For Toron's Pride (2 page)

“Seriously?”

He grinned. Her stupid heart fluttered, and she was no longer aware of the others in the room.

“Yes, and others are as well.” He pointed out the ones at the table and introduced them. Sienna never turned her attention away from his face. What was this power he had?

Was it because he was born as a shifter? What made them? Where did they come from? All the questions swirled in her mind as Toron shared about his parents, also naturals. His father had passed on, and Toron took control of the pride. His mother started traveling more often than not a couple of years ago, and she assumed, remarried, but Toron didn’t say so. He had a brother who hadn’t become an alpha like him. She didn’t understand how it all worked.

“So there are hundreds of you out there?” she asked in amazement.

“Thousands,” Stella corrected. “Shifters—particularly lion shifters—are fertile.”

“And we mate like animals.” Davon’s happy outburst would have had regular people coughing in embarrassment. The shifters nodded their agreement. Now she realized how ridiculous she’d sounded in the car, telling Davon he needed to learn from his leader how to curb the sex. Yeah, like that was going to happen.

When dinner ended, Sienna made sure to excuse herself and headed out through a side door. She thought no one had spotted her and paused to breathe in the night air. Ever since she’d been changed, she loved the outdoors. Before that, one couldn’t catch her in nature, and if a guy even hinted about a love of camping, she’d dump his ass before they finished the introduction.

As she strolled along a walkway between rows of shrubs and flowers, she picked up the night sounds. That was another improvement, she realized, hearing, but it had led to learning stuff she didn’t wish to learn. She guessed it came with the territory, and there was nothing she could do about it.

“You’re out here alone.”

Sienna stopped and turned as Toron approached. Her heartbeat sped up, pounding in her chest, and she prayed he couldn’t hear. “Yeah, just catching some air.”

“I love the outdoors and get out from behind my desk as often as possible,” he said, echoing her earlier thoughts.

“Are you enjoying yourself so far?”

“You have a lovely home. Is it just you all out here?” She scrambled for words when what she really wanted was to run from him. He stood too close. She felt warmth radiating off of him and something she couldn’t put her finger on. That same energy that made her want to throw herself into his arms and beg to be kissed senseless.

“The men you met tonight, and the couple Jen and Bill, live on my land in the smaller houses you may have seen when you drove up. Stella also lives here. The others live in the town. There are a total of about four thousand shifters here.”

“Wait, the sign I saw when we arrived said Sutland has four thousand residents. Are you telling me every one of them is a shifter?”

He leaned back on his heels and pushed his hands into his pockets. Never a man looked so happy and satisfied with himself. “I am. Sutland was founded for us, over a hundred years ago.”

“The mailman, the lady at the hair salon, the people that work in the bookstore?”

His brows went up. “You stopped in town?”

“I’m guessing.”

He chuckled. “Well, yes, everyone, including the children attending the elementary school and in the daycare center.”

“That’s… I don’t know what to think about that.”

Sienna wrapped her arms around herself. The temperature had dropped in the last couple of hours. Toron turned to her and ran his hands up and down her arms.

“You’re cold. Let me warm you.”

“Down, boy.” She held up a hand to his chest, which turned out to be a mistake. Taut muscle contracted beneath her touch, and her pussy clenched. His eyes narrowed. If he smelled how wet she was, she wouldn’t get away. “M- Maybe I should go inside.”

He caught her hand as she spun away and held on. The tips of her fingers burned. Sienna halted, unable to move any farther away from him, and he skimmed her palm before engulfing her smaller hand with his giant one. Have mercy.

“You strike me as the kind of woman who wouldn’t run from a challenge.” His lips brushed the skin at her wrist.

When he raised his head to look at her, even in the dim lighting, she noted the change. Deep gold reflected from the depths. “I want to get to know you better, Sienna.”

She snatched her hand from his and took a step back.

“Sorry, I’m not into that sort of thing.”

“What thing is that?”

“The kind where I hop into bed with you just because you did some kind of magic on me. Is that how you have all of them jumping through hoops to please you? Well I don’t want to bust your bubble, pal, but I am not joining the harem.”

Where desire had been evident a moment before, his eyes darkened with anger. “Please share how you really feel. You’ve judged me and mine from the moment you got here. No, from the day I came to New York to meet you.

And contrary to what you think, I have never used the power of the alpha to force a woman to sleep with me.”

So she wasn’t wrong. There was some kind of power he wielded. His denial of using it didn’t mean a thing to her.

She wouldn’t be staying the entire weekend. Let him act like the lord of the manor for the others to kiss his feet, not her. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s late, and I want to go to bed. Good night!”

Toron watched Sienna walk away, his gaze riveted to her round ass. She was beautiful in every way from her sweet, if angry face, to her luscious breasts to her curvy hips. She had a sharp tongue in her head, which to his surprise turned him on just as much as her figure. He had always been able to admire an attractive black woman but had never felt the need to sample one. That is until he met Sienna. She was the only African American in his pride other than Davon, and he welcomed the diversity.

Toron could admit to himself if not to her that his power did swirl to the surface more than usual when he dealt with Sienna. He hadn’t meant for it to happen. Maybe it was her exotic beauty that caused him to open his ability to lure her closer. Not until she had protested did he even realize he was doing it. He needed to be more careful. The last thing he wanted was to have a woman who didn’t desire him without him nudging her into it. The dominance of the alpha came with the job, and no one took it more seriously than he did.

While he considered how to handle Sienna, his celll phone rang, and he dug it from his pocket. He sighed on seeing his mother’s number flash on the screen. “Mom, how are you?”

“Toron, darling, I’m fine. Just checking in.”

“That’s not necessary.” He began strolling toward the house.

“Well I know you’re breaking in the new recruits this weekend. Anybody interesting?” The inflection she gave to the question let him know just what she meant. He clenched his jaw. “Mom, I’m not shopping for another lover. Or did you mean for you?”

“One can’t have too many lovers.” She giggled like a schoolgirl, which always grated on his nerves. “It keeps life stimulating.”

“You have more than enough—both now and before Dad died.” He hadn’t meant to say it and bit his tongue to keep from saying more. “I apologize.”

“I don’t know why you’re always mean to your poor mother, Toron.” He heard the pout in her tone. “I’m not doing anything you aren’t. Anyway, gotta go. John is taking me to Athens, and they’re calling to board. I love you, darling. Take care of the pride. I know how much it means to you.”

He gripped the phone so hard, he heard a crack and forced himself to ease off. A stab at the disconnect button ended the call, and he headed inside and up to his room.

Why did she even call? He knew he was no one to judge her, and yet, he hated knowing how many men she ran through—both human and shifter—each week.

Toron consulted the scheduling book he kept at his bedside and frowned down at it. He had written out all he wanted to cover this weekend, and other than dinner, he had planned for the first night to be free for everyone. While he tried going over tomorrow’s events, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. Concentrating wasn’t possible. Sure, he understood his mother’s lifestyle. A shifter’s sex drive tended to be high under normal circumstances, the leader’s even more so. He had never denied his physicallneeds, but neither was he mated, and he had no plans to bond with a woman until he was ready to have children. Even then he might not.

A knock sounded at the door. “Yes?”

Stella strolled in. Her long hair fell about her shoulders, and she had changed into a sheer dress with nothing beneath it. “I was wondering if you needed anything.”

Toron frowned. “Stella, you’re enticing the men dressed like that.”

“I was hoping to tempt you. Besides, no one saw me. My room is right across the hall .”

“You didn’t have to stay here.” He stood and turned his back, tossing the schedule onto the nightstand. “I appreciate you playing hostess for this event.”

Her small hands came around his waist to run up to his chest. He felt her breasts press into his back. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Just name it.”

Toron searched his mind. Had he been using his ability on Stella? He didn’t think so, but he wasn’t sure. “Not tonight. Thank you.”

Stella froze. “You sound so cold. Is it her? She’lll never fit in among us. She’s too busy looking down her nose.”

“Be quiet,” he snapped.

She jumped, and her hands fell away. “Are you sure?”

“I am. Good night, Stella.”

“Good night.”

When she closed the door, he sighed in relief. He went to his office to get a few hours of work in. Afterward, he returned to his room, shed his clothes, and showered. He fell into bed with his head full of numbers, but as soon as he closed his eyes, a curvy, mocha beauty took center stage.

He tossed and turned with a killer hard-on for several hours until he gave up on sleep and flung the covers away. Perhaps a run would clear both his mind and wear out his body enough to rest. After leaving his house naked under cover of darkness, he shifted into his lion form, and bounded across his property and deep into the wooded area beyond.

* * * *

Toron swore under his breath. From the moment Sienna sashayed into the room, his senses were on overload.

Power radiated from him and extended, invisible, across the room toward her. He saw with his own eyes the result, the way she clenched her hands into fists, and shifted from one foot to the other, swaying toward him and then pulling away. He had had years of practice controlling himself, and not since he was a green boy of sixteen had he ever lost control.

Not that he thought the attraction was all on his end. No, Sienna wanted him. He watched her cross and uncross her long legs and smelled her want like a perfume formulated to enslave a man. She stood up from her chair and wandered over toward the windows. Toron followed her with his gaze.

He answered questions and gave instructions to the others, only half listening.

When he was able to extricate himself from the group, he approached her. “Tell me about yourself. Do you like your position at the department store where you work?”

She started as if taken by surprise that he knew. “Davon told you.” She rolled her eyes, the movement mesmerizing as he stared into her face. “Actually, I’m planning on leaving there soon.”

“Really? Where to?” He resisted the urge to move closer, to touch her. She fidgeted, and his mouth watered when he noted her hardened nipples. A power surge hit him, and he wrestled to suppress it. The effort made him miss what she’d said.

“Are you listening?” Her brows lowered, and she poked her lips out. Not quite a pout, but sexy like one. He considered what they must taste like, and his cock grew hard. She must have sensed it, because she looked down, and gasped before scowling at him. “Shouldn’t we get back to your lecture or whatever? I know I’m bored, for one.”

“Of course.” He faced the others. “Being leader isn’t all for show. I’m not just some guy who likes to swing his… abilities around.”

The snort behind him made him suppress a chuckle.

“I can help you in certain situations,” he continued.

“What kind of situations?” Sienna was no doubt unaware of how interested she sounded.

“I’ll give you an example. Stella?”

Stella moved from her position by the door and stepped into the hall . She returned with two men holding a third between them, a smaller man, but very strong. Toron had known Karl since he was a baby. Now he was seventeen and full of himself, thinking he knew everything and no one could teach him.

“Karl decided since we have a stronger constitution than humans, we should be able to experiment with anything.”

One of the women slapped a hand over her chest. “Oh my goodness. Is he okay? I think he needs a doctor.”

“What he needs is his alpha,” Stella corrected. Her voice was a purr and accompanied by an adoring glance in his direction. Once again, he heard how Sienna felt about it without turning around.

Karl snarled and snapped at the men holding him. He had half transformed into a lion with thick golden hair, ears out of position in humans, and a tail whipping back and forth over the band of his pants. His curved fingers made weapons with long sharp claws, and the fact that he wasn’t bluffing about using them was evident in the gashes on his captor’s arms and faces.

“Karl took some type of drug. His mother doesn’t know what it was, but instead of burning off at a rapid pace as should happen in one of us, it fractured his mind. If this happened anywhere but inside our community, well, I don’t need to tell you how dangerous that would be.”

Sienna took a few steps toward Karl, her eyes wide with curiosity. When Karl lunged at her, Toron wrapped a hand around her wrist and jerked her backward to fall against his chest. She looked up at him in shock, her lips parted. Toron lost focus in staring at their soft fullness until she began to struggle in his hold. He released her and cleared his throat.

“As you can see, he’s not all there, but I’m going to help him back.” He walked over to Karl, and the shifter broke an arm free to slash at Toron. Toron opened his power. The arm stopped mid-swing. “You don’t want to do that, Karl.”