Chapter 1
Maddox nursed a beer and half-listened to his pride males as they joked about how different life was going to be for his brother, True, in two days. Lions normally didn’t get married. Mating was enough to make their beasts happy, and it was damn permanent. You could toss a wedding ring. You couldn’t toss out a mating scar. But wolves were different than lions, and True’s little she-wolf was very insistent that they get married according to human standards so she could have his last name.
“If I didn’t say it before,” True said to Maddox, “thanks for standing up with me.”
“I think it’s my job, being your only brother and all.”
“I would’ve been happy to be the Best Man,” Vario said. “Rai’s sister is gorgeous. I think when you’re Best Man, you automatically get to fuck the Maid of Honor. It’s like a law or something.”
Maddox rolled his eyes. Vario spent most of his life thinking with his dick. It was hard not to want to punch him square in the face every time he spouted off one of his insane thoughts.
“As if her pack would let your mangy ass near her,” True said.
“She’s not a wolf, though,” Vario said.
Maddox let out a growl to silence the chatter and stood. He raised his beer bottle. “It’s my brother’s bachelor party. Let’s not forget that this male here,” he said, clapping his brother on the shoulder, “was once such a pussy that he cried at a haunted house.”
True’s cheeks flamed scarlet. “They had real chainsaws! And I was seven, you dick.”
“That’s Alpha Dick to you, little brother,” Maddox said.
True subtly tilted his head and exposed his neck in submission, but he also extended his middle finger, which just made Maddox chuckle. Only his brother, who he loved dearly, could get away with that kind of half-assed respect.
Vario stood, and the others around the table joined in, lifting their drinks. When True stood, his beer raised high, Maddox touched his beast and roared loudly. The others joined in swiftly; the sound of their combined roars shook the whole bar.
“Congrats,” Maddox said, clicking the neck of his bottle against True’s.
The bar was empty, which was one of the perks of owning the place. Mane was a shifter-only bar, one of the few in the area. The pride worked at the bar, and Maddox spent most of his nights dealing with either bar business or pride business, which encompassed his whole life, and that was fine with him. He wasn’t mated, because among the other laws of their kind was a little known one – the alpha was required to mate a lioness, or abdicate his position.
Someone turned up the music louder, and a few of the males attempted to hustle one another at the pool tables.
“Was this the bachelor party you pictured?” he asked True.
“Yeah, actually. I know the guys were pushing for a strip club or something, but I don’t want to look at anyone naked but Rai. It feels disrespectful. Plus, my lion is totally bored with other females. We just want her, all the time.”
“You don’t have to go into details,” Maddox said.
“I wasn’t trying to, sorry.”
“No worries.”
Silence settled around them for a few moments. Maddox scanned the bar, happy that the males were enjoying themselves, and more importantly, that True was having a good time.
“I actually thought you’d be married before me,” True said.
“Marriage is for humans.”
“And wolves, and probably some other shifter groups. Just because lions traditionally don’t get married doesn’t mean that it’s strange. Family names are important to the pack. Think about it – when you mate a lioness, you’ll have different names. So your cubs will have your last name but not hers. She’ll be like a stranger in her own family.”
“I don’t think lionesses care.”
“Maybe they don’t, but maybe no one ever told them it could be different.”
“Being around wolves is giving you strange thoughts.”
True chuckled. “I guess so. Saturday afternoon I get to marry my best girl. She’ll be mine legally and everything, and it’s pretty damn cool. I hope you get that someday.”
True left the table and joined one of the games of pool, and Maddox leaned back in his chair and settled into his thoughts. He’d actually thought he’d be mated by now, too. He was twenty-six. By the time his parents were his age, they’d already had two cubs. When he’d turned sixteen and shifted for the first time, he’d thought that perhaps his beast would want to choose a mate from the eligible females. The cantankerous beast hadn’t so much as twitched a whisker in interest toward any of them. Later, when he’d fought for alpha at twenty-three, he’d wondered if one of them would appeal to him at that point, but none had. If it weren’t for the alpha female law, Maddox would have looked elsewhere for a mate.
He was envious of his brother and of the life that he was making with Rai. He’d never seen True as happy as he was with his mate.
“What are you looking so serious about?” his dad asked, sitting heavily in the chair across from Maddox.
“Mating.”
“Being around newly mated couples always makes unmated males and females think about the future.”
“Maybe.”
“If you’re ready to settle down, you know you only have one choice unless you want to step down as alpha.”
There were five unmated females in the pride. Maddox had fucked all of them at one time or another since he’d taken over as alpha. That’s what unmated alphas did – they were expected to keep the unmated females happy, and eventually choose one of them to mate with permanently. Some alphas kept a harem of sorts, never intending to choose one over the others, and have cubs with all of them. But Maddox wasn’t an asshole, and he didn’t want to have cubs with different females, bouncing from bed to bed forever.
“I don’t want to step down.”
“Your Uncle Clay’s pride has some eligible females. You could ask if he’d be willing to bring them along to the wedding, to give you a chance to see if any of them make your lion purr.”
He liked that idea about as much as he liked picking one of the females from his own pride, but maybe his dad was right.
“I’ll give him a call. Couldn’t hurt.”
“And you might meet your mate at your brother’s wedding.”
If that happened, True would never let him live it down.