Tarian Alpha (New Tarian Pride #1)(10)

Rose only gave her a smirk and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I’m not in the meeting. My choice. I didn’t want to be around a bunch of squabbling males right now. Here,” she said, handing over a neatly folded pile of clothes.

Frowning, Emerald unfolded them and held them up. It was a plain black fitted T-shirt and a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans with holes expertly ripped into the knees and thighs. The size looked about right. “Were you expecting me?” Emerald joked.

“You? Never. I thought you and your family were free and clear of this place. But now I have an excuse to use my too-young wardrobe. At least that’s what Grim teases me about.”

Emerald studied Rose’s clothes. She was wearing a black tank top under a long-sleeved red flannel button up, and leggings tucked into calf-height leather biker boots. Where her sleeves were rolled up, Rose had a tattoo of the Grim Reaper with a lion’s face under the Reaper’s hood. A tribute to her grandson, the Grim Reaper? Okay, Rose was a badass. She was like the Tarian Pride lionesses Emerald remembered. Once upon a time, they had been mostly dominant, mouthy, ruthless lionesses, instead of the submissive, broken women she’d met yesterday. Things sure were different here now.

“I’ll give you some space to get dressed,” Rose murmured as she headed to the door. “Emerald?” she asked suddenly.

“Yes?”

Rose gestured to her face. “None of that is your fault. If you go back, they’ll try to get in your head that you deserve to be treated like that. Like you earned those marks. They’ll manipulate you because that’s the only move weak men have. Don’t listen. You’re better than what happened to you.” Rose lifted her chin. “You’re royalty, and they’re the nothings. Not the other way around.”

Right as she turned to leave, Emerald blurted out, “Why didn’t he Change?”

“Who? Ronin?” Rose asked, her hand on the doorknob.

“Yes. Last night. Why did he kill that man with his bare hands? Why didn’t they Change into their lions and fight like the old ways?”

Rose gave her a devilish grin. “Because, child. If Ronin Changed, he would’ve gone after every Tarian Pride member until they were nothing but a pile of bodies. And he wouldn’t have gotten me or you out of there. That lion has a chip on his shoulder the size of a canyon, and the Tarians carved it there. I told him to leave you, you know, just to test him. He couldn’t.”

“What does that mean?”

Rose shrugged again. “I don’t know. All I know is what I saw. He couldn’t take his eyes off you, and he couldn’t move until he hoisted you up in his arms to take you with us. And today? He was needed to put out all the trouble he stirred up by rescuing me alone, but where do you think he was instead?”

Hope blooming in her chest, Emerald guessed, “In here? With me?”

As Rose made her way out the door, her voice echoed behind her. “Everything happens for a reason.”





Chapter Five


Ronin leaned back in his creaking chair and spun the sharp point of his knife blade onto the letter from Cassius, cutting a small hole and etching a notch into the old wooden meeting table as he did. He read the scribbled words again. Give me what’s mine…

Mine. Ha. Cassius didn’t own Emerald. Did he think abducting her father gave him ownership over her? Ronin was going to kill him—

“—when the time is right!” Terrence yelled, dragging Ronin from the fantasy of locking his teeth on Cassius’s exposed throat. Terrence had been talking for a while. Long-winded, that gnarly shifter was.

“They have the numbers,” Kannon murmured, “so we have to be careful. I want as few casualties as possible. On both sides.”

“Fuck any side but ours,” Ronin growled. “Don’t go soft on the Old Tarian Pride, Kannon. They won’t go soft on you. They’ll cut your life off at the knees at the first chance.”

The dark-haired shifter sighed. “What you did last night—”

“Was my choice, had little risk, and had the exact outcome I wanted.”

“You killed one of them during a treaty time.”

“Would you like me to parade Rose in and show you her face again? I don’t know how you think this is supposed to work, but men beating on women will bring out the devil in me faster than anything else.”

“Yeah, but we knew him,” Gray growled.

Ronin slammed his knife blade deep into the table and leaned forward. “Knowing him doesn’t make him a good man.”

“You can’t just kill everyone who pisses you off—”

“What about war is confusing to you?”

Terrence slammed his open palms on the table and stood, glaring at him. Ronin stood slowly, a snarl in his throat. “Stand. The fuck. Down.”

Other than Ronin and Terrence’s snarls, dead silence filled the meeting room. Three seconds too long is what it took for Terrence to sit down and angle his face to the side. Ronin looked around. “I know you wanted an Alpha you could control on your throne. And you’re taking a big risk backing me. I understand. But I don’t do well on leashes. I’m still Alpha. I will make decisions you don’t like sometimes, and you know what you can do about it? You can fuckin’ deal with it. I’m trying to listen, but if you’re gonna keep pushing this kumbaya shit on me, this war is not going to go the way you want. You split off from them for a reason. Because every one of you saw the way the Pride was going and you grew a moral compass somewhere along the way. Good on you. But don’t turn soft on me as we’re gearing up for war with them. Stay savage. Keep that Tarian fire lit inside of you. Keep the fury until this is done. What have they done to your mothers? Your sisters? Your friends? Don’t forget what side you chose. You’re acting like Rose wasn’t worth the risk, and she was. She is. If one of you were taken, where do you think I would be? I’d be on the same damn rescue mission because I agreed to this—to protecting you. All of you.”