“It clearly does, so tell me. We owe it to each other to be honest, at least.”
A suspicious sound came from Rebecca. It almost sounded as though she wanted to cry and desperately tried not to, and Leon lost the fight with himself to not touch her. Stepping up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her into his body. A shiver went through her, and after a moment’s hesitation she allowed herself to lean back against him. He inhaled deeply of her scent, and his lion purred his approval. It was the damnedest thing, the effect she had on his volatile beast. He turned into nothing more than a purring pussycat around her. A fact that ought to piss Leon off no end, but right now, with his woman in his arms, he couldn’t bring himself to care about that. This just felt right in a way nothing had since that fateful night, and just for this moment in time, he would allow himself the luxury of not fighting his feelings.
His mind could conjure up thousands of reason why this was a really fucking bad idea, but, if he had learned one thing over the years it was to trust in his instincts, and they all screamed at him to simply hold her.
This close to her, his cock hardened to the point of pain, and he knew the minute she became aware of his predicament, because her breathing sped up, and she tried to pull away. He wouldn’t let her, however, and instead pulled her tighter against him.
“You wish what, pipsqueak?” He repeated his earlier question and a whimper escaped Rebecca. He wasn’t entirely surprised to feel her tears fall on his arms, and keeping a close hold on her with one arm, pulled the curtain of her hair back, so that he could nuzzle into her neck. Goose bumps broke out across her skin, and he indulged his beast by licking along her rapidly beating pulse point.
“What?” he whispered.
“That I had been there to heal you when you got those scars. You wouldn’t have them then, nor the ones no one else can see in here.” She turned in his arms and put her hands on his chest right over his heart. The damned organ was trying to give itself a cardiac arrest at what he saw in her expressive gaze, and he didn’t know what to say, so he simply settled for looking into her eyes. It was true that they were the windows to one’s soul, and right now, he saw nothing but truth in the depths of her gaze, and the desperate need for forgiveness.
“I’m so sorry that I wasn’t. I never should have run away from you, from us. Please, Sir, you must believe me.”
Leon’s lion roared and Rebecca dropped her hands slowly until they rested at her sides. Leon desperately wanted them back on his skin, where they belonged, but, instead, he ran a hand through his hair, and took a step back and away. Rebecca’s shoulders slumped and her misery hit him straight in the gut with enough force to wind him.
“I believe you, pip,” he said, and her head shot up. The smile that spread across her features took his breath away, and made him feel ten feet tall. “But, I really do have to go.” When her face fell he rushed on to explain. "They’re short staffed, and I like to help those kids. They remind me of me when I was that age. If it hadn’t been for your father taking me in…” Her eyes filled with tears and he cursed under his breath and pulled her back in for hug. The way she clung to him made him fight back his own tears of grief, and he swallowed hard to get past the lump in his throat.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop that damn vamp. I tried.”
Rebecca hugged him closer, and everything inside him stilled when she kissed his chest. Butterfly light as the touch was it nonetheless scorched his skin, as she trailed her lips higher, up his neck, over his rapidly bopping Adam’s apple, and then gently placed her lips against his.
She had to go on tiptoes to do so, and her fingernails dug into his biceps as she held onto them to steady herself.
“I know, Sir,” she whispered, and then lowered herself back down and stepped away from him.
How he stopped himself from yanking her back against him, he would never know, but he bent down to grab his boots, and forced himself to walk out of there.
Chapter Ten
Two months later Rebecca quietly slipped into the back of the hall, where the council meetings were being held. She shouldn’t be here, but she had seen Leon’s motorbike out front, and she couldn’t resist the temptation to sneak a peek at him.
She hadn’t seen much of him since the day of her father’s funeral, and she needed her Leon fix, as she quietly called it. It seemed she had walked into a disagreement. The air was thick with tension, and she almost turned round to leave them to it, when Sasha exploded.
“This is such bullshit. How the fuck is she supposed to do anything.”
The panther shifter looked fit enough to burst, as he paced the floor, occasionally throwing dagger looks at Eva. The young eagle shifter had joined the team of Cumbrian Protectors, following the death of Henry Hastings, and she’d proven herself to be more than capable. Rebecca knew Sasha had issues with female Protectors, but, to her certain knowledge he’d never voiced them out loud and in such an obnoxious manner. No wonder her mother appeared more and more frazzled these days. Rebecca worried over her.
Eva locked gazes with Rebecca and rolled her eyes. The two young women had become fast friends since Eva’s arrival, and they had discussed the issue of the obnoxious Sasha on more than occasion. Eva was all for just ignoring his bluster. Everyone knew that Sasha had an axe to grind. He hadn’t been the same since he came back from a stint in Scotland. The panther was deadly when he chose to actually do his job. The only problem was he shirked his responsibilities whenever he could. It had been one of the many reasons to bring Eva here
She might be inexperienced, but Eva had come highly recommended by Middle Brook’s new Protector. Lewis Bernhard had been a frequent visitor when Henry had still been alive. The two men had been old friends, and Lewis had been an honorary member of her father’s pack, yet he’d preferred the solitary life. The battle-scarred bear shifter now rose to his full height, and stepped in front of Sasha.
“That’s enough. Eva has the required experience, and she was trained by myself, so unless you have issues with her training, I would suggest you leave off. Or, are you trying to tell me that she can’t do her job because she’s a woman?”
Lewis raised an eyebrow at Sasha, and the panther snarled at him, but had the good sense to not say anything in response.
For her part Rebecca had to remember to shut her mouth. Not in all the years she had grown up had she ever heard the Bear shifter say so many words in one go, but it seemed today, he had plenty to say.
A lopsided smile kicked up Lewis’s mouth, and he nodded to Rebecca, when he noticed her, and then gestured toward her mother. Joanne Hastings was sitting in the middle of the semi-circle as was her station as the oldest member of the council, one hand resting on her walking stick, and Rebecca suppressed a sigh. Her mother had aged considerably in the two months since her husband’s passing, and Rebecca wished with her all might that she could do more than shoulder the burden. Her powers were still unpredictable at times, however, despite the extensive training schedule she had put herself through. It had left little room for anything else, especially not thoughts of the man whose deep growl in response to the tension in the room sent shivers of awareness down her spine.
“Good, pup,” Lewis said. “After all I need not remind you that the elder of this village is a woman, and her daughter is all set to follow in her footsteps one day.”
When Sasha smirked, Leon’s chair went flying as he shot to his feet and before Rebecca could even blink Leon had the slightly smaller man dangle in the air, one huge lion paw wrapped around the shifter’s throat.
Sasha hissed and half shifted made a terrifying sight, but he couldn’t shake Leon off either.
“Gentlemen, please. We’re supposed to be united, not fight among each other. Leon, let Sasha go. He’s young, hotheaded and willful, and I’m sure he’ll keep his highhanded opinions to himself in future.” Mrs. H smiled at Leon and fixed her moss-green gaze on Sasha. The shifter stopped struggling as the air filled
with the smell of home-baked cinnamon bread—her mother’s unique scent of magic—and Leon slowly lowered the other man to the ground.
“Not until he apologizes for what he just said.” Leon growled the words his lion still far too close to the surface, even as his paw slowly morphed back into just a hand around Sasha’s throat.
“Leon, dear, he hasn’t actually said anything, and he can’t while you’re strangling him.” The amused tones in her mother’s voice meant that Rebecca had to tear her gaze away from the lion shifter, and her heart beat faster when her mother winked at her. Clearly, Mum was up to something again. After all Leon and Rebecca had both been too busy to actually meet up. They had texted each other though, and Leon had managed to come round for Sunday lunch last week. It had hardly been an intimate affair, however, as Lewis and Eva had been in attendance, too, but, at least it had cemented the uneasy friendship that now seemed to exist between the two of them.
Rebecca wouldn’t want to jeopardize that for anything, even if she did suffer from sleep deprivation brought on by the sheer number of erotic dreams she’d had about Leon, ever since he’d walked out of her flat that day. If he just wanted to be friends then she’d take that. It was miles better than being ignored by him.
She knew Leon was looking at her, before he spoke, because her skin tightened and prickles of awareness crawled up and down her spine.
“He didn’t have to say anything. The insinuation was bad enough. No one insults you or Rebecca, Mrs. H. Certainly not someone who doesn’t even want to be a Protector, and shirks his duties every chance he gets.”
“That’s as maybe, but you know as well as I do, that this is Sasha’s birth right. Let. Him. Go.”
Leon’s lion roared, but he did let go off the other man and ran a hand through his long hair in a jerky move that spoke of his agitation. Rebecca wanted nothing more than to run up to him, but her feet seemed frozen in place. Leon seemed too agitated, too on edge for what she had witnessed, and if the bafflement she picked up from the others in the room was anything to go by, then they thought so, too.
“You need to get laid man, and chill out.” Sasha’s snide remark made Leon spin round so fast the air blurred and in the next instant, Sasha doubled over in pain, after Leon punched him straight in the gut. The panther moved to retaliate, but before he could Joanne Hastings stomped her walking stick, and the two men flew apart. Sasha ended up in heap next to Rebecca, and Leon roared, when Rebecca automatically held out her hand to help the panther up. Sasha smirked at her, and held onto her hand for a fraction too long.
“Take your fucking hands off of her.” Leon’s deep growl sent more shivers of awareness down Rebecca’s spine and she hastily snatched her hand out of Sasha’s and took several steps away from him.
Sasha’s infuriating smirk deepened. The man was far too good looking with his dark bad boy looks. Heavily inked, and with not an ounce of fat on his torso, he simply screamed trouble. As a result women flocked to him, and Rebecca wasn’t entirely immune to his charms. Too bad he was such an ass with it all.
“Wasn’t me who made the first move, man. Maybe you should keep your bitch on a tighter leash, Leon.” He winked at Rebecca, and her fingers itched to teach him a lesson. The urge to let her powers erupt through her fingertips and send him flying was almost too strong to resist, especially as she felt the usual surge associated with being close to Leon. However, that would be a misuse of her powers, and her mother had warned her in no uncertain terms that she had messed those powers about enough, so she fisted her hands instead and glared at him.
“I’m no one’s bitch, you arrogant fool.” She spat the words out through gritted teeth, but Sasha just laughed at her.
“That’s cause you ain’t been with me, darling. Trust me, you’d be begging to be my bitch in seconds if—”
Rebecca never heard the rest of that little speech, because Leon’s furious growl filled her ears. He sounded minutes away from shifting and tearing the other man’s throat out as he advanced on them both, so Rebecca swung her fist. Distracted as Sasha was by Leon’s approach, she punched him straight in the face. Blood spurted from his nose, and there was a sickening crunch, and the most excruciating pain shot up her knuckles.
“Shit, ouch.” Tears sprang up in Rebecca’s eyes, and Leon’s loud curse filled the tense silence surrounding them, as he gave Sasha a shove and stepped between them.
He grasped Rebecca’s hand and ran his fingertips over the knuckles. Even that careful move hurt and Leon’s touch grew lighter still, as his lion rumbled.
“Here, let me see what you’ve done to yourself, pipsqueak. Jesus, woman, let me fight your battles for you, or use your powers. I think you’ve broken this.”
Rebecca shut her eyes, to block out the pain, and the dawning awareness that he might well be right. It sure hurt enough. She shook her head, as he pulled her closer into his comforting presence, and she took a deep breath of his scent.
“I can fight my own battles. Don’t need help,” she murmured, even as she instinctively leant closer into his strength and protection. Leon tensed and his lion growled low in his throat. She could tell that answer had pissed the animal off, and Leon pulled away slightly.
“Fuck it, woman, don’t be so bloody stubborn about this.”
“She’s not, well not any more than I would be in these circumstances.” Her mother’s cool voice approached and there was a grunt of pain from Sasha, as though she had done something to the panther shifter. Sure enough when Rebecca wrenched her eyes open it was to see Sasha holding his junk with a pained expression. Beads of sweat ran over his face, and his mouth moved without actually saying something. Despite the pain in her hand, Rebecca smiled, and Leon’s big shoulders shook in silent amusement.
“Take yourself away, Sasha. That was for insulting my daughter. And you, Leon.” Joanne stepped up behind Rebecca and took hold of her hand. “You can stop grinning, or I’ll be mighty tempted to do the same to you. Now get your overprotective ass out of my way, so I can heal my daughter’s hand.”
Leon’s lion growled his annoyance, but he did let go.
“Careful, Mrs. H, I think she’s broken it.” Pain flared anew when her mother turned her hand over and she made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat.
“Tell me something I don’t know, lion. None of this would have happened if Rebecca didn’t feel the need to protect you from yourself. Do us all a favor and claim her already. Sasha would never have said those things, if she wore your mark, and she could have used her powers without fearing she’ll send him through the wall. Damn foolish youth.”
“Mother, please.” Rebecca wanted the ground to swallow her up, when there was a collective gasp of surprise in the room, and Leon’s face drew into a an unreadable mask. Sasha swore under his breath in such a way that her ears grew hot. At least the panther seemed to have regained his ability to speak, even if he did look as though he was ready to puke. Really, men and their gonads.
Her grim amusement fled when her mum murmured a healing spell, and the pain grew to excruciating levels that took her breath away, before heat spread through her veins, and the world went black temporarily. When she became aware of her surrounding again, it was to find herself cradled against Leon’s wide chest, with her mother standing over them both.
“There you are, as good as new. I think that declares today’s meeting finished, unless Leon has an announcement to make?”
* * * *
Rebecca tensed in his arms, pushed against his chest and he reluctantly let her go. Damn Mrs. H and her insistence on forcing this issue, and damn his own beast for being such a volatile bugger. He still wanted to rip Sasha’s head off for daring to lay a finger on his woman. And Rebecca was his.
With a growl to shake the floor, Leon sprang to his feet, after Rebecca got off his lap, and glared at the assembled room.
“What the hell do you want me to say Mrs. H? Yes, Rebecca is my fucking mate, and yes, I’ll kill anyone who dares to touch her
. There, that’s what you want to hear?”
Rebecca gasped. Sasha swore again, and Eva’s mouth fell open, while Lewis looked between him and Rebecca and sighed.
Mrs. H smiled at him, patted his cheek, as though he was fucking three years old, but it was the renewed tears in Rebecca’s expressive eyes that made him want to shift and head out of there. If she rejected him again… No, he couldn’t even think about that.
“Well, I’m glad that’s cleared up. I have to ask why you haven’t claimed my goddaughter,” Lewis said, and Leon shook his head. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Rebecca who seemed frozen in space. He couldn’t be sure she was even breathing. She was that still, and it tore him up inside. He shouldn’t have blurted this out like that, and in front of an audience to boot. No, what he should have done had had that conversation weeks ago, in private, but he’d been too afraid to bring up the subject, for fear of ruining the tentative friendship they had re-established.
Fuck it, Leon was sick and tired of treading on eggshells. He just wanted it all to stop. Finding your mate shouldn’t be this fraught with difficulties. He ran an unsteady hand over his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders in answer to the bear shifter’s question.
“It’s complicated, Lewis.”
The usually quiet shifter threw his head back and laughed.
“Nothing complicated about it, unless you make it so. Grab her, and claim her, end of discussion.”
Eva rolled her eyes, Sasha shook his head, and Mrs. H turned round to glare at Lewis. The bear shifter held his hands up in a mock gesture of supplication and smirked.
“No need to get your knickers in a twist, Joanne. Just giving these two youngsters a kick in the right direction. Being noble is all well and good, but it makes for lonely bedfellows at night. Any fool can see those two belong together, so the question is, are you a lion or a mouse, Leon?”
If he had been any other man Leon would have shifted already and taken him out for those words, but his lion was too focused on his mate. Rebecca shook her head, and stared at the floor, and she visibly jumped when he swore.
Her Lion Protector [The Protectors 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 9