Savage Exile: Lion Hearts Book Five Read online

  Sage flinched. None of the other words mattered. They were finally to the real reason for the visit.

  “I’ll be taking my daughter back to her rightful mate.”

  The words were a reminder of how little she actually mattered. Jasper didn’t come to fetch her. He sent his goons to do it instead. She wasn’t even worth the direct confrontation with his enemies.

  Roland showing up was a risk. Jasper would have set the prides into immediate battle. And over a female? No, he’d let the peons do the recon and dirty work while he hung back and waited for his moment to strike.

  The air thickened around her. Darkness clawed at the edges of her vision. Her lioness crouched low under the weight of surging hopelessness.

  No escape. There was no escape in this life.

  Lindley growled on one side of her. A second rumble picked up on her other side. She didn’t need to look to know Rhys had wedged his way next to her. A chill ran down her spine at the twin noises vibrating loud enough to make even a jumbo jet feel inadequate.

  “Like fuck you will,” Rhys snarled. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”

  “You had your chance to play father of the year.” Lindley turned his head and spat on the ground. Pure disgust put a scowl on his face. “You lost any shot at redemption when you killed our mother. I won’t let you do the same to Sage.”

  “Our laws—”

  “Won’t matter with your throat ripped out,” Rhys rasped in a voice thick with his inner animal.

  Holy hell. Sage snapped her attention to the man. The hair on her arms lifted at the intensity of his words. He felt huge. Powerful. On par with Trent, even, and the Crowley alpha wasn’t a lion to be trifled with. No wonder all the males in the pride were needed to bring him down.

  Roland’s jaw clenched with his snarl. “There will be consequences.”

  “Like the ones you already faced?” Trent asked in a low voice. He slid a look to his left, then to his right. Every single person on the porch tensed up. Shoulders straightened, hands curled into fists. Even Hailey, without an inner animal of her own, lifted her chin in defiance. “Tell me, how many did you bring with you today? You better hope you’re packed in like a clown car. These fuckers behind me have been looking for a fight.”

  Sage struggled to breathe through the aggression weighing down the air. Death waited behind the chorus of growls. The noisy threats weren’t to blow off steam between friends. They meant every last dangerous note.

  How many times had she watched the same scene play out? How many deaths had she witnessed? The destruction didn’t ever stay with just the fallen. The pain rippled outward, taking down the mates and children and extended families. No one stood solely alone that their death didn’t matter, and she was so tired of seeing lives ripped apart.

  Behind Roland, the doors of the SUVs kicked open. He threw out a hand without looking to hold back his troops, and she could see the calculations running in his head. His monsters against Trent’s. Her father had numbers on his side, but the Crowleys had the home field advantage and allies they could call. There would be losses on both sides and no guarantee of a win.

  Face contorting with his fury, her father backed away. “Consequences,” he snarled again. “You’ll feel them when we come back.”

  Sage stayed locked in place until the caravan disappeared from sight. Her shoulders slumped with her exhale, but her relief was short lived. Her stomach twisted and turned, bile soured the back of her tongue, and a wave of despair crashed over her.

  World wobbling, she pushed away from the others and staggered down the steps. The ground rushed up at her, but she caught herself before she fell face first into the mud. She couldn’t pick apart the voices calling after her over the screams of her inner lioness.

  She stumbled through her front door and leaned heavily against the wood. The silence enveloped her, made it easier to breathe and order her scattered thoughts.

  She had to get away. Not just for a handful of days like she’d done with Lilah. Disappearing wasn’t about clarity this time. She had all the clarity in the fucking world when it came to her supposed mate and her father.

  What had she told the woman? She wished she could be strong like her and the others? They’d stumbled and gone to their knees, but those low points in their lives were just temporary stops. They’d pushed back to their feet and dusted themselves off, feet planted against the next curveball thrown their way.

  Not her. She couldn’t claw her way out of the pit she’d been thrown into. She wasn’t strong. She wasn’t brave. And she certainly didn’t want to see any of the people she’d grown to care about fall trying to keep her safe.

  If only she could gag on the words and ask Trent for a final release. If only she could be brave enough. Death was a better option than returning to the man who bought her just to break her.

  Chapter 14

  Rhys glared after the retreating line of SUVs. He wanted nothing more than to chase after those bastards, rip their doors from the hinges, and dig a paw inside like a cat clawing for some fish in a tin.

  He went after Sage instead. She needed him more.

  Juniper and rain were strong in the air, but the sour stench of fear was even thicker. He was certain even a human nose would have been able to follow the trail with their eyes closed. And could he blame her? The fucker who’d ruled over her life and sold her like an unwanted piece of furniture stated plainly that he intended to return her to the hell she’d escaped. He’d be more surprised if she’d taken the threat as calmly as if she sipped a cup of tea.

  He took the steps up her porch in one leap, then paused. What the fuck was he doing? This was Lindley’s job. Kyla’s. Any of the other mates would be better at comforting the woman than him. But when he glanced over his shoulder, all he saw was a pride scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off.

  Seth and Lilah shifted and shot off down the ranch road, no doubt to make sure their unwanted visitors all made it out of the territory. Hailey stood on the porch with one hand cradling to her belly and frowned after them. Colette had a phone pressed to her ear that Trent snatched out of her hand a moment later, earning daggers from both her and Dash. Lindley tried to break away, but a snap of the alpha’s fingers kept him in place.

  Sage was a concern, but not the biggest problem. His lion twitched his tail in agitation. Fuckers.

  Rhys knocked a knuckle against the wood and waited. Not a single rustle of clothing or footsteps reached his ears. If not for the dull thud of her heart, he’d have tripped over himself to get to the back door and track her from there. She was inside, frozen like a hunted rabbit.

  He wanted to maul something at the continued rise of fear in the air.

  Bracing his hands against the frame, Rhys pressed his forehead to the door. “Sage, please,” he said. “I’m not going away until I know you’re okay.”

  Still nothing. No words, no movement. He could deal with the former. Hell, he knew how little words mattered against actions. The lack of movement set his teeth on edge. He balled his hands into fists imagining her hunkered down in a corner.

  Motherfuckers. They’d stolen her smile almost as soon as it appeared.

  Anyone else, and he’d take the hint and leave. Even without his lion demanding a murder or twelve, he couldn’t drag himself away. The woman on the other side of the door mattered too much to just walk.

  He didn’t know why the animal had latched onto her. Didn’t really care to poke at the problem too much, either. He’d already made the decision to try and fix her and wormed his way into the cracks of her foundation.

  Yeah, fuck giving up. And fuck leaving her alone.

  His long legs carried him off the porch and past the others. He yanked open the door of his truck and grabbed his latest project, then stalked back to Sage’s den, ignoring the glances thrown his way. They didn’t need him for the planning. He’d be there for the fighting, but until then he’d park his ass in the only spot that made any damn sense to his in
ner beast.

  He turned the wood end over end, feeling for the weak points he knew where there. This one wanted to topple over with every breath of wind. Too top heavy, but he thought he’d figured a way to keep him from going over sideways. It just required a little extra help from the carving she already had in her possession.

  “You don’t have to do this on your own,” he told her through the door.

  Idiots. Fucking idiots. Didn’t they know trying to trap a woman like Sage would be as successful as Trent trying to rehab him back to sanity? Their best efforts were doomed to fail.

  They were so convinced that their females were worthless. Somewhere along the line, after too many mistreatments, she’d started to believe it herself. What they failed to see, what she couldn’t believe, was that she was simply bent and far from broken.

  She had fire in her eyes. He’d spent the last ten months watching it flare to life. That was the real Sage, not the one convinced she needed to keep her gaze locked on her toes.

  She’d never break, but she just might snap.

  “You’re safe here,” he said. “You have family. Friends. The pride will stand by your side.”

  After all, she wasn’t a killer. They had no reason to turn their backs on her and leave her a sitting duck.

  Rhys pushed down the sting of betrayal. It didn’t matter anymore. He was years past and a couple thousand miles away from that crater in his life.

  Quieter, he added, “I’ll stand with you.”

  And if he couldn’t? If he failed another woman?

  Rhys shoved back on the unwanted, chilling thought, but the doubts still circled in his head and made his gut churn. He’d had a mate. He hadn’t saved her. What made him think anything would be different this time?

  He was already worse off. Crazier. Ready to draw blood at the slightest provocation. As an attack dog, there was nothing better than a bloodthirsty lion. But as continued support? The kind Lindley gave Kyla or Seth offered Lilah? Hell, even the poking and teasing Trent and Dash dished out and received from Hailey and Colette?

  He scowled. It wasn’t like he had to put his fangs in her skin. He could protect her without claiming her.

  Claws raked through his insides. Rhys tightened his hands on his knife and carving to keep from chucking them right off the porch. Fucking lion. Idiot animal. They’d had a mate. They’d lost a mate. He couldn’t sentence someone to a few short years with a disaster like himself.

  Sendings whipped through his head and he ground his teeth together to stem the onslaught. He didn’t want the replay of where his life went wrong. Living through it once was bad enough without the constant fucking reminder.

  The sound of the gunshot split his head open. Louder, the clank of tools hitting the ground. The faint questions of the other guys in the shop as he bolted for the door.

  He could still feel the burn of his lungs as he’d raced up the mountainside on foot. The branches had whipped and lashed at his arms and face, but he’d ignored every scratch and line of blood drawn. There hadn’t been time for pain when his heart had been close to exploding.

  He’d known even before he reached their little cabin near the top. Curse the Broken and all the gods in the sky, he’d known.

  Knowing and seeing were entirely different.

  Rhys swallowed back his snarl and tried, again, to stem the flow of memories lashing at him.

  The metallic stench of blood had filled his nose even before he found her fifty yards or so from their back porch. Fuck, he’d hardly been able to smell her even when he’d crouched at her side and pressed trembling hands to her wounds.

  “Love,” she’d whispered.

  A last request, an order for the future, a term of endearment, he didn’t know what she meant. There was no asking when her heart faltered and stopped.

  He’d lost his damn mind right then and there.

  Once again, strawberry blonde strands turned auburn in his mind. Pale skin changed shades. Bone structures overlapped and blended together until it was Sage’s cheekbones he stared at, not Hannah’s.

  Worst of all, the lifeless blue eyes turned to dead green ones.

  What came after was a blur of screams and blood. Pain, so much pain, dominated that point in his life. His. Theirs. The revenge he’d taken didn’t bring Hannah back, nor did it soothe any part of his burning rage.

  Imagining Sage sharing Hannah’s fate ripped him apart all over again.

  Rhys bared his teeth at the carving in his hand and brought the knife to the wood. He stroked lines down the back, across the legs, fixing the scars in place.

  The woman on the other side of the door wasn’t as set as him. She still had a spark of hope left. She’d been branded and bent, but she still raised her claws in defiance.

  “You don’t need to run,” he told the air and hoped she listened. “That’s what you’re planning, isn’t it? Running doesn’t make anything stop.”

  Rhys canted his head. The hairs on the back of his neck lifted, and he sensed more than heard Sage’s approach. He didn’t offer any other words. Hell, he hardly dared to breathe. He didn’t want her to rabbit back into hiding.

  His lion sank down to his stomach with a sigh of awe and relief. She’d come out for them.

  He’d had a mate.

  For three glorious years, they’d lived in a tiny cabin in the hills of a hometown not much bigger than Bearden. Strange to think he’d lived double that without her, but those days were notched into his bones. The lives that had cost him everything, too.

  He’d been in mourning for so damned long it’d become a way of life. Drink, brawl, sleep it off, then do it all over again the next day. Six years had gone by as he crept closer to the point of no return and his lion snatching complete control. All until he smelled juniper and midnight rain eight months ago.

  Sage… She grabbed at his attention just like Hannah.

  Impossible. That alone should have made him go to Trent and beg for death.

  No force on Earth could have moved him an inch in that direction.

  He had a mate.

  Simple, maddening words rang through his head like a fucking gong.

  He had a mate. Not in the past, but here, now, in the very real present.

  Maybe it was the shock of her father demanding her return or maybe that damn kiss had loosened the binds around his heart. Either way, one truth slapped him hard across the face and stood clear with both man and inner beast.

  He couldn’t lose her. Not to the bastards who wanted to make her small and insignificant. Not to her own dread and hopelessness.

  Those fuckers wanted to take her? They’d have to go through him.

  Keeping Sage safe was a matter of life and death. He’d be just as broken when they made it through. But not her. She’d stand on her own.

  Sage wasn’t broken. She was a survivor.

  Chapter 15

  Sage folded and refolded the shirt in her hands. She stood at the edge of the bathroom, but faced her front door and the man on the other side. Her inner cat wanted her to move. Claws dug into her head, her tail lashed from side to side, but her human half stayed absolutely still.

  No, she wasn’t okay. No, she wasn’t safe. She absolutely had to do this on her own. Hadn’t he listened to anything her father threatened? Consequences. Consequences got people killed. She couldn’t force herself to ask for a clean death, but she’d be damned if she sentenced good people to suffer on her behalf.

  “I’ll stand with you.”

  Sage cocked her head at that. Her lioness, too, ceased her endless pacing. He’d said the words before, charmed her back from the edge of panic, and here he was doing it all over again.

  She shouldn’t get closer.

  She took one step anyway. Another. Her lioness prowled under her skin, urging her to cross the living room and let him in.

  His scent snuck in through the crack under the door and wrapped around her like a comforting blanket. That alone almost calmed the frantic beat of her h
eart.

  She pressed her hands against the wood, but didn’t say a word.

  “You don’t need to run,” he repeated. “They won’t force you back.”

  “You can’t know that,” she said in a faltering voice. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Buried alive literally, or buried alive under the force of a pride she hated, the end result would be the same slow, suffocating death.

  “You’re right,” he admitted. “Doesn’t mean I’ll give up.”

  Sage pressed her forehead to the door. Her hand brushed over the knob, but she kept it still. The illusion of letting him in was enough for her inner animal, and the cat sank down inside her with another rumbling purr at odds with the serious threats waiting to collar her forever. “If I stay, they’ll come for the rest of you.”

  “If you go with them, they’ll do the same.” Rhys let off a short snarl before getting control over himself. “They’re fucking liars, Sage. They haven’t shown a hint of honor so far. You can’t expect them to have a sudden change of heart.”

  He was right. Skies above, he was right. And still, she wanted to run. Staying made her feel as trapped and helpless as that fucking collar around her throat.

  All the more reason to go now. She doubted her lioness could handle watching any of them fall when the storm unleashed.

  Coward.

  “What would you have me do?”

  “You’re a pride princess, aren’t you?” His voice stroked over her. “Show those fuckers that no one forces you to your knees.”

  Chills ran up and down her arms. Her lioness lifted her head, chin high and defiant.

  The fantasy was a nice thought, but oh so very wrong. She had zero power. How could she make anyone do a damn thing when she couldn’t even draw her own cat out into the open?

  “That sounds like a recipe for disaster,” she murmured.

  “Not when you have your pride with you. Shit,” Rhys added under his breath. Louder, he told her, “Lin and Kyla are heading this way. Do you want to see them?”