Thadd moved into her space, crowding her. “Do you know what they’d do to you?”
“Who is they? We don’t even know what is coming, Thadd.”
His lion was raking at his skull, needing their mate to be safe. Images of his mother flashed in his mind, followed by an image of Torrance lying in a pool of her blood. “We may not know who or what, but I can feel the animosity rolling toward us. I won’t be able to fight if I have to worry about your safety.”
“I’m not a defenseless female who needs to be carted away. I won’t be put in a—spot while my male goes off to fight. It’s not in my make up to do so,” she argued.
He held her face between his palms, wishing he could make her understand. Time wasn’t on their side. “Fine, we go together.”
Taking her hand, he pulled her back the way they’d come, finding her truck sitting where they’d parked it. Mr. Bixley was in the passenger seat munching on some grass looking bored. “Move, goat.”
Thadd walked Torrance around to the driver’s side, putting her in, getting in behind the wheel. She didn’t protest when he was the one who took control, shifting into reverse, kicking up rocks under the wheels. The headlights lit up the area as he swung the vehicle around aiming for the highway. Neither of them said anything, not even Mr. Bixley as they fishtailed it around the curve to the onramp.
A sigh whooshed out of Torrance once he got them onto the highway. Night had fallen, covering them in darkness while they’d spent time making love.
“We’ll stop at the next town and grab some takeout,” he told her, looking over to see how she was handling things.
“Look out,” she warned.
He jerked his eyes back toward the road, cursing at what he saw. A line of men fifty feet in front of them blocked the three-lane highway. If he continued driving, he risked damaging her truck. They were shifters so he didn’t think they’d get hurt, but visions of her lying in the middle of a road bleeding to death had him slamming on the breaks. His lion snarled, but the man was in control as he put his arm in front of Torrance to keep her from flying forward, cursing the fact that neither of them had put on their seatbelts.
Mr. Bixley gave a sharp cry, but Thadd couldn’t worry about the goat. He downshifted, pumping the brakes, working to keep the truck from rolling as it spun in a circle. They came to a rocking stop, the front end once again facing a line of men, menace pouring off of them. He recognized the largest bastard standing in the middle. The last ten years hadn’t been as good to him as it had for Thadd. Next to him stood a young cub, the boy Thadd had told the bastard he had better treat right or he’d kill him. Although he’d killed all the men in the Pride that had been part of the massacre of his mother, he should’ve known others would rise up to take their place.
“Do not get out of the truck no matter what happens. Do you understand me?” he asked, looking down into Torrance’s soulful eyes. He didn’t know who was more shocked at the level tone, him or Torrance.
“Who are they?” she asked, jerking her eyes back toward the road at the sound of a lion’s roar.
Chapter Seven
“That is Kiplagat, my mother’s murderer.” He pushed the door open, shutting it with enough force it shook the vehicle. His lion stretched inside him, wanting to feel the bastard’s flesh beneath his claws. The swift intake of breath of his mate almost had him turning to reassure her, but the lions waiting on him kept his focus away forward.
“Is that him? Yeye Kuua mama?”
The young lions question drew him up short. “I didn’t kill our mother, boy. He did.” Thadd pointed an accusing finger at Kiplagat. “What kind of lies did you fill his head with all this time, mwanaharamu?” A good fifty feet separated them, but with his shifter hearing, he heard them just fine.
“I’m not the bastard here, Thabiti, you are,” Kiplagat growled, taking a menacing step forward.
“First of all, let’s get a couple of things straight. My name is Thadd, not Thabiti. Second, you will not speak of my mother, ever. Third, I gave you one task on my fifteenth birthday. The day I found my mother in the middle of our village clinging to life after you allowed your enforcers to do as they wanted to her. Before you ordered her death. While you stood there and watched,” he growled.
He took a couple steps forward, his gaze taking in the others. “And you, you all stood back and watched, cowering behind your females like the pussies you are. You stand here thinking you can take me, when I killed all but him when I was but a boy.” He let his claws extend, the lights from above highlighting them.
“You’re an abomination that needs to be wiped from the earth. My son can’t be king until you are dead.” Kiplagat spat onto the pavement. The males with him chuffed, their lions riled.
“I’m not stopping him from becoming king. You are. Either step aside or die. If I get to choose, I go with the latter.” The beast within him stretched...crazy lion actually seemed to chuckle.
“That’s where you’re wrong. You see, the man who your mother allowed to defile her was supposed to have been dead with no sons. I killed him.” He lifted his claws as if showing pride in his actions.
“Again, I don’t see how this has anything to do with me. I let you live.” On a scale of worse mistakes, he’d give himself a ten out of ten on that one.
“It was how I became king. You kill the reigning king to become one, or the son takes over. With you being his
