****
“One more time,” Charlie said ten minutes later. They were sitting on the soft mattress hand in hand, and Natalie had just given him a condensed rundown for the third time. After being in the marines for so long, Charlie liked having things drilled into his memory like this, and today was no different. He understood now that this was literally life and death for everyone involved.
Natalie, fortunately, was every bit the soldier he was after standing as Matriarch for ten years, since she was eighteen. She nodded patiently at his request, happy to have someone new to share this with after all these months. “After the first rash of attacks, Ariel started doing research. She noticed a pattern, and sent out requests to other prides around the country about a month after they started, once things were clearly getting worse. Most of the prides said the same thing: she was crazy for thinking there was somebody targeting lions that wasn’t already in the news, or at least known to the council. They said it was just a gang. But a handful of prides came forward, and then a few more. All in all, a couple prides in each state reported that their membership had been invaded and systematically culled until almost no one was around to breed. In addition to mutilations, they got rid of the young and tried to leave women pregnant with their own seed. Infants were smothered, toddlers kidnapped, and pregnant women had their pregnancies…forcefully terminated.” Her breath hitched in her throat, and Charlie squeezed her hand encouragingly, sending her a soothing wave of his energy that brought a rush of color to her cheeks. My brave lioness, he thought in wonder.
“Thanks, babe,” she said, shooting him a weak smile. “Anyway, after we got that information back, we only had one other usable piece from everyone: the name “Golden Claws,” and we used that to try to find out more. We knew they were trying to hit us while we were out, but not in ways that attracted too much human attention, so we started staying inside. Then they started hitting us at home. They destroyed our truck’s motor and axle, tried to burn down Ariel’s house, and broke every window they could at least once. Anyone who tried to leave town was either taken or killed, so I could only go out short distances. Ariel stopped going out at all. But as soon as we heard back from the other prides—right around the second month—we started building our safe houses because we knew they wouldn’t let us stay safe for long. Then we started sending out undercover people—individuals from other prides—to try to catch some of the gang.” Natalie sighed heavily, and her next words were laced with a bitter sort of triumph.
“We lost a lot of people, but we got more of theirs. I got one that tried to break into the house, sent a message back with him, minus a limb. The attacks slowed down. Then Ariel heard one talking on his phone behind her pottery shop, after he got sloppy on a tail, and it turned out they only had three left in the city: their leader and two other people, and we know what those two look like. One’s a short muscular man with blonde hair, and a Native guy, who must have tailed you on the way over. The one other thing we learned is that they’re targeting prides that are still matriarchal, the ones like us. They’re trying to stop us from, and I quote, ‘discovering something in ourselves.’ They also said they were waiting for you to return before they made their last move.” Natalie swallowed the lump in her throat and looked toward the end of the room holding the kitchen sink. A dark curtain was thrown over a part of the wall, and Charlie knew now that it covered a steel door that the hid the connecting tunnels between their house and the Reynolds’. “Ariel is telling Evan right now, then they’re heading over for the last leg of the plan.”
“Which you know I don’t approve of,” Charlie said, barely containing the anger in his voice. “I don’t see why we need bait.”
“Because it will make them come to us more quickly,” Natalie said for the fourth time. “But I’ll be safe. You’re all here, and there’s only three of them. I’ll leave you all at least one.” The rage in her expression matched the viciousness of Evan’s smile earlier, and Charlie shivered at the same time he felt his heart swell. My queen.
“So, we’ll go into the main house and wait for them to realize we’re out in the open,” Charlie finished. “And they’ve always made a move each time you’re in the main house?”
“Starting two months ago, every time I open the curtains,” Natalie said. She tried to hide the fear in her eyes with a smile. “Gave me quite a workout, going up there to show myself so they wouldn’t be suspicious.”
A knock sounded at the door, and they both jumped. Natalie’s eyebrows raised, and Charlie caught the scent of fear briefly before she reigned in her pulse.
“They’re early,” she muttered as she stood up from the mattress. Her red tunic dress hid a great deal of her stomach, but she held the bottom of her bump and outlined it as she walked to pull open the door. Charlie felt love sweep over him, and his heart was suddenly very happy to be witnessing this moment. I’m a lucky man.
As the door opened, the black partition to his left side blocked part of the view, but Charlie could tell immediately that whoever had arrived wasn’t Evan or Ariel. Natalie’s face contorted with rage, and she gasped and threw one hand in front of her defensively. Charlie saw thick, razor sharp claws slide from her partially-shifted hands as she swung her other arm in a graceful, powerful upward arc, and the sound of her claws slicing through flesh rung out through the room. A spray of warm blood rained down from the body, and Charlie tried to stand, but his legs felt strangely like they were filled with lead; he couldn’t move a single muscle below his waist, now that he was actually trying to move.
Nat! he shouted, but she didn’t acknowledge him—then he realized his mouth hadn’t really moved. I’m drugged, he realized, and his mind flashed back to the water the human driver had given him in the van. That’s why he was so nervous, the bastard.
Charlies groaned and tried to pull himself from the bed with his hands. His shoulders jerked stiffly in the space around him, but they were far too rigid and refused to obey his commands; all he could move was head and neck. His eyes were wide with terror as he watched Natalie swing her hands—which were now completely shifted into huge sable paws, bloodied and alien at the end of her sinewy human arms—toward whoever was trying to advance into the room. She was screaming wordlessly, her beautiful face a portrait of defiance and bloodlust, her hair flecked with the scarlet rain from her assailant’s neck. She jerked back as they struck her upper body, but immediately after, she sank her paws into flesh somewhere around the other person’s stomach, and Charlie watched her lead a tall, heavily muscled man to the floor, jerking her claws back to show they were covered in his entrails. His body twitched and he tried to shift to heal the damage, but he never got far enough before his form stilled and flowed back to his human shape. Charlie still couldn’t move, so he blinked his panic to Natalie as she staggered toward him, clutching her bloody chest.
“Charlie…” she wheezed. “Char…” she sank to her knees a foot away from the bed and held her reddened palm upward, and Charlie could see through that the lion had ripped out part of her shoulder and neck. She needed to shift and heal, soon.
Natalie! Charlie wailed internally.
Her eyes sparkled for a second after he screamed her name in his mind, and she cocked her head to one side as though she had heard him. The confusion was plain on her face, and he shouted her name again. Nat!
“Charlie,” she answered, smiling beatifically. She’d heard him! How?
The sound of footsteps sapped the short-lived happiness from the moment, and Charlie snapped his eyes toward the door. A figure rounded the partition and stood behind Natalie, looking between the two of them with a kind of detached interest. The woman was tall and willowy, with dark brown skin and a high, dark ponytail thrown over one shoulder. She smiled, and Charlie realized it was the woman from the airport—the one who had been affectionately ruffling the strange man’s hair.
“Hello,” she said, and her voice was low and cool. “Just in time. Your friend is smaller, so he froze up a lot sooner than you. His wife was easy to take out. Oh, don’t worry!” she said at the look of terror on their faces, and a smile light up her angular face. “They’re still alive, for now.”
She pressed her fingers to the collar of black sweater and adjusted the waistband of her jeans. “All in due time. For now, I just want to make sure you two know your little plan to ambush us didn’t completely work. I still have lions all around the country, after all.” She stepped over to Natalie and pressed a hand to her cheek, laughing bitterly when the lioness jerked away in disgust.
“Yes, you wouldn’t want my comfort, would you? Too proud. There was never any hope for you. Too bad; you’re awfully powerful. Both of you.” Her tone was mocking, a simpering drawl that showed she took far too much pleasure from watching them suffer in silence. “That little cub was going to be a piece of work! Probably already is.” She sauntered over to Charlie and placed an oddly cold hand on his jaw.
“I’m Ali, by the way. You’re a lot more handsome in person,” she purred, lowering her lips to his cheek.
She pressed her mouth against him, and it was like being doused in ice. Her laugh was high and cruel as she pulled away. “So much fear. So much…righteous anger. And I can feel that ancient power waking between you and your wife…I came just in time.” The artificial warmth dropped out of her dark brown eyes, and her smile faded. “In fact, as much as I love soliloquizing…there is work that must be done.” She stood straight and pulled a slim black club from her back pocket; Charlie realized it was a cop’s riot stick.
“Sorry about this,” Ali said sweetly. “There really isn’t a better way.”
Charlie kept his eyes on Natalie as the club came crashing down, and the last thing he saw before his vision cut to black was a look of cold murder sweeping over his wife’s features. He hoped it would be enough to save him, but somehow, the hope felt in vain.