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  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

  believe that their efforts in his bed had

  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