want her? So what if he was saying he
never would have touched her if not for
the hormones messing with his
impulses? He was just the only lion she
had ever wanted. What was so special
about that?
Landon parked the jeep in front of a
small cluster of bungalows. Hers wasn’t
one of them and his was on the opposite
end of the ranch, but she wasn’t about to
argue the point with him. At the moment,
she needed to get away from him. Fast.
Before she started blubbering all over
his upholstery.
Ava threw open the door and launched herself out into the night, running toward
the nearest familiar bungalow, Zoe’s.
She managed to get the door firmly
closed behind her before she collapsed
to the floor in an undignified heap and
burst into tears.
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21
Chapter Five
In retrospect, bursting into Zoe’s one
room home with her clothing in shreds
and collapsing into hysterics was not the
best course of action. After Ava brought
herself under control, it took a long and
embarrassingly detailed explanation to calm Zoe enough that she stopped
threatening to bring in Ava’s brothers.
Or worse, her own.
Ava sprawled on the one item of
furniture in Zoe’s place, a low, sturdy,
king-sized bed, and watched her friend
prowl the floor. Ava didn’t know why
Zoe’s five-ten Viking goddess
appearance didn’t intimidate her, but for
some reason the former-nomad was the
only lioness in the pride she felt
completely comfortable with.
Too alphic for Ava’s preferred method
of strategic retreat, Zoe stalked across
the room attacking the problem head on.
“He said you were unsuitable? That was
the word he used?” Zoe questioned, no shock or outrage in her tone, just a need
to get the facts straight.
“Unsuitable,” Ava repeated, trying to
distance herself from the pain of the
word. It hadn’t been said to her, she told
herself. She was just recounting the
experiences of some unknown third-
party, talking about last night’s TV
drama. It wasn’t real, this hurt she was feeling.
Zoe shook her head, frowning in
confusion. “That doesn’t sound like him.
He’s always said that cloistering the
women who weren’t ‘pure’ enough to
breed was barbaric. Just like tossing
perfectly strong males out of a pride when they matured because of the threat
they posed to the Alpha.”
“He tossed out Leonus and Kato,” Ava
reminded her.
“Who ran this pride like their own
private harem before Landon challenged
them for control. Half of the lionesses
hated them. Those two were not the type
to take their defeat lightly. If he hadn’t
banished them, they would have ripped
the pride apart. But he didn’t throw your
brothers out, did he?”
“Neither did Leonus and Kato when they
took over. Too afraid of them.”
“Which is why the Bastard Coalition never bothered you, but that isn’t why
Landon keeps them around. He likes
your brothers.” Zoe tipped her head to
the side, pausing in her pacing to
consider some new angle. “Which might
explain why Landon felt so guilty for
jumping on you in the jeep.”
“Fear of my brothers?”
“No, respect for them. And exposure to
their idea of you. They talk about you
like you’re fifteen, Ava.
And while you may look like a mature
young woman, you’re small enough that
Landon probably thought he had come
this close to raping a baby.”
Serengeti Heat
“I clearly wanted him,” Ava protested.
“You’re in heat. He thinks you don’t
know what you want, that you can’t
control your body.”
“I’m not howling and scratching the
walls yet,” Ava snapped.
“Of course you aren’t, and I’m not
suggesting you will. It’s my brother who
me.” Zoe began pacing again, her long-
legged stride eating up the room. “What
did he say exactly?”
“I don’t know,” Ava hedged, as though
the words had not been seared into her mind, leaving a ragged scar in their
shape. “Something like ‘There’s a
reason unsuitable females are
sequestered. Any male who smelled you
would have lost control.’”
Zoe turned toward her sharply, tossing
the hip-length mass of her dark golden
hair over her shoulder.
“He said he lost control?” she asked
eagerly.
“He said anyone would have,” Ava
corrected.
Zoe waved away the clarification,
smiling smugly. “You made him lose
control!” she crowed. “Of course, you did, he destroyed your jeans. Oh, this is
good. Big, bad Alpha can’t keep it
zipped around sweet little Ava. I love
it.”
“I’m glad one of us does,” Ava
grumbled, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Don’t you see, Ava? This is fantastic.”
Ava grunted, not sharing Zoe’s
enthusiasm.
“Landon never loses control. He’s too
busy playing master of the universe. But,
you, Ava. You wrangled an alpha in a
rage out of a bar fight, no mean feat. And
then you incited him to jump you,
without even trying. You ruled him tonight.”
“Then why did he stop?” Ava blurted,
blushing furiously when Zoe laughed
throatily.
“Kitten, if you want a spot in my
brother’s bed, that isn’t a problem. But if
you want to be his mate, his partner, the
love of his life, rule the pride and breed
little Landons off him, then you’re going
to have to grow a spine and get ready to
fight tooth and nail, fang and claw, for
him, because no matter how much he
wants you, he isn’t going to make you his
one and only unless you can prove that
you aren’t a submissive little doormat.”
“Little being the operative word,” Ava snapped. “I can’t just run around
challenging the female alphas, Zoe.
Some of them have a hundred pounds on
me in their human form. I wouldn’t last
five seconds.”
Zoe smiled, a purely feline curve of her
lips. “There’s more than one way to skin
a cat, Ava-dear. Just because you can’t
take them in a fight, doesn’t mean you
can’t dominate them.”
“I don’t think—”
“Then I guess you don’t want Landon,”
Zoe cut her off brutally, frustrated by her
prevarications.
“Because until you stop meekly obeying every order, bowing down to your
bullying brothers and the
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23
Vivi Andrews
bullying cats angling to be Landon’s
mate, you will never be strong enough to
deserve him. If you want to mate the
Alpha, you need to be the biggest,
baddest kitty in the pride.”
“But I am the smallest,” Ava wailed.
“Physical size doesn’t mean shit,” Zoe
snapped. “Size is a state of mind, kitten.
And yours is only microscopic because
you are too damn scared to go after what
you want.”
“I can’t—”
“I don’t, I can’t, I won’t.” Zoe threw her
hands up in the air and stalked to the
opposite end of the bungalow. “I wash
my hands of you. You need to change
your attitude, but if you don’t want it for
yourself, let alone for darling Landon,
there is nothing I can do.”
“Zoe…”
“I’m done,” she said, her voice sharp
and dismissive. Then she turned and her
face softened at Ava’s stricken
expression. “I’m glad you’re home
safe,” she said, much more gently. “It
just drives me crazy when people are
too frightened to go after the things they
want. You play it safe and all you end up
with is a lifetime of should-have-beens.”
Zoe turned to look out the window, once
again dismissing her.
Ava climbed off the bed, tugging at the
wraparound skirt she had borrowed to
replace her massacred jeans. “I’ll return
this tomorrow.”
Zoe waved away the comment without
turning from the view. “Keep it. It’s too
short on me anyway.”
“Zoe…”
“I’m not mad at you, Ava,” Zoe said,
still without looking at her.
Ava knew Zoe couldn’t stand indecision.
Everything was black or white to her,
but Ava couldn’t seem to stop seeing the
grays in every situation. She waited for
Zoe to go on, but the silence stretched.
“’kay,” she said finally. “Good night.”
“Night, kitten,” Zoe said, her tone
affectionate even though she continued to
gaze out the window.
“Bite those bed bugs back.”
Ava laughed softly and slipped out into the darkness outside. There were no
floodlights in the compound and the
moon had long since set, but Ava could
easily pick out the shadowy shapes of
the bungalows from the dim, distant light
of the stars.
She set off across the ranch toward her
own little one room house, stepping
silently so as not to alert the sensitive
ears of her pride members. The
midsummer heat was still stifling, even
so long after sunset, but Ava didn’t mind
the weight of it on her skin. Lions were
often nocturnal hunters, active in the
coolest part of the night, but the itch
along Ava’s spine was not the urge to
shift and run after game. She had prey of a different sort on her mind.
24
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Serengeti Heat
Landon’s jeep had disappeared,
presumably back to his own bungalow,
but for all she knew he was off sating
himself with some “suitable” female.
Ava clenched her teeth against the flood
of angry jealous that welled up at the
thought.
Who he slept with was none of her
business. He didn’t belong to her. He
never would. In fact, in days, weeks at most, he would select his mate and then
he would belong heart, body, and soul to
someone else.
Someone big and strong who Ava would
be afraid to go up against. If she even
stared at him too long, his mate would
be within her rights to take her down a
peg.
She sighed. Even her fantasies had an
expiration date.
Ava stalked through the night, her skin
slick from the heat, both external and
internal. She’d been in heat before, but it
had never felt quite like this. Landon’s
presence, in the jeep, in the bar, over the
last few weeks around the ranch, had amplified everything.
Her skin felt two sizes too tight. She
walked fast because if she slowed, even
for a moment, the slow, writhing
pressure would take over her limbs. Her
breasts were heavy and tender, the flesh
between her legs swollen and wet.
She’d had precious little satisfaction in
the jeep. Just enough to drive her even
further into this madness without
providing any relief.
Ava rubbed at the tension in her neck,
the touch transforming into a caress
sliding down the throat, the softness of
her own skin teasing her fingers. She
flung her hands out, fighting the
temptation to touch herself, and stopped on the darkened path in front of a
bungalow, breathing too quickly after
her walk.
She looked up, confused to find that her
feet had not carried her home. That
instinct had been overridden by the
clamoring of her body. The shadow of a
figure within stalked past the lit
window.
Landon.
Ava shuddered at the sight of him. She
could never be his mate, that much was
clear, but Zoe’s challenge to go after
what she wanted still rang in her mind.
She might not be able to have him
forever, but she could have him tonight.
This may very well be her one chance to
be with Landon before he irrevocably
belonged to another.
Her skin was about to crawl away
without her and only Landon would do
to scratch her itch. No other male, man
or lion, had ever made her feel this
spiraling insanity of lust.
Any male would lose control if she went
to him, in heat, and waved her tail in his
face. He would lose control. And if he
didn’t…did it even matter? She’d
already embarrassed herself—ripping
his clothing off him, begging for more.
Why not go for full-fledged humiliation?
She shook away the thought. She wouldn’t be humiliated. Tonight she
wasn’t weak, passive Ava.
Tonight she was a feline goddess,
hopped up on hormones and irresistible
to men.
Ava tipped back her chin, feeling
purpose blazing through her. Tomorrow,
she would be invisible Ava again, but
tonight, she was his.
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25
Chapter Six
Landon prowled across his room, the spacious bungalow feeling like a cage,
as thoughts of Ava chased him. The
memory of her fleeing from him,
sprinting into the safety of Zoe’s
bungalow, burned in his mind.
He didn’t blame her for her fear. He’d
been a beast, feral and uncontrolled,
attacking her like that in the jeep. Was it
possible she really hadn’t realized she
was in heat? How could she not have
known what her scent was doing to him?
Landon growled low in his throat as he
stalked the room, the blind need she had
ignited in him still burning in his gut. He
should have dropped in on another
lioness or two before coming back to his
own place. Shana had made it clear on numerous occasions that she was always
available to him, more than willing to
crawl into his bed whenever he would
allow her there. She was an ambitious
minx, but he knew exactly what he was
getting with her. She would never make
him feel unhinged and out of balance the
way Ava did.
Shana was strong and fast, aggressive
and manipulative. She would make an
excellent consort, but Landon hadn’t
been able to bring himself to declare her
so. Some instinct had always held him
back. But at the moment, those same
instincts were screaming for him to track
Ava and brand her as his own, body and
soul. So perhaps his instincts with the females of this pride were not to be
trusted.
Landon turned and paced. Paced and
turned. The bungalow in the ranch
compound designated for the Alpha’s
use was second in size only to the Great
Hall where the pride gathered for
ceremonies, but it felt microscopic
tonight. The high ceilings with rough,
exposed wood beams seemed to press
down on him.
And even the natural wood floors,
nicked and scarred by the claws of his
predecessors, taunted him with
everything he could not allow himself to
do.
He couldn’t shift. Not tonight. When he took his other form, the animal in him
had too much control.
He would not be able to stop himself
from hunting Ava down and proving his
ownership of her in the most primitive
way. He couldn’t risk running on all
fours through the acres of private land
belonging to the ranch. Even that
freedom was denied to him tonight.
The creak of the step outside his door
sounded unnaturally loud to his
heightened senses. Landon spun to face
the door, falling into a crouch, his lips
pulling back in a snarl. He knew better
than to expect Ava to come to him, but
second to her presence, the one he wanted the most was that of a threat.