The Lion Kings (novel): a BBW Werelion Menage Romance (9 page)

“Yes,” she said huskily, her voice rough from her rushing breaths. The tip of a finger, Cage’s, pressed against her opening, gently pushing, entering her as she arched into the mattress.

Adam shifted slightly, allowing Cage room, as they both licked and sucked her enlarged clitoris. The awareness of both their tongues lashing her sex as Cage entered her with his finger overpowered her senses. She fisted Adam’s hair, the cool strands, a welcome relief to her feverish hands. She was so wet, and Cage slid in and out of her with ease. Her blood burned with their seduction. They were a perfect match, experts in the arts of love and sex.

Adam moved from her pussy to her mouth, his lips glistening with the evidence of her complete abandon. She tasted herself as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth, Cage taking the reign over her lower body, feasting between her thighs with hungry voracity, while Adam feasted from her lips then down to her neck, her breasts. And Maddie gave over—saying their names and begging for more until her head pressed back into the mattress, her neck going tight and rigid, right before the power of the orgasm, the soul scorcher, crashed through her in pounding waves of ecstasy.

“Oh God,” she whimpered when the she could speak, and she couldn’t hold back the racking sobs that stole her breath.

Adam and Cage moved to either side of Maddie, wrapping their arms around her, around each other, as they huddled in to comfort her. She could feel their sudden anxiety in the tension of their muscles.

“Did I hurt you?” Cage asked, the worry hard in his tone.

Maddie couldn’t answer, not straight away, but when she caught her breath and could, she said, “No.”

“Are you okay?” Adam asked, mirroring Cage’s concern.

“Yes,” she laughed, and the tears still flowed. How could she explain why she was crying? She barely understood herself. After her climax, a flush of an overwhelming sense of completeness had washed through her entire body, though she wasn’t sure that was the right word for the emotion even if it made sense.

“I’m more than okay,” she told them.

“Then why are you crying?” Cage asked.

They waited for her answer, and when it finally came to her, she said, without reserve, the most honest truth she knew, “I’m happy.”

WHEN
Madeline had started to cry, a crushing fear squeezed Adam’s chest, but when she’d finally said, “I’m happy,” he knew with certainty she meant it. He smiled at Cage, who was also smiling. She was theirs now, and they would love her and protect her.

She touched his face with one hand, her other caressing Cage’s beard. “I want you inside me. My heart is completely yours, both of yours, and I want my body to be yours as well.

Clary had never been so bold, so slow to come to them, to trust them, and here Madeline had known them for less than a week, and she accepted her destiny without doubt or reservation. His own heart filled to bursting. He could hear Cage’s pulse speed up as Madeline’s scent changed once again. God! His cock twitched, leaking pre-come onto her thigh. He didn’t even notice the rumbling in his chest and throat until Madeline asked: “Are you purring?”

Cage laughed, a sharp, unexpected bark of whimsy. “Yes, Maddie. I do believe he is.”

Adam gave them a stiff smile, but then laughed too. “That’s never happened to me before.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls,” Madeline said, fighting to keep the grin off her face.

Within seconds, all three of them were laughing, and Adam had never felt so light or so free. She’d done that for him. For them, he amended, as he watched Cage, the years of torture and pain nearly vanishing before his very eyes.

When the laughter subsided, he brushed her hair away from her face, and kissed her lovely cherubic lips. Her pale eyes met his gaze, and he promised himself that they wouldn’t lose her. Never.

Cage moved up on an elbow and kissed her next. Adam smiled, more pleased than he could put into words. Clary had calmed Cage’s rage, but Maddie made it disappear. What a fool he would have been, had he let her get away from them. With Madeline, every part of him clicked into place.

He slid his fingers between her thighs—already wet and ready again.

She moaned, spreading her legs for him. Now they would finally have their mating, the one that would make her their true queen. She would give them a child, and the pair bonding would give her a long life, one that Adam and Cage would spend making her as happy as she made them.

Adam maneuvered his body, positioning himself between her knees. He lowered his hips, his mouthwatering as he felt his lion push to his consciousness. He would have to shift some into his half-form, in order for the mating to be true, as Cage would, but he would keep the change to a minimum. A full shift to half-form would be more than she could take, not while she was still completely human.

She reached up and fisted Adam’s hair. “God. In me. Now,” she said breathlessly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!
The loud knock jerked Adam’s attention. Cage rolled to his feet, alert and ready to fight.

“Adam!” a voice called through the door.

It was Carl. Son of a bitch. The panther didn’t like Madeline, Adam knew, but he wouldn’t stop this. “Go away, Carl,” Adam snarled.

He banged again on the door.

“I’m going to be eating dwarf for dinner,” Cage growled.

Adam cast an apologetic glance at Madeline. She yanked the covers across her as soon as he got up.

Adam stalked to the door and said, “Goddamn it, Carl. Go away.”

“Zaria’s missing!”

The panicked declaration hit Adam like a bullet, but he stopped Cage when his brother dashed to the door. He directed his gaze to Madeline. “We’re coming,” he said through the door. “Give us two seconds.”

Madeline was already on her feet, unbuckling her suitcase. She pulled out a pair of shorts and a camisole and yanked them on without ceremony. Cage and Adam quickly dressed as well then opened the door to Carl.

The dwarf almost fell into the room. His face was red, worry and dread clear in his expression. “Adelaide hasn’t been able to find her since you left,” he said in a rush of words. “We’ve searched the entire carnival. She’s not there, Adam. She’s just gone.”

He’d never seen the dwarf so shaken. He trusted Carl. If his oldest friend said they’d looked everywhere, they’d looked
everywhere
. A sinking fear dropped his heart into his stomach. He could feel the same tension rolling off Cage as he stood nearby, unable to stop clenching and unclenching his fists. Adam’s throat tightened until he couldn’t breathe.

Maddie moved between them and put a set of keys in Adam’s hand. “Let’s take my car. It’ll be quicker.”

Adam stared at her, shoving his vulnerability down. If it had been anyone but Zaria he’d know what to do, how to act, but he’d raised the girl as his own... how could she be missing?

Madeline touched his face. “Apparently I have this gift for seeing things that have happened when I touch people, and I will put my hands on every goddamn person at the carnival and in this town until we find her. I promise you, Adam.” She turned to Cage, whose fear for Zaria was reflected in the widening of his face and the animalistic sheen of his eyes. She touched his face as he stared down at her. “I promise,” she said again.

ADELAIDE
Michaels, Adam’s sister, waited under the welcome arch with several of the carnival folk, including Alana, Darren, Marlena, Alice Deckard, and a lanky fellow Maddie had seen on the fairway, but hadn’t yet met. With her matted blonde hair, red puffy eyes, and trembling hands, it didn’t take a psychic to know how upset Adelaide was by her daughter’s disappearance.

Maddie stood by feeling helpless as Adam strode to Adelaide and gathered his sister in his arms. She broke down with wracking sobs against his chest. Adam stroked her hair back, making soothing noises until she finally calmed. An overwhelming fear shook Maddie to her bones.

So consumed with Adelaide’s grief, she barely noticed when Cage slipped his arm around her shoulders. A gesture meant to comfort. Instead, the world began to transform around her into a giant field with large stalks of corn, the tassels browning, almost ready for harvest.

I CAN
see Alice up ahead with her picnic basket. She is beckoning me to follow her. I am taller than the stalks with their swelling ears of sweet corn, but Alice, with her golden hair, keeps disappearing from my view. I can hear her laughing, and it makes me uneasy. I only agreed to go with her for Adam’s sake. He and she have been lovers for a couple of years now. It started before Adam rescued me. She is another of his saves, and I want to respect his choice.

I can sense the jealousy in Alice at Adam’s deference to me, but she doesn’t understand. She is not leogenus. She is pumagenus, a mountain lion shifter. She does not understand the connection Adam and I have. We are two parts of a whole now, tied until death. Brothers. Co-Rulers.

I hate her. They are not truly mated, and she knows this. A true mating would have brought a child, and after two years, she has never produced. She manipulates Adam to keep him around. Why can’t he see it?

She takes me through two more rows.

“Just a little farther, Cage. The clearing is up ahead. It’s gorgeous.”

I shake my head, unable to keep the growl from vibrating my chest and throat.

Alice disappears again as I make my way to where she stood. Caution makes me look down just in time to see a large, dark opening in the ground. I wave my arms to catch my balance.

I hear Alice laugh right before she shoves me forward.

The walls are dry and crumbling. I try to claw onto them as I fall into the man-made pit. I splash into knee-deep water when I hit the bottom. Completely unprepared for the impact, I am thrown to my ass—my hands and feet sink in the mud below. My fall has happened so fast, I forget for a moment why.

“Alice!” I roar at the bright opening at least twenty feet up.

She peeks her head over the edge, the fall of her hair and the lack of light on her face hides her expression. “I found this old well out here. Cool, huh?”

Every time I try to crawl up, I pull more dirt and earth down on me. And I am sinking further into the mud with every effort. “Get a rope,” I tell her, trying to push down the edge of panic.

“I don’t like you, Cage. And I like you even less as Adam’s roommate.” She’s not laughing now. “We had a good thing going until you came along. He barely touches me now.” I can hear an edge in her voice that scares me. What is Alice going to do now that she’s trapped me in this hole?

I don’t have to wait long for the answer.

“Good bye, Cage.” There is a certain amount of triumph in her voice as she pulls a lid over the top, submerging my watery tomb into complete darkness.

“No!” I shout, but I know she is already on her way back to the carnival. My heart pounds, beating like hammered fists inside my chest, as I realize Alice means to leave me here. I am in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, down a long forgotten well. Sixteen years of torture I endured. Sixteen years of living and sleeping in my own filth. For what? To die buried and alone in a worse place?

I feel the shift take hold. My beast has always been stronger. He kept me sane all those years, but even now I can feel his panic welling to the surface. Neither of us can take this. We cannot be caged again. We will not.

I scream, but the sound is inhuman. My face widens as bones move and reshape. My fingers become claws, thick dark nails sliding from the tips. My neck thickens, the corded muscles merging to broaden my shoulders, and I grow by inches as my partial form fully emerges.

I sink my hands into the dirt walls, stretching my legs to push against the opposite side. Half-way up, the soft wall crumbles again, and I slide back down into the watery grave. I will kill Alice. Kill her!

I don’t know how long I work and dig, but I am unable to climb to the top. I am small again. A child. Joe Armando has beaten me, forcing me to change. I am blood. I am hate. I am rage.

When the light shines down from above, a rope is dropped onto my back, and I take my shot at escape. Alice will die. Like the Armandos, she will not survive me. I leap out of the well when I reach the top, almost slipping back as the blonde holding the rope around her waist screams when I pounce.

My claws tear into her upper arms as I press my fangs against her fragile neck, and the stink of fear stokes my fury. I will taste her blood. I will devour her whole!

She turns beneath me. Not a mountain lion. Leogenus. Like me. Like Adam.

Confused, I pause.

I can see her now. This is not Alice. Not. Alice. The anomaly penetrates my violent thoughts.

Even in my half-form, I manage to say, “Adelaide?”

She keeps her head down, paws down, her full belly on display. She is submitting. Afraid to do little else.

In my blind savagery, I have almost killed Adam’s sister.

REALITY
crashed over Maddie as she awoke from the vision screaming and slashing at the arms wrapped around her. It took a moment to realize she was no longer trapped. The panic she’d felt had been suffocating. She stared at Cage and Adam, both holding her tightly and looking worried.

“Stop,” she said, her voice hoarse. “I’m okay.”

“What happened?” Adam asked. “Did you see something about Zaria?”

She stared at Cage, remembering his frenzied terror, and shook her head. She gulped. “Nothing. It was nothing.”

She’d been experiencing Cage and Adam through Clary’s eyes, but just now, the glimpse into Cage, had made her more aware of the large man’s fragility. She’d felt how tenuously he held onto his control. How easy it might be for that control to snap. He’d savored Adelaide’s blood. She swallowed as if she could still taste the metallic sweetness.

She loved Cage, no matter what she’d seen, and she tried to put her reassurance in her gaze.

Adam stroked her hair from her face, and once again, the world melted away.

I
AM
not strong. My mother died during my birth, Adelaide’s mother Rose Ann is barren now, and my father will no longer see reason. He worries that I will challenge him when I have reached maturity. I have heard him say as much to Rose Ann, who has cared for me since I was an infant. She called him crazy last night and he beat her unconscious. After he left, I cleaned her up as best I could and dragged her to bed. She is leogenus. She will heal, but I am afraid he is breaking her in other ways.

My father believes more sons will prevent me from ascending to his place. He is our king, our master, and he is not kind or good. My little sister weeps as she curls up in the curve of her mother’s side. If Rose Ann would shift, the healing would be faster, but I can’t make her.

I am not strong.

Unreasonably, she thinks if he sees what he has done, guilt will stop him from doing it again. He has no remorse.

She stirs, stroking Adelaide’s blonde curls. “Son,” she says, her voice weak.

I cross the room and sit beside her.

She takes my hand. “You’re father cares for you. For all of us. He is a great man. He knows that only a true mating can produce a child. As it was with your mother when you were created. As it was for me with Adelaide. Don’t forget that.”

I am only twelve, but even so, I know she is lying. He does not care for anyone but himself. I am twelve, and I know my father will try to destroy me—destroy all who love me. He is a tyrant King who will brook no challenge to his throne. I am twelve, and I know one day I will kill him.

MADDIE
snapped back again, scrambling a few feet away from both men. Seeing the vision from Adam’s perspective, hearing his most private thoughts, gave her better insight into this man she planned to take as a mate. Unlike Cage, Adam, even at twelve, had been poised and in control. He’d tried to take care of the woman who raised him and bore his sister, all the while fighting for his own survival. His strength and focus, even as a youth, held her in awe. She hadn’t thought she could love him more, but she’d been wrong.

However, she worried she’d see nothing of Zaria, only more Adam and Cage if they kept touching her. She suspected their strong emotions were making their tragic pasts take over her visions. If she wanted to use her ability to find Zaria, she wouldn’t be able to do it with either of her men so close.

Adam’s dark, blue eyes were rimmed with exhaustion. “What? What is it?”

“I can’t focus. Not with the two of you near.” She rubbed her arms, soothing the gooseflesh produced by the vision. Cage held out his hand to help her up, but Maddie shook her head. “Touching you both, being so close, all I’m getting up here—” She tapped her head. “Is Adam and Cage. And because you’re scared for Zaria, I’m seeing other times in your life when you were afraid. If I’m going to help, I need to do it with you two standing way over there.” She gestured to the other side of the arch.

Adelaide turned to Maddie. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s got the gift of sight,” Adam said, before Maddie could answer.

“Like Clary?” she asked. Her voice trembled. Hope, maybe?

“Yes, but Clary saw the future, while Madeline sees the past.”

“Well, I’ll be,” Marlena said with a whisper.

Adam took his sister’s hand. “We will find Zaria.”

“Yes.” Maddie said, sensing a growing tension in the group. “We won’t stop until she’s found.” She gave Alice a knowing look. The petite blonde jerked her chin back, startled at Maddie’s hard stare. After what Alice had tried to do to Cage, it wouldn’t have surprised Maddie one bit if she’d done something to Zaria.

She shook her head, and shifted her focus to Adelaide. She was Adam’s sister, and even if she hadn’t been, Maddie wanted to help put her at ease. But when Maddie took a step toward her, Adelaide took a timid step back.

Maddie didn’t try to touch her. She was a stranger to Adelaide. She knew that several of the carnival folk, especially the dwarf, Carl, thought her no better than an outsider. So instead of trying to get closer to Adelaide, she simple said, “I will do everything in my power to get Zaria back to you.”

Adelaide cast a shy glance downward. “Thank you.”

Alice Deckard snorted. “Damn Rube thinks she’s all high and mighty.”

“And you’re a selfish bitch,” Maddie retorted.

Alice hissed and took a step toward her.

Cage snarled and moved quicker than Maddie could track. In two beats he was on Alice, his fingers closing around her throat.

She made a strangled sound as she tugged at his tightening fingers.

“You’re choking me,” she managed to say.

If she could talk, then Cage was showing considerable restraint. Maddie didn’t want Cage to hurt Alice—No, she wanted to do it herself. Cage was hers now, and Alice better watch her back.

Alice shifted her gaze to Adam, her face red and her eyes watering. “Are you going to leash your animal?”

Adam arched his brow. “You are talking about your king, Alice. My co-ruler. And Madeline is no rube. She’s our queen, and you’ll treat her and Cage with respect or find another home.”

Maddie’s heart swelled to near bursting. She fought back the tears she couldn’t keep from her eyes. Adam’s declaration in front of his troupe swelled her with pride. She knew when they’d asked her to be their mate, they’d been serious, but it hadn’t felt real yet. Now, surrounded by Adam and Cage’s people, their intentions clear, it all felt hyper-real. Adam had made a public announcement, and all of them—except Cage and Adam—stared at Maddie as if she’d grown a second head. She was their queen, or at least would be when the ritual was complete. Adam saying it out loud meant everyone would have to get used to the idea. She glared at Alice. Everyone.