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that in the jeep. Was it possible she really hadn’t realized she was in heat? How could she not have known what her scent was doing to him?
    Landon growled low in his throat as he stalked the room, the blind need she had ignited in him still burning in his gut. He should have dropped in on another lioness or two before coming back to his own place. Shana had made it clear on numerous occasions that she was always available to him, more than willing to crawl into his bed whenever he would allow her there. She was an ambitious minx, but he knew exactly what he was getting with her. She would never make him feel unhinged and out of balance the way Ava did.
    Shana was strong and fast, aggressive and manipulative. She would make an excellent consort, but Landon hadn’t been able to bring himself to declare her so. Some instinct had always held him back. But at the moment, those same instincts were screaming for him to track Ava and brand her as his own, body and soul. So perhaps his instincts with the females of this pride were not to be trusted.
    Landon turned and paced. Paced and turned. The bungalow in the ranch compound designated for the Alpha’s use was second in size only to the Great Hall where the pride gathered for ceremonies, but it felt microscopic tonight. The high ceilings with rough, exposed wood beams seemed to press down on him. And even the natural wood floors, nicked and scarred by the claws of his predecessors, taunted him with everything he could not allow himself to do.
    He couldn’t shift. Not tonight. When he took his other form, the animal in him had too much control. He would not be able to stop himself from hunting Ava down and proving his ownership of her in the most primitive way. He couldn’t risk running on all fours through the acres of private land belonging to the ranch. Even that freedom was denied to him tonight.
    The creak of the step outside his door sounded unnaturally loud to his heightened senses. Landon spun to face the door, falling into a crouch, his lips pulling back in a snarl. He knew better than to expect Ava to come to him, but second to her presence, the one he wanted the most was that of a threat. Someone he could decimate. His heated blood would eagerly boil over into violence.
    The step creaked again. The intruder didn’t knock. Landon’s eyes locked on the door, watching the knob as it turned, inch by inch, waiting, ready to spring.
    “Landon?”
    Her voice, husky and scratched, was a blow to his composure, cracking the façade of his inhuman control. She already sounded as hoarse as if she’d been screaming his name all night.
    Ava pushed the door open a few inches and peered inside. When she saw him there, crouched for attack, she froze with her hand on the knob.
    Ava eyed him hungrily. He was barefoot and bare-chested, wearing only the snug blue jeans he’d had on earlier, the partially buttoned fly straining over his erection. She dimly recalled ripping his shirt off earlier and silently thanked herself for her foresight. The muscles across his chest and shoulders stood out prominently in his tense stance, his tan skin gleaming in the golden light of the lamp.
    His appearance stole her breath, primitive and wild. She knew the feral gleam in his eyes should have frightened her, but instead she licked her lips, her own excitement ratcheting up to a frenzied pitch in instantaneous response.
    Ava forced air into lungs that felt suddenly tight and refused to expand all the way. She tossed her head, defiant of the threat implied in his stance, his eyes. Her hair flicked around her shoulders and his nostrils flared as if reacting to the scent of her shampoo.
    Feeling daring and far too excited to be touched by fear, Ava shoved open the door all the way and stepped into the predator’s lair. The door fell shut behind her with an audible click through the humid silence.
    “What are you doing here?”
    His voice was more beast than man, but the shiver that shot down