The Lion's Loyalty

by Emilia Hartley

  He would come to see that there was no fixing her. Then, he would spend his time elsewhere. He would find a new woman’s door to sleep beside.

  She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear him turn the truck off or come around to stand beside her. She wasn’t aware of him until he grabbed her by her hand and tugged her into his body. He forced her to look up at him. Seeing Van smiling cleared her mind. Her chest felt lighter.

  For once, she could hear her beast’s voice. It wanted him.

  “Maybe I have one more adventure for us,” he said softly.

  Chapter Eleven

  They shifted and went for a long run. She reveled in the way the wind howled in her ears. The sound was freeing in ways she had imagined while locked inside the silver-bound cage. Her feet slapped the earth in an easy rhythm. Van loped along beside her. He was lithe and graceful where she was pure speed.

  He had to catch up to her more than once.

  Eventually, he turned. Carol lost him for a moment. She had to follow his scent to figure out where he had gone. It led her down a narrow trail, and soon enough, she caught sight of Van’s golden tail. He glanced over his shoulder at her, a great beast with paws the size of dinner plates. He could defeat anyone.

  At least, that was how it felt when she looked at him. He was her protector. As long as he was around, she had nothing to worry about.

  Save where he was leading her. Houses began to appear. They were no longer in the woods, but close to back roads. Soon, the back roads became highways. They kept to the trees, hidden just behind the line of growth that grew alongside the road. Van was leading her somewhere.

  Hesitation danced in her gut. She shouldn’t have followed him back to town. Whatever game he was trying to play would only lead to trouble for her. Couldn’t he see that? She would run into her brother and he would see that she wasn’t the person he once loved. Not anymore.

  But a familiar sight came into view. Carol had never seen the building before in her life, but she’d seen the truck a dozen times or more. It was how she’d returned to the bar the first time, when Rodrigo found her.

  She looked to Van, wondering what he was doing at Rodrigo’s. Or what they thought they were doing in town at all. While a wolf could be considered a dog by someone passing by, there was no mistaking a lion in the middle of a small town. He certainly wasn’t someone’s missing house cat.

  As if he’d read her mind, Van crouched behind the truck, and she heard the familiar grunts that said he was shifting back. Soon enough, he appeared, human again. He snatched a pair of pants from the back of Rodrigo’s truck and jumped into them.

  “Don’t bother shifting,” he told Carol. “We won’t be here long. Lily told me that Rodrigo leaves his keys in his truck and I warned her that I would be teaching him a lesson.”

  Realization sunk in. They were going to steal Rodrigo’s truck.

  She leapt into the truck bed, tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth like she was a dog in truth. Her beast kept a careful eye on Van, aware of his every movement not because the beast feared him. If anything, Carol thought what her beast felt was adoration. It permeated every inch of her until she, too, was staring at Van in adoration.

  He leapt into the truck, opened the back window for her to slither through, and turned the engine over. Before Van could shift gears, a window above was flung open. Rodrigo’s head popped out. He yelled down at them, but Carol couldn’t hear what he said over the roar of the engine.

  They sped away, lurching with every step.

  “This is why I gave this piece of junk to Rodrigo. I can barely find the gears.” Van grunted as he fought the gearshift into position.

  ***

  His heart thumped with excitement. When he looked to Carol, she was leaning out the window. He wasn’t sure if it was just the way her beast looked, but she appeared happy. Especially when she leaned her head out the window. The wind caught her ears and made them flap wildly.

  “We aren’t going to take it back to the bar,” Van told her.

  She slid back into the cab of the truck and turned to him, her attention fixed very squarely on him. It seemed, if only for the moment, that Carol and her beast were in sync. Van wished it could stay that way, but he knew they had more work to do. He only wished she would let him help.

  It was like all she wanted to do was cling to the sense of happiness when he was around. She ignored the part of her that was falling apart, the parts that needed work. And he was indulging her. He shouldn’t have stolen Rodrigo’s truck. He’d just wanted to see her smile.

  Instead, he should have forced her to sit down and talk about what was hurting. If she would open up, they could get through this. Then, Carol could have a future that was more happiness than pain. He couldn’t erase all of her pain, but he could make living better. He could make it worth it.

  But this moment would have to do for now. This little scrap of happiness he gave her was worth more than anything else anyone had given her recently. It was better than the hand-me-down clothes that reminded her she was living a life that she had little control over. It was better than the food Dante would later charge her for.

  He wanted her to be able to stand on her own feet, even if that meant he had to hold onto her for a little bit. He hoped she would see that it was a step closer to a better life.

  They turned on the radio, but the music that blared made them laugh. Van couldn’t believe the drastic difference in tastes between his friends and himself. Dante liked roaring rock and roll. Apparently, Rodrigo liked Spanish hip-hop.

  Van shut it off, unable to find a radio station he could settle on. This was why his new truck had satellite radio. The selection as so much more vast. He would have asked Carol what she liked to listen to, but she could neither speak nor move the radio tuner.

  Still, she seemed to sense that he wanted to interact. She lowered herself to the seat and crawled toward his lap. Resting her head on his thigh, she looked up at him with big gold eyes. His heart melted. He nearly told her right then and there that they were fated mates.

  But he kept the words to himself. He didn’t know when she would be ready for them, but now was not the time. So, he settled for burying his fingers in the thick fur around her ruff. Her eyes drifted shut and she might have fallen asleep on his lap.

  They parked the car in a clearing off the road. The rushing water of a nearby creek would cover the truck’s scent for a while. Rodrigo would eventually find the hidden truck, but it would take him a few days. Maybe a week if the fool couldn’t use his nose. Van remembered how Rodrigo had used one of the wolf shifters to help hunt down the doctors.

  Van slid out of the truck, locked all the doors, and threw the keys inside. Once the driver’s side door was shut, there would be no getting inside without the right tools. The truck was old enough that a simple coat hanger should be able to pull the lock open, but Rodrigo wouldn’t know that when he found the truck.

  Which meant his friend would have to make two visits.

  Sure, there would be hell to pay, but what good was it to have friends if he could not teach them something about the world? He’d taught Dante that there was more to this world than shades of power. He would teach Rodrigo that he needed to be more mindful of what he did.

  “Who leaves their keys in their vehicle?” Van asked Carol.

  She looked up at him, cocked her head, and took off. He stood there, stunned for a moment. Her howl billowed out from the woods. Then, returning to himself, he laughed and shook his head. He wouldn’t have much energy if he shifted to chase her, so he grabbed a pair of boots from the back of the truck and yanked them over his feet before following her.

  She led him through the woods, around streams and boulders. He tried to remember where the border of the boundaries had been drawn. Were they running along it? Would they anger the dragon again? Van didn’t want to piss the giant creature off. He couldn’t protect Carol from a lizard with the power to breathe fire.

&n
bsp; But wherever she led him was not the dragon’s boundary because the creature never appeared. He found her, back in her human form with her feet in a creek. The clear waters rushed over her bare skin.

  His heart rocketed into his throat. She was beautiful, peering down at the tiny fish that gathered to peck at her feet. Her skin was bare to the sky above. She was pale against the dark woods around her. When she looked over her shoulder at him, his heart flipped in his chest.

  She patted the ground beside her. He kicked off the stolen boots and hiked up the legs of his borrowed pants before stepping into the stream.

  “Thanks for not leaving me alone,” Carol whispered. She rested her head on her knees, peering at him with half-lidded eyes.

  “No problem,” he managed to croak.

  Over her shoulder was a splatter of color. At first, it didn’t make sense. Then he realized it was supposed to look like watercolor paint. It was a landscape, a bright sunrise between two mountains inked in black.

  He reached up, hesitating for a moment, then touched the lines. She shuddered, but the smile slithering over her features reassured him. His heart thumped an erratic rhythm as he traced the ink in her skin. Here was a piece of her he had not seen before. While he didn’t know the story behind it, he was sure it would make him love her all the more.

  If that was possible.

  She moved and exposed another tattoo. It was a simple arrow on the inside of her wrist. She smiled and laughed at herself.

  “That was my first tattoo. Pretty basic, huh?”

  He shook his head. It was a part of her. There was nothing basic about it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Carol leaned into Van. She was drawn into him by the look in his eyes, the one that said his whole world had shrunk down to her. It made her heart flutter. Her beast rolled over and laid itself bare before him.

  There wasn’t time to think about how this was the one time her beast chose to behave. Before she could move, Van grasped either side of her face. He tugged her into a deep kiss, one that stole her breath and scrambled her mind. All she could do was hold onto his wrists as he pulled her into a torrent of sensation.

  She parted her lips to let him in. Moaning, he delved deeper. She could barely stand the distance between them. It felt as if she might float away if she wasn’t pressed to every inch of him. Her skin crackled with energy, heat that she wanted to share. There was no escaping it. No ignoring it. She needed to quench the heat.

  Winding her arm around the back of his neck, she pulled him atop her. Beneath her head was a mound of soft moss. Above her, Van’s long hair fell in a golden veil. He looked down with sudden indecision. She didn’t let him ask any questions. She yanked him into another long kiss while her hands roved over his body.

  This was how it was meant to be. Everything felt so…right. She didn’t know how she hadn’t seen it before. It was like her soul called to his. They were bound in ways she wanted to explore, little by little, over great periods of time. She wanted to keep him all to herself.

  When she wrapped her legs around him, he melted in a groan. His fingers tightened on her waist, and he buried his head in her shoulder, drawing in a deep breath. Coiled in his body was the same need she felt. It was there, vibrating beneath the surface. All she needed to do was make him set it free.

  “I hope no one needs those sweatpants,” Carol whispered before tearing them.

  He made a small sound of protest, but once his cock was free, she wrapped her hand around it and silenced all arguments. Van was hers to command, the one thing in her life she could rely upon. When she tugged, his breath hissed. When she laid her lips to the soft skin of his neck, he groaned.

  How she had never seen it before was beyond her. He’d been there the whole time. Even before the doctors, when she’d first joined the pack. Van had been there. If only she had the sense to look in his direction, she would have seen that she wasn’t alone.

  The pack told her, on more than one occasion, that the greatest thing to come of her change was the promise of a mate. She’d thrown out the idea, so entrenched in her misery that she couldn’t see any kind of silver lining in her new life. Only here, with Van’s body pressed against hers and his need wrapped firmly in her hand, could she see that they had told her the truth.

  This man who had never left her side since her return was her mate. There was no arguing the facts.

  “I need you,” she whispered.

  Those were the words that undid Van. A growl filled his mouth and his hands roved over every inch of her exposed skin, as if a door had been opened and he gladly rushed through. She reveled in the way his calloused hands felt on her body. He found every hidden valley that no one had ever explored. His lips discovered places even she hadn’t known about. Her soul shuddered and shook her bones, making her gasp for air.

  It was like taking her first breath. She felt reborn. This was the first step of a new life.

  She directed his cock to her opening, needing the union of their bodies. She felt hollow and knew that only Van could fill her in the way she so desperately craved. Already, heat blossomed between her legs, promising an easy entry. She’d been made for him, after all.

  Changed for him.

  This was her reason for existing. This was why she’d been changed, why she’d lived through every moment with the doctors. It had all been so she could unite with Van. But he pulled back before she could slide him inside her.

  She cried out, dismayed.

  Despite his actions, there was still hunger burning in his eyes. She didn’t understand. Not until he slunk lower. His lips found her nipple while a finger slid between her moist folds. She would have groaned had she a voice, but it disappeared as sensations welled inside her.

  He found the small and sensitive bead between her legs and made circles around it, touching but not quite. She gripped his shoulders and held on while he worked her into an inferno. He suckled and gently bit one nipple while he teased the other with his free hand. She couldn’t handle it. She thought she would shatter. He was bent over her, like a man praying before his god. Only, his god was her. His worship was the way his tongue flicked her nipple and his fingers danced around her opening.

  “Van,” she begged. “I need you. Please. I need you.”

  “You already have me,” he whispered into her skin. “Mind, body, and soul.”

  “Your heart, too?”

  “You had it the whole time.”

  She felt everything too sharply. Her heart swelled while heat coiled in her core. Tears threatened to burn her eyes, but before she could give in to them, he rose above her. She felt the tip of his cock poised against her core. Her sharp gasp filled the air and then disappeared when he thrust.

  The way he filled her was greater than anything she’d ever experienced before. She was stretched tight around him. A moment passed before he tried to move, letting her adjust to the great girth of him. She almost felt too full, if that was possible. She worried that this wouldn’t work. Pain sparked around her opening, little pinpricks that soon settled.

  When she could nod, Van slowly pulled back. His rhythm was gentle. Soon enough, she needed more. The slow pace wasn’t enough for her. When she looked to him, she could see that holding back was making him quake, too.

  “Give it to me,” she told him. “I can handle it.”

  He shook his head. “I won’t hurt you.”

  To prove her point, she used one hand to yank him down into a deep kiss. With the other, she reached between them and found his balls. She gave them a light squeeze. For a moment, he turned to putty in her hands. His eyes rolled back, and he shuddered inside her.

  Carol thought she’d ended their fun too soon, but a growl rippled up his throat. His eyes snapped open and fixed on her. A small smirk graced the corner of his lips.

  Before she knew it, her world was spinning. She found herself on her hands and knees, the moss in her face. Van pressed against her from behind. His cock found her folds again, the mois
t center pulsing and begging for his return. He was not gentle or patient this time. He slammed inside her in a way that rattled her entire being.

  For a moment, she was the one barely able to think. A burst of pleasure boomed through her body. It stole her thoughts. With each consecutive thrust, the pleasure grew more intense. She was able to regain a bit of her own mind eventually.

  She reached between her legs and found his balls again. This time, it was easier. His grip on her tightened, and she heard his groan become a roar of triumph. Her beast wanted to howl. It wanted to tell the world that it had found its mate. They were one.

  Her orgasm split through her, unexpectedly. She shuddered and dropped her cheek to the mossy ground. Waves of pleasure poured through her body. It curled her toes and brought whimpers to her lips. Her thighs quaked and her spine bowed.

  She was being unmade. Little by little, her body came back together. Her soul soon followed. Behind her, Van bucked. He reared back, slipping free from her pulsing core. A warmth spilled over her back. It pooled on her skin and marked her with his scent.

  Twice now, she’d been marked.

  And once, she had been claimed body and soul by him.

  Carol could not wait for more.

  They used the water from the stream and his torn sweatpants to wash off the evidence of their lovemaking. Silence hung in the air for a while. Carol wasn’t quite sure what to say. She had known so completely that they were meant to be together only moments ago, but now that they were not in the throes of passion, she was worried.

  Had she made it up? Had she convinced herself of something that wasn’t true? But Van had already told her the truth. He was hers, mind, body, and soul.

  Remembering what he’d told her pulled a sigh of relief from her. She hadn’t made anything up. This was her truth. She’d found her mate.

  As if to quell her thoughts, Van appeared at her side. He pulled her close to him. She pressed her hands to his chest and felt his heart thundering beneath. When he kissed her, she felt the promise he’d spoken during sex.