The Lion's Purpose

by Billie Willow

  “You see, Mr Benson this is a medical facility specifically designed for shifters, or more importantly, rogue shifters. Sure, humans such as I run this facility, but the testing is done on shifters.”

  “Testing?” Archer asked. Or maybe he shouldn’t be asking.

  “Yes. Shifters aren’t widely known to humans, not yet at least, but they will be and there are many corporations that are willing to pour money into this facility to find out everything we need to know about your kind.” Old man spice stood up, put his hands in the pocket of his jacket and kept talking as he walked casually back outside the cell, leaving Archer still standing inside. “We know shifters are at the top of the food chain and it is up to us to find out how to bring you all back down to the bottom, where you belong.” He spat out the last word.

  “Where does my father fit into all this?” A sick feeling was creeping into his stomach.

  “Well he was the first one we tested. I’m sure you remember how uncontrollable he was. He was easy to catch. A drunk, rogue lion with no pride, never taking care to watch his back, so out of control of his human and animal side that he left a trail of chaos where ever he went. He broke quickly once he sobered up and couldn’t handle the pain, we inflicted on him when his animal wasn’t around, spitting out regrets about his life. That’s how we learnt so much about you.” The man was standing in the doorway of the open cell, one arm up leaned up against the bars. “He wouldn’t stop talking about you, about how he regretted hurting you and not trying hard enough to keep your mother happy before she ran off. What a pity he’s no longer around”. The man lifted the corners of his mouth into a wicked smile, the shadows from the harsh lights above him made him look just as evil as he actually was.

  “What do you mean he’s no longer around? Where is he?” Archer growled out. He found it hard to believe the abusive man he knew growing up was spitting out regrets about his actions long ago. He knew his father to be stubborn and malicious, not emotional and remorseful. If his father was driven to the point where he was speaking so out of character, he must have been pushed to his limit. Wait.

  “Is he dead?” Archer grated out through clenched teeth.

  The old man just kept smiling and slammed the cell door closed without saying a word.

  “Is he dead?” Archer repeated, sounding more animal than human. He couldn’t breathe. Rage consumed him as he unfolded his arms clenched his fists so tight his fingernails dug into his palms, drawing blood. Could his father be dead? Could he really be dead? Killed by the same people that captured him? His mind was racing. Anger and sadness played tug of war with his emotions. He hated his father, he always had and promised himself he always would. But now, hearing the way his father likely took his last breath filled with regrets about the way he had treated Archer, he wasn’t sure how to feel anymore.

  “Oh, and I bet you’re probably wondering why rogue shifters?” The old man said, ignoring Archer’s questions as he took a step back from the door “Well, it means there’s no one out there looking for them. They live alone and they die alone.” He turned and the “click clack” of shoes echoed down the corridor once more before a door opened and shut.

  The silence was deafening as Archer moved to grip the bars of the cell door. The reality of the situation was finally hitting him. His father was dead, and he was imprisoned in a testing facility for shifters, facing his own torturous death. His emotions were overpowering. He gripped the bars tighter and shook them with every ounce of strength he had left. No budge. Archer took a deep breath and threw his head back as a human scream turned into a monstrous roar.

  Chapter 5

  What a beautiful day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the birds were chirping their happy song and Lara could feel the warmth of the sun heating up her body as she lay in an open field surrounded by daisies.

  Wait. What? A field of daisies? Where was she?

  There was a pounding on her head for some reason and as she sat up. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Suddenly a forest that she hadn’t noticed before appeared at the end of the clearing, so dense that no sunlight passed the canopy. Even though the clearing was drenched in sunlight, the trees were covered in darkness.

  Lara squinted her eyes and tried to look through the shadows of the forest. Suddenly the sound of metal being scraped echoed through the clearing. She looked behind her, but the field of daisies seemed to go on forever and when she turned back to face the forest she froze in fear. The lining of trees was now only a short distance in front of her. She watched in horror as the trees became a dark metallic colour, the rough bark of the trunk smoothed out and reflected a strange fluorescent light that seemed to be coming from between them. The chirping of the birds slowed down and was replaced by a dripping sound, she looked up to the sky to see the blue colour of daylight morph into a dark night with no stars or moon and the sun and its heat gave way to a cold, damp, dark jail cell.

  Lara blinked hard twice, trying to wake herself up from what was obviously a nightmare but when the image remained, she realised it was real. She was lying on the floor of a dark and cold room, facing what looked to be the bars of a cell door. The harsh fluorescent light from the corridor was reflecting on the puddle in front of her. She tried to sit up, but her body felt like it had been run over by a freight train, and then reversed over.

  “uuuuggghhh” she groaned as she managed to sit up on her second attempt. Her head felt like it had its own heartbeat as it thumped away in agonising pain. She reached for her forehead and felt something warm and thick on her fingers. Is that blood? She traced the blood past her hand to the floor as it puddled below where her head had been lying on the cold floor.

  She crossed her legs in front of her and rested her elbow on her knees, clasping her head with both hands, she tried to think back to the last thing she could remember. She recalled waking up in this cell, having a panic attack and she must have passed out again.

  “Hello? Is someone there?” The deep sound of a man’s voice came from what sounded like the cell next to her, he sounded about her age and there was a smoothness to it. For some reason the sound of the voice sent a shiver through her, there was something about that sweet sound that made her want to hear it again and keep hearing it.

  “He..hello?” Lara managed to rasp out, her voice was rough, and it felt like she hadn’t spoken in a while as she looked at the direction the voice came from – the other side of the concrete wall.

  “Oh man, that’s a relief. I thought I was going crazy hearing things. I didn’t realise anyone else was here... How long have you been in here?” The deep voice said casually. The more Lara heard the man’s voice, the more she felt drawn to it.

  “Um…” She looked down at her bloodied hands and then at the dirty jeans and black top she was wearing, “I’m not actually sure how long I’ve been here…..where exactly are we?”

  “So, you didn’t get to meet the old dude with the bad cologne? Shame. We could have had inside jokes. We’re stuck in a shifter only jail where they will torture us and test us until we can’t take it anymore and probably die a slow and painful death. Ain’t life grand.” Sarcasm oozed from the tone in his voice as she heard what she thought was him pacing back and forth in his cell.

  “I need to get out of here” Lara mumbled in shock. She began looking around the room, fear creeping in from the realisation of what he had just said. Was she about to be tortured? Something else suddenly struck her about what he had said “Wait. What’s a shifter?” Lara shuffled closer to the front of the cell where the bars met the wall so she could hear him better.

  She heard shuffling and then a voice that sounded much closer than before answered “You’re kidding me, right?”

  “Do you mean like a…a…werewolf?” Her voice shook.

  Lara heard a snort and then more shuffling “Wolves are sneaky bastards. Never trust a wolf. But yes, like that only we’re not all wolves, there are hundreds of different animal shifters. I've even heard rumou
rs of mythical creatures out there with healing abilities. We mostly stick to our own kind though. We don’t bother the human world and they don’t bother us. At least not until now” The last word broke off into an animal sounding growl.

  “Mythical Creatures” Lara mumbled in shock before she decided to ask “A...Are you a shifter?”

  “Yep. My name is Archer by the way, nice to meet you” A hand came out from between the bars. Lara noticed the knuckles were covered in cuts and bruises that seemed to be healing before her very eyes, the palm of his hand was calloused, the kind that comes over time from working with rough surfaces every day.

  Instinctively, Lara reached out, all fear evaporated as her hand rested in his for a moment before he gripped it tightly and shook it. Archer’s skin felt much hotter than humanly possible and maybe, it was the concussion talking but Lara felt incredibly drawn to him. It felt more than just a connection through the situation they were in. This felt different, like she knew him and had known him her whole life. Lara felt safe with his touch.

  Lara’s thoughts came back to reality as he abruptly pulled his hand away. The cold air hit her palm, making her hand feel empty and longing to be touched by him again.

  “What happened to your hand? There are bruises all over your knuckles” Lara pointed out, changing the subject. Hopefully her tone covered the disappointed she felt that she was no longer touching him.

  She could hear him rubbing the back of his hands as he replied “I belong to a shifter only fight club. I fight most nights and bruised knuckles are just a necessary side effect to winning” Lara could hear a smile coming through his words. Huh, so he could be cocky too.

  “Why do you fight?” Lara asked. She wondered why anyone would choose to put themselves in constant danger like that. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the image of a shirtless man in a boxing ring, sweat dripping down his firm chest which trickled to his hard abs and down the V shaped muscles of his pelvis where his well-worn jeans sat, hanging low on his hips . She imagined him having black hair that was shorter on the sides but longer on the top and being impossibly strong with muscles ripping down both arms. He had a perfectly straight nose and eyes that were the deepest brown she had ever seen. His chiselled jaw softened into a panty-dropping smile. She had no idea what he really looked like, but by the sound of that deep voice of his, she hoped he looked at sexy as he sounded.

  Lara’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Archer replied to her question “It satisfies my animal’s blood thirst and keeps him under control… and it helps pay the bills”. She could hear his footsteps pacing the cell as he spoke “I’m a mechanic during the day and that pays for most stuff, but I like to build my own cars on the side. The fight club helps me pay for that.” Before Lara’s mind could run away from her with images of a sexy Archer, dirty with oil leaning under the hood of a car, he changed the subject.

  “So, what about you? What’s your name?” Archer said.

  “Lara” she responded, she heard Archer repeat “Lara” from his cell, the sound of her name rolling off his tongue made her spine tingle. Stop it Lara! Now’s not the time to be pining over a man you’ve never even seen! Her thoughts were sobering and brought her mind back to the reality of the situation.

  “And so, how did you get stuck in here?” Archer’s voice echoed

  Lara opened her mouth to answer, but her mind was blank. Why was nothing coming to her mind? It’s like there was a door in her mind that held all the recent details of her life, but the closer she reached out for the door handle, the further it moved back.

  “I…..I don’t remember” She gripped her forehead with both hands, as if the motion could physically bring out her memory “Oh God, I don’t remember!” Lara could feel panic creeping out through her body from the pit of her stomach where it had been sitting dormant.

  “It’s okay, it will come to you, you probably hit your head or something. These guys weren’t exactly gentle with bringing people in here. What’s the last thing you remember?” Something about the way Archer was trying calm her down was comforting, like he cared about how she felt.

  Lara reached up to her forehead, of course she had hit her head, she was bleeding. But how? Did she fall? Did she have amnesia? She tried to do a quick recap in her mind of what she could remember, making sure she could piece everything together to see just how far back her memory had been affected.

  She closed her eyes and remembered growing up in the countryside with her adopted parents, she remembered her upbringing clearly, the way she used to go out clubbing with her friends, how proud her parents were when she finished college and got a job writing for the local newspaper. Her parents, her mind went back to that night, sitting by herself waiting for her parents to come home from their regular date night. Only they didn’t come home. She recalled the moment the police officer turned up at the house and explained that her parents had been involved in a car accident.

  She let out a soft sob as the memory of that night played out in her mind. How long had it been since then? It felt like only yesterday but something inside of Lara was telling her it was longer than that. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to remember anything since then, she imagined herself reaching for the door in her mind again, trying to get any recent memory back but nothing was there. “I remember everything about growing up, but it all starts to get hazy after the…the..”

  “After what?” His soft voice calmly prompted

  Twin tears rolled down her cheeks as she relived the memories of the worst day of her life “After my parents died in a car accident. They were hit by a drunk driver”.

  Chapter 6

  Archer felt an ache in the pit of his stomach for Lara, now, he could relate to the pain of losing a parent, but she had lost both.

  He was so young when his mother left that he doesn’t remember her much and the news of his dad didn’t affect him as much as he thought it would. He made peace with that bastard a long time ago. A part of him was sad that he never got to know the man who was spitting out those regrets on his death bed about the way he treated his own son, the sober man. Maybe if his dad had the balls to break out of that drunk and violent hole that he lived in when he was alive, things might have been different. Like most male lion shifters, his dad would have been Alpha of a pride and Archer would have grown up surrounded by other shifters and one day, have a pride of his own. Instead, he was rogue, living each day trying to contain the strong animal inside of him, the animal that would be Alpha of a pride if he wasn’t so out of control. Suddenly, the thought struck him…was his own lion out of control because he didn’t have a pride? He shook his head against the thoughts, he couldn’t think about that right now.

  “I’m sorry” was the only thing Archer could think of to say. He felt drawn to Lara, felt a sudden urge to comfort her, but he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it happened when he shook her hand through the bars of the cell, but for some reason, he cared, even felt kind of protective of her. If he had his animal, he would probably be breaking them both out of this hell right now just to get her somewhere safe.

  He heard her take a deep breath before she said “Don’t be sorry, my parents had a good life. They never stopped smiling, they loved each other so much and they loved life. The night they died, they were on their way home from their usual Friday night dinner together when they were hit by a drunk driver. The police officer said it would have happened fast. I hope they didn’t suffer too much. There were witnesses that saw the drunk driver get out of his car and run into the nearest forest. My parents died, but the man who was at fault was running from his car like he wasn’t injured at all. He was running. Running!” She emphasised the last word. Archer could hear footsteps pacing back and forth from her cell. He couldn’t explain it, but he was met with a sudden urge to comfort her and he wasn’t the comforting type. There was something about her voice that was making him feel things he normally wouldn’t. He could tell it was hard for her to open up by all the times she would pause
or take a deep breath in between explaining what happened that night.

  “What happened to the drunk driver?” Archer asked, sitting with his elbows resting on his knees and his back against the wall that led to Lara’s cell, it made him feel better to be as close as possible to her, and this was as close as he could get.

  “He ran off into the forest. They were scoping the area for any sign of him. I don’t remember much after that, so I’m not sure if they ever caught the man or not.” Lara’s voice trailed off softly, sounding disappointed. Archer wanted to break down that wall between them and pull her to his chest in a crushing hug to comfort her.

  There was silence for a few moments before Lara continued “but I do remember that the police officer told me that they had a pretty good idea about who was behind the wheel of the car that night. I thought knowing his name would bring me closure. But how could it?” Archer could hear the anger building in her words. “How could I get closure when the man who killed both my parents was on the run? Could still be on the run!” The pacing continued for a few more moments before she continued.

  “The police officer couldn’t tell me the suspect’s name but before he left, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and I’ll never forget the name as long as I live”.

  She took a deep breath and whispered “Mark Benson”.

  Fuck. If Lara could see Archer right now, she would have seen him turn as pale as a ghost as the blood rushed out of his face. Mark Benson. Drunk Driver. Miraculously running into a forest after a fatal car accident. His dad killed Lara’s parents. If his father was alive today, Archer would have killed him all over again for what he did to Lara’s and her parents that night. Was that a growl rising from his chest? He quickly searched his mind for his animal, he still couldn’t feel him properly, but the growl was a sign that he was in there somewhere. Archer could hear Lara softly sobbing from next door, he put his head in his hands as he thought about coming clean and telling her he knew who Mark Benson was. More than that, that he was his son. But what would that accomplish? They are both stuck in a shifter prison facing certain death. Telling her the truth would only make her angry and hate him, he couldn’t do that to her, it would hurt her, and he didn’t want to do that in what little time they both had left in this world.