The Pridelands 1: Darren’s Surprise Read online

  “Hunt and trap what?” Lev asked.

  Aaron froze, the little red tufts of hair above his eyes rising almost comically. “Uh, animals. Just animals. I-I… it doesn’t really ma-matter what kind. You wouldn’t be familiar with them anyway.” His voice was pitched high, his movements definitely agitated. Every eye was on him now, they must all be as curious as Durai to find out what would cause the human to react that way. He was trying to hide something, no doubt about it.

  A hiss sounded to their right, they all swung toward it, crouching down. A creature stepped into the light, shocking them all.

  It looked like them, but it walked on all fours. Long and lean, with a thick tail, it was even the same color as the Leo. Baring its teeth, the creature hissed again, sending a strong and obvious threat display.

  Durai crouched down to the creature’s level. He stared the creature down, yawning widely and displaying his own threat.

  “What is it?” Lev whispered.

  “It’s a cougar. One of the big cats.”

  The cougar shook his head, staring them down before turning and loping off.

  What a strange and different world. He’d never imagined finding such an animal. So like them, but so different. No wonder the humans had been shocked when they were first introduced to the Felidae.

  Durai was almost afraid to find out what other surprises were in store for him.

  Chapter Three

  Darren tilted his head back, studying the pattern on the ceiling for about the zillionth time. Yep, definitely the same as the last time he’d looked up. He was bored. Bored, bored, bored.

  Closing his eyes, he brought his hands up to rest against the soft cotton of his T-shirt. It was a little tight, yet another reject from his teens. He was embarrassed that he could still fit into the thing -- even though he’d never be caught dead in it out in public. Darren didn’t think he’d ever be grateful for being alone up here until he’d put the worn tee on.

  He wouldn’t have been as bored if he’d actually kept a sheet or two of paper, but nooo, he had to go and draw on all of them. Now the only available surfaces in the whole cabin were the bath area and the kitchen counters. He’d really rather not draw in the john, and he’d already tried drawing on the counters. Apparently it wasn’t the right surface for his pen. Why, oh why, hadn’t he brought his colored inks?

  Of course, this would all be better if he’d been able to bring his laptop, but he honestly hadn’t expected to stay here for very long when he’d first arrived. If he had known he’d be here for a month, he would have planned ahead.

  It was definitely a good thing he worked in a job that was flexible. His butt would have been fired long ago for missing this much work. It was one of the perks of being an animator -- you were technically always on the job as long as you had some kind of writing tool in your hand.

  Darren blew out a breath, lifting his wrist to check his watch. Well, looked like it was time for a change in locations. He was getting tired of sitting on the couch. He’d call Mike in the morning on the sat phone and ask him to bring up a few more paperbacks and a whole stack of paper.

  The satellite phone was his only link to the outside world at the moment. The last time he’d used it was to call his father and let him know there was no progress. His dad thought he was an idiot for staying up here alone, he wanted Darren to just accept the fact that Aaron was gone. Darren knew his father was merely grieving in his own way, but he couldn’t let himself believe his brother was gone. Aaron would return, eventually. Darren just knew it.

  He jogged to the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. Reaching the top, he wandered over to his dresser, sorting through the small stack of books. Hmmm… which book hadn’t he read about ten times already?

  “Hello?” The voice was accompanied by a hard knock at the door.

  Darren froze, holding the book aloft. Was that…?

  “Is anyone here?”

  He was almost afraid to move. The voice sounded chillingly familiar. Was he finally losing his mind? Had he spent too many days staring at the ceiling?

  “Seriously, there has to be someone here, the cabin is definitely occupied. Would you just let me go inside and check?”

  For a minute, Darren actually thought the person was talking to him, but he was jolted when a second voice joined the first, murmuring quietly.

  Okay, that was weird. Darren tilted his head. If he was insane, would he make up one companion or several?

  “I can smell the human inside, his scent is strong.”

  Okay, now that was mean. Did that guy just imply that he stunk? His imaginary friends could just kiss his ass, because he wasn’t going to have anything to do with them now.

  Darren snorted. “Okay, I’ve definitely gone over the edge. What the hell is wrong with me?”

  “Dare? Mike? Dad? It’s Aaron. Are you in there?”

  “Aaron?” he whispered to himself.

  Someone knocked on the door again. Darren jerked, startled. Slowly walking forward, he reached the edge of the loft. He leaned forward, staring over the banister to study the front door. He held his breath, hardly believing.

  “Okay, whoever is in my cabin, I’m coming in. If you have a shotgun, please don’t shoot.”

  Anxious murmurs sounded outside but they were too low to carry inside to where he was standing.

  The doorknob turned slowly. Swinging open, the door revealed a single man, bushy haired and all mountain manish with a great big red beard. Well, except for the fact that he’d never seen a mountain man wearing a loincloth.

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, was that actually Aaron? Whoa, wearing a loincloth?

  The man in the doorway paused, gasping at his first sight of the room. He stepped forward, ignoring the door that silently swung shut behind him. Lurching to his right, Aaron placed his hand directly against the wall where the ship was drawn out in detail.

  Darren cried out, turning swiftly and stumbling to the stairs. He tripped on the top step, managing to right himself halfway down with a desperate grab of the railing.

  Aaron had turned to face the stairs at the noise, frozen with one hand against the wall.

  “Aaron?”

  Darren shot forward, grabbing Aaron around the waist, holding him tight. Aaron’s arms came up around Darren’s shoulders, pressing them together. They slid to the floor, both of their legs giving out at the same time.

  “Oh God, I knew, I just knew you were okay --”

  “I’m here, it’s okay, I’m fine. I can’t believe --”

  “I mean, you were gone and I didn’t know where you were --”

  “You’re here, why are you here?”

  Their words tripped over each other, rising and lowering until it sounded like they had one voice. Darren couldn’t let go of his baby brother, holding him tight enough to crack ribs. He buried his face in Aaron’s neck, inhaling. His brother was safe, Aaron was here.

  “Where the hell were you?” he thundered, pulling back to glare at Aaron.

  “Don’t you know what a shower is?”

  “Oh, no you don’t. Don’t even try to turn this around on me.”

  “It almost worked.”

  Darren shook his head, beaming big enough that it would probably hurt afterward. “It wasn’t even close to working, naked man. Haven’t you ever heard of clothes?”

  “Speaking of clothes, the 80’s called and that era wants their T-shirt back.”

  “God, I missed you.” They leaned into each other again, hugging tightly.

  “Me too, Darren, me too.”

  They finally released their death grips, pulling back to study the other. Darren reached up one hand to brush against the growth on Aaron’s face.

  “I like it. Didn’t think you’d ever go for one of these, but it suits you.”

  “Yeah, Lev and Morgan wanted me to grow it.” He paused when Darren slapped the center of his chest. “Uh…”

  “Lev and Morgan?” His mouth was probably hanging open like a gup
py, but Aaron had some explaining to do.

  The door behind Aaron swung open again. Shadows filled the entrance, he had to squint to see them.

  Aaron pulled back, standing up. He lifted one hand to fiddle with the arm of his glasses. Darren stood slowly, trying to breathe through the sudden tightness in his chest.

  “I believe that’s our cue to enter.” The man’s voice rumbled, that was the only word for it. It was pitched low, but it instantly captured Darren’s attention.

  A man stepped forward. Okay, now he knew he was losing his mind. That wasn’t a man.

  “Holy crap.” He staggered back a step, staring in shock at the cat man in the doorway. The man was surrounded by Darren’s drawings and for a moment he actually thought one of them had stepped off the wall and entered the room.

  Tall -- well over a foot taller than he and Aaron -- the cat guy was completely covered in fur. From his head, surrounded by a mane of coarse hair, down to each toe on his feet. He had a loincloth around his hips, similar to Aaron’s, but there the similarity ended. He was obviously muscular, with the beautiful “I work outdoors” type of muscles that Darren had always liked. He wasn’t a gym person himself so he never exactly trusted those types. Run on a treadmill? He’d rather poke his eye out.

  “Dare, I want you to meet Lev. It’s a long story, but he rescued me, along with his family. And Morgan. He’s the one standing behind Lev.”

  At his words, another man stepped forward. This one was different, with short, thick fur in a golden brown, and every inch of his body was covered in spots. Large, black crescent shaped spots. He was sleeker than the first man, and his tail was jerking madly. Whoa… he had a tail.

  Darren tilted his head, studying the appendage. The images from last night flickered through his mind again. He hadn’t quite gotten that right. Swiveling his head from side to side, he desperately looked for something to write on. His fingers were itching to hold a pen.

  He grabbed up the blue pen he’d been using earlier, stumbling to the front wall beside the door. There was about a square foot of unmarked wall near the floor. Crouching down, ignoring the looks the three men were giving him, he pursed his lips. Almost without thought, he brought the pen forward, keeping his eyes on the spotted tail beside him.

  He worked in brisk motions, small strokes that started to trace out the tail. Holding his tongue between his teeth, he delicately shaded the tip of the tail. He hadn’t quite gotten the shape of the spots right. They were angled… there, like that. Leaning back, he studied the wall, wrinkling his nose in concentration. That looked better.

  “Mates, meet my absent-minded brother, Darren. As you can see, he’s an artist. And a damn fine one too.”

  Darren grinned up at his brother, finally standing up. “Sorry, but I didn’t have it quite right.”

  “How is this possible? I know you’ve never met these guys before, right?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it. I fell asleep in the afternoon yesterday. I woke up and I had these images in my head. It was like they were beating at the inside of my mind. I needed to get them out. I started drawing and this is what happened.”

  “Dare, dad’s gonna kill you.”

  Darren sighed, exasperated. “I think the fact that you’ve been missing for over two months will kind of trump the fact that I wrote on the walls a bit.”

  “A bit? You covered every inch of the main floor!”

  “Uh… and--”

  “The loft too? Oh, you’re in so much trouble.” Aaron grinned madly.

  “Are you two always like this?” Darren glanced up, it was Morgan who’d spoken. He had stepped forward to stand beside Lev, the two men towering over him and Aaron.

  “Uh, like what?”

  “It’s weird. I knew you two were close, but I don’t think I expected your bond to be similar to the bond I have with the pride. I like it.” Lev smiled at them. At least, Darren thought it was a smile. He was showing a lot of teeth.

  He laughed openly now. “I also like how you’ve blessed us with some very nice equipment.”

  Darren blushed, embarrassed to have their attention go back to his anatomically correct cat men.

  “Yeah, that’s, uh, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand sheepishly.

  A heavy footstep sounded near the door. Darren wrenched his head up, studying the new addition coming into the room.

  He was built similarly to Lev, big and bulky. He kind of looked like a cross between a human and a lion, but it wasn’t terrifying like most people would assume. He looked like he was close to seven feet tall, and man, were his shoulders ever wide. His mane was a mix of both dark brown and golden strands, surrounding his face like a thick head of hair.

  His face had the shortest, silkiest looking fur he’d ever seen. Almost made Darren’s fingers itch to caress the strands to see if they were really that soft. The hair on his face lightened to a soft white around his mouth, giving him the appearance of having a beard. His nose was flattened, definitely more lion-like than the normal human nose. Above it, his eyes -- one amber and one white -- were set amidst the silky fur. The man had his gaze locked on Darren, an inscrutable look on his face.

  Darren gasped.

  Never mind what he’d said earlier, this man looked like he’d stepped right off the wall. It was his lion man, the one he’d spent hours drawing and redrawing. The one that was front and center on the wall the man was now standing in front of.

  Darren stumbled forward, compelled by something outside of him to get closer to the stranger. The man’s gaze was steady on him, but Darren’s eyes moved constantly, cataloguing each feature, comparing them in his mind to the images he’d seen.

  He had gotten the lion guy perfect, right down to the slashing scar that started at his right temple and ended along his cheek, bisecting his right eye. The eye itself was milky white. The scar set him apart as easily recognizable, but Darren liked it. It gave him history, almost like he had a weight to him now that the others didn’t.

  Here was a man who knew death intimately.

  He didn’t know where that thought came from, but Darren couldn’t discount it. The man was still staring at him, mindless of the others glancing back and forth between them.

  Darren didn’t move, unwilling to be the first to break their eye contact.

  “Dare, I want you to meet Durai. He’s one of the pride leaders, uh, I’ll explain that later. But he is the one who helped us get here. Durai, this is my brother Darren.”

  Durai seemed to shake himself out of whatever he’d been thinking about. He nodded his head at Darren, remaining silent. Darren took his cue from the larger man, inclining his head in turn.

  Aaron spoke again. “Right, so… explanation time?”

  Chapter Four

  Durai could barely breathe. He was in a state of shock. The man standing in front of him was simply exquisite. Everything he would have wanted in a mate. It all suddenly made sense. All the dreams about Aaron, the yearning for a deeper connection. Only it hadn’t been about Aaron.

  It had been about the man who looked enough like him that they could have been twins. Darren. The man destined to belong to him. It was enough to give him an uncharacteristic nervousness.

  What was wrong with him? He was acting like an untrained cub, staring at the man and then not talking to him. Right, he needed to fix this. “Your abode is pleasing.”

  Darren’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to reply, seemed to think better of it, and closed it again.

  Wonderful, now his mate thought he was an idiot.

  “Yeah, it’s okay. Would be better with plumbing and cable, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

  Durai frowned, unsure what he meant by the words. “Hmm.”

  Darren must have taken his reply as an interested murmur, because he started talking again. “I don’t actually live here. I mean, I do now, but I don’t normally. Uh, I just came up here for, well, to look for Aaron.”

  Durai nodded, stepping f
urther into the room and closer to his mate. He realized he hadn’t closed the door behind him and turned to do so.

  He froze, caught by the images facing him. Walking closer to the wall, he drew his hand down his likeness, almost expecting to see his mirror image copy his movement.

  His mate’s scent intensified. He’d moved closer.

  “This is incredible,” Durai whispered. He was afraid to speak any louder in case his words affected the quality of the work. This was beautiful. It had to take an incredibly gifted artist to be able to recreate something that he’d never seen before and make it so lifelike.

  “Thanks, but they’re still a rough draft. In order to get things exactly the way I’d want them to be, I’d need my computer and a few more hours to work on hair texture and shapes and such.”

  “You should not belittle your effort. I have never seen anything like this before. There are none among my people who have this skill.”

  “Your people?”

  Durai was aware of Aaron sidling over to the seating area. He lowered himself, gesturing to his two mates to sit beside him. They were silent, watching the exchange between Darren and him. If Darren was aware of them, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  “I belong to a race of people called the Felidae. Among us there are many different clans. I am Leo, as is Lev. We are the rulers of the Felidae, the guardians of the rules that govern our actions. We ensure that the peace is kept between ourselves and between the others.”

  Darren turned to study his brother and the two men on either side of him. “So, Morgan is…?”

  “He is Pardus. The strongest among them are the protectors. They often serve as watchmen over the pride leaders. They are loyal and strong of heart.”

  “You said clans? That means there’s more than just the two of you?”

  “There’s more.” It was Aaron who spoke. “There’s the Lynx, and they look pretty much like you’d expect them to. It was uncanny the first time I met one of them.