Rome’s Pride: Chapter One - Prologue

Present day… Costa Rica

Zuri Buhari stood motionless, her naked body covered in bloody gouges and scratches. Shifting had healed most of her life-threatening injuries. Still her lungs heaved, struggling to bring in enough oxygen. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her body was one huge ache. At her feet lay a bloody, mangled carcass. A small group of worried and scared women and children surrounded her.

“He’s dead.” Zuri spit on the corpse.

“What will we tell the authorities?” Nyala asked, specks of red drying on her too pale features.

Her question caused a reaction from the others as this new danger registered. They stirred uneasily and glanced at each other before doing what they’d always done, looked to Zuri for guidance.

Though the image was imprinted on her mind for all time, Zuri once more gazed at the tableau before her. A large male lion shifter in human form lay dead at her feet. Only the truly observant would see through the gore of exposed muscle and tissue, looking like so much raw meat, to notice the beginnings of a mane growing from the top of his head with its crushed skull and mauled throat. Or see that his nails were too long and sharp to be human.

A few feet away lay another male lion shifter in his animal form. The younger male was positioned on his back, feet in the air. Necropsy, the animal equivalent of human autopsy, would reveal the official cause of death to be suffocation. Investigating officials would see the deep puncture wounds at his throat, his tawny hide full of teeth and claw marks, and hopefully come to the most obvious conclusion.

Zuri wouldn’t—couldn’t—look at the other bodies. Not yet. She needed to keep it together. There was no time for hysterics or grief. She returned Nyala’s worried gaze, holding it. “I’ll deal with them. Take the children and go. Remember,” Zuri paused to make sure she was the focus of their complete attention, “speak of this to no one.”

They nodded and left. All but one.

Manny came and stood beside her, allowing his body to lean into hers, silently offering his support. Her slender frame trembling as reaction set in, Zuri gratefully placed her arm around his shoulder.

“What will we do now?” he asked.

Zuri stared into brown eyes so like her own. “We will do what we’ve always done—survive.”