Finding Luna: A Lion Shifter Reverse Harem Romance (PRIDE Book 1) Read online

  She glowered at him. “Did you have to remind them of that?”

  Shawn’s lips just twitched.

  Ryan cleared his throat, but she knew he was amused.

  Dammit. Was she destined to be around guys who found her funny when she wasn’t trying to be?

  “I need you to contact Lewis Erickson and Roberto Santiago. Their number’s on the switchboard.”

  “We have a situation in the car. Please, make sure no one approaches the vehicle. There’s a dead body in there.”

  Adam’s eyes widened. “A corpse?”

  “Yes.” Ryan pursed his lips. “I’m heading to our quarters. I don’t want to be disturbed unless it’s Erickson and Santiago, do you understand me? And even then, I’d prefer them to question us in the morning.”

  Shawn broke in, “I can handle some of those questions now. I guess you guys need to talk.”

  El blinked at him. “Don’t you want to sweep his quarters?”

  “The guy saved your ass, El.” Shawn’s smile was wistful. “I think he’ll keep you safe.”

  His words frightened her. She didn’t know why, but they did.

  It was like he was pulling away, somehow.

  Swallowing down her silly fear, she nodded at him. “Thanks, Shawn. For everything.”

  His lips quirked up in a half-smile. “I didn’t do much.”

  Her mouth worked. “That’s not true.”

  Shawn waved her off. “Go on. I’ll see to the cops.”

  She allowed Ryan to grab her hand and tug her away from the main house. She understood now what he meant by compound. This was like a subdivision within a subdivision.

  The main house was obviously an administrative base if he wasn’t living there. It was grand, like a white and bright Addams’s family mansion. There was even a turret, for God’s sake. But they stomped over pebbled walkways, which were interspersed with trees and various plants that perfumed the air.

  “I’m surprised you don’t have any grass around here,” she said softly as he led her down a path to a house that could be considered a mansion but in comparison to the Addams’s family place, was like a bungalow in size.

  With two large pillars holding up the front gable roof, the white house was very fitting for a governor. It overlooked a pool that glimmered a bright blue thanks to lights within the water, and in the middle of the pool, was an island with huge palm trees that hung low.

  Used to wealth and its comforts, she was nonetheless impressed by Ryan’s home.

  “Having healthy lawns in LA uses too much water,” he pointed out softly. “It’s a waste of resources.”

  She stiffened a little, then laughed. “You have no idea how often I’ve had that argument with my father.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. We have a ridiculous amount of garden. He insists on it. Just because we can afford it, doesn’t mean we should use it. They’re very wasteful.”

  “But you’re not?”

  She wriggled her shoulders as they stepped up onto the verandah of his house. “I try not to be. I live in a small-ish apartment. Well, small for my family’s standards. It’s large to a normal person. It has to be. It sleeps all my…” She swallowed, ducked her head. “He slept in my home, Ryan. How could he do that to me?”

  “Money talks, sweetheart,” he replied softly, stepping forward to wrap her in his arms. “You’ve no idea how unbelievably sorry I am about what happened tonight. The last thing I ever wanted to do was frighten you.”

  She stiffened in his arms. “It came as a surprise,” she enunciated carefully, then swallowed a grin when he laughed.

  “Why do I feel like diplomacy was bred into your bones?”

  “Probably because it was. Along with decorum classes and God knows what else my mother and father deemed vital for an oil baron’s heiress.” She grimaced. “This is a lot to take in.”

  “I wish that was all you had to take in tonight, El, but I have some other things I need to share with you.”

  She tensed in his arms. “Other things? You’re not going to kidnap me too, are you?” She eyed him warily. “Do I need to call for Shawn?”

  He scowled at her. “No. You don’t. And of course I’m not! It’s about my Pride.”

  “You don’t mean ego either, do you?” she asked a little ruefully.

  “No, I don’t. I mean the customs of my people.” He sighed, loosened his hold on her, and said, “Come on. I think we could both do with a drink.”

  “I’d prefer to brush my teeth first, Ryan, if that’s okay? I didn’t intend to vomit on your dahlias.”

  He snickered. “I like your humor, El.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Probably a good thing considering.”

  “Considering what?”

  “That it’s how I cope with most disasters.” She sucked in a breath as he opened the door to his admittedly lavish home, and confessed, “This isn’t the first betrayal, nor will it be the last.”

  “That makes my heart sad to hear,” he said softly, coming up behind her to wrap her in his arms. He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Lions aren’t like humans, El. We don’t act like your people do.”

  “No? When it boils down to it, people see me as dollars and cents. Your people might be Lions, but I saw their reaction to my surname.” They’d been intrigued, curious. “The leopard doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  “It does. Of course they’re curious. You’re their leaders’ new mate. Plus, you’re American royalty. But they don’t see you as dollars and cents. If anything, they’ll protect you with their lives, El. That’s how we work. If you’re safe anywhere, it’s here. With my people.”

  She bit her lip. “I really want to believe that.”

  “After tonight, I can’t blame you for being cautious. If anything, I applaud you for it, but you’ll live and learn. That’s the best way, anyway.”

  The hall was an open circular space with a round table in the middle. It housed a large and effusive bunch of lilies in the middle. Around the walls there were doors, and in between the doors there were paintings and photographs. Anything from a couple of cubs playing in the bush—which took on another meaning now she knew there were men who could turn into damn Lions—to a regular looking picture of an older man and woman laughing in each other’s arms—the man looked the spitting image of Ryan.

  “Your father?” she asked softly, pointing to the picture.

  “My parents,” he confirmed with a smile. “A hundred years they’ve been together. They still laugh like that every day.”

  She gulped. They’d been together a century? “How old are you?”

  “I’m sixty-four.”

  “I’ll assume there’s some kind of slow aging miracle that comes as part of being a werelion?” she demanded, gawking at him. “Because you look my age.”

  “Yes. Tales of our traits have bled into human literature, thanks to people who have either taken advantage of their knowledge of us or simply found it amusing to disperse such truths through movies and the like. We heal quickly, we don’t age, we do have a mate that means the world to us, but we don’t need the moon to shift. As you saw tonight,” he said with a grimace.

  “Yeah, I did see that, didn’t I?” Memories of those moments when the handsome man before her had turned into a monster at her side had her legs shaking, and as she passed the hall table, she clung to the side for support.

  How had tonight ended the way it had?

  There had been such promise, such excitement at the notion of a first date with what seemed like a really nice, genuine guy…

  Now, there was a corpse in her SUV, the police were on their way to a compound she’d never set foot on before, and a man who could turn into a monster, thought nothing of killing to save her life—could things get any fucking stranger?

  She really, truly, hoped not. El, accustomed to the extremes of life, nonetheless felt certain she’d go batshit nuts if things did get weirder.

  “Are you okay?” Ryan
asked, pressing a hand to her waist but not urging her into moving.

  “I’m just getting my bearings,” she admitted with a gulp.

  He waited, silently, and patiently too for her to nod and stand upright. When she felt a little less shaky, she followed him to a door, which he opened for her and revealed a bathroom.

  “There should be all you need in there.” He pointed to another door. “When you’re done, if you want to meet me in there?” At her nod, he ducked his head and whispered, more to the floor than her, “Will you run?”

  She blinked. That option hadn’t even occurred to her. What did that say for her state of mind?

  All of this went so beyond anything she’d ever experienced in her admittedly batshit nuts life, and though she was torn up and uncertain about everything that was happening, a part of her just couldn’t leave him hanging.

  “I can’t run in these heels,” she told him softly, trying to take the sting away with a joke. She couldn’t tell him categorically that she was A-Okay with everything going down, because she wasn’t. This was her trying to meet him somewhere in the middle.

  A fucked up middle at that.

  He grinned at her, his gaze moving from the floor to trace her features with an adoration that had her heart clutching. “You can always take the heels off.”

  “Nah,” she whispered. “I’m good. I won’t be long.”

  At her reassurance, his smile softened, and he closed the door. In the space by herself, she looked around the amber bathroom, complete with Italian marble washbasin and pearly white toilet, and let out a long breath.

  Tonight was going to be a doozy.

  “Where is she?”

  Ryan turned from his perusal of the flowers in the hearth—why they’d even needed a fireplace, he didn’t know. Their decorator had insisted. It didn’t matter that they never needed a fire. Even on the coldest of nights, their temperatures ran hotter. A fire would have been surplus to requirements on a blizzard day!

  Turning to see his Triad brother, Trip, in the doorway, he murmured, “In the bathroom. She vomited outside. El wanted to freshen up.”

  Trip was as tall as Ryan, but he had white blond hair—a trait that came not only from his heritage as a Lion but his Dutch ancestry too—green eyes, and his skin was pale rather than bronze like most of the Lion Shifters on the compound. When he shifted, he was almost albino in color. He knew, no matter how scared El was the day she saw them all in their fur, she’d fall in love with Trip the easiest.

  He was like a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Lion. If that had even been a genetic possibility, that is, he thought ruefully as he sank back two fingers of scotch.

  When the burn disappeared within seconds, he wished like hell the stuff would stay in his system rather than flush out of his metabolism like it was water.

  “What happened?” Trip demanded, heading for the drinks’ tray and pouring himself some whiskey.

  “One of her guards turned traitor. He was going to abduct her… I stopped him.”

  “I thought I could smell death when I drove up here. Thought it was roadkill though.”

  “You must have broken about twenty laws getting here so fast.”

  Trip grinned. “You know I like driving fast.”

  “Shame the LAPD don’t like it so much, huh?”

  “I’ve not been caught yet.”

  “More by luck than management,” Ryan countered, but there was no heat to the argument. If Trip lost his license again, that was his problem.

  Well, he said that. He and Marc would be the ones who had to put up with Trip bitching about his chauffeurs.

  Trip took a sip of his drink and asked, “Tonight is going to be hard on her.”

  “I know.”

  “Are you sure you want to push this? We can explain things tomorrow when she’s had some rest.”

  “No. I want to know now.”

  The voice didn’t come as a surprise. He’d scented her a few moments before, and when he looked over at her, his stomach pitched. Jesus, she was gorgeous. Her cheeks were pale, and her pallor wasn’t that great. Her color, if anything, was hectic, and she looked shocky. But that was only natural, he figured. What had just happened to her went beyond the pale.

  Her gaze darted between Trip and him, and he said softly, “Maryellen, this is my partner. Trip Roorden.”

  Trip, ever useless, countered with, “We’re Triad brothers.”

  She blinked, corrected, “Call me El.” Frowning, she asked, “What’s a Triad brother?”

  Ryan hissed. “You were the one who said to wait, Trip.”

  “She said she wanted to know now.” He shrugged, looked at El over his glass. The covetous glance didn’t grate on his nerves. They were reared with the knowledge that they’d share their mate. There was no room for jealousy among the Triad. “I don’t want to lie to her. Not if she’s certain she can handle the truth.”

  El gulped. “I’d like to think I could handle any kind of truth, but if I’m being honest, I had no idea men could turn into Lions, so I’m guessing that my truth and your truth are two different things.”

  Trip’s lips twitched. “Would you like a drink?”

  “Do you have vodka?” she asked softly, peering at the drink’s tray.

  Ryan nodded. “I’ll get some from the kitchen. It’s in the freezer.”

  Trip shook his head. “I’ll get it. Hold the conversation though. I think we should be together for this.”

  He walked through the door that led from the sitting room to the dining room, and then onto the kitchen. As he walked, Ryan heard the squeaking hinges, but he kept his gaze on his mate. She was still shaky, and she approached the sofa with haste. When she hesitated, he realized only good manners were keeping her upright.

  “Take a seat, please, El. Treat this place like your home, because to us, it already is.”

  She blew out a breath as she sank into the creamy down-filled cushions. “You know how to overwhelm a girl.”

  “Only you,” he replied, heading over to the sofa opposite. The sofa was large enough to seat all three of the Triad with ease, so she was drowning in the sea of down, but he thought it best to give her space. Distance. The last thing he wanted to do was crowd her. “We can discuss this tomorrow, El. I meant it when I said you’re safe here. There’s a bedroom, especially for you. You can rest in there with the same ease as you would feel in your own at your apartment.”

  “A bedroom for me?”

  “What he means is, it’s yours, but it’s a blank canvas,” Trip inserted, having made his return complete with a bottle of ice cold vodka in hand and a chilled glass too. “We’ve been looking for you a long time, but naturally, you’ll want to decorate the bedroom yourself.”

  She blinked as he poured her a shot. “You said ‘we’ve’ been looking for me.” To Ryan, she asked, “What’s going on?”

  Ryan shot Trip a nasty look. “Well done.”

  Before Trip could answer, El whispered, “Please, don’t bicker. I don’t think I could take it. Just start from the beginning, okay? I-I can handle that, and then I really need you to go shower, Ryan. The blood is…” Her throat worked, and she reached for her shot glass and downed the potent liquor. Her eyes crinkled as she absorbed the hit, and he was jealous of her ability to metabolize alcohol slowly.

  “I should shower now,” he replied, hating himself for not having thought of that. But this was his world.

  Blood was a part of life.

  She shook her head. “No. Talk to me first.”

  He hovered, half-standing, half-crouched, uncertain what to do. Then, taking her at her word, he sank back again. “You’re right. Let’s talk about this.” He pursed his lips. “There’s a unique phenomenon among Lion Shifters. We bear children with ease, but every female is born singly. Every male is born in a litter of three.”

  She gawked at him. “You mean there are three of you walking around the States?”

  His lips twitched. “Well, yes and no. We�
��re never identical. We’re fraternal Triplets, I guess you’d call it. This has been a problem for…” His shoulders jostled. “It’s impossible to say. It’s just how it is. The population, however, is imbalanced. At a one to three ratio, every male can’t expect a mate, so we have Triads.”

  “But there are only two of you.”

  “Marc is flying in from Ventura,” he countered. “He’s my partner. You remember I said?”

  “So, you’re gay?”

  “No!” Trip and he barked that particular answer at the same time. It boomed around the room, making her jump.

  “Sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just trying to understand.”

  Trip held up a hand. “We’re sorry.” He grimaced. “You’d be surprised how often we’re asked that.”

  Her lips twitched, and Ryan was relieved to see that her sense of humor was coming to her aid. “I can imagine. If Marc is as hot as you two, people must wonder if you all work so closely and live together too?”

  “Yes,” Ryan admitted with a grimace. “We all live here. We work together… people make incorrect assumptions that are very annoying.” He blew out a breath. “When we come of age, like humans at twenty-one, we separate from the den and go our separate ways. We choose our Triad brothers, and as a threesome, seek out our mate.”

  “I’m not a Lion Shifter,” El pointed out softly. “Surely that’s an issue?”

  “No. It’s not. Even though we’ve addressed the population imbalance with the Triad, it’s not enough. There are as many human-Shifter pairings as Shifter-Shifter ones. It’s always been our way.”

  She sucked in a deep breath and reached over to pour herself a drink. As she did, she bent over, and the perfect swells of her tits plumped up over the neckline of her dress. Trip let out an indiscreet groan that caught her attention.

  When she realized what he was looking at, her cheeks flared bright pink, but she didn’t try to cover up, just sat back and began to sip at her vodka. The truth was, that was probably the smartest way to deal with Trip’s wandering eyes—ignore him.

  “Let me get this right. Shifters have a soul mate like in the books. But, it’s not one on one, it’s three on one.”

  “Unless it’s a Lioness,” Trip corrected.