Lion's Mate (Book 2)

“Have you arrived?” Asked the demanding voice on the other end of the phone. Troy bit his tongue slightly. He didn’t do well with others talking to him in demanding ways. However, he was very good at controlling his temper, for one of his kind that was.

“Yes,” Troy said trying to keep the tenseness out of his tone and the growl in his throat from coming through. It wouldn’t do to make Kiba angry at you. You’d have a lot of hell coming down on your head then, seeing that he controlled the largest pride in the world. Lion shifters were a very socially complicated race. Troy was technically a rogue male by their standards.

“I know that I’m being rather forceful. I appreciate the fact you can ignore it,” Kiba said seeming to know Troy’s discomfort at it. Troy sighed inwardly. Kiba was very good at how he managed others, he always knew what to say. The fact that he was on top had little to do with the fact that the man could fight like no one’s business, but it had helped. The loyalty of his pride to him was quite frankly amazing. Troy admired the man for how he’d structured the prides with in prides.

“Can I ask again why you think I’m the best choice for this? I’m not even part of your pride,” Troy said where he stood with the phone up to his ear. He leaned casually against a lamp post. The wind was coming at his face, so none that he was watching were aware that he was a shifter as well. Troy just looked like a man talking on a cell phone. He also kept his voice low so as to not be overheard.

“That’s exactly why, and I know you are trustworthy. Something that I need. I know quite a bit about you Troy. I like what I have heard and seen. Now that being said, you fuck this up…” Kiba started and Troy cut him off.

“You’ll skin my hide. I know,” Troy said this time the rumble was nearly audible from his chest. Threats didn’t do very well for his kind either.

“That would be after Sheela and her sisters got done with you of course," Kiba told him. Troy shifted position slightly. He might be a male lion in prime condition and extremely good at fighting. However six lionesses and one top alpha male coming at him for blood… he didn’t think the odds in his favor.

Troy pushed a hand through his thick hair. It stood up slightly the color a deep chocolate with a kind of reddish undertint that was hard to see. His hair was a bit longer, but not extremely so. He also had bronze-colored skin, stood near six-four, and was well-muscled. Well, what male of his kind wasn’t? Lazy ones that’s who, and Troy was far from that.

“Tri is not going to take kindly to me just showing up kidnapping one of his females.” Troy reminded him, counting the number that he saw and scented. Tri was a male lion shifter who had the second-largest pride. In all Kiba’s pride totaled twenty-nine individuals. Though his own inner pride, not extended members, was really only ten.

Tri on the other hand had a pride of twelve, his mates which were five female shifters. His oldest son, who from what Troy had heard was probably on his way out. He and the old man didn’t get along well. Tri had killed his own sons before for staying or getting in his way. Most would be kicked out by the age of seventeen. The females though would stay. Troy found the practice archaic and honestly pissed him off that some prides still did this.

From what he’d heard Tri kept a few rogue males in his extended pride. They didn’t share the same dwelling, but he did use his adult daughters as an incentive for the males he kept who would fight for him. Tri gave them everything that they wanted from money to women.

Not Troy’s cup of tea, but Tri wasn’t a favorite in the lion community. He helped recently with going after the hunters. It earned him points, but Tri only did it because he was being plagued by them. Not because he cared about shifters and their futures.

“You aren’t going to ask for Tatianya.” Kiba’s voice pulled Troy back in the conversation rather than his thoughts. “You‘re going to take her and bring her back here,” Kiba said in a dangerously dark voice. “Whatever you have to say or do to get in. Then find where she is and bring her back here, do you understand?”

“Yes, the problem is going to be getting back,” Troy said to Kiba, they were an ocean away from each other at the moment. Troy had been born and raised in Africa. Now he was in America. Where he grew up overseas, well he thought that even the poor parts of America were spoiled.

“Make it fast and as quick as possible. You have the money that I sent with you and the passports needed. I do it myself but Tri would know exactly what I was doing. A fight between us is not what I’m looking for. I have a lot of lives I need to look out for,” Kiba stated.

“Can’t say that would go over well,” Troy said counting the number of males now. None of them worried him at all. Even the couple that he knew were older than him. However, Kiba’s comment was very true. Tri would like nothing more than to take Kiba’s position. To be the leader of their kind. Control one of the biggest prides, practically all of their shifting kind, at least lions that was.

There was a lot of power and money to be had in that. Not to mention those at his disposal and he could do a lot with that. There were other shifters, and humans, both hunter and non that if Tri could, would take care of in a heartbeat. Tri was still a small blip and no one was willing to go against Kiba. He was strong and well-liked, so Tri was bidding his time. That was where Tatianya came in.

“If she is mated?” Troy asked. That would be a serious issue.

“She won’t be.” Came a very dangerous growl on the other side of the phone and it made the hair rise on Troy’s neck. “If so he’s dead and you’ll still take her. “ Note to self, do not damage a hair on the young woman’s head. Or tail for that matter.

“When you have her and are clear give me a call." Kiba ordered.

“Will do,” Troy responded and hung up the phone. He tossed it down the sewer that was there and pulled out a different nearly identical phone. The other he didn’t want to be confiscated just in case what he was about to do stepped him into a world of trouble. It was a phone that Kiba gave him that he tossed. Troy had the number memorized to call. So he now had the new burner phone on him.

Now to the problem at hand. His golden eyes swept the area and looked at the building before him. He was in a kind of suburban area, and where he leaned was against a light post that was right by a party that was going on for some human graduation. Good enough cover. Besides no one was stupid enough to try something in Tri’s personal home. Tri was still very dangerous, good thing Troy was crazy enough to try this then.

The place was huge, with three floors and twice the size of the houses across the street. There were a lot of trees around the large mansion and he knew that the back was filled with them too. It went out into a local park area. Most of it was not improved or developed so if the lions wanted to shift and run, they had the space.

Troy doubted that the females had much free time. So running in to grab his target outside wasn’t happening. That was okay, Troy had an ace up his sleeve anyway. Troy had grown up on the streets, he had his own talents and everyone always underestimated him.

Tatianya was the youngest daughter and the last born to Sheela and Kiba. Kiba had not had any more children since Tatianya had been born and she was now twenty-four years old. Tri had taken her right under Kiba’s nose at the age of sixteen.

What Troy had been told was that Tatianya had been with her sister and her mate. That was where she was taken from. So she’d been with Tri’s pride for eight years now and it was difficult for Kiba’s pride to get her back. Most knew about the struggle between the two. That Tatianya was probably being held against her will.

However, Tri claimed that she had come of her own free will wanting to leave her pride. Seeing that her sister and mate were dead now, and the only eyewitnesses to the event, there was no way to know if that was a lie. It was Tri’s word against Tatianya’s and no pride council wanted to touch on this one. However, none wanted Tri to get a foot in the door with Kiba’s pride either.

Prides were complicated and tricky things. Depending on who usurped who as the alpha, who was whose mate and that was just the males. The females on the other hand always made up the core of the prides and they weren’t the ones that left prides. It was the males just like their wild cousins. It was the top-ranking female that normally determined if a male lay claim to a pack. In shifter terms, she mated first. However Troy wasn’t concerned with that. He wasn’t looking for that dynamic field. Way too much. No, thank you.

Hell, he’d be happy with a mate if he ever chose to do such a thing. That was one reason that he worked so hard at his self-control. He didn’t care what the men of his race said. It was the women who ran things. When they were pushed under and controlled, well he bet that hell would look like a vacation than a bunch of pissed-off females out for blood.

Troy decided to move then and walked down the street toward the large mansion that was mostly brown and had a large driveway. A fountain with a male lion out front. How ridiculous, though it was rather smart too.

No sane shifter would promote such a thing and hunters knew that. Low key was best. So flaunting it could help camouflage you. Troy doubted that was the reason for this fountain. He took a breath and walked up to the guards there. Show time.