Page 16 of Savage Mates (Ruthless Instinct #2)

In all that time, I’d searched for one thing, something I’d begun to believe wasn’t possible.

The thought ripped at my mind, but I’d accepted my fate.

To be alone for the rest of my life. After inhaling her fragrance, a throaty growl filtered into the air.

For whatever reason, I was rattled for the first time since I could remember.

Her scent carried a light musky fragrance, but was also sweet, a hint of a luscious fruit that created a need so deep and primal that I was lost in a haze for several seconds.

This wasn’t about the human side of me being attracted to a beautiful woman. This was about something else. Something deeper.

There was a moment in a beast’s world that every lion knew instinctively, a longing that transcended space and danger. A need so vibrant that nothing would stop us from protecting.

And claiming.

For a few seconds, a vacuum formed around me. There was no other sound. No other scent. Nothing on the horizon but the reality of what I sensed deep within my soul.

Mate.

“What is it?” Zeus asked as if he hadn’t caught a hint of her scent. His eyes were already glowing as the need spread deep within his loins.

“Smell the air around us.”

He stared at me quizzically, but another shift in the breeze allowed him to do so with little effort.

“What is that?” he asked as if didn’t know the answer. His disbelief was annoying.

Titus moved even closer, swinging his head as he peered down at her. When he looked me in the eye again, I knew the second the realization had settled in.

“You know the answer. You feel it deep within your bones. She’s our mate.”

This time, Zeus didn’t argue, but every muscle in his massive body tensed. “How is that possible? She’s human.”

“How is it possible we shift into humans ourselves?” I countered. “How is it possible we can communicate? Or that we hunger like a man while being a lion?” We’d stopped trying to figure out how we’d become the monsters we were. Right now, it didn’t matter. Only the human did.

Our mate.

My hunger roared to the surface, the same primal need I’d felt the first time I’d laid eyes on her.

Titus dragged his tongue across her cheek. “The taste is sweet. Just like her scent. But whatever drug she was given isn’t just about keeping her knocked out. Something is wrong. I can taste it on my tongue.”

Instantly, I snarled, wishing I’d taken more time killing the bastard who’d hurt her.

I nuzzled against her neck, able to sense Titus was correct.

“We need to take her back to the camp. We need to heal her. There is no other choice.” I swung my head from one to the other.

This wasn’t about getting their approval. This would happen.

I moved away, keeping my eyes locked on her as I began to shift.

In the beginning when I’d been forced to transition into a human, the anguish had nearly killed me.

Bones breaking, Fur fading as skin formed, stretching over malformed muscles.

I’d cried out in agony, but also from the kind of fear that had threatened to cripple me. A king of a pride.

Now shifting took seconds and minimal pain. Once I was in my human form, I rose onto two feet. As I’d felt before, I was fully aroused, the need for her overwhelming.

Already, my lion was scratching just below the surface, restless and angry he’d been driven back into the shadows. But it was necessary.

To protect.

And to lay claim to our mate.

The weapon she’d been holding had slipped from her hand.

I picked it up, shaking my head as I tried to determine why she’d be armed unless she’d had ill intent in mind.

But she’d had her chance to use it and chose to demand the lions, her lions, remained unharmed.

I chuckled at her possessiveness. Perhaps she’d felt the same sense of connection before we had.

After pulling out the ammunition, I returned both to her bag.

I gathered her into my arms, pressing her tightly against my chest. Soft murmurs escaped her luscious lips, the draw to her now becoming even more powerful than before.

As I headed into the jungle with Titus and Zeus following, all I could hear was the rapid thudding of my heart and the soft, shallow breathing of a female that had already captured a part of me I’d thought impossible.

My beast.

“How is that even possible, Thor?” Gabriel asked, confronting me exactly as Zeus had done earlier.

“I don’t have all the answers, Gabriel. Let me ask you this.

How is possible Conall mated with the female lion who accompanied us while being taken to this…

paradise?” The bastards who’d used us as their lab rats had graciously dropped off two pure female lions when we’d been dumped here.

From what I’d overheard, the plan of forcing mating with a shifter and a pure lion had already been in the works.

After the laboratory had been destroyed, members of the company arrested, several loyal scientists had taken it upon themselves to hide or destroy the additional evidence of just how advanced their experiments had been.

Many more new lifeforms had been created than anyone outside of the laboratory had realized.

He glared at me, shaking his head. “Because we’re lions, not humans.”

I threw out my arms, laughing in his face. “Why don’t you try looking in a mirror, Gabe? You enjoy remaining in human form. You do so more and more as of late.”

Which was true. And the desire to be more human in nature had inflicted the majority of our small population. Often including myself. Yes, I still enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, foraging for food in the rich environment the island offered, but my soul still belonged to my lion.

Even now, other than the females, almost every male had shifted into human form. Maybe because we had a surprise guest.

Yet I was the only one who’d put on clothes, pants found in the items left by the people who’d once inhabited the cabins where we’d found and made our home. The others were completely happy remaining naked. That did help when shifting into our lion forms was required quickly.

However, I’d felt some strange sense of feeling as if she’d accept who we were if I approached her, even half dressed. The thought was ridiculous. What did it matter? We were lions. We were beasts.

We were predators.

While I was one of three pride leaders, our circumstances were unusual enough he thought it acceptable to mouth off to me and to question my authority. I’d need to teach him a lesson at some point.

He finally looked away. “You’re right. I just don’t like this. The rogue lions attacked because she’s here.”

I glanced at Titus, who was standing against a tree with his arms crossed. Enjoying the banter.

“I don’t like it either. I have a bad feeling the woman is here under false pretenses and not of her own making.”

“You’re willing to risk the life we’ve finally been able to create because you need to get your rocks off?”

That was it. Growling, my beast ready to breach the surface, I moved in front of him, snarling as my bones began to creak, my eyes shifting to that of my lion.

I was much stronger and more powerful than he was. With little effort, I could snap his neck or drive my canines into his face. He knew it, but today he wanted nothing more than to challenge my authority.

The few seconds were tense, but he finally backed down, throwing his hands up. “Just don’t get us killed, King Thor.”

Zeus headed in my direction. The pride was edgy and they had every right to be. Since the appearance of the men the human called mercenaries, every day had been about surviving danger and reinforcing our camp.

The bastards were cagey, changing their position often. We’d do the same except this was a small island and we were still powerful predators.

Mate or not, what the three of us needed to do was to determine who she was and the reason for her arrival.

“The others in her group will be looking for her,” he said, which was true.

“They aren’t well equipped for hunting.”

He snorted. “Nevertheless, we can’t keep her.”

I knew what he was getting at. Even though she was our mate, the logistics around keeping her were dangerous. I didn’t need to know her to realize someone would eventually look for her, which meant anyone still left who was involved with Blackwell Industries would stop at nothing to silence us.

Including the gorgeous female.

“Then what do we do with her?” Titus asked as he joined the conversation. We’d combined our abilities of self-healing to heal her, which had sapped some of our strength. However, a few hours had gone by, enough so the afternoon sun was slipping behind the trees. Twilight provided protection.

I doubted there would be any further attacks and the humans she was with wouldn’t be stupid enough to attempt a rescue at night.

“Why was she armed?” Zeus asked. “She should be considered dangerous.”

“And she will be until we find out her intentions,” I assured him.

A scent caught all three of us, a moment just like before where all time stopped and nothing else mattered but the understanding that our mate was close.

She walked from the cabin where she’d been resting, her eyes opening wide the moment she caught sight of us. Her glare was exactly as I’d seen when the mercenaries had appeared.

Sharp and unforgiving.

Only this time, there was an element of surprise in seeing three men instead of the lions she’d longed to protected.

I let out a slow breath. Dealing with her was going to be interesting. Not only could I sense she was a fighter, I’d also seen in action a small, vulnerable human who acted as if she could control wild beasts.

My cravings deepened, my cock throbbing.

And she did exactly as I’d expected.

She raised the weapon, pointing the barrel in our direction.