Click on image to enlarge.

Category: Erotica/BDSM Erotica/Fantasy
Description: Sometimes there are things far worse than a masterful man! Imprisoned by a sadistic tyrant Shandie has all but given up on the idea of escape or rescue. After the epidemic, the only people left alive that she has encountered have been evil. They are the takers. Human beings, without conscience, who take what they need, or what they want, including women. Easygoing Vaughn, and his adopted son Nicky, happen upon the trailer where Shandie is being kept. Wanting a woman for themselves, they don't take their plan of getting her all that seriously until Nicky is critically wounded. With food running out and no medicine, to Vaughn, the situation doesn't seem like it could get much worse- except that Shandie keeps insisting that there is something evil in the woods. Vaughn has seen the signs that she's right, but he refuses to believe it. When they all come face to face with that evil they find themselves in a sick world where women are slaves, and the men are something far, far worse. If you enjoyed BREEDING STOCK - and we know you did - it's a book that has just about everything for fans of hot, well-written BDSM erotica - then you HAVE to pick up this sequel, THE LION MAN By one of the current mistresses of BDSM erotica, MELISSA HARLOW! Cover: Sami Hursey
eBook Publisher: Renaissance E Books/Sizzler,
eBookwise Release Date: November 2011

3 Reader Ratings:

Great	Good	OK	Poor

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [256 KB]
Words: 60171
Reading time: 171-240 min.

The Lion Man [The Breeding Stock Saga, Book 2] Melissa Harlow Erotica/Fantasy CONTROL: PUBLISHER="Renaissance E Books" PUBURL=www.renebooks.com COM:TOCSTART COM:TOCEND

For my readers, who have journeyed many places with me; I hope your trip has been as enjoyable as mine. You have, as always, my most sincere thanks

When the world we knew ended and death came, it came quietly. While we were all busy with our cell phones, computers, and reality TV, death was busy as well. Death did not come loudly, with explosions and bombs, but it did come ... on the softest rustle of a wing.

This is just another story of what happened after.

CHAPTER 1

"Damn, it's cold." Vaughn lowered the binoculars as an icy gust of wind howled down the hillside. His hair whipped against his face and fell into his eyes. Gathering it into a messy ponytail, he tucked it into the back of his worn flannel. It used to be his lucky shirt, but luck was pretty scarce these days.

"What a fucking waste of time this is, Nicky," he said, shivering. You didn't see a goddamn thing. You been wandering around the woods by yourself too long today."

"I seen her, Vaughn. Right down there where you're looking." Nicky snatched the binoculars from Vaughn's hands and held them to his eyes. His mouth was set in a determined grimace, but as excited as he sounded, Vaughn could tell Nicky was worried.

Vaughn's stomach growled. He wasn't worried, but he was cold and hungry. Seemed like he ought to be used to both those feelings by now, but his body didn't much care for either one. He waited while Nicky looked, torn between whether he wanted what the boy had told him he'd seen to be true or not.

A woman.

It wasn't easy to recall the last time he'd seen one, it had been that long. After giving it a little thought, he remembered they'd seen women in one of the bigger towns a few months back. Didn't matter much which town it was, but there'd been two girls, both of them young looking, maybe Nicky's age. Both of them had dead eyes. They were half naked, dressed in tattered lingerie, walking through town surrounded by takers, and every one of those takers had been armed to the teeth.

From what Nicky had said this one was with a guy -- just one guy. One guy could mean easy pickings ... but on second thought, probably not. With women being so scarce men didn't just give them away. Not without at least a fight. And from the shit Vaughn had seen, a lot of those fights ended up with somebody getting dead. He preferred not to be on either end of that deal, especially not the getting dead end.

He had given it some serious thought over the past few years, and he supposed if he really needed to, if he had absolutely no other choice, he could kill somebody, if there was no other any way around it. He'd rather not put himself in the position where he had to make that decision.

"I'm going to walk back down to the truck and have a sit down and a smoke," Vaughn finally said, tired of watching Nicky peering through the binoculars at nothing.

"You want to stay up here looking at fucking rocks and trees, go right ahead. Me? I'd rather roll down to Logansport. Used to be a fair-sized town ... might be some good stuff left there. I really got to get a new pair of boots. When you finally give up looking for mirages, you know where to find me."

"There!" Nicky squealed. He thrust the binoculars at Vaughn. "Look, I told you so! Right fucking there, Vaughn! He's got her outside!"

Vaughn took another look toward the rusty, blue and white travel camper at the base of the hill. He adjusted the knob on the top of the binoculars until the image cleared a bit. The man was wearing a camouflage coat, like the kind Vaughn remembered his dad having. Dad wore it deer hunting, and if the one this guy had on was anything like that one it would be warm. Damn shame that it had come to the point where he was getting all worked up over Thinsulate. Summer was coming, but it wouldn't be here soon enough as far as Vaughn was concerned and he was tired of being cold.

"Now, there's one problem I thought America didn't have any more," Vaughn mused, wondering just what size that coat was.

"What's that, Vaughn?"

"Obesity. We're starving all the time. Damn, that's a big boy down there! What the hell's he been eating?"

Nicky gave a nervous laugh. "Hey Vaughn? Remember that last grocery store we saw and there wasn't nothing left but some canned pork and beans?"

"I remember," Vaughn sighed. He hated pork and beans, and he and Nicky had probably eaten a dozen cans in the week that followed. There was a single can left in the truck, under the seat. Occasionally when Vaughn hit the brakes it would roll out behind his feet and remind him it was still there. He'd look down at it in all its dented, torn label glory, and swear it was laughing at him. In his head, Vaughn had dubbed that can the last supper, because only if he was on the verge of dying from starvation would he ever eat pork and beans again.

"I think that old boy down there was at that store first and cleaned everything else out," Nicky teased. "He's the one that stole all the Dinty Moore stew you were wanting, and he took all the damn Pepsi too."

"That fat bastard," Vaughn laughed. "Bet ya he got all the Spaghettios."

Vaughn's eyes scanned the area around the camper but saw nothing else of interest other than the dirty white Escalade it was hitched to. Vaughn was partial to his old F-150 with its huge, all-terrain tires, but that Caddy might have some gas in it and that would sure come in handy. There were a couple old propane tanks sitting by the back tire, but they were probably empty. All in all it didn't look very promising.

"Your eyes are going boy, nothing down there but that tub of lard," he said to Nicky. Still thinking about having a warm coat and new boots, Vaughn tried zooming in on the guy's feet. If the fat son of a bitch had boots on...

Bingo. Vaughn caught a glimpse of tan suede. "Looks like I could get me a new pair of boots."

"Look over to the left. Closer to the back of the trailer," Nicky insisted.

Vaughn scanned the area, but saw nothing except for a torn bag of trash with some sticks hanging out.

"There's nothing there, Nicky, just a fucking bag of garbage." Vaughn was ready to lower the binoculars when he noticed one of those sticks was moving. His pulse increased as he realized what he was seeing. That wasn't a stick at all, it was an arm. He squinted, barely able to make out the image of what could possibly be a woman, all hunched over, wearing what looked like a trash bag as a dress.

"What the fuck? Is she wearing a garbage bag?" Vaughn laughed.

"Looked like it to me." Nicky didn't sound at all amused about it. "She ain't got no shoes on either, Vaughn."

Just thinking about that made Vaughn shiver. His feet were cold and he was wearing boots. Well, what was left of a pair of boots ... The soles were damn near worn through, but that was nowhere near as bad as being barefoot.

She was moving now. As she stepped out of the shadow of the old camper Vaughn could get a better look at her. Even from way up here she looked dirty, her knees were dark with stains. There was something hanging from her neck. Her body was obscured by the black plastic, but it didn't take nothing but the thought of what was underneath that bag to make his dick stiffen. It didn't really make a goddamn difference what she looked like, as long as she had a cunt she'd do.

"What's she got on her neck?" Vaughn asked, fiddling with the adjustment knob once again.

"Piece of rope or something. I couldn't really tell. He was dragging her with it before."

Well, he wasn't dragging her now, he was just standing there leaning against a stump, watching her do whatever she was doing.

Vaughn watched as she moved toward the fat man. She was picking up sticks and wood and putting them in an old red milk crate.

"Looks like they're fixin' to build a fire. Dumbass, building a fire! Nothing like announcing to the whole countryside that they're there!" Vaughn shook his head at the stupidity. It wasn't that cold, it seemed foolish to chance a fire. Smoke could be visible for miles.

"You think anybody else knows they're here?" Nicky asked, sounding uneasy.

"Probably not. We haven't seen anyone else around for days. Maybe he's just going to build a fire to make us a little lunch," Vaughn snickered, trying to ease Nicky's mood. "Hospitality and all, you know? He's he got all that stew, and Spagettios, and shit down there. What do you think? You figure he got anything else good to eat?"

Nicky laughed, but there was nothing real about the pretense of light-heartedness. Vaughn wondered how much thought Nicky had put into how taking that girl could play out. Did he realize there was a genuine possibility someone could end up dead? Vaughn was pretty sure Nicky must know that, he was a smart kid. He'd seen a lot of shit. Anyone who was still alive and breathing right now had seen a lot of shit -- shit that once you'd seen you could not un-see.

"Hell, yeah, he's got something good to eat. Shit, Vaughn! I ain't had pussy in so long I forget what it tastes like," Nicky said with an overdose of fake bravado in his voice.

"You'd best keep on forgetting too, judging by the looks of that one. Besides, I don't think you want to be eating what old fat boy's been fucking."

Little Nicky, always putting on a deal. The boy hadn't ever had pussy in his life but he wasn't going to admit it. Vaughn always tried to play like he didn't know because he didn't want to embarrass the kid.

"She'll wash," Nicky said enthusiastically. "You ain't nowhere near as excited as I thought you'd be Vaughn. That there is a real live female! When's the last time we even seen one of them?"

"Been a while," Vaughn admitted. "But the last ones we seen wasn't wearing no garbage bag."

"But that one down there got the same thing under that Hefty as ones we seen," Nicky said. Vaughn thought he heard a smile in the kid's voice.

"So what you want to do? We ain't takers." Vaughn asked, lowering the binoculars. "We ain't got that in us. I damn sure don't want to have to kill nobody."

"We just go down there and get her," Nicky said. The boy looked determined as hell, holding that rifle like he meant business. Trouble with that was old fat boy down there probably had himself a gun too. He also had a warm coat and boots ... for the moment.

Vaughn looked down at his feet, studying a rock and thinking. "I guess this is as good a chance as any. It's not like we're going to pull into Logansport and have someone just give us a woman." He closed his eyes, remembering what it felt like to feel one all warm and soft underneath him. "Sure would be nice," Vaughn said softly.

"I get her first, Vaughn," Nicky said eagerly, nudging Vaughn's arm with his elbow.

Vaughn didn't reply.

"You hear me?" Nicky asked insistently. "I want her first."

Christ, he sounded like a kid begging for a cookie.

"Yeah, sure, Nicky. You can have her first."

Nicky's big hand closed around Vaughn's wrist. "You promise, Vaughn?" Vaughn looked at the kid, his kid, not his child by blood, but by choice. The whole fucking world had fallen apart and Vaughn could still see in Nicky's eyes what he'd seen in him that night he'd found him alone in the apartment building stairwell. Life. Beautiful fiery life.

"I promise, Nicky."

The boy ran a hand over his face, which hadn't seen a razor in days. "I hope she likes me, Vaughn."

Vaughn almost laughed. Such a sincerity in Nicky's voice, hoping a goddamn girl wearing a garbage bag liked him.

"I hope so too, Nicky," Vaughn said trying to sound just as sincere. "What about him? What are we going to do with him?"

"I know we ain't takers," Nicky said firmly. "Nobody's got to get hurt. It don't have to go down that way, Vaughn. We can let him drive on out of here with no trouble," Nicky said, making it sound far too simple. "All he got to do is give us that girl and then he'll be free to go." Vaughn knew damn well there was no way it was going to be that easy. If it was that easy there wouldn't be any takers.

"Yeah? You don't think he might like the idea of keeping her around?"

Nicky shrugged. "I been watching most of the morning and there's nobody else down there but him and her. What's he going to do against both of us? We got guns."

"He's got a gun, you know he does. Everybody's got guns nowadays. And what about her? She might not be all that thrilled about going with us."

Nicky scoffed. "Her? She's just a little bit of nothing, hell, I can just pick her up and carry her!"

"Maybe she got a gun too."

Nicky shook his head. "If she had a gun she wouldn't be with him, I guarantee you that. She wouldn't be walking around in a fucking garbage bag with no shoes on! Come on, Vaughn! This is what we been waiting for!"

Damn, the kid oozed excitement, but it was understandable. They'd been talking about this for near a year now. Getting a woman. It had all been talk before, but now, suddenly there was a real chance of it happening.

Vaughn hadn't actually thought it would. The last women they'd seen were forty or so dead towns ago. They were already owned. The guys that had them meant serious business too, armed to the fucking teeth. Nicky was right. Fat boy down there might have a gun, but he didn't appear to have it on him at the moment. Besides, he was just one guy, and that girl looked like a good strong wind would blow her away. There were two of them, and Nicky was strong as a fucking ox. That kid was big too, he didn't need that rifle in his hands to be intimidating. Men Nicky's size didn't even have to look mad at you to make you want to stay out of their way.

Vaughn sighed. It seemed like he ought to have some great plan to get this done, since he was the one who'd put all these ideas in the kid's head. Maybe he'd gone a little overboard waxing nostalgic on the subject of women and sex, although the way he remembered it, it was just as good as he'd assured Nicky it was.

It used to be that the biggest obstacle of getting laid was being turned down. From what he'd seen now, that was just another thing of the past. The hardest part now was finding one. If you could find a woman, you could have her, as long as you were willing to fight off every other guy who didn't have one. Women didn't have any rights anymore. Course no one really did, except for whoever was holding the gun, and even that wasn't really all that important, because it all came down to who was actually willing to pull the trigger.

Vaughn tried to figure out what to do next. Nicky was all charged up right now, and there didn't seem like a whole lot of point in waiting until nightfall. There would be no advantage to that, in fact it would probably work against them. Fat boy down there had the advantage. He knew the terrain, and he'd know his way around inside that little camper while Nicky and Vaughn would be tripping over shit in the dark.

He wondered if that camper had a bed. A real bed. Him and Nicky had air mattresses and sleeping bags, but the idea of sleeping in a real bed appealed to him.

Vaughn glanced through the binoculars once more and watched the man grab the dangling end of whatever hung from trash bag girl's neck. She fell, but fat boy didn't seem very concerned about that. He dragged her over to him, kicking her a few times as she slid through the dirt. He used whatever was around her neck to jerk her up into a kneeling position at his feet and Vaughn saw the guy's hand undoing his pants. He smacked her a few more times in the side of the head.

"Mean son of a bitch," Vaughn mused, watching as a meaty hand grabbed a fistful of the girl's dark hair, dragging her head toward his crotch.

"Oh yeah, she's going to suck him," Vaughn said, more than a little excited at the prospect of watching a live show.

"Let me see!" Nicky said, reaching for the binoculars.

Vaughn tightened his grip on them. "You'll get them in a minute." The clouds in the sky drifted past the sun and additional light improved the view just a little. That was better. Yeah, he could see her real good now.

Except that Nicky kept tugging on the binoculars making Vaughn lose the spot. He moved them back trying to focus on the girl again.

And then Vaughn saw her face. His stomach felt sick.

He let go of the binoculars as Nicky was pulling, they flew out of his hand, and smacked Nicky square in the jaw.

"Damn. What'd you do that for Vaughn?" Nicky yelped, rubbing the side of his face.

"You was the one pulling on them. You wanted them, you got them."

Vaughn fingered the pistol strapped on his hip. It was loaded, all six chambers. After that he figured he had about another dozen or so bullets in his pocket. That was all, unless the next town they came across had any ammunition left to scavenge from a sporting goods store or something, the gun was going to be useless.

"How much ammo you got left, Nicky?"

"I don't know," he said, raising the binoculars, still rubbing that spot where they'd hit him. Vaughn knocked Nicky's arm down.

"You don't need to be watchin' that shit boy."

"I wanna see," he insisted.

Vaughn snatched the binoculars from his hands. "You don't want to see." Vaughn wished to fuck he hadn't seen.

"Why not?"

"Because you don't want to." Because you don't ever want to see another human being like that, so broken, so without hope, so absolutely full of despair that just seeing it made you feel it.

"We should go," Vaughn said trying to shake the way he was feeling. That girl down there was in a bad way and Vaughn didn't like knowing it. "Make sure your gun's loaded."

"We gonna go get her?"

"Yeah, Nicky. That's the plan."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, Nicky. Just like that."