When A Lioness Snarls (A Lion's Pride Book 5) (9 page)

D
on’t go back
. Don’t go back.

The mantra kept him company for two flights down.

I should stay. Just for an hour. Can’t let my emotions screw with our cover.

The excuse he used as he took the steps two at a time back up.

The hall for her floor was empty, and he didn’t know the exact number of her place. As if he needed such a mundane detail. He knew with unerring accuracy which door belonged to her. Her scent—sweet hot grass in the summer with a hint of wildflower—lingered in the air and gave it away. He stopped in front of her door and tried the knob. It didn’t turn, the door sealed against him.

Keeping us out.
His wolf didn’t like barriers. He wasn’t crazy about it either.

An urgency possessed him, a need to get on the other side of that door. He pounded on it. “Luna, it’s me. Open up.”

Nothing.

Perhaps she sulked.

Danger.

The whispered warning from his wolf had no basis. No scent. No sound, and yet…

He pounded again and thought he heard furtive movement from within, but nothing else. It seemed so out of character. Luna never shied away from anything. She didn’t own a timid bone in her luscious golden body. So why the utter silence?

Something is wrong.

The wrongness tainted the air, tugged on his sixth sense. Such an insistent pull that wanted him inside, now. But how?

The doors were equipped with deadbolts, and the doors sat in steel frames embedded in concrete walls. Add the lack of room in the hall and it made kicking or ramming it open less than feasible. He wouldn’t get in this way unless someone opened the door or a key suddenly appeared.

I need another way in.
It wasn’t as if he could turn into a mouse and use air vents or fly like a bird up to her window.

Window. Thinking of them reminded him of the layout of the condos and their balconies.

A door a few feet over teased him. It belonged to the guest suite his sister had stayed in when she was having some troubles a while back.

I wonder if I still have access
. A long shot, but… He slapped his hand on the scanner. The door clicked, and he was in, and hopefully not about to confront someone angry at his intrusion.

Nothing leaped at him. The room smelled stale, obviously not in use. Not that he cared. Jeoff ran across the living space to the sliding doors and flung them open so he could step out onto the balcony. A quick glance to his left showed the veranda next door for Luna.

What he didn’t expect to see was some big dude wearing a hoodie pulled low over his face with Luna slung over his shoulder.

Who the fuck is he?
Grrr. His wolf immediately bristled, pushing hard enough at the line between them for him to pull his lip back in a snarl.

He dares to attack Luna?

Not on his watch. “Put her down.” Jeoff vaulted to the lip of the balcony, balancing on the front part of his feet. He gauged the distance between the verandas. He could make it.

Hopefully.

If not… He peeked downward.
Yeah, let’s try and not splat.

He would have liked more time to think about the leap—to calculate the laws of physics and the chain of events that would lead to success, or failure—but the big dude wasn’t obeying his request to put Luna down. He seemed to think he could just take her. As for Luna, she didn’t fight; she hung limp and unmoving. It tightened his heart.

She better not be dead.

Jeoff didn’t even want to contemplate that possibility.

The hooded dude stepped up onto the wide concrete lip of the balustrade. Only one way to go from there, and down was too many stories to survive.

Like fuck are you taking Luna with you on your suicide dive.

The muscles and tendons of his legs tightened. He sprang, extending himself forward, hands reaching for the other balcony. But gravity, a law nobody seemed to defy, wanted him badly. It pulled at his body, dragging his arching leap downward. His hands hit the rail for the other unit, his fingers grappling for purchase as his body slammed into the side and his legs dangled.

“Bastard!”

He might have felt more gratified at hearing Luna rousing from her unconscious state if his fingers weren’t holding on for dear life. Damned concrete abraded the tips. Ignoring the pain, he gritted his teeth and pulled himself up, galvanized by the grunts and snarls happening on the other side of the solid rail.

Pulling himself up high enough to rest on his forearms, he noted Luna in full lioness mode, growling and swiping at the big dude, whose hood hid his features. Even more disconcerting, Jeoff couldn’t detect a scent.

He vaulted onto the balcony just as Luna lunged at the intruder, claws extended. Her lunge was off, and yet she still managed a swipe that tore fabric and sliced skin. A slow reaction time to recover meant she missed blocking the jab of the needle by her assailant, a big syringe that saw yellow liquid injected into her body.

In moments, the drug took effect, and Luna wavered on her four feet. Before the hooded fellow could take advantage of her, Jeoff hit the floor of the veranda and held out his bleeding fingers, beckoning. “Why not tangle with someone your own size, asshole?”

“Not tonight. But don’t worry.” The voice lowered. “I’ll be back for her.” The guy leaped onto the railing and waggled his fingers. Jeoff couldn’t understand where he thought he’d go. As for the pissed and wobbly lioness, she didn’t care about the lack of safety net. She swiped a paw tipped in claws. The fellow leaned backwards, almost managing a
Matrix
-type move. Almost. Gravity wanted him, though, and instead of fighting it, with wind-milling arms, the hooded dude extended them and fell backwards.

Holy shit.

Jeoff raced to the railing and peered downward, expecting to see guts splattered, only to utter a, “Fuck me, what the hell is that?” as something with dark wings burst free from its shirt and flew away.

“Rowr.”

He peeked over at Luna, who had two furry paws on the ledge and wobbled. “The drugs trying to put you to sleep?”

“Rowr. Rowr. Rowr.” He’d take that for a yes as she wobbled and sat down hard on her ass.

“Come on, let’s get you inside.” Since Luna seemed intent on sleeping where she was, he had to grab her, which, given she was currently a giant kitty, meant snagging her around the middle and carrying her legs dangling back inside. Then where to put her?

The couch was covered in crap. Books, video game controllers, an empty pizza box. The floor proved no better with the collection of socks, empty water bottles, and what might have been a glazed donut once stuck to the carpet.

“Someone needs a maid,” he muttered as he lugged her limp body to the bedroom. There was one big bed that, while disheveled, was clear enough for him to drop her on.

Now what? He thought about calling a doctor, but Luna’s breathing came easily, with a hint of a snore. Given it seemed most likely she’d been given a sleeping agent, he decided to keep his skin intact since she would probably ribbon it if he let someone examine her while she was vulnerable.

The fact that she was vulnerable brought home an important fact. Someone had attacked her. And hadn’t just attacked her; they’d invaded what should have been a safe place.

Time to bring Arik up to speed. Shit was getting serious. The thugs outside the club wanting his car he could excuse as a crime of chance. It happened, especially in the less savory parts of town. But this? An attack on a pride member on pride turf?

The king of this concrete jungle needed to know, but Jeoff didn’t look forward to the roar. Felines could be so noisy when threatened.

He left Luna, still wearing her jungle kitty, snoring in the bedroom, softly closing the door behind him. Standing in the messy living room, he tried to find signs of the intruder as he dialed Arik.

It took but two rings before the bossman answered in a sleepy voice. “This better be good. I’ve got an nine a.m. meeting with some douchebag—”

“Visiting dignitary from Europe,” Kira interjected in the background.

“Whatever. I need sleep. So why are you calling?”

It took only a few minutes of explanation before a roar shook the condo, the sound reverberating through the ventilation shafts and tugging on the tenuous connection that existed with everyone in the pride. Even Jeoff was not immune. The king was pissed.

The king was also at the door to Luna’s condo a short time later, not needing a key or permission to enter. He stalked in like he owned the place—which he technically did.

“Where is she?” Without waiting for an answer, Arik peeked in on Luna and grunted. “Must have been some good drugs. It’s not easy to take her down.”

“Must have been.” Kneeling in the mess, Jeoff held up a syringe, only a portion of the fluid gone. “She must have knocked it away when he tried the first time. That’s probably why she revived for a bit on the balcony. But she got a full second dose. I’m going to guess she’ll be out for hours.”

“And she is going to wake up peeved.” Arik made a grimace. “Not something I’m looking forward to.”

A lioness on a rampage wasn’t something anyone wanted to experience. “I’m surprised you came down. Given what happened, I would have thought you’d be practically sitting on Kira.” Because given the brazen attack, surely Arik had some concern for the human he’d taken as mate.

“I dumped her on Leo and Meena. Nobody is getting through those two.” Leo alone was a force to be reckoned with. Add his new mate and disaster was a surety.

“I don’t know if we need to worry about them hitting us again tonight. Once the dude lost the element of surprise, he took off.”

“Took off on wings. Dark ones, you said. But did I hear you right? He had no feathers?”

“No feathers.” The recollection made no sense. The avian shifters all had feathers. All of them, and they also tended to be much finer boned. That big dude was a beast. How the hell did he fly—and keep a mostly manlike shape? When shifters took their animal form, there was nothing human left about them. But this fellow…

Jeoff shook his head. “I don’t know what that guy was. I’ve never seen anything like him before.”

“What of his scent?”

“Does spring-time fresh dryer sheet and deodorant count? If I hadn’t seen the fucker fly away, he could have passed as human.”

Arik paced, his expression thoughtful and worried. “I’ll have to make some calls. Maybe someone in the other prides, clans, or packs have heard of this kind of thing.”

“I’m going to go on the record and say I’ve never heard of it. But I’ll make some calls too. Perhaps the Lycan council has records or something that might identify it.”

“Report back what you find. Now, what of its purpose? Why did it come here? Why come after Luna?”

A part of Jeoff wondered if it had to do with their visit to the club that night. But that was jumping to assumptions. “We can’t know he came specifically for her. It could be she just proved handy. I mean, if the dude can fly, he could have landed on any balcony and looked for an unlocked door.”

The observation caused a furrow in Arik’s brow. “This flying thing is disturbing. It means none of our homes are safe because I don’t think anyone locks that damned patio door. Something that changes tonight. I’ll have to put a warning out to the pride. I don’t think we can hide what’s happening anymore.”

“Do you think it’s connected?” Jeoff asked since Arik had decided to make the tenuous connection.

“Don’t you?”

At this point, too many coincidences were piling up. “Whoever it is, they’re acting pretty fucking brazen.”

“Or they’re looking to start a turf war.” In the shifter world, there were always power games being played. “What about this Gaston Charlemagne, the one who owns the club you hit tonight? You didn’t say much about him. What’s the deal?”

Jeoff rolled his shoulders. “No deal. At least none that we could dig up. He practically doesn’t exist, except on paper.”

“Change that. I want to know more about this guy, starting with if he’s shifter or human. If he is one of us, then he apparently needs a reminder that he’s on my turf and needs to abide by my rules. If he’s not, then check out his staff, see if any of them could be our culprit. I want answers.”

“I’ll hunt him down in the morning. As well as question the staff a little more officially.” The time for subterfuge was at an end. Shit got serious with Luna’s failed attack. Time to go at the possible source with teeth bared and claws out.

“Do it. Also, I’m going to want extra security for the pride.”

“I can arrange that, but you do know the lionesses won’t like it.” They saw any form of security as babysitting.

“They will do as I say.” Arik’s eyes held a hard glint. “And I’m going to tell them that at the pride meeting I’m going to call. It’s time I warned them of what’s happening so they can be on the look out.”

“What if we have a spy? You’ll be tipping our hand.”

“I think it’s already tipped. And if there is someone stupid enough to think they can betray us, then we’ll find them and take care of them.”

The word permanently didn’t need to be said. The implication was clear. “I’ll get on it in the morning right after I run by my place for a change of clothes.”

“Morning?” Arik arched a golden brow. “I didn’t realize you were staying the night.”

“Only so I can watch over Luna. She’s out from the drugs and vulnerable. I thought I’d stick around, at least until she wakes up.”

“Vulnerable?” Arik snickered. “If she wasn’t asleep, she’d rake you over with her claws for that.”

Fine with him. Jeoff wouldn’t mind a little scratching action, with her. Wrong thought. He really needed to keep his distance from the temptation she posed, which was why he couldn’t understand why he didn’t take up Arik on his offer.

“You can go home if you like. I’ll sit with her or get Hayder and Arabella to come over.”

“Nope. Let them rest. I’ve got this.”

Crazy talk
, Jeoff thought as he shut the door behind Arik and secured it with a chair under the knob. The condo’s fancy lock systems were all well and good, but electronics could be hacked. Old-fashioned methods, such as a wedge, never failed. Unless someone used a pickup truck and rammed at the blocked doorway. But that case was years ago, and he didn’t see a truck being able to make it to her floor. Still, though, precautions should be taken.