Leader of the Pack by Leighann Phoenix Page B

a large lion lay purring at his feet. She would periodically look up, agitated, at the naked lycan that had her master’s attention. As he stroked her head she went back to her patient waiting.
    Rafe growled angrily. “These lycans are becoming more troublesome than I had originally thought they would be.” The lioness sat up with interest and attention. Her large yellow eyes focusing intently on Rafe. “Look at her,” he said in disgust. “So easily manipulated. She actually believes she’ll be leading the Tairneach to glory. She has no concept of how inconsequential she truly is. Now Aislinn and Arnauk, they will pay for putting me in a position to have to soil myself with this bitch. I don’t like interruptions or delays. What’s worse, I had my hands on the stones themselves tonight and now I’m driving away from the power. I could feel it. I used it. It would take so little to learn how to truly manipulate the forces that sleep there. The lycans have no concept of it. How could anything like that,” he indicated the unconscious Jenna, “be capable of using the power there to its full potential?”
    The lioness sniffed at Jenna with distaste. When a buzzer sounded the large cat growled and Rafe pushed a button on the panel. “Yes.”
    “We’ve arrived at the address you requested,” the limo driver said.
    “Finally,” Rafe growled, opened the door and got out of the car. He looked around at the rundown buildings and the bums lying about the steps in garbage. He thought it fitting that she ended up here. Serves her right for leaving me, he thought. The lioness stepped lightly from the limo onto the street. She paced a bit. As she walked she lifted her paws from the ground as though she was stepping in something that was burning her feet. She looked up to Rafe for orders.
    “I’ll not go in that place. Go get her and bring her here. She shouldn’t be any trouble,” he said, knowing that after the evening they had she was probably completely unconscious. She was only a half-blood. She’d never be as strong as he was. None of the ones he’d found would ever be as strong as he was. Besides she had pushed herself much too far last night. If she truly wanted to get away from him she never should have shown him her potential. He had tried to get into her mind on his way here. But she was too far gone for him to even touch her dreams. That would make things exceptionally easy.
    Rafe took one last look around and got back into the limo as the lioness headed up the stairs. One of the bums that sat near the steps got up and walked toward Rafe waggling a cup. This wasn’t the type of area he wanted to be seen in, so Rafe got back in the limo to wait. He slammed the door of the car just as the old bum approached. The man proceeded to start wiping the windows of the limo, hoping for a handout, and Rafe sent the limo driver to deal with it.
    * * * *
    When Cullen pulled up in front of Aislinn’s place everything looked normal. He elbowed Keith awake. “Hey, watch the door,” he said as he jumped out of the driver’s seat and headed up the stairs to the main doors of the apartment building.
    Keith sat up. Looking around, it took him a minute to realize where they were. This was the apartment building where that girl Cullen had helped out lived. He watched the door the way Cullen asked. He couldn’t help notice the bum lying face down in the garbage next to the steps. Keith got out of the SUV and looked up and down the street nervously. It just didn’t feel right.
    He walked over to the poor old man lying in the garbage and turned him over. “Hey buddy, you okay?”
    The old man groaned. Keith winced when he saw the bloody gash on the man’s chest. Something had cut him straight through his big, dirty overcoat. The old guy had a huge bump on his head as well. “Who did this to you, buddy?” Keith picked the old man up and put him in a sitting position on the ground near the steps. The old man couldn’t