by Lilly Wilder
It was better than nothing.
I stood up and banged loudly on the roof of the car.
“Hey! Over here!” I shouted. The two lions looked up at me. Rick struggled to his feet, while the other lion had hunger in his eyes as he came towards me. I wasn’t prepared for the speed at which he moved. He galloped forward and fear gripped every part of my body. I quickly realized I had made a huge mistake and circled around the car, hoping that somehow, someway, Rick could summon the strength to protect me.
But Rick wasn’t moving quickly enough. I could see the darkness in the lion’s eyes as it approached, its mouth hung open and its sharp teeth were revealed, dripping with warm saliva. It wouldn’t be long now until those teeth were crunching my bones and slicing through my flesh. Just as I was about to close my eyes, I noticed movement coming from behind me. I twisted my neck and saw another lion who was just as majestic as Rick. His paws pounded the road and he snarled loudly. His presence, evidently took the other lion by surprise. This newcomer fought with a furious flurry and pressed his advantage, driving the other lion back, away from me. The new lion positioned himself between me and this other lion, and this allowed Rick a brief respite, to return to his feet and gather some of his vigor.
Now, the two lions circled their antagonist. Rick looked worse for wear, blood dripped down his face and there was an ugly gash in his flank, but he still looked capable of dealing some devastating damage. This other lion, who I assumed to be Dalton, was standing strong and proud, and the two of them fighting together were a formidable force, too formidable, it seemed, for this other lion. He turned his gaze towards each of them and then turned away, disappearing into the darkness. His swift footsteps faded and I was glad to see the back of him.
I ran out from behind the car, although I stopped when I saw the lions turn to face me. Now that the battle was over I was faced with the reality that lion shifters were real, my father was right. It was stunning, unsettling, and even a little exciting. They looked at me, then at each other, and then they shifted.
*
Seeing them turn back into men from lions was just as intriguing and astonishing as seeing them turn into lions from men. They were back as I knew them, although Dalton had a sheepish look on his face. My surprise quickly turned to anger.
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” I yelled, my voice ringing shrilly through the quiet night.
“Would you have believed me if I had?” Dalton asked.
“You could have shown me. You sat there while I talked about my parents, while I told you everything, and you just hid everything from me. It’s not fair Dalton.”
“Yes, well, Dalton has never handled things in a direct manner,” Rick said, standing in between the two of us. Despite his transformation he still bore the wounds of the fight. Nasty claw marks were etched into his face and he held his side. He gasped when he spoke and winced constantly. I wrapped my arm around him and helped him to the car.
“Are you going to be okay? We should get you to a hospital,” I said.
“No, no hospitals. In the trunk, there’s a kit. Get it,” Rick said. I was willing to do anything for him because he had saved me and defended me. I wasn’t yet ready to forgive Dalton. I helped get Rick into the back seat where he laid down, and then I went into the trunk to retrieve the first aid kit. It had antiseptic cream, bandages, and everything else they would need to treat these types of wounds. Dalton climbed into the front seat.
“Do you get yourself into these situations often?” I asked, looking down at the kit.
“It never hurts to be prepared,” Rick said, smirking through his pain. I reached in and wiped his wound. “It’ll heal quickly, but damned if it doesn’t hurt,” he added.
“Who was that man?” I asked, “Or are you still going to act like I don’t deserve to know what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Ellie,” Dalton said. Rick glared at him and interrupted.
“His name is Bruce.” Rick immediately winced.
“You need to rest. Let me tell Ellie everything while we’re on our way,” Dalton said.
“Our way? Where are we going?”
“We’re going home,” Dalton said. He turned around and gripped the steering wheel. I looked at him, and then turned my gaze to Rick, who had closed his eyes to try and brace himself against the pain. I had treated the wounds as best I could and it was just a matter of waiting for them to heal now, although I still felt the best thing to do was to go to a hospital, even if it would have been difficult to explain the nature of his injuries. He looked peaceful and I intended to thank him properly for what he had done to try and protect me, and it didn’t feel right to leave him. I was still angry, but I was also curious. After what I’d seen I couldn’t help but want to know more. I made sure that Rick was strapped in securely and then joined Dalton, sitting in the passenger seat. I glared at him as I settled into the front of the car. Dalton revved the engine. Two beams of light shot out in front of us, and we pulled away, moving out of the empty streets of the city.
*
“So, who is Bruce and what does he want with me?” I asked, breaking the silence. Dalton’s eyes were fixed on the road, but I could tell that he was apprehensive around me, and he had every reason to be. Still, it was strange to know I had the power to make him feel unsettled, considering he had the ability to turn into one of the most powerful creatures in the world. I felt confidence surging through me. It was a good feeling, and one I thought I could get quite used to.
“Bruce is…I suppose you’d call him an old friend,” Dalton replied.
“Some kind of friend,” I muttered.
“It’s complicated and it goes back a long way,” he began, but I held up my hand and cut him off straight away.
“I’m not going to go with you if you’re going to be evasive. You don’t have to tell me everything, but you have to tell me enough to keep me around. If you were the only one here, I wouldn’t be here right now. At least Rick told me about my parents.”
“Did he show you the picture?” Dalton asked evenly.
“Yes he did, and that’s another thing. How the hell do you know my parents?”
“Our…society has been separate from the world for a long time, but knowledge of our kind has still bled through and some people have been more curious than others. Your parents were such people. They sought us out and they actually managed to find us, which is no mean feat. They found a home with us, a place where they finally belonged. If you don’t believe me you can ask them yourself soon enough.”
I folded my arms across my chest. I still wasn’t even sure if I wanted to see them again, now that I learned they were right all along.
“You could have told me you knew them. I feel like such an idiot for talking about all these different things, and all the while you’ve seen them more recently than I have.”
“I never intended to keep these things secret from you. I just wanted to know how you felt about them, and once you told me that you still resented them, I didn’t think it was the best time to tell you the truth. I wanted to explain to you properly.”
“You should have just told me. Instead, I knew you were hiding something, and you should have known I wasn’t going to stick around for that, not after what I’ve been through. I opened up to you Dalton. I was more honest with you than I have been with anyone else, and you threw it back in my face!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking admonished, “I should have been more up front with you, but you have to understand that from a young age I was taught to keep my secret no matter what. It’s part of our culture to keep ourselves hidden because we know how people are going to react. Being honest about this stuff doesn’t come easily for me. I wish it did, because I never wanted to mess things up between us.”
He seemed genuine, which I appreciated, and my icy mood melted a little.
“If you’re taught to stay so hidden, then why are you in the city in the fir
st place? Did my parents send you after me?”
“In a way…but it’s not what you think. It ties in with what Bruce was doing there.”
“Which was…?” I looked at him expectantly, when he didn’t immediately continue. He sighed and flexed his fingers across the steering wheel. I didn’t care if it was difficult for him to tell me the truth. I was going to get it from him one way or another. He owed it to me.
“My people have separated into different prides all over the world, but over the years my particular pride has grown ever more isolated and there’s a problem with genetic diversity. There just aren’t enough of us to keep the population viable. We need new blood, but it’s not easy to bring new people in. Sadly, there is a lot of enmity between different prides so we can’t go that route, and revealing ourselves to pureblood humans is a risk, because they aren’t always as safe with our secrets as we’d like.” I got the sense that he was speaking from experience, but I didn’t interrupt him to pry because I wanted him to tell me everything he could. “Then your parents came along and they said that their daughter was open-minded enough to be welcomed into our pride. They told us that they had taught you about our culture and they believed that you would be excited to see what we had to offer. They also might have intimated that you didn’t belong in that world, although after what you told me about them, I think they might have been projecting their own feelings about the world on you.
They wanted me and Rick to come and find you, to see if you would be willing to come back with us and potentially help us out. We were never going to take you away without your consent, but Bruce had other ideas. In your culture he might be called a patriot. He was eager to bring you back and be the savior of our race. He couldn’t bear to be left behind by us, so when he learned that your parents had volunteered you for this mission, he did his best to get to you before us. Thankfully, whether you believe it was fate or merely coincidence, you found us first.”
“That’s why you spent so long looking at my ID,” I said, the jigsaw pieces all clicking into place. Dalton nodded.
“We kept an eye on you and weren’t entirely sure how to proceed. We couldn’t let any harm come to you, but we managed to scare off the man who was trying to attack you.”
“You turned into a lion then, didn’t you.”
Dalton smirked. “I did. The mere appearance was enough to scare him away.”
“Weren’t you afraid that he’d tell the truth?”
“While we’re secretive, we are not foolish. Nobody would have believed him, and he probably won’t believe himself, given the amount of alcohol he had consumed. The memory will no doubt be just a blur and it’s not as if he learned anything specific about our culture. But I want you to know that growing closer to you was not just a mission for me. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know you. I never feigned any of my affection or passion. I regret deeply that I didn’t tell you all of this before, but I didn’t know where to begin. I wish I had done, though. I wish I had told you everything because the pain I have endured since you told me it was over has been almost too much to bear.”
“Dalton, don’t, please,” I said, raising a hand. “I don’t know how I’m going to cope with this. I don’t know if I can go back to the way things were. I don’t even know if I can trust you again. I need time to process everything. This is a lot to take in and I can’t deal with whatever has happened between you and me, right now. Please respect that.”
“Okay,” he said, and he fixed his gaze on the road ahead. We sat in silence. My mind was riddled with thoughts, least of which were focused on Dalton. I was more concerned with the fact my parents had suggested I would make a good candidate to be a mother to these lions. I didn’t know what they were thinking, but once again they had their own ideas for my life and didn’t seem to care about whatever I wanted.
Rick was quiet in the back seat, sleeping to heal his wounds. My gaze naturally drifted towards Dalton, although I flicked my eyes away whenever I threatened to catch his gaze. I hadn’t expected to be in such close proximity with him again, and now that I was, all the intense attraction came back in full force. When I caught his scent in the air, it was as though we were naked again, our bodies writhing together, but my heart was not as buoyant as it had been before. Dalton had lied to me, and even though he had his reasons, I wasn’t sure I could forgive him for that. On the other hand, Rick had been honest with me and had defended me. I felt that I could count on him.
I looked out of the window at the dark forests going by. The night sky glittered with stars. It was a beautiful sight, but somewhere out there, a lion was prowling and hunting, wanting me for himself, and he definitely wouldn’t have been as kind as Dalton and Rick. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when we reached their home. I had no idea if I could be the woman they hoped I would be, but to my surprise I wasn’t immediately repelled by the thought. I leaned back in the passenger seat and watched the world passing by. It blurred into one long canvas. I’d never been out of the city before and I began to think of my parents and what they must have felt when they had begun their journey in search of Dalton’s people.
They were heading into the unknown, searching for a fantasy, never knowing if they’d actually find what they were looking for. I’d always thought of them as fools, but maybe I was the fool in the end, because the impossible dream they had been chasing hadn’t been so impossible at all. And now I was following in their footsteps, being reunited with my parents. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel, but the adrenaline had subsided and my body was finally beginning to succumb to fatigue. I could feel my eyelids drooping and my mind grew heavy. Eventually, my eyes shut and they didn’t open again until the morning.
Chapter Ten
I blinked as the sunlight hit my eyes. I strained my neck, as a crick had formed, and reached up to massage the crook of my shoulder. I winced, as I gingerly adjusted my body. The passenger seat of a car was not an ideal place to slumber. I looked behind me and saw that Rick was sitting upright. The nasty marks on his face had subsided to where they were barely noticeable. These men had some wonderfully innate abilities and I had a feeling I was yet to see the full extent of them. Dalton looked tired, with bags under his eyes; he had been driving all this time without stopping, although the car was coming to a halt and I assumed it was this change in momentum that had awakened me.
The scene outside had changed dramatically from what I was used to. Instead of seeing towering city blocks rising up like monoliths, there were flat plains, with mountains rising up from the ground in the distance. The sky was cloudless and blue, and we left the car by the side of the road. I looked up and down the long dusty track and watched the world disappear beyond the horizon. I doubted there were many cars that came this way.
“So, this is where you live?” I asked.
“Almost,” Dalton replied, and then he walked off, away from the road, his footsteps kicking up dust. Rick pulled a bottle of water out from the trunk of the car and handed it to me. He seemed to have recovered well and by looking at him I never would have guessed he’d been mauled by another lion during the night.
“I take it you had a talk with him?” Rick asked.
“I did, but I’m not sure I can give him what he wants. I need time. I don’t know if he’s willing to give me that time though.”
“Dalton is more sensitive than he might seem. It doesn’t always work out for him. I told him to be more direct with you, but he said that you needed time to get used to the idea. I didn’t intend to scare you last night, but we knew Bruce was near and we couldn’t waste any more time. We had to keep you safe.”
“I do appreciate what you did, really,” I reached out and squeezed his arm. He seemed surprised that I would touch him so affectionately. “It’s just a lot for me to take in.”
“I can imagine. Did he tell you everything?”
“You mean that you’re looking for someone to usher in a new generation of lions? Yes, he told m
e, and he told me that my wonderful parents volunteered me for the job.”
Rick smirked. “I don’t think anyone is expecting you to say yes to that, but it is a concern of ours. To be honest I think your parents just wanted to see you again. They speak about you all the time. Dalton and I couldn’t believe it when you came to the club. It’s like we already knew you, based on what your parents told us.”
“And, I’m sure, they did me justice,” I rolled my eyes as we strolled along. We were about twenty paces behind Dalton, who showed no sign of slowing. I held the water bottle and took frequent sips. Despite it being morning, the sun was already hot and it burned my head. I squinted into the distance and noticed that we were walking towards a mountain. “How long have your people lived out here? It doesn’t strike me as the most hospitable climate.”
“You’d be surprised. We’ve been out here for a number of generations now, pretty much as soon as civilization expanded and our ancestors realized we weren’t going to be able to stay hidden. We wanted somewhere we could be ourselves and not always have to look over our shoulders to see who was watching. It’s an awful thing to be ashamed of yourself, but that’s what it feels like in the city, knowing that one mistake might not just mean trouble for you, but trouble for your whole family.”
“I should be honored that you’re taking me there,” I said, with a hint of sarcasm.
“You should,” he replied, without a hint of irony. I pressed my lips together and bit back a sarcastic comment. I felt trepidation rise within me as we approached, and when I got nervous I tended to get more sarcastic, but this wasn’t the time or the place. Not many people got to see this place, and it was their home. I had to remember to be respectful. Rick either didn’t pick up on my sarcasm, or he chose to ignore it. “Your parents did well to find us. Few people would have shown the tenacity to follow the few clues that led to us, but I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to tell you the precise details of their journey.”