They’d come for the pride too many times. Why couldn’t they just leave them the hell alone?
“Cubs would be nice. One day. I still have so much work to do on myself, you know? I don’t want to jump whenever the cub cries out.” She shot a worried look toward both doors. It felt wrong for anyone else to hear her hopes, but she wanted Rhys to know every last one. He’d lost too much. She’d been hurt and scarred. Together, they could rebuild. “I want to be as happy as Trent and Hailey, as Kyla and Lindley, as all the others. That’s my plan.”
The door banged open with a roar. Rhys and another male staggered through as Sage backed herself into the corner, drawing the blanket over her chest. She shot wild eyes at Rhys, then to the other lion. Something about the face tickled at her memory, but the recognition slipped away as the fight spread through her living room.
They twisted and stumbled, throwing punches anywhere they could land the blow. A sharp crack sent blood spurting from the other man’s nose, but a hard jab to the stomach doubled Rhys over. One wheezing breath was all he needed to slam his shoulder into his attacker’s stomach and topple him to the ground.
“Go!” Rhys shouted at her. “Get the others!”
Sage wrapped the blanket around her frame and dashed out into the night. “Lin!” she screamed, reaching for the first name that popped into her head. “Lindley, hurry!”
Lindley’s door banged open. Trent’s was a close second. Dash appeared, too, and then there was a roar in the distance as Seth picked up the call.
“Inside!” She pointed for her door. “Rhys caught someone!”
They streamed past her in a hurry, but Rhys greeted them at the door. He shoved the other lion in front of him, letting him trip down the stairs and fall into the dirt.
The asshole pushed himself up to his knees. Gold churned in the eyes he swept around the group. “There she is,” he taunted. “Daddy’s little whore.”
Rhys snarled. He planted a boot in the small of the lion’s back and kicked him down to all fours. “Try again, fucker.”
Sage forced herself to keep still. Fiery rage rolled off him and raised goose bumps up and down her arms.
“Rhys,” Trent snapped in warning. He turned his head slightly to take in Sage, then nodded to her den. “Why don’t you go get dressed. We’ll take it from here.”
Sage dropped her eyes to the thin sheet she wore around her frame. When she raised them again, she found the consortium lion leering at her.
Her lip curled in disgust. Asshole. She wanted to dash up the steps, but she raised her chin and marched instead.
Her hands shook as she dropped the sheet to the bed and quickly dressed. Frustration laced through her heart and her head. She wanted to disappear.
No. She cocked her head as her lioness circled through her, hissing and snarling at the empty bed, the disheveled sheets, and the lion who’d disturbed the scene. Not her. They were the ones who needed to disappear.
It’d be so easy to stay inside and away from the trouble. So easy to pretend there wasn’t an interrogation being prepped right outside her window. So easy to let them win.
There’d been a time when that lion’s look would have sent her cowering. The threat he represented, too, dumped cold fear into her veins.
No more. They’d made her hurt and forced her to shed tears too many times. Her family had been ripped apart until only the rotten, bad parts remained. She’d been beaten, scarred, and kicked down to her lowest.
Sage clung to the brush of fur in her head. She was a damn pride princess. She was done being afraid.
By the time she returned, the rest of the pride had gathered. Every male, including a freshly shifted Seth, kept an eye on their prisoner. He’d been bound with duct tape and sat in the very center of all the dens, but didn’t show any signs of concern. That rattled her more than anything else.
What the hell did they have planned?
“How the fuck did he get so close?” Rhys demanded as she stepped close to her pride.
“Distractions. I caught two near the main road. They ran before I could bring them down,” Seth growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
“They’re testing us,” Trent ground out between clenched teeth. He fixed a glare on the lion. “Better see what he has to say.”
“You don’t need to be here for this,” Rhys murmured at her side. “You can go inside. No one will judge you.”
Sage steeled herself and lifted her chin. “I need to hear what he has to say, the same as you.”
Trent dipped his chin once, then strode for the lion still on his knees. “You’re with Jasper’s crew. Don’t bother trying to lie. I want to know how many and where they’re located.”
“Fuck you,” the lion sneered.
Trent stepped closer and punched him hard enough to knock him sideways. “I wasn’t fucking asking.”
Seth roughly grabbed the guy’s shoulders and set him back on his knees.
“You dumb fucks.” The man laughed low, gaining volume as he let it pour out of him. “Seven prides have you surrounded. All the weeks you spent hoping we just disappeared? The months you had our people locked away? We’ve been waiting. Planning. And now we’re going to take back what’s ours.” He shifted to put Sage back in his sights. “Starting with you and yours.”
“When?” Trent demanded, but the male only laughed.
Another punch killed his chuckle. A second and third left him gasping, but still unwilling to share his secrets.
Sage turned her head away as the questions and jabs and laughs kept up without resolution. More and more frustration dumped into the air until it was the only thing she could smell.
“When?” Trent snarled.
Another grating laugh wheezed out of the male. At a sharp nod from the Crowley
