A Lion for Christmas Read online

  A Lion for Christmas

  Stratum Series

  Book Two 1/2

  Author: Zach Collins

  Editor: M. L. Hill

  Artwork by JK Publishing, Inc.

  Published by JK Publishing, Inc.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchase for your use only, then, please return to Smashwords.com, and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  © Copyright December 2012 JK Publishing, Inc. as part of a grouping “A Very Male Shifter Christmas”

  Reissued March 2013 as a single

  All cover art and logo © Copyright 2013 by JK Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

  JK Publishing website: www.jkpublishingbooks.com

  JK Publishing bookstore: www.shop.jkpublishingbooks.com

  Dedication

  Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all my fans and friends. I hope the New Year finds you happy and healthy. Thank you for making my dream come true by purchasing my book.

  Thank you,

  Zach

  Contact me at:

  Email: [email protected]

  Website: www.zachcollinsauthor.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ZachCollins/432030663545348?fref=ts

  Table of Contents

  ~Prologue

  ~Chapter One

  ~Chapter Two

  ~Chapter Three

  ~Chapter Four

  ~Chapter Five

  ~Chapter Six

  ~Chapter Seven

  ~Epilogue

  ~Books Available by Zach Collins

  ~Excerpt from Enough Time

  Prologue

  Crispin ran through the streets of Trivet City getting more and more frustrated as he went from street to street searching for his mate. He was here, he could feel it, the mating pull was stronger at times, and then it would weaken. It made no sense.

  Damn it, since the stupid meeting in the King of the Wizard Stratum’s office he had been acting crazy. Crispin was well aware of the fact that to outsiders he was looking feral.

  Once a Shifter found his mate, they only focused on sealing the bond. Crispin was the King of the Shifters, being feral was not an option. Many of his members knew what he was going through, and they were helping search. His mate was the King’s Second in Command, and one of the most important Wizards in this Stratum.

  Crispin was a lion, the King of the Jungle, Chase and he were so different, but it didn’t matter to his lion. He wanted his mate, and that was all that mattered. For weeks, he had been searching using their tenuous connection because they had not actually met, the bond started when Crispin scented Chase in the King of the Wizards office. However, he had been into his mate’s room, in his Lion form and rolled around in his mate’s scent. He was sure it sounded gross to some, but it was what he needed to feel his mate when he was in his lion form.

  Last week, he was sure Chase had felt him. Chase was somewhere close to where he was right now. Their weak bond allowed Crispin to communicate through a mind link, for a moment. Enough for the Wizard to know they were looking for him. Crispin was able to feel the hope come through the bond. It was what he held on to during the cold nights. But for some reason he couldn’t pinpoint where they were holding his mate. The buildings were all either empty or under construction in the area. The ones under construction were currently where he was searching.

  Crispin heard his new friends calling his name. The winter season was upon them. The first snow had fallen just yesterday. It made it more difficult for him to find the scent. But he had, and Crispin didn’t want to leave it. Any connection to grasp on to was something.

  “Damn it Crispin, would you answer me!” Logan yelled. He was the Head of Security for the Stratum, his brother, Blake, was the King, and so Logan held the same Royal Blood. Not that it mattered, Crispin was not like that, he didn’t care if someone were Royal, or a regular person. Everyone mattered to him. However, right now, it was all about his mate, Chase. He had to find him, or he would go crazy trying.

  “Here!” Crispin called when he paused to shift into his human form and yelled to his friend.

  Crispin heard him walking up the rickety stairs the construction people set up. He heard the loud thump of Logan’s boots as he came up the stairs, the sound vibrated through the building, but Crispin was looking for a scent, not a sound. Slowly, he paced back and forth across the building. They were on the first floor. Crispin thought he had gone the right way, but he seriously lost the scent, and he just had it, it was driving him mad. The only good part was that when Crispin shifted, his clothes were clean, it was the mystery of Shifters as to how this happened, but he didn’t argue because if not he would be dirty from head to toe.

  “Dude!” Logan’s mate Trent said as he reached the top of the stairs.

  Shit, Crispin had been concentrating so hard, he only heard one of them coming up the stairs. Logan stepped around his mate and frowned. They were in a situation they couldn’t be distracted from. If Dion or any of his minions had found him, he could’ve been in deep shit.

  “Uh, Crispin, man, you gotta get some rest. It took us like an hour to find you,” Logan muttered. “You have been moving from building to building, Chase is not here. We would have found him by now. These buildings have to be approved by the building department, which is connected to the security department. We always make sure they have security and safety men on site in case of a problem, nothing would have been able to get past.”

  Crispin paused and looked up. “That may be, but I can feel the mating bond in this area the strongest.”

  Trent looked around the building. “How is that possible?”

  “Because he is underground,” Blake, the King of the Wizard Stratum, said as he arrived with his mate, Ian.

  Crispin growled, “How do you know that?” What the hell was wrong with his normal ability to sense any magical person close to him? For a second time they would have been exposed.

  “I thought of it. I kept wondering how these Rebels could roam around the city without us finding them. They would just appear and by the time we arrived, they would be gone. It was weird, and so I looked at the plans for the places where we knew there were sightings. And I found this,” Ian said and held out a folder of papers to Crispin.

  There was a worktable in the partially built office building. Crispin took the papers over and began to spread them out over the table. Trent and Logan followed and looked, while Blake and Ian waited. The King’s Consort looked smugly at them. For weeks, he had been searching, and with a file of papers, they knew where they had missed looking.

  “Here,” Logan said and pointed to a drawing on the paper. “There is an entrance that was not on the original plans. A door shouldn’t be there. The cameras catch the men leaving, look at the door, it is a portal.”

  Crispin nodded and then pointed to the next one, “Here, there is another one, the same looking door.”

  “And here, a block from here is where they had an attack,” Trent said as he placed his finger on yet another spot o
n the plans.

  All in all, they found five doors, that shouldn’t have been on the building and no one knew where the hell they led. Of course, the building has a basement; however, these doors seemed to come out of nowhere, as if from the middle of the wall.

  "This building is not complete, but is there a door on the base level?” Crispin asked and looked at Blake who was grinning.

  “Yep, we need to gather the troops. I checked and the door has sophisticated magic surrounding it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the door was a transport system for the Rebels, we will not know where the hell we end up,” Blake said.

  “Fine, you have an hour to get people here or I am going in. Chase is my mate, and I am going to find him,” Crispin said crisply and slammed a hand on the table.

  Chapter One

  Chase looked up and grinned at his captors, they thought he was going to break. They had no clue who they were dealing with. Granted he was gonna need some therapy when this was done, but so would they.

  “So back to your mothers,” Chase said through his bloodied lips and grinned when the Shifter in the corner growled at him. He had been making jokes like this for weeks. It usually pissed one of them off enough that they left and someone new came in. Then, it started all over again.

  “Listen here you fucking asshole. You are going to tell me what I want to know. The boss said we could do what it takes to get you to talk. He is bored with you,” the other Shifter yelled at him.

  “Good, I am bored too,” Chase said and spit on the ground. “I can tell you that… one plus one, equals two… I can tell you that your breath smells like onions… I can tell you that when I am sleeping I sometimes get the worst boner.”

  The man threw up his hands, turned to the table, and pulled out the electrical devices they had been using to torture him. “Fuck this, I am gonna get him to talk.”

  The man grinned, walked forward, and Chase sank into his dream again. The man was there he could feel it, and for some reason Chase could talk to him, it made him feel better when the man appeared. Chase only had to look inward to see if he would appear.

  ‘Hey,’ Chase said slowly. ‘Can you hear me?’

  Crispin paused and looked around the room. No one had heard that, he was sure of it. His mate was trying to talk to him. Crispin held up a hand and reached out with his mind, ‘I am here!’

  The other men remained where they were, until the men Logan summoned began filing into the room slowly and quietly.

  ‘Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to go back and pay attention to the four stooges. They are pulling out the big guns,’ Chase laughed.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Crispin demanded.

  ‘You know, I think you should lighten up a little, I mean you are not the one who they are torturing.’ Chase grimaced and Crispin felt a jolt as it went through his mate.

  ‘Shit,’ Crispin swore.

  ‘Right, that’s what I thought. Anyway, do you think that maybe you could like rescue me? I am kinda thinking this is the last time they are going to be doing this.’ Chase laughed again, ‘I have kinda pissed them off.’

  ‘Maybe you should keep your mouth shut, mate, until I get there,’ Crispin ground out.

  ‘Mate? Huh? Wait who is this, you are real?’ Chase asked.

  ‘Duh, yeah, I am right above you with Blake and the others, we will be there soon, stop pissing them off,’ Crispin yelled.

  ‘Well shit, I don’t know if you are real or a figment of my imagination, but I will go ahead and try,” Chase sighed and Crispin lost the connection.

  “They are torturing him right now!” Crispin yelled at the room.

  Blake paused and then said, “We need to move, let’s get things organized.”

  Crispin would always be grateful the Wizard King did not question him in that moment.

  They were sure the door below was what they were looking for. They each scoped it out a few minutes ago. There was definitely magic around the door. The building across the street was empty also, so Logan had his lead Guards making a makeshift base over there. Someone had to remain behind, in case there was a need for help. The door was going to lead them somewhere; they had to be able to get help if needed.

  The five of them stood and argued for the last few minutes about the logistics of what they were planning on doing. Entering the Rebel’s lair was both risky and a little foolhardy. Crispin was going no matter what; he was really just waiting to see who was accompanying him.

  Blake planned to use his more powerful magic, to open the doorway, which would allow them to enter. There were going to be teams of six moving in. Blake argued with Crispin about the Royal Kings being in on the mission itself, Logan and Ian argued that Blake could blast the door, but then he was to retreat to headquarters. Many of the Guards had communicators that would allow them to listen in on the mission. Crispin refused, and told him no matter what he was going. Blake just threw up his hands.

  “Logan, let the Palace know that we are going in with the Guards,” Blake said and stared at his brother who laughed.

  Logan knew his brother would never let another King go into a situation like this by himself. They had too much to lose if they captured or killed a King.

  “We are gonna be in deep shit with Ma,” Logan said and then looked at Ian who looked pissed off as well.

  “Well, that’s a given, I suggest we all just put our communicators on the table and walk away. Or she is going to be here with us, in like a New York minute.” Ian said, rolled his eyes, and pulled his device out of his pocket, “I am assuming that for some reason, since I am the only human, I’m supposed to stay behind?”

  The communicator was similar to a cell phone but a lot cooler. They could see tiny little people in the center when they answered. If held correctly, they could also see into the room where the person was standing. Ian loved playing with it, he said it was like Skype magnified. The good part was it had a tracker on it, so Bria, Blake and Logan’s mother, would send Ryker, their father to come and get them. It was the way she was, and their father would come, because he could kick ass with the best of them. Ryker and Bria were the former King and Queen of the Wizard Stratum.

  “Yeah, as if would stop her. When I make this call, Dad will be here in minutes,” Logan snorted, held out the phone, and called the Security Department.

  Ryker answered, “Of course, you are calling to tell me that you will all be a safe distance from the action, correct?”

  Logan laughed, and looked at his brother. “Figures, um yeah, we are totally going to be across the street.”

  “Good, I will tell your mother, who is standing right here, listening. And your sister, who is standing across the room with her arms crossed and frowning,” Ryker said with an amused tone in his voice.

  “Yep, we are walking across the street. However, you do need to tell the envoy to the Shifters their King will be going in after his mate, of course, after all of the Guards go in,” Logan said.

  “I will inform them. Let us know when it is done!” Ryker said and disconnected before his mother could talk.

  “That went well, we are going to get our ass chewed when we get back aren’t we?” Trent laughed.

  “Uh, yeah!” Blake said and slapped his brother on the back.

  They talked about the logistics of the entry, and by the time they were done, Ryker was walking up the stairs. “Snuck out the back door, we have about an hour before she notices I am not getting the supplies she asked for. Sasha is covering for me, and she says she is offended she wasn’t allowed to come. You are gonna have two pissed off Witches to deal with when you get home.”

  Crispin waited and watched as the Wizards argued for a moment, then he finally just waved his hand and turned to Trent, the only other Shifter in the room. His Shifters were coming in with him, soon there would be wolfs, bears, and more cats.

  “We shifting or not?” Trent asked his King.

  That was the weird part. Ian was a human, who Blake found when Ian was a
ccidently brought here by the Rebels’ leader, Dion. He brought Ian to the Wizard Stratum after being in the Human Stratum trying to drum up Rebel supporters. Dion wanted Blake, he wanted to be the Wizard Stratum King, and was more than ready to kill in order to get it. For a time, Dion pursued Blake. However, he disgusted Blake. Dion was a whiny little weasel, who had the ‘little man syndrome’. Crispin would eat him for lunch if he found the little bastard.

  Now Dion was trying to take the leadership by force, with the intention of moving from one Stratum to the next, overthrowing the Kings, and then he was going to the Human Stratum, to take them over, making them slaves.

  Sick plan, for a sick man, thought Crispin.

  Part of Dion’s plan had been to take Blake’s Second in Command, Chase, and find weaknesses he could use, including their friendship. Chase had been taken weeks ago; no one knew what kind of shape he was going to be in when they finally found him. Crispin was well aware of this and he had planned for it.

  Trent was Ian’s best friend, when they went to the Human Stratum; Logan discovered Trent was his mate. When they returned, Dion attacked the Palace hoping to kill Ian, but Trent got in the way, and ended up being bitten by a Rebel Wolf Shifter. He was changed and the rest as they say was history. Crispin was called and now Trent belonged to the Shifter Stratum, technically, but he lived here.