called to mind the heavy mane of an
African lion. And his eyes, Ava always wondered how they could be mistaken
for human. A bright feline gold with the
slightest sheen of green, those eyes
always seemed to see so much more than
they should, piercing right through her.
“Landon,” she said, her voice even
smokier than usual. “Let’s just go.”
She reached across him to put her hand
on his arm, so that her own arm stretched
like a bar between him and his cowboy
prey. Her arm wouldn’t stop him, but she
was counting on it to act as a
psychological barrier more than a
physical one. She gently squeezed his
biceps and those green-golden eyes
shifted away from Chance to lock on her.
Ava bit her lip. She’d never been so
close to him before and the way he was
looking at her…it was a miracle she
didn’t combust on the spot. But then his
eyes flicked from Chance to her and
back again, the martial gleam in them
brightening.
“Landon,” she said his name again,
lowering her voice to little more than a
purr. She shifted toward him. They
weren’t separated by much, so it didn’t
take much to press her front against his.
His eyes slammed down on her, Chance
forgotten. She had all of his attention
now.
Now all she had to do was convince the big bad kitty that he didn’t want to kill
the man who had threatened his territory.
Ava rubbed her body against his, a
gesture that was more familiar in her
other form, but she hoped would have a
similarly calming effect. Her intention
wasn’t sexual. Social touching to soothe
one another was common among the
lions of the pride, but when Ava rubbed
her cheek against his shoulder and
tipped her face to scent his neck, she felt
anything but soothed. Desire coursed
through her in a shuddering wave,
pooling in her stomach and releasing a
flood of moisture and heat between her
legs.
Landon inhaled sharply and coughed, a hard ridge against her stomach marking
his body’s reaction to her arousal. Ava
knew better than to think his erection had
anything to do with her personally. Any
lion male scenting a female’s lust would
react the same way.
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Serengeti Heat
He closed one arm around her, pinning
her to his front. “I’m taking you home.”
She felt more than heard his words
vibrating through his chest.
Chance, wisely, didn’t protest further as Landon ushered Ava out of the bar.
Stepping out into the oppressive heat of
the summer night, Ava scanned the
parking lot until she saw Landon’s jeep,
starting toward it without being told.
She’d caught a taxi to the bar, thinking
her brothers would be less likely to
track her down if they couldn’t use the
LoJack that was in all the ranch
vehicles, but her carefully laid plan
evidently hadn’t slowed them down
much.
“They sent you after me, didn’t they?”
Ava snapped, as Landon hustled her
across the parking lot with an unyielding
grip on her upper arm.
“Honey, no one sends me to do
anything,” he snarled. “I’m the boss.”
An illicit thrill shot through her.
He’d come for her. Landon King, Alpha
of the Three Rocks Pride, had come after
lowly little beta Ava Minor. Which
meant he actually knew who she was.
Which meant she wasn’t completely
invisible to him.
It may not be a declaration of love, but
life was looking a hell of a lot brighter
than it had a few minutes ago.
“I was already in the bar when you
showed up. A fact which you would
have noticed if you hadn’t been so busy
shaking your ass at anything that would stand still long enough.”
And, just like that, life was a dark and
depressing place once again.
Of course he hadn’t come for her. Why
would he? As far as he was concerned,
she barely even existed.
And as for her brothers…they probably
hadn’t even noticed she was gone. No
one was out scouring the night for
unimportant Ava Minor. Her little
rebellion had been crushed without so
much as a kiss from a stranger to make
her feel like a woman.
Was that so much to ask? To feel
different for a change? For once not the weakest member of the pride. For once
not a protected little sister, a helpless
little girl, a lioness so small she was
never even included in the hunts.
Tonight, for once in her life, she was
going to be more. But it hadn’t worked
out that way. It never worked out that
way.
Ava had never felt more invisible.
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11
Chapter Two
Landon opened the driver’s side door of
the jeep and tossed her across the stick shift into the passenger seat. He’d all but
thrown her into the car, but she didn’t
make a single sound of complaint. She
curled into the far seat, more cat than
woman, and he jumped in after her,
slamming the door harder than necessary
and barking, “Seatbelt.”
What the hell had she been thinking
walking into a place like that dressed the
way she was? Acting like everything she
had was up for grabs. Smelling like…
fuck. The scent of her from half a room away had his cock standing up for duty.
Sitting in the cab, the air around them
smelled heavily of her. It was
scrambling his brain. That was his only
excuse for the fact that he had nearly shifted in the middle of the bar—in
public—just for the satisfaction of
ripping out that cowboy’s innards.
Landon revved the engine to life and
slammed it into gear. Gravel sprayed up,
pinging against nearby cars, as he tore
out of the parking lot. She clutched at the
doorframe as he took the corner too fast.
The jeep rocked, the left-side wheels
nearly lifting off the ground, but instead
of easing up, Landon’s foot slammed
down on the accelerator. Tires
screeched and jolted as they found
purchase on the asphalt of the county
road and the jeep shot forward like a
rocket, passing eighty miles per hour as
the abused engine screamed.
She didn’t make a sound.
Landon was still spoiling for a fight, his
blood up higher than it had ever been
outside of the challenge circle. His
claws kept springing out, his usual, rigid
control of the animal inside him beyond
&
nbsp; him in his current state. His body wanted
to shift and go to battle, not to hunt but to
fight for his territory, protect his pride.
He needed the violence. And barring
that, he needed to snarl at someone,
verbally rip into someone until his claws
no longer itched to fillet the cowboy
who had stood too close to her.
Beside him in the passenger seat, Ava’s
calm mocked him. A silent challenge.
“What the fuck were you doing?”
She started at his tone, instinctively
shying against the door. Her fear, subtle
though it was, only served to enrage him
further. Then she spoke and her words
disabused him of the notion that she was
afraid of him.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,”
she snapped, her voice brittle as she
stared straight ahead out the window.
“Think again, sweetheart. As far as
you’re concerned, I’m judge, jury and
executioner. So start talking.”
Serengeti Heat
She shifted against the door again and
Landon took a deep breath, thinking to
reassure himself that there was no tang
of fear in her scent, but instead his head
was swamped by a rush of heat. His
hands tightened convulsively on the
steering wheel. There was no fear in her
scent. Only lust, thick and heady.
He’d thought it would diminish once he
got her away from her cowboy toy, but
the close proximity inside the jeep made
her scent even stronger. He was
drowning in it. And hard enough to
pound spikes.
“You’re not talking…” he growled, the
promise of a threat creeping into his voice.
“I could declare myself a nomad,” she
said defiantly. “Then you wouldn’t have
any rights over me.”
Landon laughed sharply, incapable of
actual humor in his current state, but
bitterly amused. “Shall I call your
brothers or would you rather tell them
you’ve decided to go off the reservation
yourself?”
She hissed a curse under her breath.
“I don’t hear an explanation, Ava.”
She turned to him sharply, blinking in
surprise. “You know my name?”
“Of course I know your name,” he
snapped, made defensive by the fact that
he wouldn’t have known it if the cowboy
hadn’t said it in front of him. He’d
known she was one of his pride by the
scent of her and a vague sense of
familiarity, but twenty minutes ago he
wouldn’t have known her from Eve
among the lionesses in his pride.
He’d only known to dangle her brothers
over her as a threat because he’d heard
those brothers, four of his most effective
enforcers, talking about their kid sister
more than once. “Little Ava” was
nothing like her hulking brothers. She
was tiny, almost frail for a lioness. She
couldn’t possibly be fully grown, could she?
Though in that outfit, she looked plenty
grown-up.
“Your brothers are going to have kittens
when they see you dressed like that.”
“I just wanted to have a good time. Is
that against the law?”
“Yes.” The answer shot out of his mouth
before his brain caught up. Technically,
fun was not illegal either among the
humans or the pride, but Landon would
happily fabricate a law if it kept her ass
out of that bar for the rest of her natural
life.
She snorted, unimpressed by his heavy-handed answer. “My, my. Aren’t we
king of the double standard?” she
purred, the sarcasm coating her words
like molasses. “And what were you
doing at such a notorious meat market,
my liege?”
Landon hissed, spinning the wheel to
take the turn onto the ranch road and
nearly throwing the jeep into the ditch in
the process. He got a little yelp of
surprise out of her this time, but she
quickly contained herself, silent and
stoic as the jeep bounced painfully along
the rutted dirt track.
She was right. He had gone to the Bar
Nothing to find a nice, malleable human
piece of ass and get laid. Ever since he’d won the challenge to take over the
Alpha position in the pride three months
ago, every lioness on the ranch had been
waving her tail under his nose, angling
to get her paws on the position of his
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13
Vivi Andrews
mate. The female he picked would lead
the Hunt. She would rule the pack in his
absence and preside over the other
females. She would be the strongest, the
fastest. The best genetic material to pass
on to his cubs.
He knew he needed to pick soon. The pride was unstable without an Alpha
female in place as his mate. But he
wasn’t ready to choose just yet. He and
his sister had been nomads before he had
challenged for control of the Three
Rocks Pride. He didn’t know the pack
and its social undercurrents as well as
he needed to before he elevated one of
the lionesses to be his mate.
He’d slept with a few of them—he was
a cat, after all, and there was only so
much teasing he could take—but he’d
been careful not to lead any of them to
pushed them to the front of the line for
his consort. Tonight, he’d just wanted to
relax. A simple, easy romp with a woman who didn’t have political gain
on her mind. Just sex. No obeisance to
the big strong Alpha, and no
machinations to become his queen.
Ava had shot his plans for the evening
straight to hell.
“No response?” the assassin in question
purred acidly. “Afraid you’ll have to
apologize for dragging me out of there?”
“I’m not the one who’s going to be sorry
if you don’t stop baiting me, little girl.”
She didn’t back down from the threat.
Her body angled toward him on the seat
and she snarled, “If you can go out
looking for a piece of ass whenever you feel like it, then so can I.”
Landon slammed his foot down on the
brake pedal. The jeep fishtailed and the
brakes shrieked, bouncing and jolting
them to a sudden stop. He cut the engine
and crawled across the stick shift,
caging her between his arms and the
door. He loomed over her, his animal
nature lapping up the flash of wariness
in her pale gray eyes.
“Did you honestly think some human
would be able to satisfy you?” he
growled low, pressing in on her with his
heat.
Her eyes widened, the expression in
them suddenly raw and vulnerable, exposed.
“You should have just come to me if you
needed to be fucked.”
Anger burned away the vulnerability in
her eyes. “Fuck you, you arrogant prick.”
Landon laughed darkly. “All you had to
do was ask.”
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Chapter Three
He slammed his mouth down on hers,
ready to force her lips apart, but she opened for him willingly, hungrily. He
jerked her hips across the seat toward
him and her legs fell open. Landon fitted
his hips into the invitation of her wide
spread thighs and ground his aching cock
against her clit, the friction making them
both growl.
He plunged his tongue into her mouth,
driven by lust and lust-fogged purpose.
He needed to intimidate her into
retracting, apologizing, something. The
drive to make her submit was
overpowering, but not as strong as his
other motive. He would make her forget
the puny human. He would drive every
other man from her thoughts, banishing
them with his body, claiming her wholly as his own.
Ava arched beneath him, her small hands
fisting in his shirt and ripping it cleanly
down the center.
She hummed her pleasure into his mouth
and her back bowed again, rubbing her
breasts against his now-naked chest, her
nipples hard little points through the thin
fabric of her top. Landon yanked her
shirt down to her waist and took one
perfectly formed breast in his hand.
She was small, so much smaller than the
other lionesses, but her breast filled his
hand perfectly, the hard nub of the nipple
teasing at his palm as he plumped the
warm flesh. When he lightly pinched her nipple, she broke away from his mouth
with a hiss, her hips pressing up,
grinding against him mindlessly.
Landon gently scraped teeth too sharp to
be human down the side of her neck,
nibbling down across her chest and
drawing the peak of one small breast
into his mouth, careful not to pierce her
soft skin. Ava moaned, her hands
tangling in his hair, gripping so tight it
hurt, but he didn’t spare a thought for the
slight pain. His attention remained fixed
on her delicate, perfectly formed body,
laid out before him like a feast.
He sucked and licked at one breast, the
wet warmth and sandpaper roughness of
his tongue wringing short piercing cries from her lips and spasmodic thrusts of
her hips against his. He turned his