t shift back to human.

“And she’s a cub.”

“Yep,” Adam said again.

Gus held up his hand. “Okay. I’ll drop it.” He shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “You want me to get Cage and the ladies?”

Adam shook his head, holding Zaria tight as she squirmed in his arms. He really wanted to go get Cage and Madeline, to be near them. The longing he’d felt since the interrupted mating, and not just a sexual longing, made him feel as if he were a V-8 truck without a steering wheel—all power and no direction. He needed Madeline. Almost enough to tell Gus to take Zaria back on his own. But his niece was strong and squirmy, if she got loose from either of them, it might take both to retrieve her.

She was definitely acting like she wasn’t ready to go back to the carnival. And having a fully shifted lion cut outside the carnival was dangerous... For all of them. “We need to get her out of the public eye. Besides, everyone is supposed to meet up in less than an hour. They’ll catch up.”

It was less than an hour, he reminded himself. Less than an hour before him and Cage could once again hold their queen.

CAGE
’s roar echoed off the steel walls of the bin as he fell through the hatch. No, not fell. He’d been pushed by Adelaide.
God damn it
! He threw out his arms and legs, bracing himself to take most of the impact in his limbs instead of landing hard on Maddie. He tried to stand up, but the mountain of grain kept him off his feet.

“Adelaide!” he shouted. “Get a rope and throw it down.”

Adelaide stared at him, sheer horror in her expression. The four-foot opening framed her betrayal. “I’m sorry, Cage. I’m so sorry. I never want this to happen. Never wanted to hurt you.”

“Adelaide!” he yelled again. The magnification of his voice shook the grain around them, and Maddie started to slip under.

Then the light went out. Adelaide had closed the hatch. She’d closed the god damned, fucking hatch. Once again, Cage found himself caged. The darkness clawed at his hard won shields. Terrible things happened in dark. At least that’s how it had once been for him.

Maddie moaned beneath him, and Cage shifted to one side of her. He had to stay calm, stay in control, but somehow that message hadn’t quite made it to his frantically beating heart. He fought to stop the gorge of panic rising from the pit of his stomach, through his chest, and choking him.

“Cage,” Maddie muttered.

He pulled her into his arms. He could smell blood. The back of her head was wet and sticky with it. This hadn’t happened in the fall. Adelaide must have hit her first. He suppressed the hysterical laughter threatening to burble from his throat.

It was dark. Bad things happened in the dark. He moved his legs, and a slide of the dried corn sounded like rain against the metal. There’d been a door at the bottom of the bin, but it was buried under at least fifteen feet of corn. And even if Cage could get to the door without the grain suffocating Maddie, it was bolted from the outside.

No way up. No way down. No way out.

He could feel his lion pushing its way to the surface, sensing Cage’s need to hide. Joe Armando would come to him in the dark. He enjoyed damaging Cage, watching how fast he could heal himself with a shift. It had started when Cage had been six and didn’t end until he was sixteen. The day Adam had saved him. The day he’d saved himself. He’d torn out Joe’s throat, relishing the thick texture of his blood as he drank him down. He’d eaten most of the man’s chest and part of a thigh before Adam had been able to penetrate his hungry rage.

The memory made him shudder.

Cage’s eyes adjusted enough to see Maddie’s open gaze glittering in the dark. Oh no. She knew. She’d seen what he’d done—what he was capable of doing to someone else. His pulse hammered in his ears, the strong whoosh of blood like pounding waves inside his skull. She would never want him—love him. Not now. How could she? He was no better than the men who’d raised him. A monster.

His hands shook as he pulled away from Maddie, giving her space. He didn’t want her to be afraid. Not of him.

A soft hum rose from the darkness, and it startled Cage from his self-revulsion.

Maddie’s voice was barely above a whisper when she sang, “
Let me call you sweetheart. I’m in love with you
.”

“Maddie,” Cage said, unsure how to respond to her strange reaction.

“
Let me hear you whisper, you love me too
.”

He felt her grip his waist when he tried to pull away again. “I’m no good, Maddie. I can’t even save us.”

“We’ll save each other,” she said. “Just hold me, Cage. I’m cold.”

Alarms went off in Cage’s head. It wasn’t cold in the bin, and he was generating enough heat to warm a small room. “Tell me what’s happening. How do you feel?”

“My head hurts, and I feel sick to my stomach.”

The blow to head must have given her a concussion. Like Clary. He struggled to fight back the fear. He and Adam couldn’t lose Maddie. Not now. Not like this. If only they’d completed the mating, she’d be stronger. Maybe strong enough to survive. “You have to live, Maddie. I can’t do this without you.”

“Do what?” she asked. Her voice had gone sleepy.

“Live.”

He saw her blink as if his declaration had woke her up. “Oh Cage. You have to live.”

“Tell me about the song.” He wanted to change the subject, to keep her talking.

A lazy smile played on Maddie’s lips. “I wish I could see you.”

Cage smiled. “This craggy face.”

“You are handsome. Maybe the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. You and Adam are gods among men.”

The snort of a laugh from Cage surprised them both. “Gods, huh? Does that mean you’re our goddess?”

Maddie shook her head and gave a wincing “ow.” “I am your queen.” She kissed his palm when he laid it on her cheek. “You are my king.”

“I command you to live.”

“I’m trying,” she said. “Why is Alice still with the carnival?”

The question surprised Cage. “Because she’s one of Adam’s saves. Like me. You. All of us. Why do you ask?”

“I saw what she did. How she lured you to the well. How could Adam let her stay after that?”

“He didn’t know. I never told him.”

“But Adelaide knew.”

He felt the shame come back. He’d attacked Adelaide. He could have killed her. “Adelaide had followed Alice and me. She’d had a small crush on me at the time, and her curiosity saved my life. After… what I did, she didn’t want to come between Adam and me, so she kept it to herself.” He caressed Maddie’s face, reassuring himself she was still with him. “It wasn’t long after that Adam broke it off with Alice. The woman can be vengeful. I made a deal with her. If she left Adam alone, I’d never tell him what she did.”

“Uh hmm. Makes sense…” Maddie said, drifting again.

The weakness in her tone scared Cage. He had to keep her talking. Keep her awake. “Tell me about the song, Maddie.”

“What song?”

He smiled to lighten his words. He didn’t want her to hear the worry in voice. “The one you were just singing.”

“Oh, that one.” He felt her hand brush his arm, and he slipped his hand in hers as she continued. “My gram used to sing it to me when I was a little girl. It just popped into my head. I thought it might…distract you.”

Clever girl. She’d obviously seen what had happened to him in the well. Her song had helped him to stay in control, and he loved her all the more for knowing the right thing to do for him, even in her injured state.

“Your gram sounds sweet,” he told her.

Maddie chuckled, then “ow’d” again. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts my head. My gram was not sweet. The woman knew how to dole out insults like they were part of a balanced diet. She once told me that I was getting to fat, and said,
you know how to fix that, right? Just stop putting food in your mouth
. I was fifteen, and I thought I’d die of embarrassment.”

Cage growled. “You have a beautiful body. I’d give you a bottomless plate of food to keep those curves exactly where they are.”

“Really?” He heard a hint of challenge in her voice.

“You want proof of my devotion to your primo, sexy bod?”

“As long as you’re not going anywhere...”

Now that he could admit his feeling for Maddie, he knew he’d been gone over her since the moment he’d seen her, and worshipping her body would give him nothing but pleasure. However, he had to remember she was injured. “You probably have a concussion.”

He felt Maddie’s palm touch his chest and trail down his stomach. His cock jerked to attention.

“It seems there’s good cause to keep me awake then.”

Cage lowered his mouth to Maddie, sipping a kiss from her lips. The panic at being stuck in the dark with no escape had lessened a little, but his worry for Maddie hadn’t.

“Don’t fret so much,” she said. “Adam will find us. Until then, we’ll just have to keep ourselves busy.”

Cage kissed her again, taking full advantage when she parted her lips and opened for him. He slid into her mouth, relishing the sweet taste of as her tongue mingling with his. His hips moved against her involuntarily when she nibbled his lower lip.

She moaned against his mouth as he trailed a hand over her breast, down her waist, and up under her shirt. Cage gently cupped her breast, relishing the heft of it before gently rolling her nipple between his index finger and thumb. He deepened his kiss as the small nub tightened at his touch and heat rushed to his groin.

“Cage,” she said breathlessly, her fingers lacing into his hair. “I love you. Love you so damned much.”

“I love you,” he said back, meaning it with all his heart.

He could feel her smile against his lips. Then her hand fell away and she stopped kissing him. “Maddie?” She didn’t respond. Fear spiked his blood. “Maddie?” He shook her by the shoulder, but her body was as loose as the corn they were on.