Ryan’s teeth descended upon his lips as he was treated to another preview of what could be if he admitted defeat, and El could tell that she was beginning to grind him down, her eyes closing on the in-between between concentration and bliss.
All that mattered at that moment was, obviously, getting him to admit defeat and that he truly wanted her.If she managed that, then El could truly give in and lose herself in the pursuit of pleasure.But until then, she bore down, making her move slower and more sensual as she felt the rise of his skin beneath her, his erection straining in the in-between between her flesh and his.She could see blood begin to pull at the corner of Ryan's mouth, his desire to maintain control of the situation showing in that one little detail.
As the alpha, it went against Ryan's nature to give in and admit defeat to anyone, even his mate.But when it came to moments like these?Moments where El knew that she held control and wielded it like a sword?Those were the moments where Ryan would finally give up, whispering a swear or five underneath his breath as he begged for mercy.
“Please,” Ryan finally breathed out underneath El, but she wasn’t satisfied.She needed to hear it loud and clear.A low murmur wouldn’t quell the beast within her.Only knowing that she well and truly owned him would.“Please,” he said again, this time far louder and more pronounced, his voice breaking into the air, becoming audible to all.
Pleased by his reluctant admission of needing her and feeling a little more satisfied with the way that she looked, El cast a look back over her shoulder at the mirror as she sunk down into him, her eyes closing at the final moment of collusion as she accepted the hard pull of her mate below her.
Life was good, for the most part, until it wasn’t.
Chapter2
Shawn was up first the following morning, and El knew that because she saw him at the stove, whistling away as he set forth to make breakfast for the triad and her with Destiny happily playing at a highchair not all that far away, the energy with which she moved doing far more than eluding to the reason that Shawn was up.
Ever since Shawn had been promoted from bodyguard to lover, he'd been slowly slipping out of the routines that he had spent so much of his life honing.Long gone were the days when he would wake up early before the sun had so much as risen or anyone else had so much as turned over in their bed and thought about getting up.Upon becoming mated to El, he seemed to shrink into her normal routines and behaviors, with everything only getting worse after Destiny was born.Nothing left someone more devoid of life than a newborn child in the house, especially a newborn that wasn't all that well known for sleeping through the night.But, of course, he didn't complain.None of her mates did.Every single one of them looked at Destiny like she hung the moon.
Even though Destiny was probably admittedly one of the highest-maintenance babies to ever roam the earth, Marcus often jokes that knowing that she had four fathers, Destiny felt like she had to keep each and every one of them busy.But El was convinced it was more than that.Destiny was the combination of two different beasts, after all, two beasts that were technically merged into one.It only made sense that she would have the energy of a baby, a panther, and a lion.Since those weren't exactly low-energy animals, El was pretty sure that she would be running after that little monster for the rest of her life.
Not that she could complain.El loved Destiny more than anything and frequently went out of her way to show it, which was why, that morning, as she passed her highchair by, she made a point out of leaning over and pressing her lips to Destiny’s tiny little fuzzy head first, before walking up and wrapping her arms around Shawn’s tight stomach.“Good morning,” she murmured both to him and to her daughter, pressing a soft kiss again on the older man’s shoulder blades as he set about flipping the flapjacks in the pan before him.“Any news?”
Shawn laughed.El didn’t blame him.
Lately, there was always news.
Negotiations between the two packs hadn’t exactly gone as planned, largely because, when you were talking about negotiations, you were talking about two men with gigantic egos competing against each other.While Ryan insisted that he wasn't really that much of a problem, that compared to the Panthers, he was relatively tame, El had her doubts.
Throw in the fact that Luis saw Destiny's mere existence as a threat to his reign as the alpha of the Panthers, and you sort of began to get an idea as to what was going on.Male egos were some of the most dangerous things in the world, and personally, El didn’t understand why most politicians were male, especially when Ryan and Luis turned just about every round of negotiations into their own personal dick-measuring contest.
Even when El was there to temper things off, trying to heal the rift between the two big cat clans, the two had to fight.It was only natural.If one of them gave in too much, then what would that say about him and his future as a leader?
In Ryan and Luis’s minds, if the clans were to merge and start working together, then there could only be one leader.But if there were to only be one leader, then it had to be one of the two of them, and with both of them wanting to maintain control of the clans that they had worked so hard for over the years, that became a huge problem.
Still.
“Same as usual,” Shawn diligently parroted.“Ryan sent a list of demands to the Pantera; Luis sent it back with just about everything crossed out.Thankfully, he didn't poison the letter or anything like that, though God knows that they're probably working on ways to somehow assassinate each other via written correspondence alone, but we're no closer to a merger than we were yesterday.And if you hear Ryan stomping around, despite the fact that he just woke up an hour ago, then that probably means that Luis made another round of demands.”
No big surprise there.
While the Pantera were by far the clan that had the most to gain from the merger, they also seemed to be the clan that had the most to demand.It made sense, considering the fact that they'd never been an economic stronghold like the Pride had.El could understand why, considering that Luis was going out of his way to try to obtain as many funds and business opportunities as possible.He was trying to provide a good life for his clan.That was sort of his duty as a leader.She couldn't fault him for that.
But El did sometimes wish that she could march over to their compound, grab his shoulders, and inform him that it wasn't the Pride's fault that they were so much richer than the Pantera.The Pantera had, after all, organized their whole lifestyle to be as individualistic and independent as possible.They didn't live in a large pride like lions did.They didn't rely on each other the way that the Pride did.Instead, they left everyone to their own devices.But the funny thing about leaving everyone to their own devices meant that, as a whole, you were less wealthy.It was better to pool resources as a group and make economic moves that way, rather than just forcing everyone to go out on their own, and considering the fact that the Pantera also put an emphasis on males leaving their families as soon as possible to prove that they were an adult and could make their names in the world?A lot of them didn’t have the education needed to survive in the modern world.
To make the Pantera as a whole successful meant that they had to change their way of living, but if El had to hazard a guess regarding that, she would say that Luis wasn’t all too inclined to lean towards that.Sometimes, culture ran thicker than both blood and water, and El just had to understand that.
Still.
“Any news on whether or not Persia has agreed to help with negotiations?”El asked as she reached over Shawn’s shoulder.
Ever since Destiny's birth, Persia had been distant, to say the least.Taking advantage of the opportunity to be with her mate once more, she'd sort of taken El’s dad and then disappeared, retreating into what was a verified love nest.Every now and again, they would see them, largely because she had insisted on living at the pride compound, probably because the panthers weren't all that inclined to take her back yet, but even then, things were still odd.
Still, El was pretty sure that it would be better to have Persia or Shawn directly handle negotiations over anyone else.At least they were part Panther and not a mix like she was.The Pantera had made it clear exactly what they thought of her, staring at her during every single meeting like she was an abomination.Not that she could blame them, considering the fact that she was one of the few half-and-half shifters who was currently out in the open.But still, it stung.
Not as much as it stung when they looked at Destiny, however, very obviously seeing her more as a tool than as a precious little girl like her family did.El resented the treatment.To be honest, there was nothing that she wanted more in this world than for Destiny to be considered normal, to have the same sort of upbringing that she wished she had.Not one where she was a political piece or anything like that, one where she was just a normal little girl who got to sit and play at the playground and stuff like that, rather than a shifter who occasionally went into her animal form while breastfeeding.
Speaking about breastfeeding.
“Did you already feed her this morning?”El asked, Casting a look over her shoulder at Shawn.
