Prowled Darkness (Dante's Circle, #7)(7)

Malik let out a breath and closed the car door, locking it behind him. Well, he’d gone a little too fast just then, but it wasn’t as if he’d done this before.

In fact, he wasn’t aware of anyone who had this particular problem. It wasn’t every day that a lion shifter next in line to the throne, dealing with a possible uproar and war in his Pride, found himself a soon-to-be father with a not-so-human potential mate after he’d left her all alone because he’d been forced to hurt her. There weren’t any manuals for this sort of thing, so Malik was just going to have to wing it and pray to the goddess he didn’t screw everything up.

Eliana let herself in and waved to the living room where there were two large chairs and a couch that looked lived in rather than ornate like the ones in his current home. He preferred these.

“Take a seat, I need to pee.” With that, she left the room and walked toward a hallway that must go to the bedrooms. Malik ran a hand over his face.

Okay, as long as he didn’t growl or roar, he should be okay. But telling a male lion not to be a lion wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world.

He sank down into the cushions of the couch and tried to catch his breath. He was going to be a father. He’d barely had time to contemplate the fact that Eliana could be his because of her circumstances, and now there was a baby—little squirt—added to the mix.

He snorted at the nickname. That sounded like Eliana’s doing and he liked it. A lot.

“What are you snorting at?” Eliana asked when she came back into the room.

Malik immediately got to his feet and walked toward her. She froze but didn’t put her hand up to keep him away. “I was just thinking how much I like the name ‘little squirt.’”

She blushed again but didn’t say anything. It seemed she was waiting for him to speak or at least explain himself.

He sighed and reached out to cup her cheek. This time, she pushed him away. “Eliana.”

“No. You don’t get to do this. You can’t just come back into my life after crushing me. I don’t know why you had to leave, but I’m out, Malik. I’ll let you say your piece, but I already made up my mind.” Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away. “I had to do that because of the baby and I can’t just change it because you’re back. It’s not fair to me, and it’s damn sure not fair to our child.”

He shook his head. “I had to go, Eliana.”

“You told me that it meant nothing to you. That I meant nothing to you.”

He winced, remembering the words he’d been forced to say when he’d forced her out of his place. “It was the only way I could think of to shut you out of my life. I had to go. I know you don’t understand, and I know I hurt you more than I can bear, but I hurt myself, too.”

She flipped him off. “Boo hoo. You hurt yourself? Well, screw you.”

He took her hand and kissed her middle finger. When she let out a growl of her own, he let her hand fall. “My kind, the lions, cannot mate with humans. It’s not only forbidden, but the mating mark doesn’t work. It’s not prejudice, it’s actually impossible. So when I started to fall in love with you—” She opened her mouth to speak, and he put his fingers over her lips. “Let me finish. When I started to fall in love with you, I knew I had to leave because it would hurt us more in the end. Or, at least, that’s what I thought. I didn’t know you had a chance to shift into something paranormal. I didn’t know we had a chance.”

She shook her head, this time letting a tear fall down her cheek. He brushed it away with his thumb and tried to catch his breath.

He wouldn’t grovel, wouldn’t fall to his knees and beg forgiveness. He was the son of the Leo, the King of all lions. He would, one day soon, be the Leo and reign over his people. He couldn’t fall for her more than he already had, but he could hope she could see how he felt.

Because if she didn’t, he wasn’t sure what he would do next.





Chapter Three


Eliana couldn’t quite believe what he was saying. And yet, she knew he wasn’t saying everything she needed to hear. There were a few key things missing from his speech, and she wasn’t sure she could forgive him without those words.

In fact, he hadn’t asked for forgiveness at all.

He was just so…male.

A male lion, at that.

The king of the freaking jungle was an *.

“You know none of that matters, right?” she said, her voice cracking. “Because there’s no tug or anything like the other girls had.” Amara hadn’t felt it, but that had been a siren curse and Eliana had a feeling that wouldn’t happen twice. “I can’t be your mate because I didn’t shift into my paranormal self the first time we had sex. That’s how things work for the lightning-struck. That’s how it’s always worked. I’m not your mate.”

And it hurt more than she could bear that she’d been forced to say that, been forced to come to that conclusion long before he’d returned to her life.

“You’ll be the father of this baby because I’m not so callous as to push you away from him or her, but you’ll never be mine.” She swallowed hard. “You can’t be.”

Malik cupped her face and shook his head. “That might be how the other paranormals and lightning-struck work. But that’s not how lions work.”