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TWO OF THE LIONS STALKED toward Dylan, and the three others stared down me and Leo. Dylan was up on his hind legs, battling both of them easily. Another lunged at Leo, sinking his teeth into his back. I screamed, bucking back, realizing how outnumbered we were. I was absolutely helpless as Leo had the lion on his back on the forest floor. Even if I wanted to fight with him, I had no claws and my teeth were made for leaves, not flesh.
Ari circled around, herding me away from the fight. Two more lions stood guard, like they had something to protect. Their gaze made me feel filthy, because there was no secret what they saw when they looked at me. Dinner.
Leo ripped the flesh of the lion who’d attacked him. The lion shrieked, his skin still hanging from Leo’s jaws. Ari tapped me three times, jerking her head down the path, and started to run. The lions gained on us, and I didn’t want to slow myself down by looking back to see if it was Leo and Dylan.
We didn’t stop until we got back to the cars. Ari and I rounded the trucks, watching our mates get chased by two of the lions from the fight. As long as I was doe, I was in danger, so I willed myself to shift back. Ari was still in her cougar form. Now naked, I dove into the truck cab so I could get my clothes.
Ari didn’t shift. I ran my hand through her fur as Leo and Dylan tangled with the lions again. Their bodies flipped around in the grass, fur literally flying. The Deception lions retreated, but when their bodies started to shake, I knew they were about to shift. Ari rumbled under my touch.
Two naked men stood before Leo and Dylan, who had yet to shift. Both of them had long, dark blonde hair and muscles rippling under their tense, tattooed bodies. They crouched defensively, moving back and forth with their hands up to shield themselves from the snarling lions in front of them.
“Shift back!” one of them demanded. “If you attack us in human form, it’s war.”
The one who didn’t speak looked over the lions to me and Ari. “You break the rules, they’re all out the window. Your women are fair game, too. Especially the doe.”
Leo lunged at the lion who said that, but didn’t attack. He shifted back but Dylan still prowled as a lion. “Come on.” Leo’s voice was low as he grabbed a handful of Dylan’s mane. “Don’t fuck this up.”
Both of the shifted lions raised their eyebrows. “What are you talking about?” one of them asked. “We know every lion on this mountain. Every cougar and doe, too. You’re not from Deception.”
Dylan growled as he shifted back. He ran his hand through his filthy hair. “We were looking at the ski area.” He and Leo mirrored the rival lions, tense and crouched, daring someone to try to attack now that the playing field was even. “We don’t want trouble. We need a place to call home.”
Ari whined under my touch, and I wondered if she actually said something. No one acknowledged her, but I felt the same exact way.
The two lions looked at each other in disbelief and laughed. “The ski area?” they asked. “How do you think you’re going to do that?”
Dylan bristled from the challenge. “We have a plan. It won’t be immediate, but it would be good for every shifter on this mountain,” Leo explained. “Like my brother said, we don’t want trouble. At all.”
“You came unannounced. You attacked one of our pride. You say you don’t want trouble? You have a hell of a way of showing it.”
“You attacked him first!” Everyone’s eyes were on me. They already thought I was weak because I was a doe. I’d let one pride run me off a mountain, I wasn’t about to let it happen again. “We’re only interested in the ski area, which you obviously aren’t.”
The lions smiled like I was too cute, or they were thinking I’d taste great with tomato sauce. It was hard to tell. “We aren’t like the shifters in Colorado Springs, or wherever you’re from. We’re not interested in playing nice with humans or making friends. Things work around here. They’re not broken, and they don’t need fixing.”
No one saw the bear rumble out of the woods. He lumbered in between Leo, Dylan, and the lions, roaring at the two strange men. I pressed against Ari’s body, and she growled. The bear stood on his hind legs. It was shocking how tall he actually was. His fur fell away from his body, and a dark haired man emerged.
“That’s the guy from the coffee shop!” I whispered to Ari. He’d protected us once, but now we were trespassing on his mountain. I wasn’t sure if I should wave or hide.
“What’s the problem?” The bear’s gaze slid between Leo, Dylan and the lions.
“Intruders.” One of the lions said. “They went through the ski area.”
The bear turned back to the brothers. “That’s private property.”
“We’d love to talk to your pride about the ski area, we can work together or we won’t bother you at all.” Dylan took a step forward, like he wanted to shake hands with the guys, but they both folded their arms in unison. They were right, they weren’t like us. They were much more feral, and the tension was growing.
“You don’t listen!” The lion who’d been mostly quiet roared. “We don’t play nice. Find another mountain for your rouge animal circus.”
“We trust you’ll be gone as soon as your cougar shifts back,” one of the lions said. “Normally we’d consider it a challenge that she stayed cougar, but we can tell she’s lame.”
Ari slumped under my touch. I crouched down and hugged her, which raised some enemy eyebrows. Whatever. Just because every other lion in Colorado was out for blood didn’t mean that Ari was.
Dylan stalked forward to attack but Leo grabbed him by his hair. “And we consider that a challenge,” Leo grunted.
“Everyone cool down.” The bear held up his hands, and his gaze fell to me for a little too long. I forced a smile. “I’d actually like to hear what they have to say. That area’s going to waste. But now’s not the time. You’re all too hot-headed.” The bear turned to Leo and Dylan. “Come back and find me. You saw my den. I’ll make sure these guys listen.”
The Deception lions didn’t respond before they fell to all fours and shifted, roaring in warning before they disappeared in the trees. Once they disappeared, I collapsed against Ari, arms around her, resting my head in her fur. Her heart pounded as fast as mine.
“Sorry, man.” Leo took a step toward the bear and held out his hand. The bear accepted with a firm handshake. “We mean it. We don’t want trouble.”
“The lions are overprotective of their land.” The bear sighed. “They aren’t welcoming to outsiders. It’s time to do something with that ski area. There are shifters here that will listen to you, if your plan is solid.”
Leo had his back to me, but Dylan’s face brightened. “We want to respect the traditions here,” Dylan said, stepping closer to his brother and the bear. “I’m Dylan, this is my brother Leo. We grew up in the San Isobel Mountains, and lately we’ve been on Soldier Mountain.”
“I’m Bid.” The bear’s gaze fell back to me. “I’ve heard there’s been trouble on Solider recently.”
“We took care of it.” Leo’s back tensed as he spoke.
“We’ve lived in peace for a long time.” Bid’s words sounded like a warning. He looked young, maybe thirty, but when he spoke, he sounded so much older. “We plan to continue doing that.”
Dylan smiled. “We want the same thing.”
Bid nodded, but didn’t say anything else before shifting back to bear.
Leo’s jaw was a hard line when he ripped the truck door open and hastily got dressed. “How did that all start?” I asked. I was so frustrated, only knowing half of what was going on.
“You need to stop being so reckless,” he grunted. “The lions were pissed we were at the ski area.”
I bristled at being scolded, but we had enough problems right now without adding a fight to it. “Enough for you to try to kill that lion?”
Leo nodded with an angry smile as Dylan rounded the truck, back in his jeans and sweatshirt. “Daphne, be glad you couldn’t hear what they said.”
“I have enough disadvantages without not knowing what’s going on!” I got up, my hand still on Ari because I was shaking with anger. “Stop treating me like I’m weak!”
“Trust me, you didn’t want to hear it.” Leo pulled me into his body roughly. I melted against him, even though I was still pissed. His hand moved up and down my back like he needed to memorize the curves of my body. “I would have ripped that bastard in two if we weren’t completely outnumbered.”
**
DYLAN’S CABIN WAS OUTSIDE of Woodland Park, on a windy road in the foothills on the mountains. Ari shifted back once we got here, thankfully without much trouble. She lay with her head in Dylan’s lap, and he played with her hair absentmindedly. His face was pinched and he definitely wasn’t relaxed.
“What do you think?” Leo asked once we got settled. I sat in his lap on the floor, Dylan didn’t have any other furniture besides the couch. “They let us get away without much of a fight.”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d asked Leo repeatedly on the way here to tell me what that lion had said about me but he refused. “We’re still doing this?” I asked.
“We expected enemies. The mountain is too big to be run off by one pride,” Dylan said, not making eye contact with any of us. “But I think they’re hiding something about that ski area.”
“It looked like whoever ran it forgot to come back.” Ari sat up and stretched. “Even back then, that stuff was worth a fortune. And why hasn’t anyone taken it?”
“They said they didn’t like people. Or does, apparently,” I added. Leo’s arm tightened around me. “That Bid guy was at the coffee shop the other day. He’s the one who kept Linnea away from us.”
“Great,” Dylan groaned. “No wonder he mentioned the trouble on Soldier.”
“He’s still willing to listen to what you have to say,” Ari added, settling against Dylan’s body. “He knows Linnea’s trouble. He said he’d warned her before.”
“He seems like a pretty level-headed guy,” Leo said. “And once he hears our plans, he’ll know we’re not like the rest of the Soldier pride.”
“We’ll go back, find Bid, and reason with the lions,” Dylan finally looked at Leo, and some of the anger started to fade. “They weren’t the leaders of the pride.”
I shivered. “They threatened me badly enough that Leo attacked over it. They chased us off the mountain. You think you’re going to reason with them?”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “You’re going to get that wherever you go. You want to be with my brother? Get used to it.”
Ari shook her head. “There was no excuse for what they said.”
“What did they say?” I demanded. If they were going to keep talking about it, they needed to tell me.
Leo’s body went stiff under me. “That if we didn’t get you out of there, every one of them was going to take a turn with you,” he growled. “They won’t get away with that.”
“Why are we even talking about still going there? I think it’s pretty obvious they don’t want us.” Or me. I got up and went over to the window. “I can’t spend every minute of my life wondering if I’m going to get attacked. And neither can you, Leo. There’s too much at stake. We’re surrounded by mountains. One of them has to be safe.” Or at least not have any connection to Linnea.
Leo came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I considered pushing him away, but I wanted him more than I wanted to be stubborn. He rested his chin on my head and rocked me back and forth gently. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was when he looked out the window. “No one ever said this was going to be easy.” He kissed my head. “But it will be worth it. We’ll find the place where we belong.”
“I want to go home.” I sighed. “And we don’t even have one right now.”