Taming the Lion Page 17

  She only knew one person who hiked in heels. And even if there had been a dozen stiletto-shod hikers in the pride, she was downwind and Lila’s fruity perfume was as distinctive as her natural scent.

  Patch didn’t open her eyes. Maybe Lila was just out for a little nature jaunt and would continue on past without even looking up. But the footsteps stopped directly below her. And didn’t start again.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” Lila called, though there was no heat in the accusation. “I realize you probably want to get away from all the activity at the pride and I know I’m a high maintenance pain in the ass, but you’re stuck with me so you might as well come down and talk to me. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Regret opened her eyes. She should have sought Lila out. It wasn’t that she’d been avoiding her best friend—Lila was a high maintenance pain in the ass, but she was her high maintenance pain in the ass. Patch had just been avoiding the guilt that rose like bile whenever she thought of what she was doing to Lila.

  “Patch? You okay?”

  And there was the guilt, rising right on cue. Time to stop running away from it.

  Patch shifted and grabbed her clothes, tugging them on before dropping out of the tree to land beside Lila where she had taken a seat on a fallen log—looking as poised and perfect as if they were having afternoon tea in a palace. “I thought you and Roman had a date this afternoon,” she said, trying to keep the bitterness from polluting her voice.

  “He cancelled.”

  Patch cringed. Was that her fault? Why had he stood Lila up?

  “Seemed like the perfect opportunity to track you down,” Lila said, seeming not at all hurt at having been ditched by her fiancé. “I’ve missed you, Patricia Marie.”

  Guilt. Heavy as an anvil, resting on her chest. “Lila, we should talk.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Lila looked at her, her face softening with concern. “You look exhausted. Your heat wearing you out?”

  Patch almost groaned. “You could say that.” She flopped onto the ground at Lila’s feet. “Lila, about Roman… I know you said I could have at him, but would you hate me if I…if we…” Words clogged in her throat. Shit.

  “Are you guys hooking up?” Lila squeaked, sounding entirely too excited for her and not nearly you-betrayed-me-you-bitch enough to satisfy Patch’s guilty conscience.

  A blush heated her face. Hooking up. It was so much more than that.

  “Is it serious?” Lila asked, still sounding far too chipper.

  “No,” Patch said quickly. “It’s just a fling. Sowing wild oats, like you said.”

  Lila was looking at her like she was gossiping about some stranger, someone who meant nothing to her. Patch groaned and flopped onto her back on the ground, draping an arm over her eyes. “This officially makes me the worst friend ever,” she declared. “Doesn’t it?” When Lila didn’t immediately agree with her, she pressed her case. “I’m getting it on with your fiancé. That is so wrong.” Hate me. Yell at me. Call me names.

  But Lila did none of that. “If it were a normal marriage, I’m sure I’d claw your eyes out,” she said mildly. “But you know how it is.” A long pause stretched in the clearing and Patch could feel Lila’s eyes on her. “Are you going to be okay with it, if I go ahead with the wedding?”

  That opened her eyes and snapped her head up. “If?”

  Lila flushed, not quite meeting her gaze. “Santiago asked me why I was marrying Roman and I didn’t know. It’s one of those questions I’ve never really let myself think about. Because it’s what I’ve always expected I would do. But I can’t seem to figure out if it’s what I want to do anymore. For the good of the pride, I guess.” She drew patterns in the dirt with her fancy shoes. “Do you really think it makes a difference to the pride if I marry Roman?”

  Say no. That’s all she had to do and Lila would walk away. Roman would be available.

  But he still wouldn’t be hers.

  And the truth was, it might make a difference. It might make a big one.

  Patch wanted to say no, but… “I don’t know,” she admitted, dragging the words out. “People are worried. The question of whether we might come out to the humans, the risk of being abducted by fucking scientists—it makes the traditions more important.” The familiar. The secure. “The Alpha needs a lioness mate.” No one questioned that. “And if you and Roman are already in place as logical successors, that means no power void if anything happens to your father. Which means no dominance challenges and fighting within the pride. No factions. No bloodshed.”

  “But if I walk away…”

  Was Lila really considering leaving? Perfect, obedient Lila? “It throws Roman’s position as successor into question. Someone might challenge him when your father steps down. Or see it as a weakness in the power structure and challenge your father for dominance right away.” Patch cringed, letting herself think the scenarios through to their logical conclusions for the first time. “He’s strong, but he’s not as young as he once was. There are a lot of new nomads coming in. Some of them are lions who might be ambitious enough to think they can take over the pride.”

  Lila sighed. “So not total Armageddon, just the chance that some strange lion might try to assassinate my father. Right.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Yeah.” Lila rocked back on her hands and stared up at the branches overhead.

  Patch followed her gaze. It was peaceful here in this little glade. You’d never suspect their entire way of life was under attack.

  “Are you happy, Patch?”

  “What?” Where had that come from?

  “Are you happy? Santiago asked me that and I just went blank. I feel like I used to be happy. We had fun, didn’t we? Before everything was about mates and alliances and the good of the pride.”

  “Yeah, we always had fun.” They’d been a team. And life had been sparkling and full of potential. None of this angst and confusion.

  “My life isn’t full of fun anymore,” Lila confessed. “Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect that it would be. Like when you grow up, that’s it, the fun’s over. But is that how it has to be?”

  Life was fun with Roman, Patch realized. The way he teased her lit her up inside.

  Lila went on. “I feel like my life has been nothing but waiting for the last year. The perpetual holding pattern. And no one to blame but myself. I chose this. I’m the one who sits around in suspended animation, waiting for my life to begin rather than going out and getting it. Rather than looking at what I really want.”

  “It’s starting now,” Patch reminded her. “You’re getting married.” She would be the future Alpha’s mate, with all the duties in the pride that entailed.

  “Yeah,” Lila agreed—but the single syllable held defeat, not excitement.

  She crawled down off the log and lay beside Patch on the ground, both of them staring up, stretched out side by side.

  “I lied to Santiago,” Lila said quietly. “I don’t even know why I did it.”

  That was the third time she’d mentioned the black jaguar. Was something going on there? Maybe Roman wasn’t the only one having a last fling. It would certainly explain why Santiago suddenly needed to leave the pride before the new year. Unless he’d meant that Lila would be going with him…running away… “What did you lie about?”

  “He asked me if I remembered the day we met and I said no.”

  Patch frowned, slanting a look at Lila. “That must have been years ago.”

  “It was. We were playing football and I made him and Mateo join us.” Lila’s voice softened as she reminisced. “Remember?”

  “Not really, but it sounds like something you would do.”

  “Silly thing to lie about,” Lila muttered.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Patch said with studied innocence, testing the waters. “He’ll be gone soon anyway.”

  Lila’s head jerked around, her eyes widening with alarm. “What did you say?”

  That answers that q
uestion. There was definitely something going on between Lila and Santiago. Patch played it cool, her voice oh-so-casual. “Santiago. He’s relocating to Seattle. Didn’t he mention it?”

  “You must have heard him wrong.”

  “Maybe,” she said skeptically.

  Lila scrambled to her feet. “I have to go.”

  “Lila?” Patch called after her, but she was already running full tilt back toward the main compound.

  Wow. Okay, something was definitely up between Lila and Santiago. Other pieces began to shift into place. Santiago’s jealousy when Lila flirted with other shifters, the way he’d been asking after her, the day she’d left the pride lands with Santiago when Xander had thought it was Lila making out with Roman in his office. It all fit.

  She should tell Roman. Didn’t he have a right to know that his fiancé was involved with another man?

  Though Patch didn’t really know the extent of the involvement. And Lila was her best friend. She couldn’t betray that confidence.

  And what good would it possibly do to tell him anyway? Even if Lila got her happily-ever-after, even if she’d finally found the Prince Charming she’d always dreamed of—though broody Santiago hardly fit the bill—even if they rode off into the sunset together, Roman was still the Alpha’s heir. He still needed a lioness as his mate. And Patch was still a cougar. Mountain lions didn’t count.

  It accomplished nothing to tell him Lila might be in love. Things were already over between them. Best to leave it at that.

  Clean break.

  Her cell phone rang.

  She dug it out of her jeans pocket, reading Lila’s name on the caller ID. “Are you okay?” she said by way of greeting. “When you ran off like that—”

  “I need to borrow your car.”

  “Lila…” Santiago must not have moved onto the pride lands after all, but Lila couldn’t just take off on her own. “We aren’t supposed to be straying far from the pride right now—”

  “Either I borrow your car or I walk.”

  Lila didn’t often get that note in her voice, but when she did, there was no point in arguing with her. When obedient, malleable Lila actually put her stiletto-clad foot down, she couldn’t be moved.

  “I’ll meet you at the garage with the keys.”

  Patch watched the cloud of dust kicking up behind her Subaru as Lila floored it toward the boundary gate. Lila was off to get her man. Or rip him a new one. It was kind of hard to tell. Either way, Santiago had better brace himself.

  Lila and Santiago.

  Patch shook her head. She never would have called that one. Santiago was the prototypical loner. Dark and brooding, and sure, Patch could see the romantic appeal—the man was definitely hot—but Lila? Bubbly, girly Lila? With him?

  Well, if it was love, she hoped it worked out for them. Maybe Lila would have better luck than she had. Right now it was hard to feel anything but hopeless about her own romantic prospects. She’d fallen hard for the least available man in the pride. Smart, Patch. Real smart.

  “Was that Lila?”

  Patch whipped around guiltily and came face to face with Lucienne Fallon—Lila’s mother. “What? Uh, yeah, she was just…” Words failed her. She never could lie quickly.

  “Well? Where’s she going in such a hurry?”

  Patch’s mind stayed completely and utterly blank. “Groceries,” she blurted. “The commissary’s out of—” Shit. What could they possibly be out of that Lila would think was important enough to leave the pride for? Maybe if it was for someone else. “That vanilla Coke that Roman likes. She’s taking the whole marriage thing really seriously. Taking care of him and all.”

  Lucienne smiled as she approached. Physically, she looked like an older version of Lila—tall, blond and gorgeous—but their personalities were so different, it seemed to have honed their similar features in different ways until few people ever commented on the similarities. Lucienne was firm and unyielding, her blue eyes hard.

  “Patch, sweetheart, you’ve always been a terrible liar. I’ve always thought it was one of your most endearing traits. Now tell me where my daughter is really going.”

  Patch blushed at being caught in the lie, but Lila was a grown woman. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, ma’am.”

  “Is it a man?”

  Patch flushed redder.

  “I see that it is. Thank you, Patch. That will be all.”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d been summarily dismissed by the queen of the pride. Doubtless it wouldn’t be the last. But as Patch started to turn away, something made her turn back and ask, much as Lila had earlier, “Would it really be so terrible if Lila got the fairy tale?”

  She knew it wasn’t possible for herself, but maybe Lila could get her happy ending.

  Patch didn’t know if she would get an answer, but when she looked at Lucienne’s face, she saw shadows there, wisps of sadness that didn’t quite stick. “Most fairy tales don’t end well,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Patch agreed, turning to go. “I’m getting that.”

  Roman had made her feel like Cinderella—swept out of her drab existence and right into the prince’s arms—but it would take more than a fairy godmother to get this Cinderella into the castle. Instead the prince would marry someone suitable and Patch would go back to the world she’d always known.

  Really the world she’d known wasn’t so bad. Yes, things were in upheaval now, but someday she’d be able to go back to her job. Maybe she’d meet a nice cat from the south—though right now the idea of anyone ever eclipsing Roman seemed ludicrous.

  Patch sighed and walked faster, back to the woods. She needed space to think.

  How was Cinderella supposed to get over the prince?

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Roman, would you join us at the main house, please?” There was an odd note to Greg’s voice over the phone, a strain Roman couldn’t quite identify.

  “Of course. When?”

  “Right away. If you can.”

  Roman ended the call and excused himself from the planning meeting. Kye, Dominec, Grace, and half a dozen others, mostly lions, would comprise the hunting party that would go with the hawk back to his captors. They would leave the day after tomorrow and Roman wanted to ensure every contingency had been accounted for—but they would have to plan back-up plans for their back-up plans without him. The Alpha beckoned.

  As he moved quickly up the paths, he scanned automatically for Patch. He hadn’t seen a trace of her since their little dust up yesterday. At first he’d figured she needed time to cool off. He’d cancelled his date with Lila so he could grab a few hours of sleep after the all-nighter he’d pulled the night before. When he’d woken, he’d looked for Patch, but she was nowhere to be found, and, as always, there were a dozen people who needed him for something or other.

  It had been nonstop ever since. He’d swung by her place around midnight when he’d had a break, but she either slept through his quiet knock or pretended to.

  He just needed five minutes with her to convince her that—hell, he wasn’t sure what he was going to convince her. But it wasn’t over. Not yet. He needed to see her.

  But she was nowhere in sight as he headed up the hill to the main house.

  The “house” was more mansion. Two sprawling wings extended out from the entry, housing the Alpha, his family, and a suite of offices that served the Alpha and most of his advisory council. Only Roman had chosen to have his office somewhere more accessible to the rest of the pride.

  Though it was rarely used for diplomatic purposes among the prides, Lucienne had decorated the mansion to impress, in the belief that a little display of wealth demonstrated to both their enemies and their allies that they were to be taken seriously.

  Roman had never walked through the doors without feeling awkward and out of place, so he supposed the assault of opulence did its job.

  This time when he walked through the front door, they were waiting for him.

  Greg. Lucie
nne. Hugo. They stood to one side of the grand staircase. And seated against the wall, lined up like they were facing a firing squad, were Patch, Lila and Santiago. His fiancé was in the middle, one of her hands held by each of the others.

  Roman’s gaze locked on Lila’s hand, held between both of Santiago’s. “What’s going on?”

  “Lila?” The Alpha’s voice was harsher than Roman had ever heard it when he was speaking to his precious princess. “Do you have something you’d like to say to Roman?”

  Lila flushed, studying the floor. “Roman, I…”

  Santiago’s hands flexed around hers. “No one meant for this—”

  Patch cut them off, brutal, fast, like ripping off a Band-Aid. “Lila and Santiago are in love. She’s refusing to marry you.”

  She said it like she expected it to hurt him, but the only emotion that followed the announcement was mild irritation—and a flicker of relief. Relief he quickly mashed into pulp. Love didn’t enter into it. Lila had to marry him. This was for the pride.

  Roman studied the other faces in the room, rapidly assessing who his allies were. Greg’s face was tight with anger, Lucienne’s with put-upon irritation—neither of them looked like they believed this little rebellion would stick. Good.

  Hugo lazed against the banister, watching it all with a carefully blank expression.

  It was Patch who worried him. Patch who sat with her back straight and her hand tight around Lila’s for moral support. What the hell was she doing over there? She knew what this would do to the pride. Hell, he wanted to be able to run off with the woman he loved, too, but life didn’t work that way.

  Lila and Santiago looked determined, he supposed, but they wouldn’t have come forward if they hadn’t thought this was a fight they could win. So there they were. Battle lines drawn.

  Roman chose his words carefully. “Lila, the pride needs us. They need stability, now more than ever.”

  She bit her lip, her eyes still locked on the marble tiles of the floor. “I’m sorry.”