Chapter 1
Duke Fairborn swiveled back and forth in the comfortable leather chair and listened to the pride elders as they discussed issues from last month’s meeting. He hated these meetings; they dragged on forever. But as the son of the alpha, he had to be there, particularly, because he was going to take over the pride when his father stepped down. Their pride, like all lion prides in the states, had a hereditary alphaship, passed from father to son for as far back as anyone could recall.
He wanted to be alpha more than anything. He’d been born for it. Had trained his whole life to be in this place. Boring meetings aside, he couldn’t wait to be alpha. Taking a glance at his father, who sat at the head of the long mahogany table, Duke knew he could be a successful alpha, just like his father. His dad, Byron, had ruled for thirty years. The pride flourished under his leadership, and Duke was ready to grasp that brass ring for himself.
There was just one thing in the way.
A mate.
And not just any mate, but one worthy of being female alpha.
“That concludes previous business,” Winston, one of the elders, said.
Duke flicked his gaze to the male and then to his dad, who nodded.
“New business?” Byron asked.
Duke listened as the elders and high ranked pride males went around the table and discussed issues. He didn’t have anything to add. He was the second highest ranked male in the pride, and he’d earned that rank by fighting the other males for it when he was younger. The duties that came with being so close to the alpha included keeping others in line and protecting the alpha from threats. When Duke took over, Lenn, the third-ranked male, would take over as number two. Thankfully, they were good friends, and he knew the male would always have his back.
When the meeting concluded, Duke waited until the elders had all left, and then he swiveled the chair until he was facing his dad.
“I take it you have something to tell me, son?”
“Yeah. I’m ready to take over.”
“You know what you need to do in order for that to happen.”
“Take a mate.”
Byron’s brow arched. “Do you have someone in mind?”
There were two ways that pride members chose a mate – a heart-match or a mate-match. Some lions and lionesses waited their whole lives to find their heart-match, the one person on the planet meant for them. But for males like Duke who had their eyes on the highest rank attainable, waiting for his beast to find the one wasn’t feasible. He didn’t have to think hard to know that none of the unmated females in his pride were the right one for him. If one of the females was meant to be his mate, he would have felt it in his beast. The mating pull, which came from finding a heart-match, was impossible to ignore.
He could wait and hope to run across his heart-match, but that would mean delaying becoming alpha. He’d rather choose a mate-match and take over, than not do what he was born to do. The reality of his life was that he was in line to be the next alpha, and in order for that to happen, he had to mate a lioness. It wasn’t about love, it was about duty. Period.
“I’m going to reach out to Abbie.” Abbie was the pride’s matchmaker.
Byron nodded. “She’ll find you a suitable mate from another pride.”
There were several prides that called Kentucky and the surrounding states home. The prides mainly kept to themselves, but the alphas did occasionally get together to discuss general pride issues, and during the solstice celebrations, unmated males and females would often gather to find mates or have cubs together. He’d tumbled his way into beds with different females, but had never felt connected to any of them.
“I’m going to meet her this afternoon. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Good luck.”
With that, Duke left the meeting room in the first level of his parents’ home, and stopped in the kitchen to say goodbye to his mom. Davina stood at the stove stirring a pot of noodles.
“Stay for lunch?” she asked after accepting his kiss on the cheek.
“I can’t. I’m on my way to see Abbie.”
She turned to him, brows high. “Really? Oh, that’s wonderful!”
Setting the long handled wooden spoon down, she hugged him tightly. His mother was well over a foot shorter than his six-and-a-half-foot frame, and he had to bend to return the hug. His parents had been mate-matched by Abbie, so he knew that a mate-match didn’t have to just be a business decision, but for him – at least for now – it had nothing to do with love and everything to do with becoming alpha.
Her brow furrowed and she said, “Are you sure this is the way you want to go?”
“It’s time for me to be alpha, Mom.”
“I know you’re ready, and I’m certainly ready for your father to stop being the literal boss of everyone, but you don’t have to rush.”
“You and Dad were matched by Abbie.”
“Yes, but I think that a match like ours is the exception, not the rule. Do you really want to be alpha so badly that you can’t wait a little while longer, try to find your heart-match?”
His lion agreed wholeheartedly. Guilt tickled at the back of his mind, but he pushed the unwanted emotion away. “Didn’t you raise me to take over, to be the best alpha possible?”
“Of course, and you will be. I’m just pointing out that you’re still young and you don’t need to rush.”
“It’s time, Mom.”
She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, and then she sighed. “I’m sure she’ll find you a lovely mate.”
He knew he hadn’t really won their little argument, but he was going to take the win anyway. “Me, too.”
“Tell me how it goes. I’ll send lunch to the bar for you.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
First, he’d go meet with Abbie, and then he’d head to Tails, the bar that he co-owned with his best friend, Titus. Titus was a high-ranked male as well, and when Duke took over the pride, Titus would become one of his official guards.
* * *
Abbie Vernon was a seventy-year-old lioness with a penchant for good whiskey and a sixth-sense about mates. Her matchmaking sometimes ended with what the pride referred to as a heart-match. But that didn’t always happen. Duke knew very well that he could be matched with a female that he would never grow to love, and while his lion didn’t much care for the idea, he wanted to be alpha, and this was the final step.
“Hello, Duke,” Abbie said as she looked up from the rocker on her front porch. Her eyes flitted to the bottle in his hand and he smiled and handed her the whiskey he’d procured just for her. “Well, well. Should I beware of a lion bearing gifts? I suppose you’re in need of some of my particular brand of counsel?”
“I’m ready for you to work your matchmaking magic on me.” He took a seat in another rocker, which creaked under his weight.
She opened the bottle and poured a healthy amount into the mason jar on a little side table between the rockers. Lifting the jar, she said, “I’d offer you a drink, but I happen to not like sharing.”
With a chuckle, he shook his head. “I’m heading to Tails anyway, so thanks for the kind-of offer.”
She sipped slowly, the rocker creaking as she moved. After several quiet moments, she set the nearly-empty jar down and said, “Let’s move into my office.”
He stood and grabbed the door and then followed her into her cozy home. The pride lived on a hundred acres of wooded, rolling hills, their hunting grounds full of all sorts of fast and furry creatures to chase. Unlike the wolves, big cat shifters didn’t hunt at any particular time of the month, but whenever they felt like it.
Abbie cleared her throat and gestured to a sofa. He sat, and she took the overstuffed recliner next to it, placing a large, leather binder in her lap.
She stared at him for a long moment and he felt keenly aware of just how special she was. As a matchmaker, she held his future in her hands, and he trusted her implicitly. Matchmaking among shifters was passed down through the generations, and only through females.
She opened the binder and began to carefully turn the pages. He knew from his parents’ mate-matching story that the binder was a fluid book that contained information on eligible male and female pride members in the Midwest. The pages had a small photo of the lion, age and physical descriptions, and a code that only Abbie knew. Duke’s mom said she suspected the code was information about the lions’ personalities, and who their best matches would be.
He wondered what his page said.
“When we do this, it’s binding. Do you understand?” Abbie looked at him, and he had the distinct impression that she was seeing right into his brain.
“Yes.”
Her brow arched delicately and she continued to stare at him for several more seconds and then turned her attention back to the binder. She turned page after page, quietly murmuring to herself. Even with his enhanced hearing he couldn’t figure out what she was saying. Not that he was trying to eavesdrop, but he was curious.
“Ah, she’ll do,” she said finally. He wasn’t sure how many minutes had ticked by, but it had felt like an eternity. Abbie turned the binder around and he saw a photo of a blonde lioness. She looked like a model for a fancy department store, the sort of ones his mom said she liked to “window shop” at, but never actually buy anything.
“Madison Clary, twenty-three. Daughter of the alpha of the Lewiston pride. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelors in business. Not only good for the pride, but also good for your business as well.”
He stared at the photo, his gaze tripping over to the physical description, which said she was five-foot-eight and slender. It wasn’t that he cared what she looked like, because this was a mate-match and physical stuff wasn’t supposed to matter. But it did, kind of. Madison was beautiful, of that there was no doubt. And judging by her pedigree, and what he knew of the Lewiston pride, she was a fierce lioness and would make an excellent alpha female.
“You’re sure she’s the right match for me?” he asked, sitting back and shifting his gaze to Abbie.
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you really asking me that?”
“No, of course not. It didn’t take you very long, is all.”
“You think I need to dance naked around a bonfire and cast a spell to figure out what female is a good match for you?” she scoffed. “My matching abilities are well tuned. If you’re asking me to match you, she is the perfect female for the alpha of the Kedrick pride.”
His lion let out a disgruntled growl, but Duke plugged his mental ears. It was time for him to be alpha and start a family. That’s what males did, and he’d been raised since birth to follow in his father’s footsteps. Perhaps Madison wasn’t as cold as she appeared in the photo, with her lips curved into a thin, haughty sneer.
“Okay. I accept the match. What now?”
“Now, I make arrangements for a meeting with your family and hers. You will be officially betrothed, and the ceremony can happen shortly after.”
“How long?”
She shrugged. “A week perhaps, maybe more.”
“Good. Thank you, Abbie.” He stood and took her hand, kissing the top.
“Anything for the future alpha.”
Which was just what he was going to be, as soon as he mated Madison. It didn’t have to be a heart-match, it just had to be a match, so he could be alpha. Finally, all his plans for his future were lining up. A mate. The alphaship. And a few cubs.
What more could he want or need?