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Thomas was exhaustedfrom the morning’s ventures while still handling his personal grief. But he had other obligations.
“Time to set some order,” he grumbled as he strode out of his house.
He held his mandatory pride meeting later that morning. To his pleasure, all had shown for the event as commanded.
He spent most of the time setting up new patrols, rules, and severe consequences for breaking them. He asked that all the patrols leave the three carcasses from his morning patrol where they found them, as a warning and an example if any of the pride had any questions. This included the last challenger, who he’d left at the edge of the border.
Thomas was going to secure their parameters through force and fear since that was the only sure way to gain respect. He neededeveryone,not just his pride, to know what he was capable of and that he meant business. He, his pride, and his business were not to be fucked with. That was the only way to protect them all in this day and age.
Once everything had been laid out and all questions answered, Thomas dismissed the pride to go about their new roles and duties.
He looked at his watch. It was almost noon.
The meeting had gone well, he thought. They had listened. They were scared, but they were ready for this. He would give them back the pride and sense of community lost over the years. How could families flourish if they were afraid to leave their homes?
No matter how unruly a pride, they always needed a leader and sought approval. Things were finally moving, and that’s all he could ask for right now.
Thomas rubbed his tired eyes. He made his way to his in-home office, where the next task was set to take place. It was possibly one of the more vital ones.
He desperately needed an assistant if he was going to manage a pride and successful business that needed bookkeeping.
After three hours of interviewing grossly under-par candidates, he was about to give up.
None seemed to understand that their duties required actual brain power, not just snapping bubble gum and filing nails. Too many movie addicts, he had to assume.
Thomas poured himself a shot from the whiskey he kept in his desk drawer before his next interview.
“They can’t all be half brain-dead. I may as well make Marcus my secretary at this rate,” he mumbled to himself. He snorted at the thought of telling the burly shifter from the bar that he’d be taking on a desk job. Then he tipped the shot glass to his mouth, throwing back the burning amber liquid.
He heard a knock and sighed. The last interviewee had arrived. The perfect resume had come in last minute and looked promising. Plus, he thought he might know who this person was from his past. The name rang in his consciousness, and he pictured the freckled-faced, scrawny girl who hid behind her father the few times his mother spoke with the man.
There was something about the girl that had always resounded in his mind. The couple of times he saw her back then, she seemed an oddity with her thin arms and legs, while most shifter children were thick and burly. He’d never forgotten about her and her father. He hoped that this person was that blast from his past.
“Come in,” he called out.
He smelled her before she even entered.
Thomas stiffened. All of his senses suddenly heightened at the entry of the woman. He knew without seeing her that this was his mate. There was no denying it. He could feel it in every part of his body.
Every lion had a fated mate, someone destiny had designed perfectly for them. Not all lions were lucky enough to find their other half, but the reality was undeniable if you did. Simply being in their presence, you couldn’t avoid the awareness that this person was yours. It was a feeling like warm butter melting somewhere inside of him that he couldn’t explain. He simply intuitivelyknew.
Hope sprang inside of him, knowing that she would get the position because there was no way she could be as dull as the others he had just spoken with. That, and he had found his true mate by chance. He’d wait to reveal the truth to this woman until he knew how familiar she was with shifters and fated mates so as to not scare her off.
“Hi, Thomas.”
His heart stopped. He knew that voice, though he hadn’t heard it in quite a long time.
He slowly turned and locked eyes with the tall, freckled, brown-eyed beauty. His breath caught for a moment.
“Lorena? Wow. Long time no see.”
Chapter4
Lorena
Her stomach roiled like a ball of snakes as she approached the office. The only thing forcing her to step one foot in front of the other was the picture in her mind of her father’s once strong body lying wasted, frail, and close to death in the hospital.
Sonny, a notorious mob boss, and Thomas Leone, a ruthless alpha shifter. How had she gotten herself trapped between these two? The decision had seemed so clear at the time. Of course, she would do anything to save her father. But now, as she was heading for her first day of spy work, she wished she could be anywhere else in the world.
