From the Shifters series:

The Pride

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Owen: 22yo, leader of the pride, he is the oldest of the three brothers. His preferred mate is Dara, though as the eldest, it is sort of his obligation to also see to Gabbie as well. Occupation: businessman.

Julian: 21yo, comedian of the pride, everyone loves Julian, except for Gabbie, who finds his antics annoying. He’s head-over-heels with sweet Eve. Occupation: computer tech.

Cody: 19yo, the devil-may-care member of the pride, Cody is the male counterpart to Dara, and the two act more like brother-sister than mates. Occupation: part-time student, misc. jobs.

Gabrielle: 21yo, grouchy and self-appointed-princess, no one really likes Gabbie, but they put up with her because…just because. Occupation: none.

Evelyn: 20yo, quiet, sweet Eve, everyone adores her. She’s the pride’s “baby” and most protected member. She’s firmly under Julian’s wings. (Lions have wings?!) Occupation: part-time student

Dara: 19yo, true to her name, is the dare-devil. She’s often dragging Sasha and Cody into her mayhem, and really enjoys tormenting Owen, her primary lover. Occupation: actress.

Sasha: 19yo, easy-going Sasha is the pride’s second-in-command. She has a level head on her shoulders, so Owen prefers her council to Julian’s. She’s hopelessly attracted to Cody. Occupation: Part-time student, journalist discovering fiction writing.

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Chapter 1

Sasha stretched, her hand brushing against Cody’s head, her back rubbing against his front. She smiled and turned to look at him as he moaned, shook his head, and turned slightly toward her. His blond hair was a ragged mess, hanging in curly clumps around his ears, down his neck and over his forehead. His arm moved around her ribcage, pulling her closer to him again. She laid on her side, facing him, their breath mingling on the pillow.

She smiled, reaching her arm between them to brush the hair out of his eyes. He wiggled his head closer to her touch, groaned again, then mumbled her name.

She kissed his lips gently, then pulled backward out of his arms, stood naked looking at him for a moment, and then tucked him back under their covers.

As she pulled her long robe on over her nude body, she turned to stare at him again. He looked at a lot like Owen and Julian, but with a more boyish air. Owen had had that feel to him when she had first met him, and now it was gone. She feared, and anticipated, that Cody’s boy-sweetness would vanish. He would cease to be a young man and be a man very soon now.

Sasha went to the kitchen of the large house, avoiding the board in the hallway that squeaked. The place was quiet so she assumed everyone else was still sleeping.

Almost everyone, she amended as she entered the kitchen. Owen was sitting at the table, his back to her as he looked over the newspaper, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. He was wearing only a pair of loose faded jeans, his top half bare except for his blond hair that trailed to his shoulders. Owen, Julian and Cody were all built magnificently—they were part lion, after all—but there was something different about Owen in the set of his broad shoulders, something different in the way that he carried himself. He seemed older than his twenty-two years, wiser somehow, but other than coming to the conclusion that his many responsibilities weighed on him, there were no words to describe him.

He turned as he heard her enter and gave her a dazzling smile, mumbling good morning. She went to the coffee pot and poured herself a large cup, then turned to lean on the counter and look at him.

He had dark circles under his dark blue eyes, unnatural lines in his face and mused hair. He looked exhausted.

“How did it go?” she asked.

Owen sighed, pushing the paper away and pulling the mug to him, nursing the drink. “Gabrielle is impossible to please… I feel really bad, that she left and neither of us was satisfied. Dara…she had wanted to be with me last night and I told her it was Gabbie’s night.”

Sasha pursed her lips. Owen and Dara were deeply in love, if new at it. They spent virtually every night with each other. But there were four lionesses in their pride, and only three males. It was customary for each of the males to mate seasonally with each of the females as she entered her fertile cycle, then during the rest of the year, they paired off (Cody and Sasha; Julian and Evelyn; Owen and Dara). Julian and Cody avoided Gabbie’s bed like the plague, which left Owen to tend to their angry, self-centered member.

“Where is she?” Sasha asked finally.

“She stormed out of my room when we were done, so I don’t know,” he looked away from Sasha, like he was ashamed. “She said I am a terrible lover, that Dara can have me since she’s so easily pleased.”

Sasha sighed and sat down beside Owen, putting her hand on his. He looked up at her. “Do not take her words to heart, Owen. Gabrielle is not easy to please, and it’s not fair for Cody and Julian to leave you to tend her alone. Besides, you are not that bad of a lover.”

Owen smiled. “Yet I notice how many nights you’ve spent in Cody’s bed, hmm?”

“You have Dara, Owen. Don’t tell me you’re lonely,” she said, but her eyes twinkled.

“I am not lonely. I was only teasing you.”

“I know.” Sasha stood and kissed him on the cheek, then went to the fridge to find something to eat. She was approaching her yearly cycle so her appetite was increasing. Deciding to be simple for the time being, she put two pieces of toast into the toaster.

“Dara and I are planning on going to the fair today.” Sasha said absentmindedly. “I was assigned to write the article for it.” It was quite an honor to cover the big yearly event for the local newspaper. The editor had told her it would be front page and even though the paper for the t own was small, it was an establishment to be proud of and growing every year.

“Is Julian or Cody going with you?” Owen asked.

“Julian said he was going to work overtime today, but I haven’t asked Cody. I wasn’t planning on it.”

“You had better.” Owen said. “It’s not safe for the two of you to be out there alone.”

Sasha turned on him with a perturbed look. “We know how to take care of ourselves.”

Owen looked up when, noting her tone. “I wasn’t doubting your abilities, Sasha; promise. But you don’t know what can happen and there’s always safety in numbers. Besides, what about the nomadic male Julian caught a whiff of yesterday? What if he discovered two of our women out alone?”

“If he came anywhere near us, he’d just get racked. We don’t need Julian or Cody or even you to do that.”

“That is true,” Dara said as she came into the kitchen and snatched the piece of toast that had just popped up.

Owen’s eyes changed when Dara came in. He put his coffee cup down and stepped around the table, going to her. He pulled her to him, hugging her close, running his hands over her hair like he hadn’t seen her in forever.

“Bad night?” Dara mumbled, a little teasingly.

“Hell, yes,” Owen said, kissing her hair, then tilting her head up to kiss her fully on the mouth.

“Then why do you put up with her?” Dara asked. “Make her leave.”

Owen sighed, putting his forehead to Dara’s. “I would, baby, you know I would in a heartbeat…but a small pride is a weak pride. We need every member we can get.”

Dara frowned. “We don’t need any more. We just need one less. If we find more lioness shifters, it’ll just be more often that I don’t have my mate.”

“There are just some things we cannot change, Dara.” Owen said.

“Says who they can’t be changed? I’ll change them. You wait and see.”

Owen smiled, albeit a little sadly, then kissed her again. They went to sit at the table together, cocooned in each other. Sasha turned away from them and went back to trying to fixing her breakfast.

Owen and Dara were rubbing against each other, their lips brushing, her hands massaging his shoulder while he nibbled her ear. Sasha slid the newspaper across the table and picked it up.

“Why don’t the two of you go back to bed?” she suggested sweetly.

Owen growled deep in his throat, then claimed Dara’s lips in a punishing kiss. “I think we will.”

Dara flushed crimson as Owen put her on her feet and pulled her toward her bedroom, a wicked smile that promised much to come spreading across his face.

“Don’t leave without me, Sasha,” Dara said over her shoulder as she followed Owen out of the kitchen and down the hall. The door clicked shut behind them and it was quiet again for a few moments.

Sasha leafed through the newspaper as she munched on her toast. Her article for this edition was on the third page, and it was about the theater that was opening up in a week; the history of the group that was starting it, the hurtles that they had already faced in getting the building in workable condition, and program guides for when it opened. She checked it over for spelling and grammar and formatting, making sure that it hadn’t been changed by the editor and found it just as beautiful and well-written as when she’d turned it in.

“Did they mess with your article again?”

Sasha turned around at the deep male voice behind her. Cody was standing in the doorway, his hips leaning against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. He was dressed as Owen had been; only a pair of jeans. Except Cody wore his very low, so that they were almost falling off of his hips. It was natural enough for him to run around so close to naked because he had so recently come into sexual maturity—a major reason, she figured, for his changing from boy to man.

Something about the split genes of lion and human made puberty in them later, but it was twice as potent. Like in normal humans though, girls hit it first. It hadn’t been very long ago when she’d hit her puberty and she’d spent every waking moment thinking about sex, the stripping, the act, the passion, the aftermath. Her hormones had plagued her for months. Fortunately, though, Owen had hit his around the same time, being a bit older than her, so they never went un-sated. It had been both a blessing and a curse when she had been through the rage of it.

But now, with Cody new to his more adult body, she got to deal with a testosterone-drugged shifter all over again. Not that she was complaining.

She smiled for him, wiggling in her chair invitingly. His eyes darkened instantly and he stalked over to her, put one hand on the table and the other on her chair back and kissed the daylights out of her. He plundered her mouth, his warm lips pressing against her; making her dizzy.

When he raised his head—just barely, so that his breath still warmed her skin—she looked into his eyes and just melted. “You wanna go another round?” he asked in his deep husky voice.

“Depends…are you up to it?” Her eyes drifted downwards as she asked the question, and, seeing the bulge, decided he was. His hands possessive as he pulled her up to him, he pushed her along back down the hallway, shoving the door to his room closed when they entered. He tossed her down onto the bed on her back and climbed up on top of her, pressing his body in between her legs. As his hands found the belt that kept her robe tied around her, all thought melted away.

Copyrighted © 2007 Arden Ashart