“We must get to the city,” he murmured. “So you can be safe from me.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said sharply.
Leon smirked and pushed off the tree he held out to. He led me in the direction of the road. “No,” he said. “But you should be.”
And again we walked in silence. I couldn’t help but frown at Leon’s accusation and assumption. What made him think I should be afraid of him? What gave him the right to tell me what was and wasn’t in my best interests? I scowled at my feet and trudged onward. My earlier grace was forgotten, and now I simply walked because I had to. I didn’t want to leave Leon. This had been the best day of my life, but I knew I had to.
Before long we arrived at the road to the city and Leon stopped. This was the exact road I’d walked earlier today, when I had first come to the forest, but now it looked so different. Or perhaps I was viewing it through different eyes. Instead of the tall buildings rising in the distance looking powerful and majestic, all I saw were cages and walls. The forest called to me. Its scent sung praises in my nose and veins, begging me to stay. Oh, how I wanted to stay.
“It is best we part ways here,” said Leon. His voice had broken the silence once more. I turned to stare at him, frowning with all my might. “I am sorry, but it is for the best.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Leon’s eyebrows shot up and his nose wrinkled. “For what?”
“For everything,” I said. “This has been the best day of my life, and I have you to thank for it. It was thrilling and adventurous and passionate…” I trailed off, sighing. “So, thank you.”
“You’re… you’re welcome,” said Leon. His looked at his feet, frowning thoughtfully.
“Will I ever see you again?” I asked. His frown deepened and, slowly, he shook his head, closing his eyes.
“No, and it is for the best. Pride life is simply too different from the human life you are used to. We would never be able to meet up, nor would we be able to be together.” He sounded as reluctant as I felt, but I knew his words were firm. “That is simply the way it is.”
“Pride life sounds exciting,” I said, unable to help my protests. “Take me with you.”
He shook his head. “I cannot.” I could swear he was sad. He leaned in and kissed my cheek, and I felt a brief breeze. When I looked down, I saw he had snipped a piece of the excess tail off my shirt with a claw. As I watched, the claw morphed back into the nail, and he pulled away with the piece dangling from his fingertips.
“Just in case,” he said.
“In case what?” I asked.
“In case I need to find you.” He sniffed the cloth and then nodded toward the city. I turned away from him and began the slow trek back to civilization.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I struggled to get back to my everyday life. The first time I woke up alone, I rolled over and expected to see Leon smiling at me. I wasn’t sure why, but the feeling was there, and waking up alone had never been so disappointing.
My experiences in the forest had given me a new-found grace, which my friends were always asking me about. I brushed it off with weak excuses and praise toward some of my yoga videos. It was best to not tell them what had actually happened. They wouldn’t believe me. In fact, I wouldn’t believe me either, if I hadn’t had the fading bite mark to prove the day had truly transpired. The bite mark, which took its time fading, had to be covered. I tried make-up, but ended up layering it with a scarf or bandana for peace of mind.
One thing that bothered me was my appetite. Before, I had always made sure to eat balanced diets. I indulged in sweets far too often, but I felt I balanced it well enough. Now, I found myself obsessed with meat. My freezer was packed with frozen meats. From the more common chicken, turkey, pork, and beef, to the rarer and more exotic meats – moose, duck, hen, lamb, veal, and more than I couldn’t pronounce the names of. Meat was all I could think about when I got hungry. Delicious, juicy meat.
So I found myself at the grocery store, despite my big freezer in my basement being stuffed with meat already. I dug through the store with the passion of a starving woman. I wanted meat. I wanted a juicy steak that I could tear into with my teeth and feel the juices running down my chin. I wanted something thick and delicious. And I wanted it now.
In the freezers I found what I was looking for – a juicy steak with the perfect marbling. It looked like it belonged in a restaurant, and it set my mouth watering with anticipation. I drove home quickly, dodging in and out of traffic when I could. Despite the meat being sealed in its packaging I could smell it throughout the car. I could smell a lot of things lately. The scent of gasoline in my house, despite it being on a side street, the perfume of the neighbor thirty feet from my house, the delicious scent of barbeque that other neighbors liked to make. It all seemed odd to me. It sometimes overwhelmed me in the middle of the night or day when I was at home, and I had to sit down for a time to clear my senses.
. Once at home, I grabbed a pan from the oven and ran it over in my hands. It would the right size, but I did not want to fry the steak; it seemed a waste and an insult to such a perfect slab of meat. Instinctively, I looked over to the meat and swallowed hard. Without thinking I walked over to the steak, dropped the pan, and tore into the packaging. My fingers dug into the bloody meat, and I tore at it with nails too sharp to be my own. The smell of meat and blood was overpowering.
With a deep breath to take in the scent, I ripped a chunk off the steak and dug into the raw meat. Blood dripped down my chin as I chewed. It dripped onto the counter. I tore again and again at the pieces of meat before me. I needed more. I wanted more. I was drooling. The delicious flavor of the raw meat drove my senses mad. I hung onto the counter with one blood-streaked hand. The last few bits of steak were shoved into my mouth. I swallowed them, one after the other, and then let myself collapse against the counter.
I was breathing hard. My chin, my hands, and my shirt were all stained with the blood of the raw steak I had just eaten. I forced myself to breathe through my mouth and tried not to smell the blood all around me. It should have repulsed me, but it didn’t. Instead, it did the exact opposite. It made me want more. I pressed my forehead to the overhead counters of my kitchen and struggled to catch my breath. What was wrong with me?
I went to put my hand to my forehead only to be overwhelmed by the smell of blood. I stopped short and slid over to the kitchen sink. Spinning the tap to turn on the water, I shoved my hands under the stream and tried to collect my thoughts.
I wasn’t myself. I knew that for sure. I knew that I was struggling with even the most mundane of tasks these days. Everything was too loud, too bright, and too filled with smell. I could taste the smells of the city no matter where I went, and it was starting to destroy me. I wasn’t sure how much more if it I could take. Everywhere I went the smells and tastes overwhelmed me. Gasoline, perfumes, cologne, all of it was too much for me.
And it had all started when I had walked into the forest, a few weeks prior. I sighed, remembering my time with Leon. The day had all started out so normally, but after I’d seen that tiger I’d learned of an entirely new world. Sometimes I tried to forget what had happened, but it seemed impossible. Sometimes I wondered if I should tell others, but, again, that seemed impossible. No one would believe me. I sometimes didn’t believe me. In fact, if it hadn’t been for that bite mark…
Almost absent-mindedly, I reached for the spot on my neck. The mark was faded now, but that didn’t stop me from touching it from time to time. I sighed and shook my head, shutting off the water. Something was wrong with me, I just didn’t know what.
I spent some time simply standing at the sink, staring into my shimmering and broken reflection in the draining water. There was something different about me, but I couldn’t figure out what. I frowned and touched a spot under my left eye. My hands were still cold and damp. The shock of the feeling raced through me, leaving me stumbling and waiting for it to fade.
“Why does this keep happening?�
�� I hissed, forcing my hands through my hair. I could actually hear the sound of each hair being dragged across my skull. I forced myself to stop. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. My breathing was hard.
I headed for the mirror in my hallway. When I reached it, I had to force myself to look at it. I was scared. I would admit that. I was scared. I was terrified of what I would see. I had seen something in the sink, but I didn’t know if I was ready to accept what it was.
I looked in the mirror and I gasped. The rest of my face was normal, but my eyes had changed. My long hair was frizzy from the heat, giving it an almost mane-like appearance. . There were bags under my eyes from exhaustion, and my cheeks looked saggy for the same reason. I blinked once, twice, and a third time. My eyes didn’t change. The pupils were slitted, cat-like in their appearance. The color was different as well. They had been blue before, but now the color was closer to a deep golden brown. And they were dark. As I stared, I saw the slits twitch in an aborted blink.
I wanted to scream. I should have screamed. But somehow I kept myself from crying out. Instead I stumbled back, grabbed onto the wall behind me, and slid to the floor. I didn’t understand why this was happening, nor what was happening. Was this because of Leon? Was there something in the water?
The doorbell rang. I scrambled upward, took a deep breath, and forced myself to calm down. The door was around the corner and, as I rounded it, I saw who it was. Leon stood in my kitchen, wringing his hands.
“It was open,” he said by way of explanation. He didn’t look at me. He merely stared at his hands. “I was worried about you, and about what happened between us. I know I said I would not see you again, but I had to.” He ran his hands through his silky hair. Seeing him, even as anxious as he was, made me relax. Leon was a gorgeous and amazing man. He had saved me from a shifter, helped me when I was hurt, and showed me a world of beauty and passion that I had not known existed. I loved that about him. I loved everything about him.
“Why did you come?” I asked. I wasn’t disappointed, but I had to know. My panic sat beneath the surface, but it was still there, lingering, wondering. Waiting.
“I needed to know.”
“Know what?” I asked. Now I truly was curious. What was so important to have him in such a state of panic?
“In the throes of passion, I…” He coughed. “I bit you, as you might recall.” I did. I remembered the moment clearly. It had been a powerful bite, deep enough to break the skin, and the pain had turned to pleasure in our coupling. I had enjoyed it. I had told him as much. Was such a bite worth worrying about? Absent-mindedly, I touched the spot where the bite had lingered before.
“What about it?” I asked, trying to pull him out of his panic. He still hadn’t looked at me. I could see his eyes – wide and filled with panic. I could see his hands, shaking and twitching together as he struggled to find the words. I could see every part of him, and because of that, I could see his nervousness. “Leon,” I said. “Talk to me. What’s wrong? What about the bite?”
He took a deep breath, then another. “That bite, I realize now, might not have been a simple bite.” He shook his head. His teeth were gritted and his mouth was pressed into a thin harsh line. “It might have been a mating bite.” My hands went to my neck again. Dread filled every inch of my being. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say next. I had a feeling I knew that he knew exactly why my senses were so sensitive these days; why my body was reacting badly to the city; why I was craving meat like nothing else before; and why my eyes no longer matched what I was used to. And everything had started with Leon. I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say, but I needed to hear him say it.
“What does that mean?” I asked. Dread bubbled up into my throat, choking off the last word of my sentence. I knew he had heard it, because his head twitched upward.
“A mating bite is something an alpha lion gives a lioness in his pride, it symbolizes union and love.” He coughed at the last word. “However, as a shifter, it means something else.” He took a deep breath and finally looked at me. I saw his eyes – as black from worry as they had once been with want. “It means I may have turned you into a lioness.” I stumbled backward, hitting the wall.
“What?” I asked, and my voice squeaked out.
Leon’s eyes widened, and I realized he was seeing my own. “No…” he breathed. “I am too late. The change has already begun.”
THE END
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Seduced By The Lion Alpha Page 6