Taming the Lion Page 21

  Her stomach had clenched nauseously the first time he’d taken her hand in front of the others. She’d been stiff and unable to sleep the entire time he’d pulled his bedroll up next to hers, waiting for the condemnation, the catty remarks, but no one said a word.

  They noticed. Oh, they definitely noticed. Grace had frowned at Roman. Kye had arched a slow brow, then seemed to shrug it off without comment. Dominec had glowered, staring intently between her and Roman and she’d been sure he was going to blow up, but the longer he’d stared, the more she realized they were a puzzle he was trying to figure out, not an issue he wanted to explode.

  It was the other lions who had really surprised her. After the first penetrating stare from Roman while he held her hand, they hadn’t even blinked.

  She would have been hopeful that this tacit acceptance was what they would receive back at the pride, but she knew better. These were Roman’s people, the select few he’d hand-picked for this mission. The rest of the pride would not be so understanding.

  The hike back to the cars was quicker than anticipated because they weren’t carting drugged shifters, so they arrived back at the pride two days ahead of schedule. The incursion team had been in touch, so everyone back at the pride who was authorized to know—and doubtless several who weren’t—already knew that the mission had been a bust.

  What they didn’t know was who the Alpha’s heir had taken to mate.

  Roman had turned the keys to the car he’d borrowed from the motor pool over to Kye and drove her Subaru in the caravan back from the trailhead. Patch curled in the passenger seat, watching his large hands on the wheel, remembering them on her body.

  He was worth it. She kept telling herself that. But every mile they got closer to the pride, the higher her anxiety climbed.

  “We should talk about how we’re going to handle this.”

  Roman didn’t look away from the road. “Handle what?”

  “Telling people about us.”

  His eyes still didn’t veer from the stretch of unoccupied blacktop in front of them. Growing up in the pride and having a job that often required him to stay close to pride land, he hadn’t often been called upon to drive and was therefore adorably focused whenever driving somewhere with which he wasn’t familiar.

  “Roman?” she repeated when he didn’t respond. “I think we should have a game plan. If Lila has already come forward with Santiago, like you asked, then at least we won’t have to explain that you’re not cheating on her with me, but maybe we can find a way to ease people into it. Let them see us together in a platonic way for a few weeks and then maybe it won’t be quite such a shock when we eventually come out as a couple.”

  “How long do you envision this whole easing in process taking?” he asked, still staring ahead.

  “It would only be a couple months. Six tops. It’s a small price to pay to give the pride a chance to accept us.”

  “So for that six months, we sneak around, pretending we’re just friends and what? Do you date other men to make it look really believable that we aren’t together?”

  “We would still be together,” she protested. “We’d just be subtle about it.”

  “Meaning we lie to people like we’re ashamed to be together and then expect them to be happy for us when we finally confess to our dirty little secret.”

  “Meaning we give people a chance to get used to the idea.”

  “They’ll get used to it. After we show them we have nothing to hide.”

  She glared at the side of his head. Stubborn ass. He’d never been the type to ask for permission—because of his position in the pride, most people were asking it of him—but this was one situation where she didn’t think his full-speed-ahead attitude was going to cut it. “Roman, I don’t think you get it.”

  “I get that you’re still scared to be with me,” he said. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

  Some asshole lion challenges you and you die. “They run us out of the pride.”

  “Unlikely, but if that happens we’ll deal with it. Are you in or not, Patch?”

  “I’m in,” she assured him, but the doubt wouldn’t ease.

  He thought it was just needless fear, but she couldn’t escape the feeling that she was the only one looking at the reality of the situation.

  She almost asked him to pull over, to turn around, to drive off into the sunset with her and forget about the pride—but that wasn’t who they were. It wasn’t him, that was certain, but it wasn’t her either. She may be a cougar, but the pride was her home. She had a place there—she only wished she knew what that place was going to be.

  The guards on the boundary gate waved as they drove through and Roman waved back as Patch slunk low in her seat. Dread was a heavy sludge in her stomach, churning uncomfortably.

  Roman pulled into the main parking lot and shut off the engine, turning to her now that he wasn’t focused on driving. “Nothing to be scared of.”

  They climbed out of the car and he came around the hood to take her hand. She wanted to twist free of him, but she forced her fingers to lie passively clasped in his. Nothing to be scared of. If only she could believe that.

  He walked with her toward her bungalow, her muddy pack slung over his shoulder. Pride life ebbed and flowed around them, normal as ever. No one screamed and pointed at the sight of their clasped hands. Yet.

  “Boss!”

  Xander jogged up, doing a visible double take at her hand in Roman’s, but her mate’s hand just tightened on hers when she instinctively jerked for release.

  “Alpha wants to see you as soon as you’re back.”

  Roman nodded. “I got his text. Tell him I’ll be right there.”

  Xander nodded, gave them one last questioning look, then turned and jogged up the hill to the main house.

  Roman turned to face her, sliding her bag off his shoulder to hand it over. “I don’t know how long this’ll take. You could start moving your stuff into my bungalow, if you want.”

  “Roman…” She tried to keep her internal squirming from showing.

  “Or I can move into yours, if you prefer that one.”

  He was a steamroller. As a dominant shifter, it was to be expected. She was going to have to learn to overrule him if she didn’t want to be flattened on a regular basis in this relationship. But the truth was—she didn’t want to overrule him in this. She wanted to live with him—his bungalow, hers, it didn’t matter. She just didn’t want anyone else to see them living together—which she absolutely could not tell him.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  He smiled. “Good.”

  And right there, in front of God, the pride and everyone, Roman Jaeger, future Alpha of Lone Pine, leaned down and kissed her.

  There was nothing platonic about that kiss. His tongue swept into her mouth and he branded her as his, right there in the middle of the pride.

  He lifted his head, winked and turned to walk toward the Alpha’s house with a distinctly smug swagger in his step.

  So much for subtle.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  At Greg’s softly spoken, “Come in,” Roman opened the door to the Alpha’s office.

  He figured he had about a thirty percent chance of still being the heir when he walked back through that door, but he’d deal with that when the time came. He’d never been one to borrow trouble and now wasn’t the time to start.

  Greg sat behind his desk, his hands laced on top. “Have a seat, Roman.”

  For a moment, Roman considered remaining standing, maintaining a position of power, but he wasn’t here to stomp his feet and bang his chest. Of course, neither was he here to beg for forgiveness. This was negotiation. He perched on the edge of the lounge in front of Greg’s desk, mirroring the Alpha’s posture.

  “How did it go?” Greg asked, again in that deceptively soft tone.

  Roman frowned. “Kye reported back—”

  “I have the report. I want your insights.”

  So Roman
rehashed the fruitless mission. “I told them this wouldn’t be the end of it,” he finished. “In fact, I’d like to designate part of our security team to pursue this Organization full time. We can’t just focus on our security here at home. We need to take the fight to them as well.”

  “I agree,” Greg said.

  Shocked, Roman pressed his advantage. “I’d like to lead the team.”

  “I’m afraid that’s out of the question,” Greg said. “You’re needed here.”

  “Am I? As what?” Tired of dancing around it, Roman came right out and took aim at the ax that had been waiting to fall over him. “I know I went against your wishes. I did exactly what you told me not to do. So am I still your heir?”

  “No, I don’t think you are.”

  Though he’d been expecting the words, they were still a blow. Everything he’d been for the last fifteen years, up in smoke with just six words.

  But Greg wasn’t finished.

  “I knew this would happen eventually.” Greg stood and Roman automatically came to his feet as well. “We’ve been talking for years about what kind of Alpha you would be, I guess I was waiting for you to stop looking to me and be that man.”

  Roman frowned. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.” Was Greg glad Roman had defied him?

  “Not all challenges are physical.”

  “It wasn’t my intention to challenge you, sir.”

  “You wouldn’t be Alpha material if you were content to play second fiddle to me. By challenging my authority, you’ve shown me it’s time I started thinking about letting you take the reins. Though I have to wonder, was it this threat from the Organization that finally pushed you to take command, or was it her?”

  “What exactly are you saying?” Roman wasn’t a fool. He thought he knew what he was hearing, but this was one circumstance where he wanted things spelled out.

  “How would you feel about taking over as Alpha?”

  Patch studied her bungalow like she was seeing it for the first time, trying to picture Roman living here with her and she couldn’t do it. Of course, neither could she really envision going to live with him in his. She’d been prepared to leave this cottage behind and never see it again, but somehow moving fifty yards across the complex was harder to imagine. Maybe because her skepticism flat out refused to believe it would happen.

  Roman was with the Alpha now. He could be telling Greg about her right this very second. Would the Alpha put his foot down? Make it an ultimatum—her or the pride? Would Roman actually choose her? And if he did, what did that mean? Were they excommunicated? Lila and Santiago got to just transfer to being normal citizens, but Santiago wouldn’t be a threat to any future Alpha with his dominance. Roman would.

  She couldn’t picture everything working out in a happy ending with a neat little bow. So she stared helplessly around her bungalow, incapable of deciding whether she wanted to live here or at his place.

  The knock on the door was a relief, a reprieve from thinking about this, until the door opened and Roman walked in. Her heart began to race. Moment of truth.

  She studied his face, trying to read what had happened with the Alpha in his expression, but he just looked puzzled. And wary. Like he wasn’t sure how she would react to his news.

  “What happened?” she asked, stopping herself before a dozen more panicked questions could chase that one out of her mouth. Did he kick us out? Does he hate me now? Do you still want me?

  “Maybe we should sit.”

  Oh God. It was bad news. I knew it. “I’d rather stand.” She braced her feet, preparing for the worst.

  “Greg wants me to take over as Alpha.”

  “What?” He couldn’t have said what she thought he just said.

  “He offered to make me Alpha. He said he’s been waiting for me to man up and take charge rather than keep obeying him in everything.”

  Patch blinked, frantically shuffling her thoughts to try to make this new information fit. “You’re Alpha.”

  “Well, not quite, I told him I needed to talk to you first.”

  “Me.” She felt like they were speaking two different languages. She couldn’t be understanding him correctly. “And what did the Alpha think of your relationship with me?”

  “He warned me that I’d better treat you right and told me that you were one of the toughest shifter females he’d ever met, regardless of breed.”

  He said that? “But I’m not a lioness.”

  “I think we all know that, Patch.”

  She sat down hard on her mattress, her knees no longer holding up under the assault of unbelievable things. He sat next to her, sideways so he could face her.

  “It might not be a perfectly smooth transition,” he said. “We’ll have to make decisions about a lot of things. Greg thinks we should move up into the main house—and I think he might be right about that. It does provide a position of power—though I’d like to keep my office down here among the pride as well. Greg and Lucienne will move out, of course, but we’ll have to discuss what their ongoing roles will be in the pride. I don’t think any pride has ever had a former Alpha who wasn’t killed or kicked out after he was deposed, so this will be new for all of us. Greg did mention some sort of diplomatic role—dealing with the other prides, especially as they are debating coming out to the humans, and that’s definitely something to consider.”

  Roman took the hand lying limply in her lap, lacing their fingers together. “Then, of course, we’ll have to decide when to have the wedding,” he continued. “It’ll be an even bigger deal if I’m officially Alpha, rather than just the heir. Or we can always have the smaller, more traditional mating ceremony and leave it at that, but I do still think giving the pride a chance to celebrate with us is a good move.”

  “Roman, wait…”

  His hand tightened on hers, like he was afraid she would pull away. “I know I’m getting things out of order. I wanted to have a ring. I was going to officially propose—down on one knee with the fairy tale, like you said I should—”

  “For Lila. I said you should for Lila.”

  “I’m not marrying Lila. I’m marrying you. If you’ll have me.”

  Holy Hades. It was all too much. Too fast. “Don’t you think we’re getting ahead of ourselves? We don’t even know if the pride will accept me.”

  “They will. And if they don’t, I don’t care. You’re it for me, Patch. That isn’t up for debate.”

  She reached for something, anything, he would listen to. “What about my mother? I can’t be Alpha’s mate if I’m out searching for her.”

  “The Alpha agrees that we—” He broke off shaking his head sharply as if trying to rattle the unfamiliar pieces into place. “I guess I’ll be the Alpha soon so it doesn’t matter, but Greg agrees that we need to set up a task force of some kind, a team who will focus full time on hunting down the Organization at all the other locations we know about and freeing any shifters they are holding. We will put our best people on it and be smarter about it moving forward than we were about this first strike. They will find her and they will bring her back safe. And in the meantime, you and I will be making this pride a safe place for all shifters.” He squeezed her hand. “It’s time for some changes, Patch. Starting with us. But only if that’s what you want.”

  “What?” She was such a brilliant conversationalist today.

  “I think we can do this, Patch, but I’ll tell Greg no if you aren’t ready for this. If it isn’t what you want. I’ll go on as Alpha’s heir and we’ll get the pride used to seeing us together before we throw any other changes at them. Like you said in the car—if that’s really what you want.”

  Really what you want…

  He kept repeating those words and she realized she’d never actually thought about what she wanted. She’d been too busy reacting. Too busy panicking and anticipating the next disaster. Lila had tried to ask her the same thing and she hadn’t known then either. What did she want?

  She looked at Roman�
��s hand, massive over hers. She wanted him. She’d never thought being with him would really be an option. But if the Alpha thought it could work, maybe it wasn’t just a fantasy. Greg knew his pride.

  But could she be the Alpha’s mate, with all that entailed? An independent cougar who’d never cared about hierarchy or dominance games? She wasn’t like Lucienne, the elegant matriarch, and neither was she Lila, beloved by everyone. She was Patch, a mountain guide on the fringes, one of the guys, but never the leader. At least not here on the pride lands. She knew how to lead humans. She knew how to guide them through the wilderness.

  And now Roman was asking her to help him guide the pride.

  If she was Alpha’s mate, she could make it her mission to rescue everyone who had been taken by the Organization. She would have the clout to make it happen. They could do so much good.

  Maybe, just maybe, she could be good at this. Maybe she wanted to try. If he was with her.

  She looked down at their linked hands, then up into his waiting eyes. “Let’s do this.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Patch jogged across the pride compound toward Whiskey’s apartment. She was late. It was amazing how often she seemed to find herself in that position in the last two weeks. Ever since the announcement had been made and the transition period had begun, it seemed like there were suddenly a thousand things all needing her attention right this second and never enough hours in the day.

  She hadn’t seen Lila or Whiskey in days, but today she’d promised she would make time for them. Apparently they’d ordered a bunch of clothes online—in her sizes—and were determined to sex up her image as an engagement present to Roman. Patch appreciated the irony of her new mate’s ex-lover and ex-fiancé tarting her up for him.

  Her new mate.

  It was so strange to even think the words.

  He had proposed properly—ring and all, down on one knee and everything—and they would be having a big, splashy pride wedding, but they’d already taken care of a small, private mating ceremony. He was hers now. A life sentence. And the loss of her independence had never sounded so good.