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Which insulted the hell out of him.
Her parents had been on Benecio’s side until Demi’s brother had mated a human female. Now they’d decided lions could mate with whoever they chose, and that included Demi. Demi’s father and Duke had called a meeting with Benecio and declared that not only was Demi free to mate whoever she wanted, she’d made it abundantly clear she didn’t want to be Benecio’s mate. To top off that new and stinging insult to his pride, Duke declared that Benecio and the Elk Hills Pride were no longer welcome within the pride’s territory, including the bar.
It had taken a few days, but he’d finally come up with a plan to retaliate. He couldn’t let the repeated insults from the Kedrick pride go. He was losing face with his people, and the possibility of a coup grew with each passing day. There was a target on his back. He hadn’t killed the previous alpha and his number two to take over the Elk Hills Pride in order to die at the hands of his own people because some bitch had a bug up her ass about him and her alpha had insulted him.
But that’s how his pride worked. Males watched for weaknesses and exploited them. He’d done it himself, so he didn’t begrudge others from following in his footsteps. However, he wasn’t about to be taken out because of this nonsense. Duke and his people had pushed too hard, and now they were going to suffer.
Particularly Demi.
He chose males that Duke and his people hadn’t met in their previous encounters to track Demi and keep tabs on the pride’s security.
The bar door creaked as it opened and he looked over his shoulder to see his spies come in. The bar was mostly empty, even though it was a Friday night, but Benecio suspected that it would get more crowded as the night went on. It wasn’t even midnight.
Benecio motioned to the bartender and he served the males beer and they took their drinks to a corner booth near a filthy jukebox that wasn’t even plugged in.
The males looked at each other nervously and Benecio’s hackles went up. What had they seen?
After a few tense moments, he growled. “Well?”
Drager cleared his throat. “We’ve seen the repetition of the security patrols and we have their schedules down pat. We believe the time to strike—”
Benecio put his hand up and the male paused mid-sentence. “Tell me about the female.” He could feel in his gut that they didn’t have good news and he’d rather hear it first.
Voll grimaced, then sniffed. “She’s mated now.”
“What?” Benecio bellowed.
The males leaned away from him and showed their necks.
It took a moment, but Benecio calmed enough to appear rational so the bartender didn’t do anything stupid like call the police.
“We’re sorry,” Tolis said. “There was a band playing and two of the band members met up with her. They left together. We followed them to the diner and then to her home.”
“What?” Benecio demanded. There was no way Demi would mate two males. Her family was traditional, as was the pride. It was unheard of for two males and one female to form a mating group. Even if the pride was becoming progressive, letting their people choose their own mates outside of lions was one thing. A mating trio was an entirely different situation.
“It’s all they were talking about,” Drager said.
“What did she say exactly?” Benecio asked.
“She said the two males were her heart-matches.”
Now he was pissed. Well, that was an understatement. He’d been pissed before, but in a general way.
Now he was scorched-earth pissed.
“Nothing changes about the plans,” Benecio said. “We’ll just move things up a bit.” He leaned his elbows on the scratched up table. “Find me a runner. There’s a message that needs to be delivered.”
* * *
Demi smiled at Rafe as he held open the door to Tails for her. She walked into the bar and they followed behind. The bar was dark, save for a strip of lights over the counter and a light in the hall on the other side.
“Hey guys,” Titus said.
She glanced up and found him standing on the balcony of the second floor. “Hi, Titus.”
“Duke’s in his office. He’d like to talk to you three first, and then we can have Rebel and Maverick join us.”
“All three of us?” she asked.
