The pride cheered as Caesar led Sera into the darkness so they could strip and shift.
“Release the prey,” Jupiter called.
“Ready, baby?”Caesar asked.
“More than ready,” she said.
The wordsI love yousat on his tongue, but he didn’t say them.He’d fallen for her over the last week as they’d spent time together, learning about each other and growing closer.He’d never been in love before, and he’d never said the words to anyone outside of his family.
He wanted to say them now, though.
But the squeak of the cage door reminded him they had a purpose tonight, and that was to perform the first part of the ceremonies—the hunt.
He’d tell her he loved her later.
When they were alone in the paddock under the stars.
For now, he was going to hunt with his mate and bring the kill back to the pride, proving he and Sera were the right alphas to lead the pride.
“Let’s do this,” he said, shucking his trousers.
“I’m ready,” she said.
He tried not to ogle her as she stripped, but he couldn’t help it.She was one sexy female.
She chuckled and tossed her tank top at him.He caught it with a grin and dropped it with his clothes, then he shifted, slipping quickly into his lion form while she changed into her jaguar, sleek gold fur with black rosettes.
Beautiful, human and cat.
And his precious mate.
It was dark in the paddock, but Sera could see well enough to hunt thanks to the moonlight.She followed Caesar as he padded off in the direction the little bunny had scampered off to, but something was bothering her.
Something felt…off.
Nerves, maybe.This tradition was part of joining as a mate to sexy Caesar, and she didn’t want to mess it up.For the first time, their pride was going to have an alpha female, and that made her nervous as hell.
But this off-feeling wasn’t like nerves, it was like foreboding.
As Caesar picked up the pace, she hurried to catch up.
And that’s when she saw it: something glinting in the moonlight ahead of Caesar’s path.
She let out a yowl of warning and leaped for him.Caesar snarled as Sera slammed into him from the side, her smaller body hitting him with enough force to throw them both off balance.The momentum of her tackle spun her sideways, paws skidding across the grass.She scrambled to recover but couldn’t find purchase with her claws in the grass and dirt.She slid away from Caesar.
She let out a frightened yowl as Caesar roared, when she saw a glint of metal shining in the moonlight in a different location than the one she’d knocked Caesar from.What the hell was it?
She twisted, trying to right herself as she slid dangerously close to whatever it was, when Caesar growled, protective and furious, and slammed into her with the full force of his massive lion form.She went airborne, away from the metallic shining object, tumbling head over tail into a patch of tall grass.
She hit the ground hard and rolled, safely away from whatever she’d seen.
Thesnapof metal hitting flesh cracked in the air and Caesar let out a deep, bellowing roar of pain.
Shit!
She scrambled up and turned just in time to see him collapse in a heap, snarling, the scent of blood tinging the air.She raced to him and saw a coiled, barbed wire wrapped around his back leg, the barbs embedded deep into the muscle.He tried to move, but it made the wire coil tighter into his leg.
She let out the loudest, most piercing call for help she could, and then she forced herself back to her human shift even though she’d only been in her jaguar form for a little while.Her vision blurred and her head swam as unconsciousness threatened to swamp her with the quick change back, but she forced herself to stay alert for her mate.
