Thadd stared at the boy, seeing his mother in his eyes. “No, I don’t see. You came all the way from our village, where you were king, to what? Murder the son you denied? The son who spared you?” he sneered, hating the bastard even more.
“Spared me?” he roared. “I had to fight to keep my place. These men you see.” His arm whipped in an arc off to the side. “They all challenged me, one-by-one. Me, their king. I had to prove I was strong enough to rule. And I did with might. Now, I’m going to show them I can defeat the ghost they’d created in their minds. You were not this monster they all thought they saw. I will show them this night you are not different, no more powerful than any of them as I make you show your throat. Only instead of allowing you to live, I’ll take your life like I should’ve done when I realized whose son you were.” He took a step forward.
Thadd didn’t miss the fact the other Pride members followed his father except for the young cub. “You gonna do it like you did with my mother, have them attack me while you watch? Maybe after I’m torn apart, you gonna come in for the kill like the worthless prick you are?” He knew he was baiting Kiplagat. Hell, he’d seen the big lion fight and hunt. He was excellent at both.
“I don’t need others to fight my battles, mwanaharamu.” His hands sprouted claws.
“You think name calling hurts, old man? Newsflash, I stopped caring about you and anything that had to do with you on a hot day back in Kenya. The day when my mother held my hand with the only one she had left. You remember that day don’t you. It was the day her small body had been wracked with pain as she breathed her last breath. All thanks to you while your enforcers fought over parts they’d ripped off. I denounced you that day, the same as I did my name. Thabiti died alongside Nalah.”
A rumble that wasn’t from a full-grown male lion had the males glancing over their shoulders. He too looked to see what or who was angry. Unable to stifle his surprise when a white lion paced back and forth behind them. Fuck, his brother was no longer where he should’ve been, instead a white lion was. A glorious white lion, the thing of myth, like him.
The others muttered, crossing themselves. The king snarled, his lion pushing forward quickly, ripping through him forcefully, shredding through skin and bones, the agonizing change making Kiplagat roar loud enough several streetlights burst. He shook the bits of cloth from his body that hadn’t fallen during the shift, his lion large, yet not as big as Thadd remembered. Or maybe it was because he’d been looking through the eyes of a boy.
Thadd waited, knowing he could shift faster and much smoother without the breaking of bones that he witnessed Kiplagat going through. The huge lion landed on all fours, shaking his body back and forth as if he needed to settle his fur. Several short sharp barks, clear commands were issued.
One-by-one the others began removing their clothes, the sound of seams ripping followed by bones breaking was loud on the empty highway.
The very fact he was hearing the orders out loud had him wondering at the lack of connection between alpha and Pride. Growing up he remembered hearing the male’s voices in his head. The connection had been strong and something he couldn’t wait until he was old enough to do the same instead of just hear, like a bystander. With Hollis, they all were connected, if they chose to be, or Hollis forced it on them. However, he was strong enough he could keep the older alpha out, he just didn’t let anyone know it. When he’d told Hollis about his Pride and the fact, he’d been unable to communicate back, the alpha had looked at him as if he’d wanted to say something. Thadd wondered if the other man realized his pride was broken or on the verge like they appeared now.
Thadd looked behind him, opening his mind to Torrance. They hadn’t completed their bond, but he wanted to try, needed to make sure it hadn’t been a fluke before. “Upendo, can you hear me?”
His heart thudded against his chest as seconds ticked by while he waited for her to agree.
“Thadd?”
“Yes, ma penzi. I need you to promise me if I fall you will...you will drive away as fast as you can. Go to your brother and his Pride. Reach for Zelda. Do not under any circumstance try to help me. Promise me this.”
The lions in front of him stood in a line while the king snarled at the white lion. Yaro, his half-brother, kept his head down, taking the verbal abuse as if it was common. The smaller male would be huge when he became fully grown. His own lion itched to be free. The need to show the fucker who the real king was, to teach Kiplagat how a king acted burned through his veins like a fever. Before he could act on the urge, he watched the bastard of a king rake his claws across Yaro’s side. The scent of copper accompanied the red staining the white fur.
There was no stopping his lion from shoving forward, shifting smoothly into his half beast, half man, then fully lion that towered over every animal there. He roared, landing on all fours. A crack split the ground beneath his paws. The lights that hadn’t been shattered from the other male, burst in a spray of glass. Torrance’s scream had his head swiveling backward. The windshield of her truck
