Chapter Fifteen
Leonidis
“How will you afford to rebuild?” Red fretted as he clung to Gordon, his eyes puffy from the crying he’d been doing on and off since Butch had dropped me off. “Do you have insurance?”
Maximus, who’d arrived with Tim and the babies not more than an hour ago, was the one to answer. “I have insurance, but it won’t cover the cost, not by a long stalk. All I left behind, I’m gonna petition the county to claim it back. My land and money. Yeah, I’ll speak to the bank about the frozen accounts.”
“You aren’t going to leave are you?” Tim questioned, giving his mate a hard stare.
“Of course not, you silly stalk.” He kissed the top of his head. “But I will have to take a trip. I’ll need to because all the paperwork I had went up in flames with the house fire. ”He ran a gentle hand over the head of the parcel Tim held, looking worried.
“Paperwork?” Red asked wearing a perplexed look.
Maximus glanced at the stalk. “When Amell took charge of the pride after getting rid of the old alpha, he decided he had rights to all the land the pride lived on. All of it belonged to my family—belongs to me—”
“Are you rich?” Tim blinked owlishly at him.
“He is,” Gordon answered, laughing at the comical expression the stalks were wearing.
“I suppose. Amell continues to work to steal it all from me and the pride.”
“How so?” Glass asked, leaning against Apollo, rubbing at his round belly.
“My family leased the land they owned to the pride centuries ago. From generation to generation, they continue to live on the land with a fairly loose agreement. Basically, everyone paid a nominal fee yearly for the right to live on the land. Up until a few years ago, it went into a couple of different bank accounts set up in my name by my father, so I’d be independent of the pride. He could see what others couldn’t.” His voice became choked, and Tim laid his head against his arm.
All his family were dead.
We were his family.
I walked to him and patted his arm, trying to offer support, knowing how hard this was because he’d left his home to protect me.
“I left to protect us all,” he directed at me. “Problem was, I didn’t have time to access all my bank accounts and get all my money transferred out. I’ve contacted the bank, but Amell has a hold over everyone on pride land, so no one will give me what I’m entitled to. He’s been getting the pride to give him the money instead of letting it go into the account. In fact, if Greg is telling the truth, then Amell is claiming all the land as his and feels he’s entitled to what’s in the bank accounts, too. He’s been trying to get access to my accounts, but he can only do that if I’m dead, under pride law.”
Tim gasped, clutching his parcel tighter, his head firing up so he could look at Maximus. “Why didn’t you tell me!”
“Because I was hoping to avoid this. The house fire means we are out of options because the deeds to the land were in the house.”
“Have you checked?” Red asked.
Maximus frowned. “No, with all the damage and the fire department banning us from going in until they make sure the structure is safe, I didn’t think to ask them to check,” he answered.
“How much money do you have?” Glass questioned absently.
“More than god, I’m told.” Maximus said it so casually that the stalks laughed, clearly not getting he was serious.
Maximus was loaded. It was how we’d afforded to move and not have to find jobs. He was a very generous alpha to his pride.
You’re my family.
I know.
“You’re rich,” Tim squealed a second later, clearly figuring out he was serious.
“We’re rich, my stalk. And when we sort out the Amell issue, I’ll use some of the money from the other accounts to build several homes on our land, so we are all together once more.”
I wasn’t sure that was what everyone wanted anymore, not now that we had all found our mates. Goliath most definitely wouldn’t want to be crowded, I knew that much. Butch wasn’t a shared house type, either. I kept that thought to myself.
What the fuck!
The words rang around my brain and my pulse went from steady to crazy as I leapt up.
What is it? I shouted at Butch. I waited a second, everyone watching me. Butch, answer me?
Amell, he’s here. I need you.
“What!” I screeched, eyes wheeling, looking for Amell.
Maximus was staring at me. “What am I missing?”
“Butch, he says Amell is here?”
Red shrieked and clung to Gordon.
Maximus darted to the window, looking outside, brow furrowed. “Here?”
Butch, where is here?
More silence followed, then I got a strange feeling up my spine. It was the same sensation as when he’d touched my cock.
It was too similar to discount, then I retched as pain lanced my skull.“Argh,” I cried out, gripping my head and falling to my knees.
Maximus was right by my side. “What is it?”
“Someone has hit Butch over the head. I can feel his pain as if it’s mine.” My lion roared in my head and my shift was upon me before I could even consider stripping. I burst past everyone and halted at the door, Gordon opening it before I could look at anyone.
I raced out, roaring, with only one thought, I needed to save my mate. Maximus and Apollo chased behind me. I felt them through our link, but I pushed it aside, focusing on Butch’s energy.
I’m coming, hold on for me. You are not to die on me.
Tears mattered my fur as I ran on pure gut instinct. The weird connection guided me. At the edge of town, I was running on pure adrenaline. I stopped a second to get my bearings, then circled to run towards the pride house. Were my senses leading me astray?
I didn’t want to second guess myself when my lion was adamant this was the direction we needed to goin. I didn’t see any sign of Butch’s police cruiser. Are you sure this is not his scent from earlier?
My lion roared once more and everything inside me went cold at the scent of fresh blood. Butch’s blood. The same blood that ran through my veins after I’d bitten him. It led me straight to him. I didn’t stop to assess the danger, just charged into the burned out building, desperate to get to Butch.
My paws crunched over broken glass and burned wood as I skidded at the sight of Butch slumped on a broken chair, bloodied and unconscious, judging by the fuzzy connection between us. The fact it was there, was the only thing stopping me from losing my shit when it gave me hope.
Only the sight of the lion behind him, holding a gun to Butch’s head and grinning like the evil lion he was, made my worst nightmares seem like fairytales.
Did he know Butch was my mate?
“Well, if it isn’t my wayward slave.” The devil's eyes roamed over me, hungry with insanity, making my fur stand on end. There had always been something off about the other lion, but now he looked rabid. And he was far too close to my mate for my liking.That he was alone said how out of control Amell was.
With no thought to my own safety, I pawed at the ground, growling with all the rage fueled by the years of abuse he had inflicted on me. At the pain I’d suffered at his hands—claws.
“Look at you, being all macho. You know how much it turns me on.”
Keep him distracted, Maximus requested. We got you covered.
There was no problem there. I was going to rip the fucker's throat right out for daring to touch my mate. I shifted, wanting to throw Amell off his game. He’d always gotten distracted by my body, believing it was his to use.
I cocked out my hip, getting closer, taking a chance when the air scented with his lust, his beady eyes roaming over me.
“You want me, come get me,” I rasped past my too tight throat.
When the gun rubbed against Butch’s bloody skull, I took another step closer to the devil.
He cackled, an ugly sound that left my innards jumping like I’d swallowed an entire pack of jumping beans.
“I just need to deal with this minor issue, then we’ll leave this godforsaken place. I’ve got a nice little cage with your name on. You know I’ll need to punish you for leaving.” An evil gleam in his eyes made it hard to resist stepping back. The past me, who wasn’t mated, would have. This new me, the one who’d accepted what Fate had given me, was a whole parcel of rhubarb different.
A flash of Maximus’s mane behind Amell gave me courage and, with my focus on saving Butch, I leapt. Shifting mid-air, claws out, I ripped at the devil’s throat.
His eyes widened in shock while his brain took time to communicate that he was pissing blood down the front of his immaculate button-down. My momentum took us both to the floor, but as his hand hit the ground, the gun went off. Pain bloomed in my shoulder, but I didn’t let go as my jaw clamped around his bloody throat and I tore at the flesh. Like a cannibal who hadn’t eaten for months, I didn’t stop until there was nothing but a bloody pulp that had once been a monster.
Enough, Leo. You need to stop now, you're hurt.
The whispered words floated around my subconscious right before I fell forward, the world nothing but red.