The Lion Loves a Lady

by Raines, Harmony

  “Healthy,” Penny commented.

  “High energy,” Charlie told her as he zipped up the pack. “I’m just going to get some clothes for you. Lilly is about your size.”

  “And she won’t mind me wearing her clothes?” Penny asked.

  “No, she won’t mind at all.” Charlie left the kitchen and ran upstairs, giving Penny a chance to gather her thoughts. Was she really going to take off into the mountains with him?

  “Here.” He was back with a bunch of clothes in his hands. Putting them down on the kitchen table, he picked up a sweater and handed it to her. “Layers.”

  “I knew that.” She pulled the sweater on over her clothes and then added a tight-fitting snowsuit with a hood, which she pulled on over her hat.

  “You might need these, too.” He handed her a pair of goggles.

  “I’m going to look so stylish.” She pushed the hood back down, put the goggles on her head, but didn’t pull them down over her eyes, before pulling the hood up again. “I’m hot already.”

  He raised an eyebrow, his face saying, Yes, you are, but he kept his comment to himself. “You’ll be glad of the warmth when we’re on the mountain.” He checked his watch again. “We should go.”

  She liked that he took his duty toward Sally seriously. He didn’t realize that meant more to Penny than whether he lived in a big house or worked a steady job.

  Love and loyalty were all she wanted right now. Could he really be the one to provide those things?

  Chapter Eight – Charlie

  Charlie led Penny out of the house and around to the small lean-to barn where he kept the ATV. She followed behind, struggling to walk in the snow boots he’d given her to wear. “You’ll get used to it,” he said over his shoulder as he opened the barn door and went inside.

  “I’m not planning on doing too much walking,” she told him as she helped open the other door. “So this is it?” She eyed the ATV nervously.

  “It’s old but reliable.” He pulled the cover off the vehicle and looked down on it, seeing it through her eyes.

  “I was thinking it was small. And the mountain is high.” She walked around the red painted vehicle that he serviced each and every year ready for winter.

  “Oh, it’s powerful enough to carry three people if we needed to.” He slid his leg over the seat and sat down, the key going into the ignition as smooth as if it were new. With a flick of his wrist, the engine fired to life. “Get on.”

  She waddled around to the side of the ATV, lifted her leg awkwardly and slid in behind him. “Okay, my life is in your hands.”

  And our happiness is in yours, his lion replied.

  “Hold tight.” He throttled the ATV and it sped forward, down the track leading to the cabin.

  “This is fun.” She held him tight around the waist, her body pressed against his.

  “It gets better.” They reached the end of the track and he turned onto the road. The nearest trail wide enough for the ATV was about half a mile down the road. As they drove, he looked out at the world below them. All the houses covered in ice and snow, with smoke rising from a number of chimneys as the occupants fought off the chill of winter.

  He scanned the buildings and picked out the school where Sally would be waiting for him in less than three hours. Plenty of time to show his mate the mountain from the back of the ATV. Focusing on the road ahead, he sped forward until he saw the turn for the trail into the mountains. Slowing his speed, he made a right turn, swerving around a low bush, heavy with snow.

  Penny pressed herself against him, mimicking his movements as he kept the ATV perfectly balanced. He’d traveled all over the mountains on four paws and knew all the trails well. He’d also made a point of mastering the ATV since he kept it for emergencies when the snow made the roads impassable. If ever there was an emergency with Sally or Lilly, he wanted to know he could get them to safety, or the medical care they might need.

  Since Lilly moved in and gave birth to Sally, he’d become more aware of dangers. He was their protector, not just against bad people, who were few and far between in Bear Creek, but he also protected them against nature and the elements, and life in general. He was there to pick them up when they fell down. He was there when they needed to smile against pain.

  He was going to miss them.

  Was Lilly leaving the right thing? But how could he hope to win the heart of his mate if all he could offer was the chance to share his cabin with two other people?

  “This is amazing!” Penny yelled as the trail turned at a right angle to the mountain. The view below was stunning. “What an incredible place to live.”

  Charlie slowed the vehicle to a halt. “It is an incredible place to live. There is so much I’d like to share with you, Penny. A lifetime worth of scenes and views and memories.”

  She didn’t answer, not for a few moments. “There is a connection between us, Charlie. I can feel it. But I can’t promise you anything right now. I’m just not in the right place to make plans for my future.”

  “I can wait,” he answered. “Hold on.”

  They followed the trail along the side of the mountains, with Penny clinging to him as they sped along, snow flicking up behind the ATV. His lion roared in his head, filled with the joy of freedom and of having their mate so close. After years of waiting, she was finally here. Charlie wanted to pinch himself to make sure it was true.

  The trail twisted and turned back on itself as they began to climb higher, but the ATV coped with the terrain perfectly. The snow wasn’t thick enough on the main trail to hamper their journey, but where it had drifted under the trees, it must be three or four feet deep. Thankfully this section of the mountain trail was used by the inhabitants of Bear Creek even in bad weather and what snow was there was packed down.

  “Are those bear paw prints?” Penny yanked on his jacket and he slowed down to look where she was pointing.

  “They are.” Charlie stared down at the bear prints, and then looked further up the trail. He let his senses roam, but fortunately, there were no shifters up ahead. No one else was on the mountain as far as he could tell.

  “How come?” Penny asked nervously. She lifted the goggles she’d pulled down over her eyes and leaned over to look at them.

  “How come?” He frowned, and then realized what she meant.

  “Don’t bears around here hibernate?” She gripped hold of him again and then looked around, swinging her head left to right. “If the bear isn’t hibernating, that must mean he’s hungry, right?”

  “Not necessarily,” Charlie answered.

  His lion snickered in a most unhelpful way. How are you going to get out of this?

  Good question, Charlie replied. Really good question.

  “Should we go back down the mountain and report the bear?” Penny’s unease wasn’t going away.

  “No, there’s no need. And we’re safe. We can outrun a lumbering bear.” Charlie gave a silent apology to all his bear shifter friends for calling them lumbering.

  “Are you certain? If we break down, or we crash… I don’t even have pepper spray.” Penny looked over her shoulder, gazing longingly at the trail leading back toward town.

  “Trust me.” He half turned, looking over his shoulder at her. “Will you trust me?”

  She let out a long breath. “Okay.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to change her mind. Instead, he throttled the ATV forward and drove up the trail, leaning forward as they sped over a steep incline. Further and further they climbed through the trees until the trail opened up and they were in a wide plateau. Charlie didn’t stop here, this wasn’t the place he wanted to show her and there was no time to spare. They’d lost some time stopping to stare at bear prints and he was conscious of needing to leave plenty of time to get back and go get Sally from school.

  Behind him, Penny sat quietly, no doubt looking out for a bear attack. As they raced across the plateau, he tried to figure out what he was going to say to Penny. He’d brought her here
to tell her about their relationship and what she meant to him. Yet he didn’t know how to begin.

  Or maybe he was scared once he did begin, things would end badly.

  “Not much further.” He slowed down, the trail narrowing as they neared their destination.

  “Oh, wow.” Penny leaned forward, her breath caressing his neck as she saw the waterfall for the first time. “That’s amazing. So beautiful.”

  He slowed the ATV, allowing her time to take in the majesty of the water, frozen in time as it cascaded over the rocks above. “I wanted to show you this. It’s one of my favorite places to visit in the winter.”

  “I can see why.” Penny stared at the long icicles dangling from the edge of the falls. The main part of the waterfall was a skirt of ice a foot thick from the top to the bottom, which was attached to the frozen pool beneath.

  Charlie stopped the engine and switched off the ignition, putting the keys in his pocket. “Do you want a closer look?”

  “Sure.” She slipped her leg behind her and got off the ATV, her legs a little shaky as she pushed her hood down and took off the goggles.

  Charlie dismounted and stood beside her, itching to take her in his arms and kiss her here in this magical place. But he didn’t want to spook her or spoil this moment. Taking her hand, he forced himself not to react to her touch, which would ignite a fire within him. “This way.”

  She followed him around the edge of the small pool of frozen water. It was frozen solid, but he didn’t risk walking on it. There was the sensible side of his character showing through once more. He couldn’t risk the ice cracking and either of them falling in.

  When we were young, you wouldn’t have thought of the danger, his lion informed him.

  I know. But things are different, we have responsibilities.

  And when our little Sally cub has left us? his lion asked.

  A small piece of Charlie’s heart froze like the waterfall as he thought of life without Sally. How would she react when she heard they were moving, leaving the only home she’d ever known?

  With sadness and tears, his lion foretold.

  Or maybe with excitement at moving into a new home with her mom? But Charlie was scared Sally might think he’d made them leave. He didn’t want to lose her love. He didn’t want to lose her smile.

  “This is magical.” Penny stood with her feet on the frozen bank of the pool and reached out to touch the icicles.

  “The first time I brought Sally up here with Lilly, she thought it was a fairytale castle.” Charlie smiled wistfully.

  Penny turned her attention away from the icicles and focused on Charlie. “You love them very much, don’t you?”

  He nodded. He could not hide this love from his mate. He could not lie to her. “They have been my family for the last eight years. From the moment Lilly arrived on my doorstep, we’ve been like brother and sister.”

  “Why is she leaving now?” Penny asked, her curiosity for his living arrangements stronger than the magnificent ice display.

  “Because things change.” He nodded his head as he spoke. “People change. Perhaps to give me space.”

  “Why?” Penny pushed for an answer. “Is it because of me?”

  His eyes flew up to make contact with hers. He searched her face for hidden meaning in her words. Did she know about shifters after all? “Yes.”

  Penny shook her head. “Charlie, we’ve just met. You can’t ask Lilly to leave just because you think we have a future together. I have a life elsewhere. I’m only here for a few days, I promised my mom I’d go home for New Year’s.”

  “Lilly knew when I met you that things would change.” He looked up at the natural ice sculpture.

  “Why?”

  “Without sounding like a stalker?” He ran a hand through his unruly hair. “It’s difficult to explain.”

  “Try me. Come on, you brought me all the way out here to explain.” She put her gloved hands on her hips. “So explain.”

  With her expression set and her feet planted hip-width apart, Penny was going nowhere until she got some kind of explanation. The question was, how much could he tell her without freaking her out and sending her running back down the mountain, screaming madman? Or worse, screaming freak.

  Chapter Nine – Penny

  What was he hiding from her? He’d already explained why he was sharing his house with another woman and a child. Which would be enough to put a lot of women off. But the opposite was true for Penny. His actions had proved he was a loyal man. And loyalty could overcome most other obstacles.

  “Penny, I don’t want to frighten you.” He held on to her hand, a little too tightly.

  “Nothing frightens another person more than those exact words.” She smiled, trying to break the tension between them. It was too late for second-guessing herself for agreeing to come up here into the mountains with a man she’d just met.

  Oh, well, this will give people something to talk about other than her failed marriage. They’ll just think I’m too stupid to live. And they might be right.

  She’d trusted her heart, trusted her faith in people. Was she about to be let down again?

  “Okay.” He put his hand up as if to calm her. “I’ll try to explain without freaking you out.”

  “I’d appreciate that.” They stood in front of the frozen waterfall, it was the most perfect place as the sun came out and shone down on them. If Penny was looking for a sign this would all work out, then this would be it. However naive that made her. She’d grown up trusting her own judgment. Laurence had made her second-guess every decision she’d ever made, the hurt and betrayal were that acute. But she couldn’t let him ruin her life. “It’s okay. I trust you.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “You do?”

  “Yes.” She let out a long shuddering breath. “Yes, I do. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

  “Okay.” He turned to look at the ice waterfall and then lifted his head to look at the rest of the mountain range, which stood cold and silent around them as it had for eons. She gave him time to compose himself. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  She couldn’t go anywhere, her inner voice reminded her, unhelpfully.

  “Is it about the trouble you got into before you came to Bear Creek?” Penny asked gently.

  “What?” His brow creased. “Oh, no, nothing like that.”

  “Because that would be okay.” In her job working with young people who got in trouble, she’d often found outside influences or situations that seemed impossible to escape had prompted bad or criminal behavior.

  “It’s not that. It’s more to do with who I am. My genetic makeup.” He studied her face, watching her reactions carefully.

  “You have an incurable disease?” she guessed.

  “Incurable, yes, but not a disease.” He swallowed hard. “There are some people who are different than others in this world.”

  “All kinds of people.” Penny nodded, she was accepting of them all. Color, creed, religion, none of it mattered to her.

  “Some of those people have a special ability.”

  “A special ability,” she echoed. Was he delusional? What if he thought he could fly or something and jumped off the mountain? Penny gripped his hand tighter. “What is your special ability?”

  “It’s complicated.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “Part of it is the ability to know when I find the woman I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with. I can sense my mate.”

  Her breath came out as a puff of vapor in the air. “And you think that is me.” It was all beginning to make sense now. Sort of. “But you can’t actually know.”

  “Yes, I can. I knew the moment I set eyes on you. I sensed you, I sensed the bond between us. And I think you can sense it, too.” He looked deep into her eyes and she saw the truth in his words reflected back at her.

  She nodded, recalling what Julius had said about his Catherine, how she was the only woman for him. How he had waited all his life for her and then fate had br
ought them together. “Fate. You believe in fate.”

  “I do. But it’s more than that. So much more.” Charlie took hold of her other hand and turned her to face him fully. She was trapped, both by his hold on her hand and the hold he had on her soul, she was mesmerized by his honest need for her.

  “I can feel there is a connection between us.” It was deeper, stronger than anything she’d experienced. If she looked deep inside herself, she could almost reach out and touch it. Her feelings for Charlie dwarfed her initial attraction to Laurence, which had been based on what she thought she wanted and needed from a husband, a partner in her life.

  Charlie smiled softly, his mouth turning up at the corners. “I knew you did.”

  She took a step closer to him, her body pressed against his. If she kissed him, she would know for sure.

  Yes, if she kissed him now, she would know for sure just how crazy she was.

  However, as she stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, she decided she liked this kind of crazy. This kind of crazy made her lips buzz and her heart sing. It made the sun shine brighter, and her body glow like the dying embers of a fire. It made her feel alive.

  Charlie let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. She was pinned against him, the warmth of his body like a furnace, chasing the chilly winter air away. She sighed, deepening their kiss. Charlie, at first stunned by her making the first move, slid his hands down to the small of her back, his fingers caressing her through the thick snowsuit.

  His tongue slid along her lower lip and she opened her mouth, letting him in, just as she’d let him into her heart and was ready to let him into her life despite her brain telling her this was crazy. Was she on the rebound, was she simply searching for someone to make her feel better about herself, to prove that she was deserving of love?

  Laurence had hurt her so deeply, cutting away her self-confidence. The thought of all the people laughing at her and her naiveté was almost too much. Which was why she’d run away for Christmas. And run into the arms of another man.