Chapter One
Jennifer White fought hard to stay awake, even though her eyes refused to cooperate. An intense drowsiness overcame her, and keeping her eyelids open became such a chore. Frustrated, she decided to bite her finger hard. A shard of pain jolted her awake, shaking her from the grip of sleepiness that wouldn’t let her go. Her eyes snapped open. Her mouth tasted of blood. She might have bitten herself too hard, but she didn’t care. She knew she had to stay alert.
If she wanted to survive…
She rolled onto her stomach and forced herself to crawl. She blinked and stared at her surroundings. The sweltering heat got to her first. Then the smell of dry grass and earth assaulted her nostrils. Her gut sank. Her heart accelerated, just like it had when she had seen the wild tribal dance last night.
Had it been last night?
Or two nights ago? She’d lost track of time.
The last thing she remembered was her fiancé, Seth, filling her with booze. She was a light drinker. One cocktail was enough to get her tipsy. She recalled she was on her fourth Martini when Seth suggested they go out for a stroll. The night was young and the moon full. It was a romantic night, Seth had said, and he didn’t want to miss the moment. She didn’t want to disappoint him, so she went along for a jeep ride; a midnight excursion under the Serengeti night sky.
After just a few minutes, everything jumbled and she couldn’t remember anything else. She must have passed out. How did she end up in this place? Had something happened to Seth?
Jen paused and sat. A chilling numbness spread into her nerve endings. Where am I? How did I get here? What is this place?
She crossed her arms in front of her chest, wanting to cry. Despite the relentless heat, she shivered. She didn’t want to believe Seth had forgotten about her and left her here. Seth loved her. He had told her many times how he couldn’t live without her.
Something terrible must have happened to him and they got separated. Had they been attacked? Was he in trouble?
Stifling a cry, Jen scrambled up to get a better view of where she was. Her knees gave up before she could fully stand. Once again, she crashed back onto the dirt ground. Her head spun.
Damn it.
Jen clutched her head as everything appeared double. She cursed her bitchy hangover. She once had a heavy hangover during her freshman year in college, but she’d never been this way before. The dizziness was so intense it almost felt as if she’d been drugged.
When she was a teenager, her appendix burst in the middle of a volleyball match and she had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. When she got out of surgery, she was extremely groggy and sleepy from the anesthesia, exactly like she felt now.
Had Seth drugged her?
She quickly brushed away her crazy suspicion. Seth would never do such a thing. He loved her. She knew he did. There must be a reasonable explanation for this.
Jen worked herself into a crawl again. Her knees and elbows grated against the dry earth, bruising her skin. She was stranded in the middle of god-knew-where and it certainly wasn’t safe for her to stay in one spot. She’d seen the big cats crawling all over this place. She had to keep moving. Look for help and get out of this grassy hell of a sweatbox.
After a few yards, Jen had to stop. She panted. The heat was unbearable. Her throat was parched and she was hungry as hell. Suddenly the surroundings turned silent. Uh-oh. Not good. Even the noisy birds had stopped chirping. Goosebumps broke out over her flesh. The hair on her nape stood. A low growl reverberated behind her.
Her heart froze in her chest.
Oh, god, no. Jen scrambled up to run. She only managed a dozen steps when her strength left her. She crashed back to the earth, placing her much too close to her living nightmare.
A giant lion appeared before her. His majestic, golden mane was gently blown by the dry, hot breeze. A golden-eyed gaze raked over her body, calculating. The lion swished his tail. Another growl erupted from his throat.
“Good kitty,” Jen whispered. She scooted backward. “Don’t eat me. I don’t taste good.”
For a moment, she thought she heard the lion chuckle. Impossible. Snorted? Nah.
Couldn’t be.
She scurried to a nearby bush as the lion inched closer, ready to pounce. Her gaze was transfixed on the lion’s huge paws. They were bigger than dinner plates. Oh, god. I’m doomed.
Jen’s eyes widened in terror when a second lion stalked out from the dense underbrush.
I’m dead. I’m freaking dead. They’re going to eat me alive.
She squealed when the first lion put his paw on her chest and sniffed and then darkness engulfed her.
*
Cyeon Rarh was amused. He had never met a human so frightened of his kind. She fainted the moment he had touched her. Usually, humans would scream and run first. And after they tired of running, they would beg him to spare their life before finally passing out.
Typical tourists.
It wasn’t as if Cyeon loved to eat humans or anything. He just liked toying with them. His pride, K’stal, ancient lion-shifters that had ruled over the Serengeti for centuries, never ate people for sustenance. Many K’stal members claimed humans as their mates, so the practice of eating them was forbidden. But most of them couldn’t resist chasing and scaring them off when they saw one.
Nature of the beasts.
His gaze clashed with his brother, Keto’s and his brother grinned wide in his beastly form. He looked creepy.
This one I’d love to lick all over, Keto said in mind-speak. Maybe I’ll eat her too. Not in the non-sexual way if you know what I mean.
You wish. Cyeon rolled his eyes. I saw her first.
Merde! Not fair.
I’m the alpha. Deal with it. After his brother returned from a year studying art in Paris, the showboat always gloated in an annoying French accent, making Cyeon want to smack Keto each time he did. Almost all K’stal shifters had left the Serengeti at one point in their lives, roaming the seven continents to broaden their horizons. Cyeon himself had spent a decade in the United States, studying business management, then law, in prestigious universities before he became bored and decided to return to Africa.
In the end, all K’stal shifters always came home. The call of the Serengeti felt like a siren’s song to their kind.
What are you going to do with her? Keto asked.
Bring her home.
Our home?