Broken Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,1

eyed the state of him too. He was shirtless, his golden skin covered in filth, Ryder’s bloody handprint still marking his flesh. His beautiful hair was dirty and bedraggled and he definitely had the stench of that death pit at the bottom of the well on him too.

I kicked my sneakers off before we headed on down the corridor, trying to make some effort to protect their pristine tiled floors from the filth, though Leon didn’t seem to care about tracking it through the house.

Leon knocked the doors to the dining room open with a bang and tugged me inside as his family all looked up from their desserts.

Reginald had taken his place at the head of the table and his three wives, Safira, Marie and Latisha sat around him. Leon’s brother, Roary, was leaning back in his chair and his eyebrows rose as he took in the state of us.

“Well don’t you two look like a pair of pigs that have been rolling in the shit?” he teased, pushing a hand through his dark mane.

All eyes fell on us and I laughed nervously as Leon’s grip tightened on my fingers.

Chairs scraped across the floor as Leon’s moms all leapt from their seats and ran to greet him, cooing and fussing at the sight of their not so little cub.

“Oh look at you! You look like you did that time you got into the chocolate when you were three,” Latisha purred as she pulled Leon into a hug, mud and all.

“I’ve never seen a boy get himself so filthy,” Marie added fondly like he’d just won a filthy mess competition.

“Oh your beautiful mane is all mucky,” Safira commented as she pawed at it like she might stand a chance of cleaning it by hand right here in the dining room.

“Have you been on a job?” Marie asked.

“What was the take?” Roary cut in from his spot across the room.

“It wasn’t that kind of job,” Leon began but Safira shrieked suddenly, pushing the other Lionesses aside as she grabbed Leon’s face between her hands and tilted his head down towards hers as she stared into his eyes.

“Look at his eyes!” she cried, releasing Leon and swirling around to face me as she snatched my face into her grasp too.

“Oh praise the stars!” Marie shrieked as she looked into Leon’s eyes too, taking in the silver which now ringed them.

“May the moon have mercy on us all!” Latisha breathed, clutching her heart.

“My beautiful boy! This might just be the happiest day of my life!” Safira exclaimed as she stared into my eyes for a long moment before bursting into tears.

“What is it?” Reginald asked.

The Lionesses scattered at the sound of his chair pushing back so that he could prowl forward. I bit my lip nervously as the huge man closed in on us, his gleaming mane of golden hair hanging perfectly around his shoulders and his pristine suit about as far from our ruined clothing as you could get. I felt like a half dead mouse dragged in by the cat instead of some prize to be presented, but the way Leon kept looking at me said he didn’t see me that way at all, even if I did look like absolute shit.

Leon tugged me closer, straightening his spine proudly. “We had our Divine Moment tonight,” he announced.

Reginald’s lips parted, his eyes swivelling between my eyes and Leon’s as he hunted for the truth and I offered him a tentative smile.

“Oh my boy!” he exclaimed, a smile breaking across his face like the sun breaking through the clouds. A deep purr resonated from him and he threw his arms around the two of us, locking us in an embrace tight enough to crush bones, not to mention ruin his fancy pants suit with all of our grime.

I laughed as Leon started purring too and suddenly the whole room was filled with the sounds of the Lions exclaiming in excitement.

Another set of arms closed around us and I found myself in the middle of a Lion sandwich as Roary joined the Lion pile, his purr rattling through my spine as he nuzzled against my hair, not seeming to give one shit that it was full of muck and grime.

“Welcome to the pride, little Vampire,” he said warmly as Reginald nuzzled me too.

I should have been uncomfortable as hell being crushed between people who were practically strangers and goddamn nuzzled, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like becoming a part of something