China (Tails Book Six) Read online

  China

  Tails Book Six

  By R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2021 R. E. Butler

  China (Tails Book Six)

  By: R. E. Butler

  License Notes

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book 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’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Cover by CT Cover Designs

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

  * * *

  Edited by Holly Atkinson

  * * *

  Thanks to Joyce, Shelley, and Ann for beta-reading.

  * * *

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  If you loved Tails, Check out Were-Zoo

  Contact the Author

  Also by R. E.

  Zane (Were Zoo Book One)

  China (Tails Book Six)

  By R. E. Butler

  Lioness China Taylor loves to cook and paint, but not necessarily in that order. What she’d really love is to find her heart-match, the one male on the planet meant for her. If he would freaking show up already. When she overhears that the pride match-maker matched her with an alpha lion from another pride, she’s both wary and curious. The male in question has threatened to bring war to her pride if her bestie doesn’t mate him. So what on earth does it all mean?

  Ozzen “Oz” Krane isn’t interested in pride politics or the war his alpha is planning. What he’s interested in is his fledgling furniture company. When a beautiful lioness from the Kentucky pride shows up to confront his alpha, he knows she’s his heart-match and his perspective shifts and he finds himself willing to kill to keep her safe.

  When his pride is thrown into chaos because of his choice, Oz has to work quickly to keep China—and himself—safe. He’s never had to fight for his life, or anyone else’s, but he’ll do anything to keep China by his side forever.

  Chapter One

  China Taylor sat back and inspected her work. She’d glazed some plain white plates to give to her bestie Demi as a mating gift. Demi’s favorite colors were gold and teal, and the glittery gold and metallic teal paints made the plates look spectacular.

  “Should’ve gotten some cups too,” she said to herself.

  She knew Demi would love the plates. The two were forever giving each other handmade gifts. For her birthday last year, Demi had learned to crochet and made a set of purple potholders, which China used all the time.

  Demi had recently mated two male grizzly bears who’d come to Kedrick to audition for the house band at Tails. China was a waitress at Tails, which was owned by the alpha and his right-hand male. She didn’t mind waitressing, but she wished she could make a living with painting. Or cooking.

  Her phone buzzed. She set the final plate on the drying rack and picked it up.

  “Hey Zeke,” she answered.

  “What’s doing girl?” her cousin asked.

  “Getting crafty. What’s up with you?”

  “I was going to order lunch at the diner and take it to Mom and Dad’s, and I thought I’d invite you along. Interested?”

  She loved her cousin and his parents. Her whole family was really close. “I’d love that. Thanks.”

  “Awesome. Could you pick up the to-go bag?”

  She snorted. “Are you serious? Did you only invite me so I’d pick up the food?”

  “How rude! I love you dearly and would never use you to run errands for me.”

  “That’s a lie right from the devil, man.”

  “Fine. It occurred to me that it would be on the way for you and out of the way for me. Sue me for being clever.”

  “That’s a dick move, you know.”

  “Ouch. I’ll order you a piece of cake as a peace offering.”

  “Now that I like. Make it chocolate. And also I want the chicken salad croissant.”

  “No problem. See you in a bit.”

  “Bye.”

  She cleaned up the mess, washed the paint off her fingers, and changed from her ratty paint clothes to jeans and a short-sleeved top.

  She headed into downtown Kedrick to the diner. Kedrick was a mostly lion-shifter town and her family had been in the pride for generations. Her parents were mate-matched, which meant they’d gone to see a match-maker to get set up. They wanted her to get mate-matched, but she was one hundred percent not interested. She believed in waiting for her heart-match, the one guy on the planet who was meant to be hers. Her lion would recognize him on sight.

  It didn’t matter whether her heart-match was a lion, another type of shifter, or a human. She only cared that he was a good person. And it wouldn’t hurt if he was sexy too.

  Her parents didn’t give her a hard time about being unmated too often, but sometimes she felt like they didn’t approve. She knew she’d find her Mr. Right at some point, and fate could not be rushed. The bitch took her sweet time.

  She parked in front of the diner and headed inside. There was someone checking out at the register, so she looked around and saw Demi, Demi’s father, and her two mates sitting at a table, their heads together as they talked quietly. She walked over to say hello and froze when her name came up.

  “So you’re on their side?” Demi asked, throwing up her hands. “You want me to tell China to potentially put herself in danger to save me from either sacrificing myself or potentially sacrificing my mates? That’s the height of selfishness.”

  “I’m in danger?” China said, dumbfounded.

  Demi looked at China in surprise, guilt flashing across her face.

  “China,” Demi said.

  “What’s going on?” China put her hand up. “Before you say something, like it’s not my concern or I misheard you, just remember that we’ve known each other our whole lives and we both detest lying.”

  Demi pursed her lips then gestured to the end of the half-circle booth. “Sit down.”

  China sat and listened as Demi told her that Abbie, the pride match-maker, had attempted to match alpha lion Benecio with a female from her match-book. Benecio had a hard-on for Demi and refused to leave her alone, even now that she was mated.

  “Abbie had a vision,” Demi said with a frustrated sigh. “She doesn’t know what it means exactly, except that if you meet with Benecio, someone is going to die. She doesn’t know who or why, but she was really scared, and I’ve never seen her like that.”

  “That’s disturbing,” China said, drumming her fingers on the table.

  Conversation stopped for a moment as the waitress appeared and set food down for everyone. “Want anything?” she asked China.

  “I’m picking up a to-go bag for Zeke, so I just need that since I’m not staying.”

  The waitress nodded and left. China cleared her throat.
“So if I meet with this Benecio asshole, someone might die?”

  “We just don’t know,” Demi said.

  “To be fair,” Demi’s dad said, “Abbie said she saw death related to Benecio and that there was something off about the match. So she’s not sure you’re his match, which is why she asked us to keep quiet about it.”

  “Sorry,” Demi said. “We shouldn’t have been talking about it in public, I’m just so frustrated.”

  “It’s okay, really. I’d rather know than there be this weird thing between us because you needed to keep it from me,” China said.

  “You’re my best friend and I love you dearly.” Demi squeezed China’s hand. “I don’t want you to get hurt in anyway. I’d rather deal with Benecio on my own than involve you.”

  Demi’s mates—Rafe and Rhaider—both growled softly. China thought it was sweet and awesome that her bestie had two fierce mates.

  “I understand. I wish he’d never come to Kedrick,” China said.

  “Don’t worry about anything,” Rhaider said to China. “We’re not going to let Demi get hurt. We’ll defeat him and send him packing, and it will be the end of things.”

  “If Abbie wanted you to know, if she thought you were meant to be with Benecio, I think she would’ve contacted you,” Demi said.

  “That’s a good point,” China said. She slid from the booth and stood. “Thanks for filling me in. I hope that he sees the truth that you’re mated and moves on. It’s pathetic that he’s been acting like a toddler who had a toy taken away.”

  “Fact,” Demi said. She stood and hugged her. “Love you, bestie.”

  “To the moon and back,” China said.

  She said goodbye to the group, then stopped at the counter and picked up the to-go bag. Her heart was in her throat as she left the diner.

  What did it mean that Abbie had had a vision of China related to Benecio? And just what the hell was she supposed to do with the information? She couldn’t just leave Demi and her mates to deal with the crazy alpha lion. If she could help her bestie, then China sure as hell would.

  “I’ll go see Abbie,” she said out loud as she started her car. First, she’d drop off the food at her aunt and uncle’s, and then she’d go to the match-maker’s. She and Abbie had some talking to do.

  * * *

  Abbie was in hell. Not literally, of course, but figuratively. She had no idea what to do with what she’d seen recently. Match-makers used a kind of ancient magic to match couples. She could look at a person and envision their perfect match, sometimes even seeing a little glimpse of the future for them. It wasn’t science, so sometimes the matches didn’t work out.

  Shaking her head back to the matter at hand, she replayed what she’d seen when she tried to match Benecio. She’d taken one look at Benecio and seen right into his murderous soul. He had no intention of waiting for his heart-match, taking a match from her, or leaving Demi alone. He had plans to make her his, period.

  But more than what she’d seen of his intentions, her magic had given her a glimpse of a bloody future involving Benecio—and to her utter surprise—China. Abbie had no clue how China was involved or who was going to die when the two met, but she knew for certain that China and Benecio were headed for disaster.

  Something prickled at the back of her mind. Abbie put the coffee mug on the worn side table next to her couch and walked to the front window. Drawing back the curtain, she looked outside.

  “Speak of the freaking devil,” she muttered.

  There on the bottom step of her porch, in all her cuteness, was China herself.

  Staring right at Abbie.

  Shit.

  Chapter Two

  Ozzen “Oz” Krane looked at his email as he half-heartedly listened to Alpha Benecio explain his plans to disrupt a lioness’s life once more. He was one hundred percent not interested in Alpha Benecio or his backward thoughts on females making their own romantic choices. The male had taken one look at the lioness a few months earlier and decided she was going to be his, whether she liked it or not. And she most definitely did not like it. Or him. Or anything about the situation.

  “What the fuck are we doing here?” his friend Angel said under his breath.

  “Beats the hell out of me,” Oz said. He missed home. They’d been trapped in Kentucky ever since Benecio had decided to make the female his. Home was a small, out of the way farm town in Indiana, where everyone knew each other, and all the front doors were unlocked. Of course that probably had more to do with the fact that it was almost entirely lion and they were in the same pride. The Elk Hills pride was mid-sized, and he’d been part of it his whole life.

  It would be great if the match-maker had been able to match him with someone, but she hadn’t, and so far—at age twenty-seven—he’d never run into his heart-match, so he was painfully single and all damn alone in the world.

  Grumbling internally at his depressing train of thought, he took his gaze off the inbox for his furniture business’s website and looked at Angel.

  “He won’t listen to reason,” Oz said. “He’s off his rocker when it comes to this female.”

  “Right? Who the hell wants to force a female into a mating? She’s got two mates anyway. Grizzlies are crazy protective of their mates, and you get two crazy males on the warpath to keep a female safe and damn anyone who gets in the way.”

  The female in question, Demi, had recently mated two grizzlies. It should’ve been a clear message to Benecio that she was now officially off limits, but nope. His new plan involved fighting her mates for her, which was dumb on a hundred different levels.

  Yes, Benecio was a damn good fighter. Their pride didn’t have a hereditary alpha—the position was won during a free-for-all battle. Alphas held their position until a group of at least six males were willing to fight for the position. Benecio was crazy enough and dangerous enough that at the moment there were only three males in line to take over. Oz was not one of them by a long shot.

  Yes, he could fight. Yes, he could kick ass, if he said so himself. But he didn’t want to be alpha. He wanted to find his mate—heart-match or mate-match—and focus on his fledgling furniture business and having a family. Which made him want to get back to Indiana soon. He had orders to fill and no one to pick up the slack.

  Benecio had left behind only a handful of males to keep their borders safe, and while Oz had volunteered to be among them, Benecio had recruited him along with the rest. His alpha had threatened to bring war to the Kedrick pride if Demi didn’t come to him willingly.

  It was fucked up all around.

  There was a loud clap, and everyone quieted. Benecio lifted his hand and said, “Tomorrow night, I’ll meet the usurpers for my mate head-on. When I win, I’ll mate her immediately and she’ll become your alpha female. Then, and only then, we’ll return home.”

  “At least it’s just one more day,” Angel said under his breath.

  Oz wasn’t as hopeful. If Benecio lost the female to her mates, there was no telling what he’d do. He’d threatened war before, and he had the people with him to hurt the Kedrick pride. Oz wasn’t interested in dying fighting some battle in the middle-of-nowhere Kentucky over a female who didn’t want to be their alpha, but he couldn’t leave. Desertion was a death sentence.

  Benecio dismissed them and Oz headed to the camper he shared with Angel.

  “I think I’m going to find a bar and get a drink. You in?” Angel asked as he changed shirts.

  “Nah. I’m going to run out and see if I can find some lumber for the bookshelf I have an order for.”

  Angel gave him a strange look. “We’re heading home tomorrow night. What are you bothering with buying lumber now?”

  “What if he loses?”

  Angel shrugged and made an I don’t know sound.

  “Right, we don’t know. Sure, he’s batshit crazy and could tear the head off anyone who came against him. But there are two males. There’s no way two grizzlies are going to let their female be taken from them
. And if somehow they lose, I can’t see that female going along quietly. I think she’d kill him the moment she had a chance.”

  “Good point. So you think if he loses we’ll be stuck here?”

  “At the very least yes, but we could also be looking at a battle like he said he’d bring to them before. We’re cannon fodder to him. He’s off his nut.”

  “He’s better than the last alpha.”

  Oz shuddered. The previous alpha, the one no one ever named, had been twice as crazy as Benecio, twice as cruel. He’d been a real asshole. He’d been so hated that there had been regular battles to take over. It hadn’t been until Benecio had gone against him that he was actually defeated. That was a battle where only one male walked away.

  “He is. But I’m damn tired of being here. I talked to Thad and Gio the other day, and they both agreed that it was time to go home, but Benecio won’t listen.” Gio was the second-in-command and closest to Benecio, but he hadn’t had any luck in getting him to leave either.

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky and Benecio won’t make it out of the battle with the bears alive.”

  Oz snorted. “I just want to get back home.”

  “Me too. Catch ya later.”

  A few minutes later, Oz was in his truck and heading to the nearest home improvement store to find oak boards to make a bookshelf. Even if they did manage to be on their way tomorrow night, at least he could have the main work done before they arrived.

  But something told him he wasn’t going to be going home tomorrow.

  Chapter Three

  China got out of her car and walked to the bottom step of Abbie’s porch.