The Lion's Shared Bride Read online

  Somehow, she was back in Aedan’s room, though how she had gotten there she had no idea. Nina’s panicked eyes searched the floor without knowing what it was she was looking for. Behind her, she heard the unmistakable sound of a lion’s roar, and Nina fell to her knees on Aedan’s floor, reaching out in a frantic panic for her clothes. The only thing she could think about, the thing that consumed her entire brain was the sudden, very urgent need to get as far away from the house as humanly possible.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Aedan stepped backward, keeping his body facing the Pride at all times as he quickly moved towards the house; Soren had given him a look when they had both heard the slightest of sounds, human feet on the floor of the house behind them. Soren let out a low growl, his gaze taking in the ranged Pride members, ignoring Aedan for the moment. The message had been received: get Nina.

  Aedan’s hand slipped behind his back and he turned the doorknob, maintaining eye contact for as long as possible. It would not do for any of the Pride to see what he was doing as a retreat; he was not retreating—he was following orders given by the Alpha. He felt a twinge of all-too-human sadness at the last sight of Anna, sprawled on the ground, with an answering flare of anger at the members of her own Pride responsible for killing her. Soren will handle it. He has to handle it.

  With the door between him and the Pride, there was no longer any need for posturing, and Aedan moved quickly, slinking through the house, sniffing at the air to catch the scent of where Nina had traveled. He smiled slightly to himself; he would know her scent anywhere now. The particular sweet-spicy smell of her body was impossible for her to hide from him or from Soren. I know you think you’re going to run, love, he thought, stepping into the hallway and moving for the bedroom where he knew she was. But we just can’t allow that. Not now.

  Nina was on the floor, gathering up her clothing with shaking, panicked hands, staring off at nothing. Aedan stepped into the room, taking a deep breath. “Eavesdroppers rarely hear good things,” he said, keeping his voice deliberately light as he shifted to make sure that his body blocked the entire door. Nina looked up sharply and Aedan smelled the shift in her pheromones from alarm to sudden, intense fear. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, clothing falling from her hands.

  “You have to let me leave,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “If—if you don’t, I’ll call the police.” Aedan smiled slowly.

  “How exactly do you think you’re going to accomplish that, when either Soren or I will be with you constantly?” Nina took a deep breath and Aedan fought back the urge to laugh as the scent of her emotion changed once more, an undercurrent of anger taking over the fear-smell. She stood, scowling up at him.

  “You—you think I’m just going to let you hold me hostage?” Aedan let his smile broaden across his face as Nina stomped towards him, stopping just out of arm’s reach, checking as if she suddenly remembered what she had seen moments before.

  “I think that, unfortunately, you’ve left us with no choice,” Aedan told her. “You could have stayed in the bedroom and you wouldn’t have seen what you just did.” Nina’s scowl deepened and she crossed her arms over her chest, looking up at him with a fiery gaze.

  “So you were just going to lie to me—not tell me—that you’re—that he’s…” She took a deep breath. “That—that you are some kind of weird shapeshifter freaks?” Aedan chuckled.

  “The correct term is were-lion, love.” Nina’s jaw clenched and Aedan resisted the urge to reach out and pick her up, lift her into his arms. “We were going to tell you eventually, just not until after you’d had a chance to get to know us a bit.” Nina stomped one foot on the ground and Aedan didn’t even bother to suppress the laughter that rose up in him at the sight of her temper.

  “Isn’t—don’t you feel at least a little bit guilty that you’ve both been lying to me all this time? That you were… withholding things? How am I supposed to trust either of you?” Aedan tilted his head, listening carefully to attempt to hear if anything was going on outside. As far as he could tell, things were very similar to how he had left them: tense, confrontational, but with no outright fighting happening thus far. If Soren handled the situation well, there wouldn’t be a battle in his backyard. If he didn’t…

  Aedan closed the bedroom door and then took the few steps separating him from Nina, his hands immediately moving to her sides, his arms wrapping around her. He didn’t exactly pull her body against his, but he had her definitively trapped where she was, trembling slightly, fear and righteous anger mingling in her body-scent. “I understand that you’re feeling betrayed, and probably more than a little freaked out by what you saw,” Aedan said, lowering his voice and looking down into her eyes. “But try—just try—to see things from our perspective. How long do you think any were-lion would last if they went around telling every prospective mate that they were—as you so eloquently put it—shapeshifter freaks?” Nina squirmed in his arms, and Aedan simply held her, making it clear without words that she would not be getting away from him—but that he was not going to hurt her.

  “How in the world can you even think—how do you expect me to willingly become your mate when you both lied to me right from the outset?” Aedan smiled again; he noticed that—for the moment at least—her objection was not so much that he and Soren were were-lions, but that they had lied by omission by not telling her that they were were-lions.

  “At no point did we say ‘we are completely regular human people,’” Aedan pointed out. “We never outright lied.” Nina struggled in his arms more, her anger pheromones spiking, and Aedan tightened his grip, a low growl forming in his throat; this woman was his mate—whether she knew it or not. Whether she was ready to accept it or not, somewhere in his mind he had already come to that conclusion. And Aedan knew that Soren had, as well. Neither of them was going to let her go without a fight.

  “If you think that I have any intention whatsoever of honoring that stupid contract…” Aedan didn’t let her finish. He leaned in, closing the small remaining distance between them, and brought his lips down on Nina’s, kissing her hungrily. He crushed her body against his, breathing in the scent of her pheromones deeply, rubbing against her until he knew his scent was all over her skin, her clothes. He heard a noise from outside, but for the moment disregarded it, gathering Nina up in his arms and carrying her to the bed.

  He pinned her down, his mind taken over by animal instinct; his erection felt like a lead bar, heat pooling in his stomach, but he was not interested specifically in taking Nina—not against her will, and not at a time like this. Instead, the animal inside of him was focused on subduing her, making her submit, calm down. He growled low in his throat, gathering up her wrists in one hand and pulling them up over her head, pressing them against the pillows. “You’re ours now,” Aedan said, the growl rumbling through his words. “It’s time to calm down.”

  For a moment longer, Nina struggled underneath him, squirming, trying to get her legs free enough to kick, her hands free enough to scratch. She ducked her head and bit at his shoulder through his clothes, tried to bite his throat. Aedan chuckled, nimbly avoiding the worst of her attacks, feeling the jolt of desire that came with the ones she was actually able to land. Someone should tell her that biting is a sign of affection between mates, Aedan thought idly. Another time, maybe. He growled again, more sharply, nuzzling against her neck, and Nina began to relax—almost as if against her will.

  Behind him, Aedan once more heard noises; nothing that would force him to leave Nina, but enough to be worth paying attention to, at least a little bit. “Are you willing to be calm, or should we stay like this for a while?” he asked her. Nina muttered something, her voice petulant, and her words not quite comprehensible. “Say again, love?”

  “I hate you.” Aedan cringed, keeping his face buried against her neck to keep her from seeing it. She didn’t mean it; he knew she didn’t mean it, but the words stung nonetheless. Even if it was only for the fact that he and Soren�
�through circumstances mostly beyond their control—had made Nina feel unsafe in their company, hadn’t properly prepared her for the truth of their situation and hers, it was something of a failure.

  Aedan took a deep breath, inhaling the spicy-sweet scent of Nina’s body; he could smell Soren’s pheromones on her, as well as his own. But the rich, delicious smell of her was stronger, and he struggled to get a grip of the control he knew he had over himself. It would be so tempting to take her right now, to bring her to orgasm again and again until she couldn’t make herself even think the words I hate you. But that was not the way to handle the situation; and just now, Aedan knew, it would make things so much worse—he was not about to compound the errors he and Soren had made by violating her trust even more.

  “I’m going to let you up,” Aedan said slowly, pulling back and looking down into Nina’s eyes. He saw the wet tracks on her face where tears had fallen and felt another lurch in his chest at the sight. “I am not going to hurt you, but I am not going to let you leave either, love. You have to understand that. When Soren comes back in, we can talk about the situation a little more—but even if I could let you leave this house, the first thing those lions outside would probably do would be to kill you.” Nina’s angry, frustrated expression shifted into blank terror, and Aedan almost wished—honest as his assessment was—that he could take it back.

  Instead, he slowly lifted himself off of her, relinquishing his hold on her wrists, gathering his weight up and shifting to the side. He slipped off of the bed and put himself between Nina and the door—making it clear that he was keeping her there, but giving her the space he knew she needed. He watched as the petite, curvy woman curled in on herself slightly, turning her back to him, burying her face against the blankets to hide it. Aedan watched as she shuddered, convulsively tightening in on herself, a sound like sobs leaving her throat, muffled in the bedclothes. The scent of her was enough to drive him mad, but Aedan knew that right at that moment, any attempt he made to comfort her, to seduce or distract her, would only complicate matters further, and would only drive her away from him faster. He had to do the right thing. I’ve been doing such a good job of that so far, he thought wryly. He forced himself to breathe deeply and slowly, pushing down the animal inside of him. He was not going to let those instincts overrule the humanity he had grown up possessing in equal measure. He was not going to terrify this poor, lovely woman whose trust he and Soren had violated; at least not any more than they already had. In a matter of moments, the situation between Soren and the Pride would come to a close—temporarily, at least—and the Alpha would be there with them, and they would have a long conversation. Even if she wasn’t suitable, we couldn’t let her leave. Not like this. Not now. She’s stuck with us and us with her. Aedan shook his head, hearing the quaver in Nina’s voice when she had said, “I hate you” all too clearly in his mind. The whole situation had exploded into a mess.

  *

  Nina paced back and forth across the living room floor, struggling to think clearly through the miasma of fear, anger, and pain that swirled around her mind, avoiding looking at either of the two men, seated in their chairs, watching her intently. That she would never make it to the door if she tried to make an escape, she had no doubt. Even though she was closer, the two of them could move so quickly—and had demonstrated that fact so forcefully already—that it would just make her angrier to be intercepted, pushed down onto the couch, subdued. Not that I don’t think I’m entitled to be a little bit angry, she thought bitterly.

  A few minutes after Aedan had let up on her, Soren had walked into the bedroom, and at first, Nina had simply cried harder, burrowing into the blankets to hide from both men. In spite of the fact that she had felt Aedan’s erection digging into her, pressing against her through his clothes, and the way that he had restrained her on the bed, she had never seriously entertained the thought that he might take her against her will; but the enormity of the situation at hand had crashed around her, and when Soren entered the room once more, she couldn’t bear the thought of even being visible to the two men. If she could have climbed underneath the bed, she would have. I’m spending too much time around felines, she had thought irreverently. The thought of Aedan as a spooked housecat, hiding underneath his own bed, hissing at someone, flashed through her mind and some of the shock she felt began to lessen.

  But the anger—the sense of betrayal—had not diminished one iota. As soon as she managed to compose herself, Nina had sat up in Aedan’s bed and licked her lips, wiping the tears from her face. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to look at the two men, but she had hugged her knees to her chest and taken a deep breath. “You are going to let me leave,” she had said, making her voice as firm as possible.

  “We can’t do that, Nina,” Soren said, his voice low—but without the growling dominance of Aedan’s. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way, but you’re smart enough to realize that we can’t let you go just yet.”

  They had adjourned to the living room as a sort of neutral territory, and Aedan had left her under Soren’s supervision as he went into the kitchen to retrieve a few beers. Nina had sat numbly on the couch, not looking at the two men, simply staring at the opened beer in front of her on the coffee table as they spoke to each other. “Who was it?” Aedan asked.

  “Who do you think? Jordan—though Alex took credit for it.” There was a pause. “Shit. Anna. She didn’t deserve that.”

  “I don’t think it was a question of deserving it,” Aedan countered. “What’s the outcome going to be?”

  “No one dared to challenge me directly. After a few minutes they started to retreat, slinking back until finally Alex dropped his gaze. It’s going to come up again.”

  “Of course it is. But they’ve shown their hand—even if Anna got the worst of it, it’s better than not knowing specifics.”

  “I think there’s more going on.”

  Nina eventually found herself standing, not sure of when precisely in the conversation she had gotten up; she felt the tension rippling through the room as both men’s focus shifted onto her, and had begun her pacing.

  “Okay,” she said finally, cringing as her voice came out slightly too loud. “Okay. We need to have a conversation.” Nina took a deep breath and sat down, finally gathering up enough courage to look at the two men watching her so intently.

  “Have a sip of your beer, love, it’s getting warm.” Nina pressed her lips together but sat down on the couch, picking up the glass bottle and taking a quick sip.

  “You’re… were-lions.” She tripped over the unfamiliar word, glancing from Soren to Aedan. They nodded. “That’s… that would be like, werewolves, but lions instead, right?” The fact of it exploded in her mind and for a moment she could barely breathe. She had thought—like any person in their right mind—that shapeshifters of any kind were strictly the work of an imaginative mind, stories to while away dark nights that had become a pop-culture trope.

  “Basically, yes,” Soren said, giving her a bright smile. He acted as if he was proud of her for being smart enough to figure it out and Nina felt a flare of resentment. “We live in groups like regular lions—a Pride.”

  “But don’t regular lions have one male to a bunch of females?” Nina frowned, thinking that the arrangement they had proposed was almost literally the opposite of natural. Aedan shrugged.

  “We’re still humans—or part-human. We have mates, usually one man to one woman.” For a moment, Nina grappled with that concept; so it would appear that even among were-lions, the arrangement that Soren and Aedan had proposed was at the very least unusual. “Typically, males guard their mates very jealously.” He smiled slightly. “Females too.”

  “So…” Nina took another sip of her beer, setting the bottle down and sitting back on the couch. “Explain to me exactly what is going on and why it is that you need to share a mate.” Aedan glanced at Soren.

  “It’s mostly a matter of how we explained it to you before,” Soren s
aid. “Aedan needs a mate because in order to belong to a Pride, he must have a mate—he was rejected by the Pride he was born into when he was still a child, and a lone male lion is considered dangerous to the Pride.” Nina’s mind flashed on the different TV specials she had watched over the course of her life featuring lions, and shuddered.

  “So why—why do you need to share me with him?”

  Soren smiled sadly.

  “The breeding pool in my Pride is tapped out. We’ve cross-bred and interbred so much that our offspring are… well, they aren’t doing very well.” Soren shrugged. “I was told by people among our kind who know much more about it than I do that I needed to mate with a human, to spread out the genetic diversity. And so our idea was that, if we had the same mate—if we shared you—we would take care of two problems at the same time.”

  Nina sat in silence for a long moment, thinking about the explanation. Before the incident in Soren’s back yard, she had been halfway to accepting their proposition that she be shared by them; she had had misgivings, but none of them seemed quite as important as the fact that the two men who apparently still wanted to share her were shapeshifters who transformed into lions. She wasn’t sure what aspect of the situation was more concerning: the fact that two men wanted to share her, the fact that they were were-lions, or the fact that they had purposely avoided telling her they were were-lions. “If I hadn’t discovered it on my own,” she said slowly, glancing from one man to the other and then determinedly looking at the bottle of beer in front of her. “When would you have told me?”

  She heard one of the chairs creak, and looked up as Aedan spoke. “We would have told you when the weekend was over, when it was time to make your decision,” he said firmly. “We weren’t going to try and hide this from you forever, love—but we wanted you to get to know us as people first.” Nina had to admit to herself that it was fair of them to want her to be as least prejudiced as possible; but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel manipulated. They had been keeping her fed, just a little bit tipsy, and thoroughly sexually satisfied the entire day or so she had been with them—it wasn’t fair of them to stack the deck even further.