by Angela Foxxe
“Can you repeat that one more time?” a woman’s voice said from the open room, stepping out with a camera. “I want to get you saying that while you look at the camera.”
Tom looked at the woman before him, blinking in confusion. It was a reporter with a cameraman in tow. And it wasn’t just any reporter, it was Laila Blankenship, the most hard-hitting reporter in Denver.
“We’re live, so if you kill me, it won’t stop the country from seeing you for the monster that you really are, Senator Decker. Would you care to explain to your constituents why you’ve been using their tax dollars to wage a war on WereLions for crimes that they are apparently innocent of?”
Tom looked over his shoulder, not sure if he should run or shoot his way out. Maybe the woman was bluffing and they weren’t live. He could kill her, and blame it on Sabrina.
But the light was flashing on the camera, and he knew what that meant. They were on air now, and the country was watching.
He screamed, enraged by Sabrina double crossing him.
“After everything I’ve done for you,” he said, angrily. “You’re going to come at me like this, making up stories and forcing me to feed into your psychosis and then claiming that I’m at fault? You’re crazier than I thought.”
“Give it up, Tom,” Laila said. “We heard every word.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “People say crazy things when they’re under duress. I felt threatened.”
“You have the gun, not me,” Sabrina said calmly.
He was still shaking his head.
“You can’t prove any of this. Sabrina called me out here. I didn’t know that this place existed until she did. You can’t prove otherwise.”
“They can’t, but I can,” a familiar voice said, stepping out of the same room.
“What is that, a clown car?” he asked angrily, staring Cheri down. “No one is going to believe the office slut. You don’t have two brain cells to rub together, so you spread your legs instead. You have nothing to say that anyone is going to believe.”
Cheri was smiling, and Tom was getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a leather wallet and opening it to reveal an FBI badge.
“You were saying?” she said, the high pitched, airy voice he’d known for that past few years completely gone. “I think that I have enough pull at the bureau to explain the things I did in order to do my job undercover. What’s your excuse, Tom?”
He stared at them, looking from one person to the other, anger flashing in his eyes. He lifted the rifle, pointing it at Sabrina.
“Don’t do it, Decker,” he heard a growl from his left.
He spun, pointing the gun in the direction of the man’s voice.
“I should have poisoned you both,” he said, snickering at Paul.
Paul was across the room, coming up the stairs after checking the deprivation room for any children. He was angry, and he was already mid-shift, coming at Decker on four paws and licking his lips as a warning.
Decker turned the gun back on Sabrina, looking at Paul and curling his lip in rage.
“Don’t even try it, shifter. I’ll kill your queen.”
He looked at Sabrina, who looked in disbelief.
“What? Didn’t he tell you? You’re not the Fated Mate of just anyone, Sabrina. You’re the Fated Mate of the king of the WereLions and you have been since the moment you took your first breath.”
He smiled when she looked to Paul in shock.
“That’s so funny. He took you to bed, but he couldn’t be honest with you. Did you even know that you were bound to him by Fate and that you have no choice? You escaped here only to run into the arms of your next captor. You will never be free. You will always belong to someone.”
“It’s not like that,” Sabrina said, her voice wavering. “He’s not like that. He said I could leave any time I wanted.”
Decker threw his head back and laughed.
“You’re a fool, Sabrina. I thought you were smarter than that. Of course, he is going to tell you that you’re free to leave at any time. That’s what they do to trick you into believing in them. That’s how this works. You were chosen the day you were born and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“You’re just saying that to get into my head. You planted something in there, something that makes me panic when I feel like I don’t have autonomy over myself. I can feel it now, but I know that’s not me.”
“I didn’t plant it, but yes, it was part of your design. You can’t stop being who you are, Sabrina, and that’s a killing machine. The world isn’t safe with you in it, and I’m doing the patriotic thing by taking you out and protecting the world from you.” He looked into the camera, his eyes so wide that it was uncomfortable, but he couldn’t stop himself. He felt unhinged, but it felt good, and he was going to run with it. “Parents, but your kids to bed. You’re not going to want them to see this.”
He raised the rifle again, aiming it at Sabrina and putting his finger on the trigger. He heard a roar from his left, but it didn’t matter. He knew that he was going to die, and he was taking Sabrina with him. The WereLion would be shown on live television acting like the animal he is, and there would be enough people that were afraid of him to ensure that HLF went on for the rest of time. Decker would be immortal.
He pulled the trigger just as he felt the lion’s teeth sink into his shoulder, pulling him off his feet and flinging him like a ragdoll. He felt himself flying through the air and heard laughter following him as he arced toward the floor. It took him a moment to realize that the laughter was his, which only made him laugh harder as he hit the tile floor, knocking the wind out of him.
He was still laughing hysterically when the lion turned, running at him full speed. The gun was where he’d been when the lion had attacked and there was no way to get to it in time. Decker shrugged, closing his eyes and preparing himself for death.
He didn’t have to wait long.
***
Sabrina felt a bullet rip through her outer thigh as she ducked for cover, taking the reporter with her and shoving the woman toward the open door. But the woman wouldn’t retreat, and the cameraman stood, rooted to his spot. Her leg burned where the single had grazed her, and Sabrina was thankful that Decker didn’t know how to change the settings on the gun so that it would spray multiple bullets rather than a single bullet per shot.
The angry roar echoed off the walls, and Sabrina watched Paul fling Decker across the room as if it was in slow motion, then turn and bear down on him with murder in his hazel eyes. Sabrina was up in an instant, running toward Paul and trying to stop him.
Paul was on him now, clawing at the man, who held his hands up feebly in self-defense. Sabrina jumped up, ignoring the pain in her leg and landing on Paul’s back. She pulled at his mane and his scruff, yelling his name over and over again, trying to get his attention.
“We need him alive!” she shouted finally. “He knows things that we don’t know. We need him alive.”
Paul stopped, the words finally penetrating his fury. He stepped back, looking at the unconscious man before him as Sabrina slid off his back and knelt down to check for a pulse.
“He’s alive,” she declared, turning to him and grabbing his shaggy face in her hands. “I’m alright, the bullet just grazed me. I’m going to be okay.”
Paul shook his massive lion head, letting her know that he understood. Sabrina turned to the cameraman and smiled wryly.
“You might want to turn the camera off for a minute. Unless you want your viewers to get an eyeful.”
The man stared at her for half a beat, then smiled, turned off the feed and set the camera down.
*
Sabrina sat in Paul’s truck, parked in front of her apartment building in Denver.
“You’re not going to beg me not to go?” she asked, laughing softly.
“I told you that it was your choice, and I wasn’t going
to try to influence you. But I know that being the mate of the king can be a daunting role, even if it’s just a formal title and nothing more, really.”
“You’re their leader,” she countered. “They come to you for council, you settle disputes and you’re the reason that the WereLions are happy living where they’re at. You took a crazy situation and owned it, turning it into a positive. You’re their leader, and it’s not just a title. It’s so much more.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“I’m not going to try to force you to make a decision like this. You’ve been manipulated and brainwashed enough in your life. I don’t want you to come because you feel like you have no choice. I want you by my side because that’s the place that makes you whole.”
“And what about my parents’ things?”
“If you want, I’ll bring them to you. Or I’ll have them professionally shipped. It’s up to you.”
“I don’t have anywhere to put them.”
“You can buy a house now. Decker isn’t controlling where you live and what you do with your money anymore. Did you see his face when he found out that you had been squirreling the money away in an offshore account that he didn’t secretly own?”
“I did,” she said, laughing at the memory, even though it had happened only two short hours before. “He yelled something about my account being under his name and untouchable and when I told him that, he almost choked. I don’t think that he realized that putting my name on it for the realistic effect would mean that I could access it how I saw fit.”
“His friend at the bank only got him so far,” Paul agreed, laughing right along with her, then stopping. “Look, you don’t have to make a decision now, or even tomorrow. You can come to The Zone with me and live on your own up there, or you can stay here.
You can even do none of those things and do whatever you want. The point is, you don’t have to make a choice right now. And if you do make a choice, no matter what it is, you can always change your mind.”
He squeezed her hand, pulling it up to his lips, but stopping himself, and setting her hand back down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’re the best thing that has happened to me in a long while, even if Fate did stick her nose into my life and meddle.”
“I hear a ‘but’ in there.”
“I just don’t know how much of what I feel is me and how much is whatever Decker did to me. I don’t think he’s got much of an idea of where he even is right now, and even if he’s ever lucid and sane again, I doubt he’ll ever tell me. I just don’t want to make a decision and then gain my memory back and discover that I made a choice based on thoughts that weren’t mine.”
“I promise you,” he said, still holding her hand. “I promise you that I understand what you’re saying, and I respect that.”
“Are you going to be alright, leaving me here?”
“The honest answer? No. Just thinking about leaving you here is killing me. But this isn’t about me. This is about you, and what’s best for you. I love you, with every fiber of my being. If you’re not happy, or you’re making a choice because you think that it’s what will make everyone else happy, then there is no way that I can be happy. I want you with me, but I want all of you with me.”
“What if I can’t be that person?”
“Wherever you are, that’s where I accept you. That’s how this works, Sabrina. I love you for you. Whichever version of you that you are. I’m not looking for a certain ideal woman, I just love you, heart and soul. All of you.”
Sabrina closed her eyes, trying to fight back the tears.
“You’re not making this any easier on me.”
“You’re the one that asked. I was going to keep my feelings to myself.”
“I thought you would fight for me.”
“Do you want me to? Because I want to, but I don’t think that’s what you need.”
“It’s not. You’re right.” She smiled weakly. “That’s why you make such a wise leader, I’m sure.”
He took a deep breath, the sound trembling somewhat, even though he didn’t shed a single tear.
“I’m going to stay here,” she said. “I have to know if this is what I want, or if it’s you. I know that you can’t leave The Zone, at least not now. And I know that your pride is so important to you.”
“I would leave them for you if I had to,” he said softly.
“I know you would, but of all the things that I don’t know, I know that leaving the pride for me would be wrong and I won’t accept that, even if you offer. You belong there.”
“Thank you.”
Sabrina leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, pulling away before he could turn his mouth and kiss her. If their lips touched, she would never get out of the pickup, and she would never know if the feelings that she had now were the truth, or another preprogramed thought placed in her head at Hope House.
She opened the door, sliding out and grabbing her backpack in one smooth motion. She stopped, considering leaving the bag behind.
“Keep it,” Paul said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I want to make sure that you’re prepared for anything. Today, we won a huge battle, but we are far from winning the war. There will still be people that insist that we’re a danger to humans, and there are enough people that think like Decker to ensure that we will always be fighting for equality, at least in the foreseeable future. I want you to have everything you need, in case you need to run. I’ll wait a few minutes in case you change your mind, and then I’ll leave.”
“Thank you.”
She closed the door behind her, hurrying up the walkway to the stairwell and climbing the four flights of stairs that led to her apartment. As she climbed the stairs, she wondered about her neighbors. Were they all like here; young people turned agents of the HLF? She decided that wasn’t the case, reminding herself that she was the only survivor of Decker’s first attempt at building an army, and she had been as close to a failure as a topnotch agent could be. She wasn’t what he had set out to create, but she had turned out to be more than he could have hoped for.
Sabrina slipped her key into the lock and turned it, the sound of the tumbling deadbolt so familiar that it was almost like her heartbeat. She pushed the door open, stepping inside and looking around.
It had only been a week since she had last been home, but something had definitely changed. She moved through the single bedroom apartment, looking at the mass printed art on the walls, and the total lack of personal effects in the apartment.
She went to her room, noting that there were only a few books and almost nothing else in the room.
“Has it always been so sparse?” she wondered aloud, surprised to hear how her voice echoed in the nearly empty room. “This isn’t me,” she said, shaking her head and backing out of the room.
She turned, running out of the apartment and not even bothering to lock the door. There was nothing in that apartment that had any value to her. Everything that mattered was in that truck, getting ready to drive away.
Sabrina heard the engine fire up on the truck and her heart caught in her throat. She flew down the stairs as fast as she could without breaking her legs, ignoring the searing pain of the now bandaged gunshot wound on her outer thigh.
The door to the stairwell burst open so hard that it bounced off the wall and almost hit her in the face when it came back in her direction. She pushed it out of the way again, moaning when she saw Paul’s headlights disappear around the corner. She turned hard right, cutting through the courtyard between buildings, running as fast as she could in the cold night.
She raced down a narrow alleyway, hitting the street an instant after he passed by. She yelled, running after the truck and waving her arms like a madwoman, but Paul was focused ahead.
She paused, grabbing a handful of gravelling and running again, gaining ground on the truck when he stopped for a stop sign. She put her arm back and threw the rocks as hard as she could, disappoint
ed when they stopped short of the back window and fell into the rubber lined truck bed.
The brake lights came on and Paul looked up, catching sight of her in the mirror and opening the door. She ran to him, throwing herself into his arms and pressing her lips to his. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she kissed him passionately, her feet above the ground, his strong arms around her tight.
He pulled away, looking at her in shock, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Did something happen?” he asked, still stunned.
“Nothing, I just came to my senses.”
“You did?” he asked, his smile evident in his voice.
“I did. And I made a choice.”
“And what was that choice?”
“I choose you. All of you. I don’t want just some of what you have to give. I want you, and everything you are. No matter how much that scares me, and no matter how much I doubt that I would be able to be the woman that you and the pride need. I’m all in.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Paul kissed her then, roughly, passionately, his hands squeezing her impossibly tight and holding on as if he couldn’t stand to let her go.
“I love you,” she said softly.
“And I love you,” he replied, kissing her again and again before helping her into the truck.
“So, what happens now?” she asked, sitting in the middle of the bench seat and grabbing his hand. “What’s the next step in the Fated Mate journey?”
He chuckled.
“I know you better than that,” he said. “The next step is to live in The Zone and give you a chance to acclimate before we do anything else.”
“So, I don’t have to let you make an honest woman out of me?” she teased.
“Of course not. There is no hurry to get married, have kids or any of that.” He put his hand on her thigh, careful not to brush were the bullet had grazed her. “I don’t need to hurry through all the steps to be happy. You choose me. Actually, you chose us. The pride is eager to welcome you into our family, and everyone is going to be thrilled with your choice. For now, that’s enough. When you’re ready for something more, I’ll be ready, too.”