Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Lion’s Arranged Marriage Chapter 3

Neil

It wasn't light that penetrated my eyes upon waking. It was the murky nature of the room surrounding me. The persistent drip of water echoed behind me while a musty taste occupied my tongue, my awareness picking up a million things all at once. Whatever they had stabbed into my veins had done a number, totally warping my usual rhythmic intake of information.

Without the mask of the sedative, my body was absorbing information all at once. The sudden onslaught overwhelmed me, forcing me to wrap my arms over my head to dull some of it, to maybe get myself a little bit of protection. Drip, beep, drip, bang. Those noises were explosions in my otherwise perfectly trained ears.

My stomach rumbled. How long had I been out? And where the hell were my clothes?

Moisture from the ground soaked my side. Disgust surfaced. Then, concern. What exactly was I lying in?

Better yet, where was my rescue crew?

Had I been part of a lion's pride, this rescue mission would have been done a little differently. Lion leaders were full of themselves. They insisted on doing everything. If Aunt Minerva hadn't taken me in, I might have been subjected to an alpha trial. I might have even won with my skills.

But that wasn't something that appealed to me at this point in my life. Service was the name of my game-that and only that. Service to my alpha and now service to my mate. Being mated was merely a condition of my service. I was loyal through no fault of my own and I was committed to delivering to my alpha the very conditions of his command.

Reality settled in the moment I lifted my head. Something slithered off my back. Cringing was the least of my worries at that point. What others might have labeled a tiny yelp, I would call an utterance of surprise. It made me twist my body, forcing my back to the bars of the cage I had once faced.

The thing that had slithered down my back slapped the ground-a hand. Attached to a woman.

A rather haunting beauty of a woman, if I dared admit it. The drugs were wearing off, granting me better control of my ability to imbibe information. She was a small thing, rather petite, with warm ivory skin appearing somewhat ghastly in the poor lantern lighting of the basement. Blonde hair, nearly white like freshly fallen snow, curled loosely around her face, tickling the tops of her shoulders and appearing frayed at the edges.

Sandy-brown eyebrows like two brush strokes sat over her closed eyes. Lashes the same color as her brows fluttered slightly, eyes rolling beyond her lids as she slept heavily. Cool colors seemed to cling to her aura, blues and wintry greens swarming over her whenever she twisted in the flickering light.

The sight of her captured my breath. Beauties like this don't get kidnapped.

I frowned at the chain around her neck. Unless it's for a specific purpose. Like whatever those scientists are up to.

A soft snore rose from the sleeping beauty. It was something of a purring sound, though it hardly resembled that of a cat. More like a slumbering bird. Annoyance crept into my awareness next. Then disgust.

Did they seriously have to chain her up? She's hardly a threat! My eyes roamed her frame, thin limbs soft and delicate in such lighting. Sure, her coloring was a painter's dream, but her angles would have been envied by a photographer. She doesn't do anything. She hasn't made any waves in the political climate. I've never heard of her. How did this group hear about her?

Her chest rose and fell raggedly. These scientists must have wrung her dry for her to be sleeping like this. I didn't understand what they were doing with her. Had they been experimenting? Or were they torturing her for information?

My eyebrows rose. Alpha mentioned she had worked with Dr. Windsor.

There, that seemed to make sense. The woman probably had some valuable medical knowledge either about the pack or in general. Though her brief practice of medicine wouldn't have made her particularly useful in the general sense. And then if they were after her knowledge, why was she locked in a cage and not being forced to do the experiments I had spotted on my way into this joint?

Nothing made sense.

And it didn't have to make sense. All we needed to do now was get the hell out of here.

The woman snorted. She struggled to lift her head, eyelids batting rapidly, nostrils flaring as her features contorted. She was dreaming fitfully.

I couldn't imagine the things locked away in that brain of hers from this abominable place.

Contempt for the scientists hardly melted away as I reached for her and adjusted her. She was uncomfortable sitting up like that. With her chin propped on her chest and her shoulders bowed inward, she was probably struggling to breathe. Especially with that clunky hunk of metal around her neck.

Why's she on a leash if she's in a cage? Seems like overkill.

Then again, most of this place was overkill. A crumbling fortress in the middle of absolute nowhere without anyone guarding the entrances or exits-which were many if I had counted properly upon arrival.

It just seemed odd.

Aren't they worried about animals escaping?

I rubbed my neck. That dart had knocked me the hell out like it was nothing. I could still feel the punch of the needle in my muscle. That was something I knew I would feel for weeks to come. With my luck, it would probably be years before the kink was out of my neck. I tried to raise my arms above my head-and hit metal. More bars. How unexpected. It was just rude to shove me into a cage with my brand-new mate and expect me to somehow be comfortable.

That steady dripping sound came again. When I looked at Gwendolyn-the drugs must have finally exited my system since I was able to remember her name-I noticed water on her cheek. Each tiny bubble was disrupted by a brand new drop. I glanced up and found the leaky pipe.

It probably didn't taste very good. But it was water. It was something.

Gently moving Gwendolyn aside took little effort even with the damage done to my muscles. She was small. I could probably toss her over my shoulder and sprint out of this place. Assuming I could get the chain off her neck, of course.

I tilted my head and opened my mouth. Cool water smacked my tongue and spattered the walls of my mouth. It tasted sort of musty. Sort of how my mouth had tasted when I first woke up. It was probably just from the water dribbling in the old pipes. It certainly wasn't the grossest thing I had ever put in my mouth.

"I hope you brought backup."

Gods, even her voice was tiny. And I knew that was Gwendolyn speaking. With my senses back online, I would have heard someone sneak into the room. It wasn't particularly big. There were plenty of wires on the ground to trip anybody up. We had our own personal security alarm in here.

"I didn't realize there was so much crap in here," I commented. The rasp in my voice hardly changed with another sip of musty pipe water. "You'd think they'd keep it cleaner."

"I don't take these men as the organized sort."

I studied Gwendolyn as she sat up. Heavily hooded eyes peered back at me. Cobalt blue marbles glossy from an exhausted sleep captured my attention-and then nothing else existed.

My vision tunneled and my ears clogged up. If any other sound had gone off aside from the beeping machines and dripping pipe, I had no concept of it. There was only her. It was odd to sit so close with my attention fully stolen by a wiry thing with frosted eyes and snowy flesh.

How long would it last?

Fair maidens never do.

Everything crashed back into my awareness just like it had when I first awakened. The pipe. The machines. The proximity of my mate-or rather, the woman assigned to be my mate.

It all came back at full volume as if it had never left.

Considering all the oddities in my life, this one had to be the most baffling.

Gwendolyn traced the chain links with nimble fingers. It seemed more like an idle movement than an active one. If I looked deeper into her eyes, I saw she wasn't quite all there. Yet her question and subsequent comment had made her sound lucid. It was impressive for such a petite woman who had been captured for quite a few days.

"I had a team. They didn't make it inside. But Milton should be after us soon," I explained in a low voice. "He's a-"

"Dragon," she interjected. "And you're the trusty lion, Neil. Though you're not a beta, are you?"

"I believe that only applies to wolves."

She hummed curiously and then let her eyes wander. Blake was right-she was smart. Observant smart. Intuitive smart. Maybe I had underestimated her.

I cleared my throat. "By the way, we've been announced as mates." I puffed up a bit-I mean, as much as I could in such a confined space. "It's not every day you get to be mated with a lion such as me. I'd call it an honor if the circumstances weren't so damn inconvenient." My canines descended just thinking about her throat. "Which means we must-"

Quiet, pensive eyes locked onto mine. A look like that could render any man silent. But me? I was too old to be subjected to such charms, especially from an owl. And I knew she was an owl from the information that Blake had given me on my way out. No wonder she was observant. She had huge eyes to take in as much information as possible. Which made her a decent mate to be paired with a lion.

Though the logic still hadn't settled in just yet.

Gods, the silence just stretched on forever with her, didn't it? She stared and stared and stared some more, the blue of her eyes becoming teal and then shifting into glassy oceans. She exuded a coolness like the brisk chill on the first winter's morning and maybe even the bitey wind promising a fresh layer of snow.

She was that and so much more-yet she remained quiet.

Why was she so quiet?

After a second more of stunning silence, she lifted her eyes about an inch, brightening up when she noticed my hair.

I flicked it over my shoulder. "Ah, you've taken note of my mane. I go to painstaking lengths to keep it so delicious. What do you think? Doesn't it make you want to touch it?"

"No."

I choked. "No one can resist these strands. We're mates, after all. Aren't you curious about me in the least?" "Hardly."

"That's no way to speak to your future husband, is it?"

She leaned forward a centimeter, barely blinking as she stared right past me. "Mates don't have to marry legally."

"Well, they don't have to not marry either."

Geeze, I was like a dog with a bone. Completely unheard of. I had waltzed in here as I told Blake I would, put on a good fight, and now I was falling right through the cracks of my usual cement facade. She was breaking through-or reading through. Whichever one worked as an explanation was fine by me because it was truly baffling.

She squinted at me in the same fashion birds do before they're about to swoop down and snatch something out of the tall grass. Was she hunting me?

That was cute. "Darling, don't waste your energy here. We can hash it out in the world beyond these walls." I gestured dramatically to the brick crumbling behind her. It was mostly a performance. Mostly. "I know you're dying to bite me. Let's get this collar off your neck."

She didn't move. She didn't even blink. She didn't seem to register what I was saying, which reduced my first impression to ashes. Perhaps she wasn't as lucid as I had originally thought.

But when she smiled, my pride took as hard of a hit as it had with my alpha.

That wasn't a warm smile. It was an amused smile. It was the kind of grin that people give to children-like when a kid has done something absolutely foolish and someone is about to be truly condescending about it.

Did she really have the nerve to smile at me like that?

"Listen, little lady," I said firmly, "we're paired and that's the end of that. I'm not happy about it either, but we have to do the whole mating mark thing before we get out of here so we don't end up sliced and diced on a medical table. Understand?" "You are adorable when you're grumpy. Do you know that?" She closed the distance between us to sift her fingers through my hair. "Cats are cute. I wonder why we don't ever get along?"

I pursed my lips. "Listen."

"If you're wondering how I know you're grumpy, it's the crease in your brow. Just there." She tapped the space above the bridge of my nose. I blinked twice. "You get some lines here." She tapped the corner of my mouth. "And then your pupils turn into points." The smile on her lips widened.

"Like right now," she added. "Because you're not used to your girlfriends talking back to you like this, are you?"

"Girlfriends?" I huffed. "You know what? I take it all back. You're not a beauty at all. Your skin is the pallid texture of a decorative pumpkin on a warm autumn day." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I don't want to bite you, anyway. I don't trust you." "So much for being a lion in white armor."

As I prepared a retort, the doors burst open behind me. Strangers were walking into the room. One of them smelled like burnt paper.

"Ah," I whispered. "I wonder if they're bringing my clothes?"

But that was no way to act in the face of danger. I knew it. Gwendolyn seemed lucid enough to recognize it. I couldn't help myself. A little dark humor helped me cope.

And I would need to do a lot of coping with the size of that needle that man was holding up.