Chapter 2
A loud guffaw jerked Sage Levine’s attention back to the table. Scents and sounds threatened to overwhelm her momentarily before dying down to a more manageable input. The mouthwatering smell of smoked meats dominated the air and the clink of silverware scraping against plates made her ears ring.
Focus.
Fur brushed against the back of her mind, but her inner animal slipped away before she could grab hold. Her heart pounded against her breastbone, but… no. No, her lioness wasn’t locked away. She was simply hiding. Had been for nearly two weeks now.
“You’re full of shit,” Lindley snorted.
“Oh yeah?” Dash drawled. “I grew up on spicy food. Mémé’s gumbo would make you cry like a baby.”
Sage forced herself to relax. A silent, long exhale unclenched her fists and eased the tension out of her shoulders. There wasn’t a threat. No one was coming to put the collar back around her neck. She was fine. Fine. Absolutely fine.
The word was beginning to sound fake and made up from her insistence.
Lindley pushed to his feet. Sage tracked him all the way to the bar where he pulled aside the intimidatingly bearded owner, Kenny. The man shot a look to their table, shook his head, then disappeared into the kitchen, only to return a moment later.
Lindley took the box in his hands with a gracious nod, then made his way back. Trying to keep a smug smile off his face, he dumped the box right in front of Dash.
“Where did those come from?” Kyla asked with a shocked laugh.
“Kenny’s experimenting with making his own hot sauce for the wings.” Lindley shrugged and turned back to Dash. “Twenty bucks says you can’t choke down ten habanero peppers.”
The wild lion grinned like a madman. “Fuckin’ watch me.”
The Crowley alpha hung his head in his hands. “Would you two act like grown men instead of unruly preteens?”
Crowley. The name shuddered down Sage’s spine. Right on the heels came the reminders she wanted to tattoo to the back of her eyelids. Trent wasn’t Jasper. Hailey wasn’t like any of the females she knew from her father’s pride or sold into Jasper’s consortium. And all the others were good, honorable lions.
Dash popped a pepper into his mouth, then pointed to his alpha. “Suck farts, you old geezer.”
On Trent’s other side, Hailey choked back a laugh. When he turned a betrayed look her way, she widened her eyes and held up her hands. “What? It was funny!”
“You can suck farts, too,” Trent muttered.
Well, they were mostly good. More honorable than bad, though they’d probably pop off with a string of cusses and down sixteen beers apiece just to refute the claim. She’d needed roughly ten hours to understand that much about them, and stood by the observation thirteen days later.
Her first night out with the pride had done nothing to change her mind.
They were a wild bunch, with Dash in the clear lead for mouthiest, craziest troublemaker. Trent pretended not to give a shit about the others, but backed up his surly words with caring actions such as giving a wayward lioness a place to call home. Hailey was a sweetheart, but Sage recognized the steely glint in her eyes—the human would pull a knife if any of ‘her’ pride were threatened.
And then there was Rhys.
Sage glanced down to the end of the table. The man turned his face at that exact moment, leaving her with the impression that he’d been looking right at her with dark blue eyes that reminded her of the deepest parts of the ocean.
He stood taller than any of the others, though not by much. His shoulders spanned wider, too, which was much more noticeable. Quiet, until he wasn’t, and then everyone needed to watch out.
A single image flashed through her head. White against the inky darkness, scarred and dangerous. Silver eyes dead with all recognition. A shiver worked down her spine and goose bumps pebbled her skin. A quick flick of her eyes found the man sipping at his beer and watching the show.
She couldn’t explain why she’d thrown out her hand and whispered a plea for him to stop, other than she felt her insides breaking apart. Even her cat balked at the thought, roaring to life with a suddenness that made Sage jerk straight. She told herself it was to keep the Crowley pride intact, a desire to avoid a repeat of the in-fighting she’d witnessed her entire life. Better to think of it in that way than give any other possibility consideration.
Deep in her head, her lioness stirred. A slow unfurling, a stretching of her claws. The beast wanted something Sage could barely even think about, let alone give her.
In the end, the fighting had been for nothing. Lindley shifted and shook off the worst of his injuries. Rhys lived to see another day, though he’d been carted off for a timeout in the cave deep in Crowley territory.
She’d hated the entire show from start to sedated finish, but she didn’t step into her den until the night belonged only to her again. There was something daunting about the scarred, white beast going up against shifters as strong as him. He had to have known he couldn’t win. Even against those odds, he’d refused to back down.
Rhys wasn’t a coward. Not like her.
Another snicker tugged at her attention. The second pepper went down just as easy. Three more, and Dash started to squint.
“Dash, Dash,” Hailey began chanting after the sixth. She glanced up and down the table for support.
Kyla took up the chant, with Lindley rolling his eyes and adding his own flair. “Ass, ass.”
Dash flicked him off and ate another pepper.
Strange to know Lindley had found his way to a Crowley. He fit in, too. Oh, he was every bit as tough as the others and didn’t hesitate to turn his claws on his enemies, but he was nothing like their father. He’d taken all the lessons on how to be
