Tarian Alpha (New Tarian Pride #1)(27)

Please let him live.

The deafening roars that grew quieter behind them, drowned out by the engine of the speeding snowmobile, told her that she was really on her own now.

Cheeks stained with weakness, she gritted her teeth and stared ahead at the road blurring under the blades of the snowmobile. They were going so fast, the old her would’ve been scared, but inside of her, the lioness didn’t feel fear. For once, she wasn’t shrinking, and she sure as fuck wasn’t hiding.

She was planning.

Emerald didn’t know how she was going to do it, but she was going to annihilate the Old Tarian Pride for what they’d done.

The lioness wasn’t Invisible anymore.

Now, she was Fury.





Chapter Twelve


He’s alive.

Those were the two most important words she’d ever read in a text. It was the most meaningful word combination of her entire existence.

She wanted to write back to Jenny, aka Ronin, to please take care of him, but a man with platinum blond hair and striking blue eyes yanked the phone out of her hand and tossed it in the tote with her necklace and Emerald’s ring that her mother had given her on her twenty-first birthday. He’d already patted her down in front of all of the Old Tarian Pride females, including Annamora, who hadn’t looked up from the ground the entire time they’d been in the cabin. There were seven women here, sitting on the couch, on the arms of the couch, on a couple of chairs. Brunettes, blonds, redheads, they all wore the same somber expressions, and each face looked like the next. No one spoke except for the platinum blond man, who’d introduced himself as Orion. His introduction alone had surprised her. And he didn’t particularly look like he was enjoying taking her possessions.

“It’s not so bad here,” he murmured. “So long as you mind the rules.” He was speaking toward the floor, tucking her jacket into the bag.

Emerald glanced up at the video camera in the top corner of the den. This place was like a freaking cult. “What rules?” she asked, just as softly.

“No phones. No back-talk. Say yes to the males here and don’t piss ’em off.”

Annamora glanced up at him, and Emerald saw it there. A raw openness she didn’t understand. She swallowed hard and looked down at the ground again. And as soft as a breeze, she whispered, “Orion can’t keep you safe if you don’t mind the rules.”

Huh. Not that she trusted anyone here as far as she could throw them, but she asked Orion, “Do you know Ronin?”

The giant shrugged. “I’m not from here. I know of him. He’s a traitor lion, switched alliances and grew up a tiger.”

“He didn’t have a choice—”

“Repeat the rules back,” Orion growled, his eyes blazing such a light blue, they were the color of snow.

Emerald held his gaze a couple of seconds and then averted her own. “No phones. No talking back. Say yes.”

“Good.” Orion inhaled deeply and tossed Annamora a worried look. “Cassius isn’t here right now.”

Relief washed over Emerald like a tidal wave. If he wasn’t here, there would be no ceremony today. She released a long breath and then asked, “Where is he?”

“Rule number four, stop asking all these damn questions.” He jerked his chin toward the door. “Everyone out, go get dinner on and settle the boys down. And for fuck’s sake, I don’t want a repeat of the last two nights, just…be good. Annamora, you stay here with Emerald. Get her cleaned up. You have half an hour.”

The two of them exchanged a look Emerald didn’t understand, and then he disappeared out the door saying, “I’ll be right outside so don’t try nothin’.”

Annamora stood immediately and guided Emerald to a small love seat. She grabbed a brush from the table and started combing out the snarls, her back to the camera. “You look tired and like you’ve been crying,” Annamora breathed out. “What happened?”

Unable to trust anyone here, Emerald said simply, “Ronin took me after I passed out.”

“What’s it like over there?”

Oh, no. She wasn’t telling these Old Tarians shit. “Orion protects the girls?”

“As best he can. He ain’t like the others. He’s only here because his sister, Sora, is one of the queens. He’s gentle when he’s able, but when he’s in front of the males? Well…you’ll see. He has to do what he has to do to make sure he stays our guard. There isn’t volume on the camera, by the way. They got security here, but we aren’t rolling in the dough like the New Tarians. They’re sittin’ on a pile of investment money up there from our productive days. We used to pool our income and invest like crazy. Had a good finance team. Tarians weren’t just the big Pride because we were monsters. We had even more power than that. We had numbers and we had assets, but we lost most of the money when we got chased out of that territory. We don’t trust those human banks, so it was buried up in the old cemetery and guarded twenty-four-seven. Derek snuck out there to steal it when we first lost the territory, but the New Tarians are smart. They’d already moved it somewhere he couldn’t find it.” Suddenly she paused her brushing and asked, “Did the New Tarians hurt you?”

“No,” Emerald murmured, brushing her fingertips against her lips just to remind herself of the last time Ronin had kissed her in the front seat of his truck. “They did the opposite.”