Serengeti Sunrise

Chapter Nine

Zoe snuck into the back of the mess hall, hoping to go unnoticed at Landon’s mandatory defense summit. Flying under the radar wasn’t something she had much experience with, but she’d been practicing it diligently for the last forty-eight hours. Ever since Tyler tossed no-strings out the window.

She’d fled the garage, throwing some lame excuse she couldn’t even remember over her shoulder. Tyler hadn’t stopped her, either smart enough to know she needed space or cocky enough to be certain she was coming back.

The world felt like it was squeezing in around her like a vacuum pack, sucking all the oxygen out of her lungs. She’d needed some breathing room. Some time to evaluate. Just a few minutes when her hormones weren’t running on overdrive and insisting she absolutely must stay with that walking aphrodisiac of a lion. She couldn’t think when she was with him.

Unfortunately, after two days apart from him, she was no closer to knowing what she wanted.

She’d avoided Landon, Ava, the entire Minor family, but especially Tyler. She knew what he wanted—what they all wanted. For her to decide she really did want to settle down.

Settle. The word tasted like rust on her tongue. If she stayed here, she’d be close to Landon and Ava. She’d have Tyler, and probably a few cubs and an extra thirty pounds of baby weight she couldn’t shed.

She’d be domesticated. A house cat.

The thought made her physically ill, so much so she’d actually considered going to the pride doc and asking him to give her a pregnancy test even though she couldn’t be pregnant without going into her heat cycle. Wouldn’t that be just her luck? If Tyler knocked her up, there’d be no denying him.

She didn’t want her claws pulled. She could handle it for a little while—being surrounded by people you cared for wasn’t exactly torture—but eventually the wanderlust that was so deeply embedded in her soul would start pressing against her heart again, begging for an outlet. Independence. Freedom. Adventure. Would her soul just wither and die without them? Could she be a house cat? And on the other side, could she even make herself leave Tyler?

He already felt like the cornerstone to the foundation of her happiness, like it would all crumble without him. But was he too grounded? He might profess to want to leave the pride and see the world, but he would never be able to leave his family. His siblings meant too much to him. And knowing what she now did about his father, she knew he would never let himself be the kind of man who abandoned those he loved. Tyler was even more caged than she was here at Three Rocks. But if she put herself in that cage with him, would they soothe one another or rip each other to pieces?

Zoe shuffled along the back of the room filled with every able-bodied adult in the pride. She didn’t need to scan the room for Tyler. She spotted him right away, leaning against the base of the stage they never used. Landon stood on it now, Ava at his side, the Minor siblings and their mates arrayed at his feet. Zoe felt a twinge of guilt that she wasn’t up there with them, presenting a united front, but that would only reinforce the illusion that she was part of this pride, and she wasn’t. Not really. Not yet, a small voice whispered in her mind.

The mess hall was crowded. Meals were communal but rarely attended by all pride members simultaneously. Full-pride gatherings, like the ritual hunts, usually took place in the amphitheatre on the edge of the compound. Holding the meeting here was doubtless an attempt to keep the cubs from listening in, but Zoe would bet there was a cluster of small, furry ears pressed to the walls outside, trying to pick out stray words through the timbers. Curiosity was a feline trait, after all.

Landon raised his hands above his head, and the rumble of conversation in the hall instantly quieted. Zoe realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to let it out. Whatever they’d discovered in the last couple days, it couldn’t be good, judging by the grim set of her brother’s jaw.

Guilt jabbed again. She should have been with them. She should have been on the front lines, investigating and planning, but instead she’d been hiding. Taking care of herself first, like a true nomad outside a pride. So why did she feel like she’d done something wrong?

Landon cleared his throat and tipped his head back in his master-orator mode, projecting the charisma that made him a natural leader. “Since the incident at the Bar Nothing, a trio arrived in town, claiming to be government research scientists investigating the geological properties of this land. Two men and one woman, young by all accounts, they have been telling the town that we are operating under a similar government research grant, but that our funding is set to expire soon and they will be taking over the ranch when it does.”

Sounds of unease momentarily rose, cutting Landon off until he raised his hands again for quiet.

“We haven’t been able to determine yet where these so-called geologists are staying, though it is somewhere outside of town, and we have no way of knowing if there are more than just the three who’ve been seen by the townspeople. We don’t know what they know about us. This could be nothing more than a misunderstanding. At this point, until we know more, our best strategy is to be always on guard defensively. Patrols will be doubled and run in pairs who will be in constant radio contact with the central security team. We’ll be working to upgrade the sensors at the perimeter as quickly as possible, as well as beefing up security around the cubs. In the meantime, stay close to the compound, try to avoid going anywhere alone and report anything suspicious, no matter how insignificant it may seem.”

Ava slipped her hand into Landon’s, and the anxious tension in his shoulders seemed somehow to shift into a sense of power and strength.

“With luck we’ll be able to face our enemy directly soon.” A predatory growl rose through the room. Landon bared his teeth, nodding as if satisfied by the bloodthirsty response. “We will win this hunt. Until then, come up and get your new security assignments.”

Zoe wrapped her arms around her stomach as the shifters in the room stood and shuffled toward the pride leaders to collect their new duty rosters. There was a sense of solidarity as the pride banded together to face the common enemy. Zoe knew she should feel motivated and a swell of camaraderie with her fellow lions, but all she felt was the intense urge to leave.

Lions rarely hunted alone, but Zoe wanted nothing more than to leave the group behind and go hunting, to test the sharpness of her claws against the flesh of those who threatened them.

The line to get assignments would take a while to clear out. Zoe slipped out the side door, striding quickly away from the building. She would talk to Landon later about whatever he wanted her to do. Now the lioness stirred restlessly within her, scratching to be let out. Zoe stretched her stride, loping down the path toward her place.

“Running away?”

The deep voice behind her brought her up short. Zoe paused, unfamiliar indecision slithering through her. Turn and face him? Or run like hell?

“It’s a lot for me to adjust to too,” Tyler said, closer this time.

Zoe turned. “It?”

Damn, he looked good. The sight of him so close was a salve to an ache she hadn’t known she had. Tall and strong, a golden god gazing down at her with an expression of such possession it should have had her sprinting in the opposite direction, but all she wanted to do was throw herself against him.

“Taking a mate,” he said. “It’s a big adjustment for both of us.”

Her breath left her in a whoosh. “Who said I was taking a mate?” Presumptuous bastard.

“Zoe.”

“Tyler,” she mimicked, a growl sneaking into her voice. “Before you grab a shotgun and start wedding planning, maybe you should check to see if the bride is willing.”

“This isn’t exactly how I pictured my life going either,” he said, the words sharp.

“Oh, well done. That’s the way to convince me we should get married. Bitch about how I’m screwing up your life plan. Bonus.”

“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it. We’re both stuck in this, so we might as well—”

“I’m not stuck in anything, Tyler Minor. So you can just cram your make the best of it speech up your ass, okay, sweetie?”

“Dammit, Zoe! What did I do to get you so pissed at me? I thought we were good and then you bolt on me with no fucking explanation and avoid me for days. What did I fucking do?”

You wanted me. Zoe knew it was messed up, but him wanting her had scared the shit out of her. She was allowed to pin all her emotion on him when he was running hard in the opposite direction, but she hadn’t been prepared for his about-face. When he wanted her, when it was real and she had to choose between a real life with him here and the life she knew on her own, suddenly everything she felt was bigger and scarier than she could handle.

But she couldn’t tell him that.

“You didn’t do anything. What do you want?”

His jaw locked and his hands fisted at his sides, but he lowered his eyes, visibly restraining himself from the urge to dominate her. Zoe was more impressed than she cared to admit by the effort.

“Landon wants you to take a look at the perimeter security. You know more about that techno-spy shit than anyone else on the ranch. I’m supposed to escort you.”

“Babysit me, you mean. I can do it myself. I’ll be on pride land the entire time.”

“You’ll be on the border and everyone is using the buddy system, so stop whining and get any gear you need. We’re going as soon as you’re ready.”

Zoe stiffened, itching for a fight, wanting to take out all of her frustration and confusion on someone. “Is that an order?”

Tyler stepped forward until he was looming over her, but he didn’t touch her, just saturated the air around her with the weight of his presence. “Zoe,” he growled low. “We can play all the dominance games you want later, but right now you have a job to do for the pride, so get your ass moving and fucking do it.”

If she’d needed it spelled out for her that his family would always come first to him, Tyler had just done that. Pride first—even if his definition of pride was narrower than Landon’s. Zoe didn’t want to be another person he protected and bossed around. It wasn’t in her.

Suddenly the picket fence looked more like bars. He would keep her safe, even if it meant building a cage around her with his own two hands. The two of them chafing against their restriction together she might have been able to handle. Tyler as her jailer would be unbearable.

“I’ll get my things,” Zoe said, her voice soft and expressionless.

Tyler rocked back on his heels, a flicker of satisfaction at the victory showing on his face. Zoe didn’t bother telling him he’d lost something bigger than this argument. He’d lost her.

“Three more and we’re done.”

The truck rumbled over the cattle guard fifteen feet from the outer perimeter. Zoe sat in the passenger seat with a laptop open on her legs, ignoring him with a businesslike concentration that was starting to make him crazy.

For days he’d tried to give her space, even as his lion fought against the restriction, urging him to prove to her he was strong enough to be her mate the only way the animal in him recognized—through dominance. He’d nearly ripped Landon’s head off for no good reason, just because he was another male in Zoe’s life and Tyler couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else having a claim on her. His human side refused to be ruled by his instincts. He knew Zoe would be as resistant to the idea of spending forever with him as he initially had been, but she didn’t have decades of bending to Fate’s will to prepare her as he did.

Strangely, the more time he’d given her, the more certain he’d become that he didn’t need any more. The more she’d resisted, the faster he’d adjusted. He would never find anyone else who suited him the way Zoe did. It was her or no one, and now that he’d been with her, no one wasn’t an option anymore.

But her rigid silence in the passenger seat couldn’t be classified as encouraging.

They’d been replacing and updating the electronic monitors at the perimeter for the last four hours, and other than instructions, she hadn’t said more than two words to him.

With only three more points to work, he realized he was running out of time when she’d be forced to be in his presence. He’d already wasted hours he could have been pleading his case. Whatever the hell his case was.

Tyler cleared his throat as he pulled up next to a fencepost that concealed motion sensors and a tiny infrared camera. “Zoe—”

She was out of the truck, the door slamming on her name. Tyler scrambled out after her and circled the bed. He scanned the horizon for threats automatically, even as he tried to figure out some way to convince her being his mate wouldn’t be too horrible.

His lion insisted he dominate her. His human side urged him to reason with her. But on one thing the man and lion were in perfect accord. Zoe was his. Which made his priorities clear. Keep her safe, no matter what.

Which would have been easier if she wouldn’t insist on throwing herself toward every hint of danger just to prove she could.

“Zoe,” he began again, trying to make his voice sound reasonable rather than frustrated. “Would it really be so terrible to be my mate? You know you can always depend on me to watch your back.”

“What about your back?” she asked without looking up from the tiny device she was fiddling with on the post. Her tone was hard and ruthless. “Do I get to watch it?”

Tyler hesitated, knowing his instinctive response of hell no wasn’t going to get him the reaction he wanted. “If it were necessary to have someone watch my back…”

Zoe’s head snapped up and her eyes narrowed at the evasion. “Bullshit. If I tried to do anything to defend you, you’d probably tie me to your bed for a week.”

Tyler couldn’t deny the idea held some appeal.

“If I were to mate with some lion—if, mind you—it would have to go both ways. Equals.”

“It does go both ways.” He protected her body, and she protected his heart. If anything happened to her…

“God, Tyler, you are such a crappy liar.”

He flinched, feeling his future with Zoe slipping away at the distance in her voice. “You have to understand—”

“Oh I get it. The idea of me being hurt makes you feel sick and you’re convinced the only thing that will keep me safe is you standing there ready to take any bullet aimed at me.”

His breath left him. “Yes. That’s it.”

“Did you ever stop to think that I feel exactly the same way? That your complete lack of trust in my ability to watch your back is as frustrating as it is insulting? How would you feel if I left you chained to the stove while I went waltzing off into God-knows-what? I’m not asking you to stop protecting me, Tyler. I know that would go against every alpha instinct you have. I’m just asking you to let me protect you. We have to be equals in this or I’m going to end up trying to kill you someday—and it’ll be self-defense because you couldn’t stop smothering me. I’m not like Ava. If you want to date some delicate flower, you need to look elsewhere.”

He didn’t want to look elsewhere. He wanted Zoe because of her strength, the fight that was a part of her down to her soul, but he’d been denying her that part. He’d admired her fierceness, her power as a lioness, but then he’d tried to bind her spirit.

And he didn’t know how not to. If her definition of compromise put her in danger, he didn’t think he could do it.

She must have read the truth on his face. Her hands fisted, her expression locking down to a flat, emotionless mask that looked so wrong on her expressive face.

“It isn’t going to work,” she said softly. “We have to end this now, before things get any more complicated.”

“No.” The word sprang out of him with the same force as his claws that suddenly unsheathed. He never shifted involuntarily, never lost control, but the thought of Zoe just giving up and walking away pierced right through his shields and stabbed his heart.

“You don’t get to dictate to me,” she retorted. Her eyes were bright with anger, the vivid expression back in her face, but her hands were deft and gentle as she handled the sensors, never pausing in her work. “I never agreed to take you as my mate and even if I had, it wouldn’t be a free pass for you to run my life.” She snapped the cover closed on the post sensors and swept her tools up. She stalked toward him, challenge in every line of her body. “I’m never going to be the meek little woman who sits obediently by with her fucking needlepoint while you ride off into battle.” She flung her tools through the open truck window onto the bench seat, but didn’t move to climb in, turning to snarl up at him, “And I am never going to take orders from you.”

Tyler started toward her, intending to give the words kiss her into submission new definition, when something sharp jabbed into his shoulder. He hesitated, raising a hand to the sting, blinking as the world slowed and the colors of the pasture bled into one another before his eyes like an impressionist painting. What the hell?

“Tyler?” Zoe’s voice sounded like it was coming from an out-of-tune radio, soft, then suddenly loud then soft again, and all battling against the static that filled his ears.

“Run,” he grunted, as his knees gave way. Whatever drug they’d shot him with, it was fast working.

His cheek smacked into the ground hard. He couldn’t lift his arms to brace for the impact. His vision was still functioning—blurred though it was—as all the rest of his motor functions shut down one by one. He saw Zoe’s boots running away from him—obeying him for once in her life, thank God—but the steps were slowing, staggering, and she didn’t make it ten yards before she slumped to the ground.

No.

A surge of something vicious and powerful ran through his blood. His vision cleared. He still had no feeling in his arms, but he managed to move them even though they felt like they belonged to someone else. Rolling slightly to the side, he shoved himself up. Half-crawling, half-dragging himself, he inched toward Zoe.

Protect your mate.

Another sting pierced his neck. Tyler lifted his dead-weight hand and yanked the dart out before the tranquilizer could find its way into his bloodstream. But enough of the damn poison had gotten in to send him crashing back to the ground.

Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. His eyes stayed locked on her unmoving form in front of him as he willed his body to fight the drug. She’d become his mantra, his reason for being. They could take him, but he had to get her out of here.

His eyes were still open, his hearing still staticky but functioning, when a pair of footsteps approached.

“Jesus, he’s still conscious.”

“Hit him again.”

“Will that damage him? I already gave him enough to take down an elephant. He said a breeding pair is no good if one is damaged.”

“Do you want this big fucker waking up before we get him back to the lab? Hit him a-fucking-gain.”

“Fine, but you get to explain it to the boss if he’s sterile or brain-dead.”

The second man snorted. “Just don’t aim for his junk. Brain-dead isn’t a problem.”

Tyler didn’t feel where the next dart hit him. He only knew it had when a yellow fog swamped him and the world faded away.