A Lion for Christmas

   In book two ½ of the Stratum Series: Crispin can
hear and feel what his mate is going through.
 
Will he find him in time to celebrate the holidays with him or will he
lose his chance at happiness.

Warning: M/M

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.

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]

W
ebsite:
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 h
e
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 s
ounded 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 could
n’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
. T
he first snow had fallen just yesterday. It made it more difficult for him to find the scent. But he had, and Crispin did
n’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 t
he 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
. T
hey 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 could
n’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 building
s
have to be approved by the building department, which is connected to the security depar
tment. 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 point
ed
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 point
ed
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 on the plans
.

All in all, they found five doors, that should
n’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 would
n’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.