Serengeti Lightning

Chapter Six

Michael couldn’t sleep. Restlessness clawed at him.

He still hadn’t taken his lion form since last night and he refused to. Instead, he prowled on two feet, walking the familiar paths of the ranch compound until his legs ached.

His thoughts were unsettled, out of balance. He saw the logic of Mara’s decision—he wasn’t exactly prime genetic stock—but his heart still couldn’t makes sense of it, and the clashing of emotion and logic refused to give him any peace.

“Michael?” The raspy, feminine voice was nothing more than a whisper on the breeze, but his lion-keen hearing picked it out easily.

Michael paused, waiting for the quiet footsteps to catch up to him. “Ava.”

He didn’t want company, but his little sister was the one person he couldn’t brush off. She’d had all four of the Minor brothers wrapped around her finger from the day she was born.

“I thought I heard you out here.”

Michael glanced around, taking in his surroundings, and realized he’d just passed Ava and Landon’s bungalow. For the third time. “Always the diplomat. Did Landon send you after me?”

“My husband doesn’t send me anywhere.” Ava tossed her head, her white blonde hair catching what limited moonlight there was. “I heard you walk past, again, and came to walk with my brother. You got a problem with that?” She tipped her chin back aggressively, staring him down even though she had to crane her neck back to do it.

He snorted softly. “Not at all. Let’s walk.”

She fell into step beside him. Michael measured his pace, reining in the ground-eating prowl into something his petite sister could match.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“Tough.”

Michael choked out a laugh. Landon had been good for his baby sister. The flashes of spunkiness that had always been part of her personality were now matched by a steady confidence she never used to have. He would have sworn allegiance to the Alpha for no other reason, but the man had turned out to actually be damn good for the pride.

When he wasn’t arranging to have Mara deported.

Michael lurched to a stop as if his feet had taken root. He fixed Ava with an angry glower. “You knew,” he snarled.

“I knew what?”

“You knew Landon was transferring Mara to another pride. He would have discussed it with you. He discusses everything with you.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “Yes, I knew Mara was leaving, but I had no idea you would care.”

Anger bubbled up, but Michael pushed it back down. He couldn’t shift now. If he shifted, he wouldn’t be able to vent his anger. “You knew we were together. It’s not like it was a fucking secret.”

“Yeah, but no one thought you were a good match.”

Michael snarled at her, baring sharp teeth.

“Michael!” Ava cried, shocked.

He hastily reined in his anger. He’d just sniped at Ava of all people. He didn’t think he’d ever been angry with her before. Now he could barely see through the rage. “Not a good match,” he forced the words out through a throat that felt bumpy and rough. “Meaning I’m not good enough for her.”

“Meaning you’re a flirt and she’s desperate for kids. Everyone thought you just wanted to get laid, but the entire pride knows that isn’t all Mara wants.”

“That isn’t all I want either,” he growled. “Just because I’m young and emotional, I can’t want kids? I can’t want a family?” A bitter laugh ripped out of his throat. “Oh, that’s right. I can’t want children. I can’t be allowed to pass on an unstable gene. I’m a threat to our entire species. I could expose us to the entire world. God forbid I be allowed to breed.”

“Michael. That isn’t how it is anymore and you know it. The Alpha doesn’t control who is and isn’t allowed to breed anymore. Landon picked me as a mate, didn’t he?”

She was right. Landon was changing things, but accepting the runt of the litter as his mate wasn’t the same as allowing a threat to the pride to expand into a second generation. He’d said he would allow Michael to mate, but he was sending away the only woman Michael wanted in that role.

Michael met Ava’s pale grey eyes, holding them steadily, forcing her to see the agitation eating at him. “You could have convinced him to make her stay.”

Ava looked away, her fingers absently plucking at the fabric of her pants. “Why are you doing this? Do you really love Mara or is this just wounded pride talking?”

Michael didn’t need to ask which she thought it was. Ava wouldn’t have asked the question if she thought he loved Mara.

Puppy love. That’s what everyone thought it was. It probably didn’t help that he’d had a crush on Mara in school. But this was not a crush. Not anymore. He was not a teenager and this wasn’t a fling.

Even Ava, his baby sister, didn’t treat him like a grownup. By human standards, Michael had been an adult for years. In his lion form, his mane had fully grown in. He wasn’t an adolescent by any definition of the word, but they wouldn’t stop treating him that way.

Just a crush. Nothing serious. Because Michael wasn’t capable of being serious. He was just a kid. A flirt.

“No.”

“Michael?”

He rolled his shoulders, feeling the lion pressing against the inside of his skin, goading him. He’d been ignoring the beast riding him for too long. “I’m not a cub.”

“I never said—”

“I’m sick of being treated like a child. None of you have any faith in me. That’s fine. But you don’t get to decide my life for me.”

He would prove he was man enough. Prove he deserved Mara. Show her she didn’t need to go anywhere else to find a mate. The right mate for her was right here.

The lion inside him roared in agreement.

Michael bolted down the path as fast as his human legs would carry him, ignoring Ava shouting his name. Rational thought had been burned away by instinct and need. He would go to his mate, prove himself to her, convince her to stay. The beast urged him on, hungry for dominance and the scent of her skin.

Mara was his. They both knew it. Tonight, he would hear her admit it.