Wanted By The Alpha Lion (Heroes of Shifter Creek 2) (2 page)

Chapter Three

New Mexico

The van stopped, jerking Cassie forward in her seat. She had been asleep and was reluctant to wake, especially when the harsh sunlight hit her eyes… until she saw the grand house in front of her. With a second-floor balcony that ran the width of the wooden structure, it resembled a giant mansion from the days of the pioneers – rustic but nothing short of royal, tailored for the kings and queens of the western wilderness.

              “Welcome home,” Sammi said, twisting in her seat towards Gowon in the back, but he was already out the door, stretching his powerful muscles as a free lion. Cassie left the van, watching as Gowon sprinted across the wide range that surrounded them, a landscape full of flat plains, rocky sandstone formations, and shrubbery. Before he got too far ahead of himself, he stopped and looked back at her.

              “Go. I’ll be fine,” she encouraged.

              Bowing his head slightly, Gowon took off. For the first time since she met him, the white lion didn’t look so sad. It made her heart soar in ways she didn’t quite understand.

              “We have to break this affliction,” Kafele mumbled near her. “We can’t have our alpha submitting to a one-breed.”

              “It’s not a one-breed he’s submitting to. It’s a much greater force,” Sammi speculated. “Cassie, follow me. I’ll show you to your room. You don’t have long to settle in before members of the Blanc Pride start to arrive.”

***

Snow surrounded Cassie, heavy and wrathful. She could barely breathe, let alone see. The winter was lethal, but she wasn’t its prey.

              Large bloody paw prints were imprinted into the snow. She followed them one by one, able only to see a few inches in front of her.

              They stopped only when she reached a pale mass almost invisible in the snowy storm.

              It was Gowon. And he was hurt. Bad.

              Drawing in a deep breath, Cassie woke from the nightmare, but she knew it was no dream. Throwing off her covers, she ran from the room and out into the wild. Above her, the stars shone bright, lighting her way as she ran to him – her lion – instinct telling her where to go.

             
If only I could shift
, she thought frantically.
Then I’d reach him faster.

              When she finally found him, he was not bleeding, not like in the nightmare. But he was in danger. In the moonlight, a shadow in the shape of a person had Gowon cornered against a rock, taunting him with a spear that was all too solid. Gowon clawed at the prowler, but his claws could not tear the flesh of a shadow.

              The shadow raised the spear higher, ready to drive it down.

              “No!” Cassie cried, and she ran in front of Gowon, acting as a shield.

              With a razor edge, the spear gashed her arm before it and the shadow disappeared completely.

              Stunned, Cassie took a moment to calm herself, realizing the severity of what just happened. When she finally turned to check on Gowon, he was gone.

              In his place was a man.

              “Wow,” Cassie stuttered, staring at his gloriously nude body. He was... impressive. His skin was pale but grew in color as he stood before her, settling on a light bronze fitting beneath the blazing sun, a color offset by his white blonde hair, so short it was almost militant. But his eyes were the same, eyes she’d been mesmerized by since he first came to the zoo, for their sadness, their intelligence... and now their yearning.

              “Hi,” she added meekly, trying to keep her focus above the mound of blonde hairs that covered his tight chest and led down to his... manhood.

              “Cassie,” he acknowledged. His voice was deep and powerful. It sent chills down her spine and warmed her core.

              Gowon was a stranger... but he wasn’t. Until now, she’d only known him as a lion, but seeing him as a man made her feelings towards him change completely. He was no longer an animal she cared for. He was a man she wanted. Craved.

              A man who, by the judge of things, wanted her as well.
Oh what the hell
, she thought.
When in the wild...

Cassie rushed to him, and Gowon accepted her, pulling her close into him with his massive, unbreakable arms.

              “Thank you,” he said. “For keeping me sane when I was locked in that cage. And now for setting me free. I don’t know how I’m human again, but I know it’s because you saved me.”

              Then he tilted her head up and kissed her, first with his lips, then with his tongue, taking all of her in. For Cassie, it was earth-shattering. She pushed in closer to him, feeling his manhood grow against her, hard and untamed.

              “You’re everything I wanted in a mate,” he moaned as she lifted her top over her head, revealing her bountiful breasts and wide curves. “A true lioness.”

              “Except that I’m not,” she said as she continued to pull off her clothes. “I’m no lioness. I’m only human.”

              “That doesn’t matter,” he insisted hoarsely, staring at her now naked body. “Right now, none of that matters.”

              Taking charge, Gowon took her hand and led her to a nearby creek where the earth was at its softest. Then he laid her onto the ground, balancing his weight so that he did not crush her with his might.

              With his skin brushing hers and his manhood close to her thigh, Cassie swelled with anticipation, her core pulsing. She wanted him inside her, to know what a lion-man felt like between her legs. From the size of his manhood, she judged him full of power and stamina.

              But he did not take her, not yet. He kissed her again, just as passionately as before, then he ran his tongue down her body, lingering at her naval. With his mouth so close to her core, and his sweet kisses all over her body, she moaned in desire.

              “I hear you, my lioness,” he whispered, then gave her what she wanted, nudging her legs slightly apart before licking her pink flesh with the tenderness and precision of a giant cat drinking milk, only it was her milk he was tasting. His tongue was warm and moist against her, electrifying her insides until she felt a blissful rush of heat building within.

              “Wait,” he commanded, lifting his head. “Not yet.”

              Before she could prepare, he opened her legs wider and plunged his throbbing manhood into her. His thrusts began gentle, his manhood lingering within her folds, luring her to the wild side, but soon he could not control himself, and he took her with all his force.

              Making love to Gowon was everything Cassie imagined it would be. He was powerful, but it was a power he shared with her, his mighty thrusts lighting her body with a new sense of freedom and pleasure until she could resist the heat within her no longer. Her body was washed in a glorious light, and she experienced more power and sweetness than she ever had before. Gowon joined her, roaring as he released himself, a roar that echoed across the range.

***

Chapter Four

Gowon

              The stars were the same as they always were, but tonight they had new meaning to Gowon. Tonight, they had guided her to him – his mate. He’d known Cassie was his mate from the moment she entered his den at the zoo. She was gorgeous and curvy with meat in all the right places, strong enough to handle him. When she’d come to visit him at night, telling him stories of her day –random anecdotes she’d read, highlights of her research– he’d inhale her soft scent, like rain on the open plain, and pine after the way her long mahogany hair fell across her back, wishing he could bury himself into her hair as he held her in his arms.

              He would do anything to protect her, but now, after their love making, as they sat on the steps leading into the house, fully dressed, to his dismay, he realized he’d brought her into the clutches of danger.

              “Cassie,” he said, interrupting the speech she was giving on immortal jellyfish, “promise me you’ll never put yourself in danger like that again.”

              The surprise on her face revealed to him that she had completely forgotten about their encounter with the Shadow Pride, despite the bandaged wound on her arm from where the spear hit.

              “I can’t make that promise,” she stated truthfully. “Not when it comes to you. Who was that?”

              He didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want her involved in any of it. But he spoke, arming her with knowledge. “I was attacked by a member of the Shadow Pride – a family of lions who formerly reigned over these lands. My pride doesn’t just live her. Many prides do. The wilderness here is vast. It was acquired over a century ago by Thomas Dalkey – a great-grandfather of what is now known as the Shadow Pride. Dalkey had a keen insight. He knew it was only a matter of time before the unclaimed lands of the West were fully settled, so he purchased this land while it was still unblemished so all lions had a place to roam free. He did it as an act of charity, but his decedents weren’t so benevolent. They believed it gave them power – the power to rule. The other prides did not agree, and so Thomas Dalkey’s descendants were pushed from the land. But they did not go far, nor did they forget. They sought ways to reclaim their land and assert their power, eventually turning to a Native American shaman who gave the Dalkey lineage the ability to travel as shadows when they are in human form. That is how they earned the name the Shadow Pride. But the process of transforming and traveling as a shadow is exhaustive and dangerous, so it is not frequently done. At least we have that blessing.”

              “But why you?” Cassie asked. “Why did they attack you?”

              “Because I am the alpha of my pride. I am the guardian of my people, ever since my parents were killed…”

              He could feel the angry rising in his voice, and he quickly calmed himself. He did not want his emotions to cause him to shift, in case the lift on the affliction was only temporary. For over a year, he had been frozen in his lion form. He was in no hurry to return to it, especially now that
she
, his mate, was near.

              “Anyway, I am now the alpha. My pride is the largest here. The other prides look to us with respect. They follow our lead, especially my sister and I. We are the last of the white lions on this range. Others exist, but not here. We are unique. And our family is large. If we fall, the Shadow Pride has a much greater chance of reclaiming their territory.”

              “And there’s no way the Shadow Pride can co-exist with the other prides?”

              Gowon grunted, imagining the sharp point of the spear aimed straight for his heart. Affectionately, he ran a hand over the bandage on Cassie’s arm. “The Shadow Pride do not understand the concept of co-habitation. To them, it is only rule or be ruled.”

***

Chapter five

Cassie

              Weeks passed, but Cassie barely noticed. Time did not exist. There was only Gowon. And his pride. They came in groups, trickling in and out to pay their respects to their alpha, elated he had found a way back to his human form. They didn’t all live on the range, not like Gowon and Sammi. Most lived elsewhere – from big, cosmopolitan cities to little suburban towns – but this was their home. This was where they could roam free, truly be themselves.

              “They like you,” Sammi noted to her one day as they waved goodbye from the porch to a group of adolescent cousins breaking free from their parents for a weekend. “They don’t even mind that you’re not one of us.”

              “Could I be?” Cassie asked, surprising herself. “I read a book that said the transformation can happen, under the fire of Leo. But only if the participant is willing.”

              “Yes, it can, but I don’t think my brother would allow it. He believes he has put you in too much danger as it is. If you become part of our pride, you’ll be marked.”

              “I guess it’s irrelevant at the moment,” Cassie said, watching Gowon as he looked across the range in remorse, barely noticing as his cousins beeped one final time from their little Volkswagen Beetle as they drove away. “He still hasn’t changed. He’s afraid that if he does, he’ll be trapped again.”

              “Either way, he’s trapped,” Sammi said miserably. “Trapped in his human form. Trapped in his lion form. He won’t fully be free unless he can shift at will.”

              “So how do we free him?”

              “We break the affliction by killing the one who put it on him,” Sammi told, unmistakably devastated.

              “But we don’t know who that is.”

              Sammi was taken aback. “Is that what my brother told you?”

              “Yes,” Cassie declared, realizing Gowon may not have been completely honest.

              Sammi would say no more, but for the first time that day, she smiled in what looked like gratitude.

***