Serengeti Sunrise

Chapter Four

Ava knew.

Zoe sat at the large round table that took up half of Landon and Ava’s bungalow, convinced her sister-in-law had been shooting her funny looks ever since Tyler walked into the room. It probably didn’t help that Tyler refused to sit down and kept circling back to her like he needed to mark his territory.

Ava had to know. She was too perceptive by half, though she was too diplomatic to say anything. Petite, gentle, malleable, Ava was all the things Zoe wasn’t. And tonight, for the first time, her sister-in-law’s quiet gaze was making her a little bit crazy. Zoe fidgeted guiltily, even though she didn’t have a damn thing to feel guilty for. Tyler’s paranoia must be contagious.

She’d avoided getting too close to Landon and Ava, knowing Tyler’s scent would be all over her, but his behavior was effectively negating her attempts not to rub her sex life in her brother’s face.

Luckily, Landon seemed oblivious to any suspicious undercurrents. He was too busy being pissed at her for trying to go into town without permission.

“Goddammit, Zoe, are you even listening to me?”

Not a bit. But she knew the gist. Obey me, blah blah blah. Think of the pride, blah blah blah.

She met her brother’s eyes calmly. He may be the Big Bad Boss, but he hadn’t been able to intimidate her since she was ten. “Don’t you think I’m a little old to be called into the principal’s office, Landon?”

“You aren’t independent anymore,” he roared. “Your actions affect more people than just you. Especially the stupid ones.”

“The stupid people?” she asked with false sweetness, batting her lashes.

“Zoe.” Her name was growled as a guttural reprimand, but it was Tyler’s voice checking her for her impudence, not Landon’s.

Zoe stiffened. You give a guy head and suddenly he thinks he owns you.

Ava shuttled a gaze back and forth between the two of them, a frown furrowing her brow.

Zoe shoved down the urge to smack Tyler, hoping to avoid further attention from Ava, and focused on her irritation with her dictatorial brother. The same brother who had touted himself as different from all the other dictatorial Alphas. The distraction almost worked. She barely noticed Tyler prowling the room behind her, taking up too much space with his broad shoulders and bounce-a-penny-off-it ass.

“I don’t suppose you’d care to explain why you felt the need to directly disobey my order to stay on ranch lands until things had quieted down.”

Zoe shrugged, leaning back in the chair. “It was a stupid order.”

“This is our home now, Zoe.” Landon’s voice was a rumbling growl, betraying how close his lion was to the surface. “You’ve made it very clear you don’t want to accept this pride as your own, but while you’re here, you’re a part of us. Protecting our family is never stupid.”

“It is when we don’t even know what we’re protecting against.”

“That’s no excuse for going behind my back,” Landon snarled. “You aren’t a nomad anymore, Zoe. Your actions affect all of us.”

“So do yours, dumbass! You’re the Alpha. You can’t afford to be a reactionary dipshit, jumping at shadows and imagining the boogeyman around every corner.”

Startled silence hung in the room.

Zoe had made a point never to publicly defy Landon in the year since he’d been made Alpha. The last thing he needed was his own sister undermining his authority while he was trying to find his feet as the leader. But today the only people there to hear her little rebellion were his wife and Tyler, one of his staunchest supporters. She had no doubt where Tyler’s loyalty would fall in this fight. Not that she wanted his loyalty.

“Watch yourself.” Landon swelled with an air of command, but Zoe didn’t play at subservience.

A year of obedience and biting her tongue in public hadn’t sat well. It wasn’t in her nature to keep quiet. It had only been a matter of time before she bucked his authority and asserted her independence. No time like the present. And it certainly didn’t hurt that she was still riding the hormone high of three mind-bending orgasms. She felt invincible.

Zoe bared her teeth, feeling her fangs sharpen with the tingling pinch of a partial shift.

“We don’t know what’s going on in town,” she growled. “We don’t know whether we need to be getting ready to fight or run. We can’t do damage control if we don’t know what the damage is. And no one is telling you to get your head out of your ass because you’re the fucking Alpha, and we’ve all been raised since birth to either fall in line with every damn thing the Alpha says or fight it out to take control from him, and no one wants to depose you because in all ways other than this you’ve actually been really good at this. Where’s your head, Landon? I know you aren’t this big an idiot, so why are you acting like one?” Zoe was leaning across the table as she challenged Landon. She twisted, turning her rant on Ava. “And why are you letting him? Aren’t you supposed to be the voice of reason around here?”

“I— Caution seemed—” Ava broke off, blushing so guiltily Zoe knew instantly it was Little Miss Diplomacy who had suggested the ostrich approach to begin with. And of course Landon had gone along with it. Idiot men, getting led around by their dicks.

“Leave her out of this,” Landon snarled, rising from his chair to loom over her, hackles high and teeth bared.

Zoe reined in her own reckless snarl, not stupid enough to tweak her brother’s protectiveness toward his mate. “Landon, use your brain, I’m not going to touch Ava. I just want you to wake up.”

“I am awake, but I refuse to jeopardize our home by poking a hornets’ nest.”

“You don’t know it’s a hornets’ nest! You could be making everyone stir crazy and paranoid for nothing.”

“I’d rather take that chance than risk the pride—”

“She’s right.”

Tyler’s voice, low and filled with calm certainty, cut across their shouts. He stood, literally at her back. Even knowing he was there, she was still startled to feel his hand grip her shoulder.

Her hackles rose under his palm.

This was his definition of no strings? This was how he kept things under the radar? By interfering? By butting his nose in and playing the big man like she wasn’t even capable of fighting her own battles?

“Tyler?” Ava’s gaze lingered on the hand that felt like an anvil on her shoulder.

Landon took a step closer, a growl rumbling up in his throat as he faced Tyler over Zoe’s head. “Are you challenging my authority?”

“Landon,” Ava said, rising to her feet, her naturally husky voice calm and soothing, ready to diffuse the situation.

But Zoe was closer and she didn’t do calm. She surged up to stand between Tyler and Landon—as much to shake off Tyler’s lead-weight hand as anything. She knocked her brother back a step with a jab. “Get a grip, Landon. No one’s challenging anyone.” She turned, shoving Tyler back with a hand to his chest. “Are you?”

Warning and something more dangerous gleamed in Zoe’s amber eyes as she stared him down. Though she had no goddamn excuse for being so pissed at him. He had taken her side. Trust Zoe to take offense at that.

Tyler had been on edge since they arrived at the Alpha’s bungalow. He felt like a live wire, stripped of all his usual controlled insulation. He tried to stay away from Zoe, to play things casually, but his lion kept urging him to protect her, to mark her—his animal side refused to understand that she didn’t belong to him. Every time Landon raised his voice to her, it was a battle not to snarl at the Alpha.

But even through the haze of his own conflicting instincts, he knew nothing in the world could make him want Landon’s job.

He took a deep breath and a step back. “No,” he said, continuing back as Landon stalked in the opposite direction, like prize fighters returning to their corners after a draw round. “I have no desire to be Alpha.”

“See?” Zoe flung the word at Landon, doing nothing to lessen the aggression hanging thick in the air. “We’re all friends here, right?” she snarled.

Ava went to her mate and fitted herself to his side, bringing Landon back to reason with a touch. She rested her head on his chest and the tension visibly eased from his shoulders. A part of Tyler envied the mated pair’s bond. His hands itched to smooth over Zoe’s back as she nestled against him, but that was just his lion’s misdirected instincts.

“Everyone’s been on a hair trigger lately,” Ava spoke to Landon softly, “wondering when the shoe’s going to drop. Maybe Zoe has a point. It might be good to do a little reconnaissance.”

“We can’t plan until we know,” Tyler agreed. He leaned against the far wall, arms folded across his chest as a reminder to keep his hands to himself. “Someone needs to go into town—cautiously, and with your knowledge, Landon—to see whether Michael’s incident has raised any alarms.”

“Exactly,” Zoe said, mimicking Ava’s rational calm. “I’ll go into town—”

“No.” The word jumped out of his mouth without his permission. Zoe shot him a look that would have killed a lesser man on the spot. “I’ll go with Caleb and Kane.”

“I’m sorry, Tyler.” Zoe’s tone was sickening in its sweetness. “I didn’t realize you were the one making decisions. I thought that was Landon.”

“I haven’t agreed to let anyone go.” Landon’s mild protest cut across Tyler’s standoff with Zoe.

“But you will,” Zoe said without looking at her brother. “You won’t put your stubbornness ahead of the good of the pride. And the good of the pride means finding out what we’ve been missing in town. And you’re going to let me go, because you know I’m right. And I have more experience looking for threats than they do.” She waved toward Tyler, the gesture somehow encompassing all his brothers.

“We have more experience handling threats,” Tyler insisted.

Zoe’s spine snapped straight. “You did not just tell me I can’t handle threats.”

“Zoe.” Landon’s voice stopped her before she could go for Tyler’s throat. “You’ll both go. As soon as possible.” A growl rippled up Tyler’s throat, instinctive rejection of any plan putting Zoe in harm’s way calling his lion to the surface, but Landon wasn’t done issuing orders. “And you’ll take Caleb and Shana with you.”

“Shana’s insane,” Zoe grouched, but the complaint didn’t have much heat since she’d just gotten her way.

“Shana goes. She can handle herself in a fight, she’s lived outside the pride, and if I try to send Caleb without her, we’ll have to lock her up to keep her from following. Just try not to kill one another until you’re back on pride land.”

“No promises.”

“Zoe.”

“Fine. I’ll play nice.” Zoe snatched up the cowboy hat she’d left on the table and started toward the door. “I guess I’ll go tell the Bitch Queen the plan.”

Tyler knew he should probably go along to referee that encounter, but he had more pressing matters—like keeping Zoe from throwing herself in front of every oncoming train. As Zoe strode to the door, shooting him one last glare he was sure he hadn’t earned, Tyler shoved away from the wall, stalking toward where his sister was still pressed up against the Alpha’s side. “Landon. A word?”

Ava went up on her toes to kiss her mate and then slipped out of his arms. “I’ll just go make sure Zoe and Shana don’t kill one another.”

Landon waited until the door shut behind Ava before he spoke, keeping his voice low even though both women should be well out of earshot. Shifter hearing was notoriously acute. “I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever is going on with you two.”

“This isn’t about that. She doesn’t need to go into town. Caleb and I are more than capable—”

“If Zoe wants to go into town, she’s going.” Landon shook his head ruefully. “I’ve never been able to control her, and I suggest you don’t try to.”

Tyler grimaced, knowing he wouldn’t be able to take that advice. Landon might not be able to control her, but God knew Zoe could use a keeper. And Tyler knew just the man for the job. If Landon wouldn’t check her, he would. For her own good.