Page 20 of Savage Mates

We were trying to pick them off one by one without getting shot by the men keeping them in cages.

“There’s something about the human female that is off,”I told them, something I’d felt when standing only a few feet away.

“You mean she’s dangerous.”Thor slowly shook his head.“You are right. I don’t understand why.”

“It doesn’t matter,”Zeus insisted.“We leave her and the others alone. They don’t belong in our world.”

Huffing, I trotted further away and deeper into the forest. Whatever the powerful draw to the human couldn’t matter tonight.

We were hunting.

We’d learned a long time before that humans were our enemy. I’d known that even before being captured, poachers all but destroying my pride. Killing my mate.

Thoughts of her drifted into my mind for unknown reasons. Lions weren’t known for maintaining an emotional bond after death. We didn’t mate for life nor would we be monogamous, yet seeing her bloodied, lifeless body had set the wheels in motion. I’d slaughtered the poachers, but had fallen into a trap.

What surprised me about the human was that my instinct wasn’t telling me she was dangerous. Quite the opposite. It was telling me she was the one in danger.

The nagging feeling remained with me as we ran through the jungle. The night air was humid, creatures foraging in the dampness, but her scent lingered in my fur.

“We need to be careful heading to the camp,”Thor instructed.

Tell me something I didn’t know.

Since the first sightings of the men carrying weapons weeks before, we’d been on constant edge. There’d been one attack on our pride, but we’d moved from one side of the island to theother putting miles between us. At least the new site was much more secure.

Yet we’d stalked them, watching what they were doing. And from what we could tell, they were using another group of lions against anyone who came to the island for business or pleasure. We’d heard screams in the middle of the night after spotting boats seeking refuge from storms. We’d been near the shore when a body had washed up and had witnessed the marauders storming boats, stealing whatever they could find.

They were brutal men with malintent in mind. And the lions were being used as weapons against anyone daring to defy them.

While the lions were mutations, nothing like any other beast we’d seen in our natural environments, they were still victims in our minds.

Although the one who’d attacked our pride had been killed simply to keep our female lions and the newborn cub safe.

There was no doubt the marauders had witnessed the arrival of the group with the woman. While it wasn’t our place to interfere, we were well aware that without our interference, additional innocent lives could be lost.

Even if the new group had weapons. The small number of them were no match for the vicious group of men.

After the recent attack on our pride, this was about getting even.

We rushed through the jungle, closing the distance on the camp, the group of buildings more fortified than where we were staying. Yet we knew our way in and out of the secured encampment. The danger was ripe. The lions could alert the men of our arrival. But one thing we did know about themfrom watching their behavior was that they drank themselves to oblivion night after night.

We would use that to our advantage.

There was no moon on this night, clouds intensifying the darkness. We moved together toward the group of buildings and the makeshift cages where the lions were being kept.

As soon as we were close, I heard voices and stopped.

“They have a fire going,”I told the others.

“And music,”Thor added.

I snorted, turning my attention to Zeus.“Their scents are ripe.”Meaning the lions, mostly female. We’d speculated that the scientists who’d abandoned us had also done so with an earlier group, lions where experiments had failed.

They were malformed as if having partially shifted then becoming lost in the transition. I’d felt their pain. We’d heard their anguished cries. They were hopelessly caught in bodies no longer belonging to themselves.

We couldn’t set them free. Just the opposite. They were even more dangerous to our pride given their unpredictability.

We crept closer, remaining in the trees. With billowing smoke from the fire the marauders had built and with the wind going in an opposite direction, it was possible our scent would be masked.