The challenge filled the air with a subtle pressure, like a coming storm.
Landon rose slowly from his chair, drawing Shana’s gaze away from his wide-eyed mateling. He was a behemoth of a man and his aura of power made him seem larger still. Shana tried to remember what he’d been like in bed—size and strength were definitely among her turn-ons—but all she could recall was that he had fallen somewhere in the Not Bad category, though a little too vanilla for her tastes.
“If you think to touch my wife, you’ll have to go through me,” the Alpha growled.
Shana managed not to roll her eyes. Barely. Landon’s chest-banging might have been impressive, if he weren’t negating his own mate’s power with every overprotective word.
He’d better not try to fight her battles for her when she was his mate.
Landon looked serious. And pissed. Shana didn’t doubt that he meant every word. And even though she was the strongest, fastest female lion in the pride, the Alpha could still kick her ass. Probably. Shana almost felt reckless enough to try her luck. There hadn’t ever been a female Alpha in a lion pride before, but Landon was all about humanizing them. How about a little equality of the sexes?
Shana prowled slowly toward the Alpha. He held his position. She could practically see his mind racing as he tried to figure out if she was coming closer to attack him or to bow in submission. She made sure her eyes gave nothing away.
When she was less than a foot from him, she looked up into his angry green-gold eyes and slowly licked her lips. “Are you so eager to get your paws on me again, lover? That you’ll use any flimsy excuse?”
A low growl rumbled through his chest. A wild, suicidal impulse made Shana want to laugh. She didn’t know why she provoked him. Her fight was with Ava. Landon was going to rule at her side. But the delicious idea of fighting for the pride herself made her feel rash and imprudent. She could be a queen. On her own terms. No man needed. She’d been bred for it. She was strong and fast and fierce. This was her pride.
“Obey our rules or leave our land,” the Alpha growled, taking a threatening step forward.
Shana’s hands flexed, her claws snapping out. “Make me.”
The roar that met her words was so loud, it took her a heartbeat to realize it wasn’t coming from the lion in front of her. It rolled like thunder through the room. Before the echoes had died, Caleb’s body was between hers and Landon’s. He shoved her away from the Alpha so roughly she was thrown to the ground.
Caleb’s back bowed. He was still in human form, but just barely, and battling for every shred of humanity. “Don’t. You. Touch. Her.” The words were snarled out, guttural and low, more animal than man.
Shana’s breath left her in a rush as lust poured through her body, inappropriate and so damn hot. He was fighting for her. From her position sprawled on the floor, she could see the muscles across his back tense and ready to kill for her. Delicious shivers rolled across her skin.
Landon didn’t step back in the face of the threat Caleb presented—every lion in the room would have recognized the act as ceding to Caleb’s dominance. Instead, the Alpha met his lieutenant’s gaze steadily, holding his body perfectly still.
“Think about what you’re doing, Caleb,” Landon urged in a low, uncompromising voice. “Are you sure you want this fight? There’s no going back if you challenge me.”
Yes, Shana silently urged, challenge him. This was it. What she had always wanted, the man she loved, willing to fight for her, strong enough to win. She was so damn close. Do it, Caleb. Do it.
Caleb’s shoulders relaxed, easing just a fraction, but that little change was enough for disappointment to spike sharply through Shana. “No,” she whispered.
Caleb took a slow step back, away from his Alpha. “I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head to Landon.
“No,” Shana wailed, louder this time. “Don’t be sorry. Challenge him!”
Caleb continued his retreat, not so much as glancing in Shana’s direction.
“Caleb!” Shana scrambled to her feet. “Come on. This is our chance! Challenge him. Caleb, please.”
He didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate. Caleb walked right out the door without looking back.
A tight heat pressed against the back of Shana’s eyes and her throat felt swollen and thick. She wouldn’t cry. She never cried. Goddesses didn’t cry.
But goddesses also didn’t beg, and they didn’t lose.
“Obey our rules or leave our land,” Landon said again, his voice ominous and dark.
Shana looked up at the Alpha, hating him with every fiber of her being. “Fuck you and your fucking rules,” she snarled.
She stalked toward the exit, head held high, defiant and fierce. She half-expected not to make it to the door. The old Alphas—Leonus, her own father—would never have allowed her rebellion to go unchecked. She would have been forcibly put back in her place, but Landon’s precious humanity made him weak in front of his entire pride. He just watched as she stormed out.
Outside, the wind wailed, a new storm rising. Matching the storm inside her mind.
Her emotions tangled, a savage knot swelling inside her throat until she choked on a sob. Why did it hurt so much? She’d been disappointed in her bids to become the Alpha’s mate before. She’d always just shrugged off defeat—occasionally mourning the poor bastards who were the casualties of her personal war—but it never felt like this. Why did this one eat away at her soul, tearing out chunks of her heart?
Because it was Caleb.
The thought called the tears, hot and uncontrollable. It was different because of Caleb. Because he had always been the one she wanted. The One. Always the one she loved—in her way, no matter how twisted. She’d always clung to the promise that he would be the one to save her. If the others failed, what did it matter? Only Caleb mattered. He would fight for her. He would prove he loved her too.
And he’d come so close. He had almost loved her enough.
Shana choked back the tears, forcing them to stop out of sheer will.
He hadn’t loved her enough, but she would love him. She knew she didn’t deserve him. He was steady and honorable where she was deceitful and manipulative. She didn’t know what she deserved, but it wasn’t anything good. And Caleb was good. He was everything good to her.
But luckily, Shana didn’t believe in getting what she deserved.
Goddesses didn’t get what they deserved. They got what they wanted. And she wanted Caleb.
Chapter Seven
Shana was not the moony-eyed, heart-on-her-sleeve, Dr. Phil-confession-of-love type. Sex was her currency. She would win Caleb back, but she would do it her way.
With that in mind, she went back to her borrowed bungalow, took a quick shower, put on her skimpiest, sexiest scraps of lingerie lace, and began digging through her bags for the naughtiest invitation-to-sex outfit she could find.
She was debating between a schoolgirl outfit that no self-respecting schoolgirl would be caught dead in and the slightly less subtle black vinyl catsuit when she heard a footstep on her front porch.
Her heart quickened. Had Caleb had a change of heart?
Shana threw open the door before rational thought had time to weigh in on the decision, still wearing only a few scraps of see-through black lace and a garter belt.
If little Ava was shocked to see her dressed so provocatively, nothing in her face gave her away. The five-foot mateling craned her neck up at Shana and squared her tiny little shoulders, flipping her long white-blonde hair away from her face.
“I’m here to accept your challenge,” she rasped, her throaty sex-kitten voice an odd contrast to her Mini-Me persona.