Bad Boy Romance: Nick (Romantic Suspense Alpha Male Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Contemporary Short Stories) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 2) (40 page)

Natalie laughed, but it was dry
and biting; Charlie hated it, but he hated feeling like a prisoner even more.
“I wouldn’t call it that,” she admitted. “But yes, the Reynolds have a safe
house as well, and so do the Doyles and the Li family.” Her voice was soft, but
her words were steady, and when Charlie looked in her eyes, a cautionary sort
of heat was waiting there. “I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t necessary,
Charles.”

Charlie straightened his back,
unable to stop himself from becoming defensive. “I just wish you would have
told me just what the hell was going on when this stuff started being planned,
and why such drastic tactics were so necessary, Natalie.” He stepped back from
her. “I come home, you look tired and beaten down, my city is deserted and
looks like it’s under siege…and you expect me to be okay with all of this?”

“No,” Natalie said, though her
voice was nearing a shout. She started to close the space between them, her
words urgent and laced with pain. “I expect you to let me explain before you
start getting all territorial in the house that we share! Did it ever occur to
you, maybe while you looked at those empty streets and all that broken glass,
that while you were manning a war over there I was doing the same, right here
at home? That our people are under attack, and that I have been trying to stay
safe while doing something about it? I’m the Matriarch of this pride, did you
expect me to pussyfoot around while you were overseas and just do nothing?” She
was right under his nose now, stretching to push her angry gaze against his
lowered eyes. “I’m carrying our child, do you think I’m just going to sit here
and stay a target?”

Charlie dropped to his knees,
the back of his eyes burning with shame. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, digging his
knuckles into the plastic mat beneath them. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to imply
any of that. I know you were busy here. I’m just scared, but I shouldn’t put
that before the issue. Please, Nat…tell me what’s going on.” He raised his eyes
to hers, and was relieved to see that her expression has softened dramatically.
She held her hand out to him, and he pressed his cheek into the warmth of her
palm, grateful for the comfort her contact always gave him.

“Rise, love,” she said softly.
“Now that you’re here, we can’t waste words. It’s time I catch you up.”

****

“One more time,” Charlie said
ten minutes later. They were sitting on the soft mattress hand in hand, and
Natalie had just given him a condensed rundown for the third time. After being
in the marines for so long, Charlie liked having things drilled into his memory
like this, and today was no different. He understood now that this was
literally life and death for everyone involved.

Natalie, fortunately, was every
bit the soldier he was after standing as Matriarch for ten years, since she was
eighteen. She nodded patiently at his request, happy to have someone new to
share this with after all these months. “After the first rash of attacks, Ariel
started doing research. She noticed a pattern, and sent out requests to other
prides around the country about a month after they started, once things were
clearly getting worse. Most of the prides said the same thing: she was crazy
for thinking there was somebody targeting lions that wasn’t already in the
news, or at least known to the council. They said it was just a gang. But a
handful of prides came forward, and then a few more. All in all, a couple
prides in each state reported that their membership had been invaded and systematically
culled until almost no one was around to breed. In addition to mutilations,
they got rid of the young and tried to leave women pregnant with their own
seed. Infants were smothered, toddlers kidnapped, and pregnant women had their
pregnancies…forcefully terminated.” Her breath hitched in her throat, and
Charlie squeezed her hand encouragingly, sending her a soothing wave of his
energy that brought a rush of color to her cheeks. My brave lioness, he thought
in wonder.

“Thanks, babe,” she said,
shooting him a weak smile. “Anyway, after we got that information back, we only
had one other usable piece from everyone: the name “Golden Claws,” and we used
that to try to find out more. We knew they were trying to hit us while we were
out, but not in ways that attracted too much human attention, so we started
staying inside. Then they started hitting us at home. They destroyed our
truck’s motor and axle, tried to burn down Ariel’s house, and broke every
window they could at least once. Anyone who tried to leave town was either
taken or killed, so I could only go out short distances. Ariel stopped going
out at all. But as soon as we heard back from the other prides—right around the
second month—we started building our safe houses because we knew they wouldn’t
let us stay safe for long. Then we started sending out undercover
people—individuals from other prides—to try to catch some of the gang.” Natalie
sighed heavily, and her next words were laced with a bitter sort of triumph.

“We lost a lot of people, but
we got more of theirs. I got one that tried to break into the house, sent a
message back with him, minus a limb. The attacks slowed down. Then Ariel heard
one talking on his phone behind her pottery shop, after he got sloppy on a
tail, and it turned out they only had three left in the city: their leader and
two other people, and we know what those two look like. One’s a short muscular
man with blonde hair, and a Native guy, who must have tailed you on the way
over. The one other thing we learned is that they’re targeting prides that are
still matriarchal, the ones like us. They’re trying to stop us from, and I
quote, ‘discovering something in ourselves.’ They also said they were waiting
for you to return before they made their last move.” Natalie swallowed the lump
in her throat and looked toward the end of the room holding the kitchen sink. A
dark curtain was thrown over a part of the wall, and Charlie knew now that it
covered a steel door that the hid the connecting tunnels between their house
and the Reynolds’. “Ariel is telling Evan right now, then they’re heading over
for the last leg of the plan.”

“Which you know I don’t approve
of,” Charlie said, barely containing the anger in his voice. “I don’t see why
we need bait.”

“Because it will make them come
to us more quickly,” Natalie said for the fourth time. “But I’ll be safe.
You’re all here, and there’s only three of them. I’ll leave you all at least
one.” The rage in her expression matched the viciousness of Evan’s smile
earlier, and Charlie shivered at the same time he felt his heart swell. My
queen.

“So we’ll go into the main
house and wait for them to realize we’re out in the open,” Charlie finished.
“And they’ve always made a move each time you’re in the main house?”

“Starting two months ago, every
time I open the curtains,” Natalie said. She tried to hide the fear in her eyes
with a smile. “Gave me quite a workout, going up there to show myself so they
wouldn’t be suspicious.”

A knock sounded at the door,
and they both jumped. Natalie’s eyebrows raised, and Charlie caught the scent
of fear briefly before she reigned in her pulse.

“They’re early,” she muttered
as she stood up from the mattress. Her red tunic dress hid a great deal of her
stomach, but she held the bottom of her bump and outlined it as she walked to
pull open the door. Charlie felt love sweep over him, and his heart was
suddenly very happy to be witnessing this moment. I’m a lucky man.

As the door opened, the black
partition to his left side blocked part of the view, but Charlie could tell
immediately that whoever had arrived wasn’t Evan or Ariel. Natalie’s face
contorted with rage, and she gasped and threw one hand in front of her
defensively. Charlie saw thick, razor sharp claws slide from her
partially-shifted hands as she swung her other arm in a graceful, powerful
upward arc, and the sound of her claws slicing through flesh rung out through
the room. A spray of warm blood rained down from the body, and Charlie tried to
stand, but his legs felt strangely like they were filled with lead; he couldn’t
move a single muscle below his waist, now that he was actually trying to move.

Nat! he shouted, but she didn’t
acknowledge him—then he realized his mouth hadn’t really moved. I’m drugged, he
realized, and his mind flashed back to the water the human driver had given him
in the van. That’s why he was so nervous, the bastard.

Charlies groaned and tried to
pull himself from the bed with his hands. His shoulders jerked stiffly in the
space around him, but they were far too rigid and refused to obey his commands;
all he could move was head and neck. His eyes were wide with terror as he
watched Natalie swing her hands—which were now completely shifted into huge
sable paws, bloodied and alien at the end of her sinewy human arms—toward
whoever was trying to advance into the room. She was screaming wordlessly, her
beautiful face a portrait of defiance and bloodlust, her hair flecked with the
scarlet rain from her assailant’s neck. She jerked back as they struck her
upper body, but immediately after, she sank her paws into flesh somewhere
around the other person’s stomach, and Charlie watched her lead a tall, heavily
muscled man to the floor, jerking her claws back to show they were covered in
his entrails. His body twitched and he tried to shift to heal the damage, but
he never got far enough before his form stilled and flowed back to his human
shape. Charlie still couldn’t move, so he blinked his panic to Natalie as she
staggered toward him, clutching her bloody chest.

“Charlie…” she wheezed. “Char…”
she sank to her knees a foot away from the bed and held her reddened palm
upward, and Charlie could see through that the lion had ripped out part of her
shoulder and neck. She needed to shift and heal, soon.

Natalie! Charlie wailed
internally.

Her eyes sparkled for a second
after he screamed her name in his mind, and she cocked her head to one side as
though she had heard him. The confusion was plain on her face, and he shouted
her name again. Nat!

“Charlie,” she answered,
smiling beatifically. She’d heard him! How?

The sound of footsteps sapped
the short-lived happiness from the moment, and Charlie snapped his eyes toward
the door. A figure rounded the partition and stood behind Natalie, looking
between the two of them with a kind of detached interest. The woman was tall
and willowy, with dark brown skin and a high, dark ponytail thrown over one
shoulder. She smiled, and Charlie realized it was the woman from the
airport—the one who had been affectionately ruffling the strange man’s hair.

“Hello,” she said, and her voice
was low and cool. “Just in time. Your friend is smaller, so he froze up a lot
sooner than you. His wife was easy to take out. Oh, don’t worry!” she said at
the look of terror on their faces, and a smile light up her angular face.
“They’re still alive, for now.”

She pressed her fingers to the
collar of black sweater and adjusted the waistband of her jeans. “All in due
time. For now, I just want to make sure you two know your little plan to ambush
us didn’t completely work. I still have lions all around the country, after
all.” She stepped over to Natalie and pressed a hand to her cheek, laughing
bitterly when the lioness jerked away in disgust.

“Yes, you wouldn’t want my
comfort, would you? Too proud. There was never any hope for you. Too bad;
you’re awfully powerful. Both of you.” Her tone was mocking, a simpering drawl
that showed she took far too much pleasure from watching them suffer in
silence. “That little cub was going to be a piece of work! Probably already
is.” She sauntered over to Charlie and placed an oddly cold hand on his jaw.

“I’m Ali, by the way. You’re a
lot more handsome in person,” she purred, lowering her lips to his cheek.

She pressed her mouth against
him, and it was like being doused in ice. Her laugh was high and cruel as she
pulled away. “So much fear. So much…righteous anger. And I can feel that
ancient power waking between you and your wife…I came just in time.” The
artificial warmth dropped out of her dark brown eyes, and her smile faded. “In
fact, as much as I love soliloquizing…there is work that must be done.” She
stood straight and pulled a slim black club from her back pocket; Charlie
realized it was a cop’s riot stick.

“Sorry about this,” Ali said
sweetly. “There really isn’t a better way.”

Charlie kept his eyes on Natalie
as the club came crashing down, and the last thing he saw before his vision cut
to black was a look of cold murder sweeping over his wife’s features. He hoped
it would be enough to save him, but somehow, the hope felt in vain.

****

He dreamt of the night they got
pregnant. Natalie was reclining on the pink satin sheets—a gift from her to
herself, she’d joked on Valentine’s Day the year before. If they were aiming
for a cub before he shipped out, she needed to feel regal, queenly, divine; her
words, all spoken casually as though these were everyday demands. Charlie would
have brought her the ocean if he could, and she knew it; luckily, all she’d
ever needed since they’d met eight years before had been him, his heart, and
his body. Natalie made him feel complete without implying that he wasn’t whole
without her. Her constant strength fed directly into his. Other prides avoided
their dynamic because masculine mates felt they wouldn’t feel right showing
submission, but it had only ever been a source of tenderness and love between
them.

So that night, he rubbed
scented oils down the curve of her back, massaging the plumpness of her ass as
she undulated in bliss on the sheets below him. The golden brown of her skin
against the pale pink satin was so beautiful that soon he was planting kisses
on the backs of her soft thighs and calves, licking and nipping the sensitive
skin and relishing her sharp, delirious cries as he slipped a finger into the
warm nectar between the folds of her vulva.

“Charlie,” Natalie moaned after
his tongue as tasted her, raising her hips slightly as Charlie rose and rested
his naked body on hers. His rigid cock nestled between her warm cheeks, and she
eagerly ground her ass against him, the slickness of her warm, oiled skin
allowing his long shaft to glide between her flesh. “Please, just take me. I’m
so fucking wet.”

“Are you?” Charlie teased,
pressing his hips against her round ass and slipping one hand beneath her to
knead her breast. Natalie cried out as his fingers dug into her soft tissue and
thumbed her soft nipple, his breath coming hot and fast against her ear. “Let’s
see.”

He pulled back his muscled hips
and pressed the head of his cock against Natalie’s slick opening, groaning
softly as he submerged his head between her tight walls. She gasped and arched
her back, trying to push herself further down his thick, heavy shaft, but
Charlie held her ass still with one hand. “You’re wet, alright,” he admitted
teasingly, and sank deeper into her soaking wet pussy. “God…you’re so…fucking…wet.”

“Charlie!” Natalie cried,
closing her eyes as he slowly sheathed his thick member inside her. Pleasure
enveloped his body as her walls wrapped snugly around his cock, and he
concentrated on fucking her deep and hard. His mate moaned loudly, urgently pressing
her hips back against his fervent strokes as he twisted her hard, puckered
nipple. “Fuck me, Charlie, yes! Harder, please!”

“Hold on,” Charlie grunted,
watching his cock quickly slip inside her, slick from her hot juices. He felt
his lion’s energy uncurl inside him and wander out to mingle with hers, warm
and amorous beasts romping together and melding as he slammed against her
tender G-spot. His heart was pounding, and already Natalie’s cries were coming
high and breathy, her body twitching with the waves of pleasure the motion of
his thick cock sent through her, and he held both of her hips as he drove
himself against her wildly.

“I love you,” Charlie groaned
through gritted teeth. Natalie’s hips were slamming back against his strokes,
and one hand was moving frantically under her body, massaging the swollen nub
of her clit to stir more pleasure from their passionate romp.

“I love you!” Natalie called
back, and her teeth closed over her bottom lip at the same time that her left
hand fisted violently on the sheets. “I’m coming! Baby, I’m coming!”

Charlie moaned throatily,
thrusting his heavy member between the spasming walls of her pussy and raking
his blunt nails down the slick skin of Natalie’s back as he exploded inside of
her. Her hips rose emphatically a few more times, and she cried out as he sank
against her, covered in sweat. He thrust against her once, twice, a third time,
then lay still as her body cooled and grew quiet. For a long time, he lay
listening to her heartbeat with one ear pressed against her back, monitoring
the racing pulse behind her shoulder blades.

“Charlie?” Natalie said
sheepishly. “I think it worked.”

Charlie laughed. “You can’t
tell yet,” he said lightly.

“I mean it,” Natalie insisted,
her hesitancy falling away into dreamy certainty. “I know this is gonna work.
And she’ll be strong. I know it.”

Charlie pressed his lips to her
neck and peered at the side of her face. “Okay,” he said. “You’re the boss,
after all.”