20. Osias
TWENTY
OSIAS
Osias’s hands gripped the Ferrari’s steering wheel as he prepared to reverse out of the town hall parking lot, his mind already strategizing how to alert the pride to Rennick’s inevitable assault on their territory.
The weight of exiling Braxton and Margot still pressed against his chest, and through the mate bond, he felt Celina’s churning emotions—the complex mixture of sympathy and fury that came from watching family destroy itself through betrayal.
Rennick will come for the pride lands next, he thought grimly, shifting the car into reverse. It’s what any desperate predator would do—attack the heart of what we’re building.
The sudden trill of his phone shattered the tense quiet. Lissa’s name flashed across the screen, and something cold settled in his stomach even before he answered. His twin sister never called during pride business unless something was catastrophically wrong.
“Help,” Lissa’s voice cracked through the speaker when he answered, breathless with terror. “They’re coming for me.”
The words hit him like a battering ram. Before he could respond, Celina’s phone erupted with an equally frantic ring.
“Celina!” Daya’s voice screamed through the speaker when Celina answered, high-pitched with panic. “Help! Rennick’s coming for me!”
Then the lines went dead.
Osias felt the blood drain from his face as the full scope of Rennick’s strategy crystallized with brutal clarity.
Not a war against the pride. Something infinitely more personal and devastating.
Force them to choose between saving the people they loved most, knowing that losing either Lissa or Daya would destroy them both.
“Bastard,” he snarled, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Clever, calculating bastard.”
Celina’s face had gone pale, her green eyes wide with the same terrible understanding. “He knows we can’t let anything happen to either of them.”
“And he knows we can’t be in two places at once.” Osias’s mind raced through possibilities, discarding each one as quickly as it formed.
There was no good choice here. Only the choice between two unbearable losses.
Through their bond, he felt Celina’s terror spike—the woman who’d spent thirty years having her choices managed was now facing the most impossible decision of her life.
But underneath the fear, he sensed a steel-edged determination that matched his own.
“We have no choice but to separate,” he said, the words tasting bitter. “But I’m not letting you face this alone.”
He threw the Ferrari into park and was out of the driver’s seat before she could protest, his long strides eating up the distance to the town hall entrance.
Within seconds, the heavy wooden doors flew open under his hands as he burst back into the massive space where Juno, Seth, and Thomas were still coordinating Braxton and Margot’s departure from the pride lands.
Juno looked up from the quiet conversation he’d been having with the other enforcers, his dark eyes immediately sharpening with recognition that crisis had arrived.
“Juno!” Osias’s voice boomed across the space. “You’re going with Celina. Now. Daya’s in danger.”
His Beta didn’t hesitate. Fifteen years of partnership had taught them both that when Osias used that tone, explanations came later. Juno was already moving toward the exit before Osias finished speaking.
“Lissa’s in danger too,” Osias continued, following Juno back toward the parking lot. “Rennick’s separating us deliberately. He knows it’s the only way to break us.”
They reached the Ferrari where Celina sat rigid with controlled panic, her hands clenched in her lap. Juno slid into the driver’s seat with fluid efficiency while Osias leaned down to the passenger window, framing Celina’s face with his hands.
“Stay in contact through our link,” he commanded, his voice thick with emotion he couldn’t quite suppress.
She nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “Find Lissa. Don’t let anything happen to her.”
He captured her lips in a fierce kiss that tasted of desperation and promises, pouring every ounce of his love and determination through their bond. When they broke apart, he pressed his forehead against hers for one precious moment.
“Please be careful,” she whispered.
“Be safe,” he replied, stepping back as Juno gunned the engine.
The Ferrari’s tires kicked up dirt as it roared out of the parking lot, carrying his mate toward whatever trap Rennick had set. Osias watched until the red blur disappeared around a bend in the road, then turned and began running.
A mile to Lissa’s house.
His legs pumped hard, eating up the distance between the town hall and his twin sister’s modest home tucked among the oak trees that bordered the pride lands. As he ran, his enhanced senses cataloged every scent and every sound, searching for any trace of what had happened.
Hold on, Lissa, he projected through their twin bond. I’m coming for you.
Minutes later, her house came into view, the windows dark and the front door standing ominously open. No signs of struggle in the front yard, but her scent trail led away from the structure toward the dense woods that stretched behind her property.
Smart girl, he thought with grim pride. Run toward cover. Make them work for it.
He followed the scent trail into the trees, moving with fluid efficiency through underbrush that would have slowed ordinary men. Lissa’s jasmine scent grew stronger, more recent, and underneath it he caught something else—the acrid smell of fear and adrenaline.
Then he heard voices ahead. Male. Rough with exertion and frustration.
“She’s fast for a female,” one of them panted.
“Rennick said she’d be easy,” another replied.
Osias crested a small rise and saw them—two men in dark clothing pursuing his sister. Lissa moved with desperate grace, but the men were closing in fast.
Shift now, he projected through their twin link. I’m behind you.
Lissa’s transformation rippled through the clearing as her human form gave way to her magnificent lioness, her honey-gold fur gleaming in the dappled sunlight. The pursuing men skidded to a halt, their confident pursuit turning to shock as they found themselves facing a predator instead of prey.
Osias didn’t give them time to recover from their surprise. His own shift tore through him with familiar fire, his human form dissolving into the primal, lethal focus of his massive lion, and he positioned himself behind the would-be kidnappers.
Finally realizing they were surrounded, the men shifted into their own lion forms with lean desperation.
But desperation was no match for the protective fury that burned through his veins.
He lunged at the nearest rogue with devastating precision, his claws raking across the smaller male’s flank and drawing a roar of pain and rage.
The rogue twisted, trying to bring his own claws to bear, but Osias was already moving, his superior size and strength overwhelming his opponent’s frantic defense.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Lissa engage the second rogue with fierce determination. His twin had always been more diplomat than warrior, but she was still a Fellan, and Fellan lions were formidable.
The first rogue managed to land a glancing blow across Osias’s shoulder during his momentary distraction, but he barely felt it through the red haze of protective fury.
He pivoted and his massive paw connected with the rogue’s skull, sending the smaller lion tumbling across the forest floor.
When the rogue struggled to rise, Osias’s roar shook the trees around them.
Run, the sound conveyed. Run and don’t come back.
The beaten rogue took the warning, limping away into the deeper woods with his tail between his legs.
Osias turned to check on his sister and saw her standing over her own defeated opponent—a rogue who wouldn’t be getting up again.
Blood matted the fur around her muzzle, but her blue eyes were clear and fierce.
Are you hurt? he projected.
Minor scratches, she projected back. Nothing that won’t heal.
Celina’s friend is in danger, he continued. I have to go to her.
Go, Lissa projected immediately. Find your mate.
Through his mate bond, he felt Celina’s determination mixed with growing fear—she was moving, but toward what, he couldn’t tell.
I’m on my way to you, he projected through their link as he began bounding toward Hollywood.
Her response came back immediately. Daya’s not at her house but I know where Rennick took her. We’re going to the Hollywood sign—the place where I first met him, where he promised to make me a star.
Osias realized with cold fury that Rennick’s twisted mind demanded that he end this where it began, at the monument to the dream he’d helped build and now intended to destroy.
The terrain blurred beneath Osias’s paws as his lion form devoured the distance between Beverly Hills and the iconic sign perched above Los Angeles.
Ten minutes of pure predatory speed while his mind calculated every possible scenario awaiting him at their destination.
Through the bond, Celina’s emotions crashed against his consciousness—fear sharp as broken glass, determination steady as steel, and underneath it all, a protectiveness so fierce it made his chest tight even as he ran.
She’s trying to be brave, he realized, feeling her pulse through their connection.
The Hollywood sign soon materialized ahead, its white letters stark against the darkening sky, and Osias forced his lion to slow, approaching with calculated stealth.
His enhanced senses cataloged the scene before him—Juno positioned behind a cluster of scrub oak, his human form tense and ready to shift at a moment’s notice while Celina stood twenty feet away in a small clearing, her posture deceptively calm.