The Lion Kings (novel): a BBW Werelion Menage Romance by Renee George Page A

head. No. He’d wanted to put distance between Maddie and them. Revealing his lion hadn’t been a test for Maddie’s acceptance, but designed to frighten her off.
    His heart pounded in his ears. It had worked. God help them. The chance for true happiness had escaped them, and Cage could only blame himself.
    “We will find her.” He stood, rubbing his palms against his thighs. “We’ll bring her back.”
    Adam shook his head. “It has to be her choice, Brother. We can’t force Madeline to stay, any more than we could have forced Clary.” His jaw flexed and clenched as he glared at Cage. “It’s her choice,” Adam said again, though the implication was clear.
    Cage had made the choice for her.
    “We leave in the morning,” said Adam, “and that will be the end of it.”
    Cage had never seen him so defeated. Clary’s loss had devastated both of them, but Adams strength had given Cage the will to go on. But that strength was absent now in Adam’s eyes, and it scared Cage more than anything he’d ever experienced before.
    They would find Maddie. The way she’d melded against his body, reacted to his touch, tasted on his lips—Madeline fit like no other woman, he realized with a pang. Not even Clary. And he and Adam would do whatever it took to convince her that she was their mate—she was the very heart of them both.
    “No,” Cage said. “She hasn’t made a decision. How could she?” He gripped his brother’s shoulder. “We can’t give up. Not now.”

 
 
 
 
 
     
     
    10

    MADELINE Granger fought to catch her breath as she ran toward the copse of trees. Seeing the child change had startled her, but seeing Cage shift from a lion into a man before her eyes, brought reality crashing down around her ears. Her visions, her dreams, they were real. In some deep recess in her mind, she’d always known, but it had been easy enough to deny. She could tell herself that she’d overheard the secrets she dreamed about, or that a person’s body language had given away their most intimate desires.
    But dreaming about lions that turned into men, and then having it be real—well, there was no way to rationalize the revelation. Maddie wasn’t just different. She was a metaphysical Peeping Tom! The horror of her ability clawed at her guts. She’d shared the most intimate and horrific moments of people’s lives—their triumphs, their joys, their pains, and their losses. And never once, had she considered what an invasion or intrusion it had been. Why would she? But now, she couldn’t shake the feeling of overwhelming guilt.
    She’d done the same to Adam and Cage. The fact that they could turn into lions, that they were magnificent creatures, wasn’t the part that freaked Maddie out the most. Yes, it was crazy and unreal. But their truth, their existence, was also beautiful and magical and more extraordinary than she could have imagined in this ordinary world.
    She was so ashamed.
    She had invaded their most private grief, and had used it to get close to them, whether she’d meant to or not. How could she face them now? How could they trust her?
    Even if Adam and Cage could forgive her, would they ever be able to see past Clary to her? Or would she be a cheap imitation of their real love? They desired Maddie as much as she desired them. She could feel it whenever they were near, but she questioned now whether their desire was merely an extension of how they’d felt about Clary.
    As she wandered out past the trees and across the highway, she felt the strong pull again, the insistent tug that had brought her to the carnival in the first place. The pain of loss and longing to return nearly crippled her. She kept walking, clutching her stomach to stave off the pitting ache, until she found herself at the El Rancho once again. Her Woody was still parked in front of room 103. The relief was small, but real, that the motel hadn’t had her station wagon towed.
    The driver side door was unlocked, and her fuzzy