by Jenna Payne
“So where are you taking me to eat?” she asked him, knowing he’d most likely had their entire evening planned out.
“To my place,” he smirked and slid an arm around her waist as they walked to Nora’s truck out in the school’s lot.
“You own a kitchen?” she teased, making him laugh out loud.
“Yes, I do own a kitchen and I cook sometimes,” he admitted. All the time she’d known Safir, she’d always been the one to cook dinner at her place. In fact, the only parts of Safir’s unnecessarily large house she’s seen were his bedroom and the family room.
“Will you finally give me a tour of your house? Or are you actually hiding dead bodies in every room?” he simply smiled and held his hand out for her keys.
“Well I was a private guy before, but now I’ve decided to share things with you,” he admitted. His sudden honesty took Nora a bit by surprise.
“Okay then…” was her only reply.
“Like I said, married by the end of the summer,” he winked at her and held the passenger door open for her to get in.
“So what’s the rush to marry me all of a sudden?” she asked him as he started up the truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Well I’m one hundred percent sure that you’re my mate so…why wait to marry you?” he glanced at her briefly, flashing a smile. She reached over to slip her hand in his. Honestly she couldn’t have dreamed up a better future husband.
*****
“Safir, are you sure you know how to cook?” Nora was watching him with amusement. She was sitting at the breakfast bar while Safir was about to cook steaks for them both in a cast iron pan.
“You laugh now, but just watch. When you eat this you’ll be doing more than kissing the chef.” He glanced at her with a wink, and she giggled before taking a sip of wine. Safir glanced over at the kitchen door before Nora even heard a knock. He opened the door and his second, Rafael, walked in.
“Hey Nora, how you doin’?” he asked, not even greeting his alpha yet. Safir growled and Nora hid her laugh.
“I’m good Rafael, what’s up?” she asked.
“Yeah why are you here? We’re on a date,” Safir practically growled, Rafael simply grinned at his closest friend.
“There’s a bonfire party out on the beach. I wanted to see if you guys would stop by,” he glanced over at the stove, smelling food, but Safir got in his way before he could steal a bite of anything.
“Fine, we’ll come later. Now leave,” Safir said, pushing Rafael back out.
“You look great by the way Nora, I’ll see you at the party,” he grinned and she winked at him, which Safir saw. With a growl he shoved a laughing Rafael out and shut the door soundly behind him.
“Don’t flirt with my lions,” he said in that dominant tone he sometimes used with her.
“Rafael’s harmless,” she said with a small smile. He quirked an eyebrow at her and walked over to pull her chair out from the bar a little, closer to him. She bit her lip to hide her smile.
“Don’t flirt with the lions…” he reiterated, his mouth only a breath away from hers. She nodded without comment. Safir kissed her, softly brushing his lips over hers before he set her chair back to normal and went to focus on the steaks.
“What if…what if the only way you could have me was if you had to share with someone else?” she asked him, half testing, half teasing. Nora knew she ran the risk of really upsetting him though with her question.
“And you’d be happy with being shared?” he asked her with a quirk of his brow.
“Yeah, like say for instance the only way I could be happy was if I had you and someone else in my life…” she posed the question with a hypothetical tone.
“Come again? You’re joking right?” he said, pointing a fork at her. She shrugged, instantly regretting posing that question in the first place. Safir stared at her for a moment with an intent stare before he sighed, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t share you with anyone Nora, you’re mine and I’m yours.”
“It was just a…hypothetical question,” she said, trying to appease him.
Safir took a deep breath and she saw him relax, though only a little. “Yeah well…you know if you want a threesome all you have to do is ask,” he said, giving her a wink. Nora’s jaw dropped and she threw a cube of cheese at him, which he dodged even with his back turned.
“Can’t you be normal for just five seconds so I can hit you?” she asked which made him laugh of course.
“No darling, I can’t,” he answered blithely. “These steaks will be ready soon,” he added.
Nora hopped down from the breakfast bar to go wash her hands, fix her hair a little and make sure she still looked presentable. Safir never seemed to care if she had bedhead or if she was having a bad hair day. Nora never really put much stock into her looks, normally. She knew she was attractive; her classically feminine features were what one would often see in any fashion magazine. Her big eyes were a bit cat-like, especially with their almost yellow tint. She had curves in all the right places and wasn’t too short or too tall. But since she chose to work with small kids she tended to wear practical clothes and have practical hair. That was until she met Safir. These days, Nora put more care into looking nice, as he often popped up unexpectedly throughout her day.
It was strange when they first met, Nora had forgotten that stuff like having the radio on and making phone calls bothered lion shifters since her grandfather passed. Each shifter had their own sort of weakness. Strangely enough the lions had such sensitive hearing that they were able to pick up on the actual sound of radio waves. It wasn’t harmful, per se, but enough of an annoyance that the lions never even carried cell phones around. Safir had made sure she knew very early on to have her phone turned off around him because, ‘those things are always making that metallic static noise even when you’re not talking to anyone.’ Hell even Safir had deconstructed the radio in his truck to simply include a CD player and that’s it.
“Are you pooping in there?” Nora almost laughed as he called through the door and she rolled her eyes.
“I was washing my hands, sheesh,” she said as she stepped out to find him leaning against the wall.
“Washing your hands and being a girl?” he quirked an eyebrow at her and she smirked. Safir could be seen as an ass to others or annoying. But Nora always found his sharp wit to be endearing, that and she had an extremely tolerant sense of humor.
“Would you rather I was washing my hands and being a boy?” she stuck her tongue out at him and he chuckled.
“You know I love you right?” he said as they walked back to the kitchen. The food smelled amazing as they got nearer to the breakfast bar.
“Yes I know, you’d be a fool if you didn’t,” she said cheekily and he growled under his breath before catching her around the waist and pinning her to the wall. His mouth was on hers before she could laugh or give another sarcastic remark. As soon as she started to squirm against him he let her go abruptly and walked casually over to his plate of food.
“Tease,” she muttered under her breath, Safir laughed out loud and simply winked at her. When she took a bite into her steak Nora closed her eyes. It was tasty, tender and perfect. “Safir…why don’t you own a restaurant?” she asked him, making him laugh again.
“It’s good right? See, your man can cook,” he grinned and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “So that’s incredibly handsome, well off, leader of the pride, can cook, dependable, good sense of humor, and great in bed…ready to get married?” Nora cracked up.
“Safir you’re too much,” she chuckled.
“Nope, I’m everything you’d want,” he said confidently. But it was true, Nora was sure of it, though there was no harm in wanting to see his full plans for the ‘summer of romance.’
*****
After dinner Safir and Nora ended up spending a little more time at his house. After all, dinner was really good and Nora did want to thank the chef. They drove to the beach, near Kelvin Grove, but a
private area only the lion shifters knew about and few others. Safir parked at Kelvin Grove Beach and they walked the rest of the way to the bonfire. The hidden stretch of beach was surrounded by trees and bushes. When Nora emerged from the tree cover, her hand in Safir’s, she saw the party was in full swing. There were about twenty or so people around the fire, drinking, sitting in the sand, or standing. There was music, but no one was really dancing, more like hanging out.
“You made it! Our fearless leader,” Rafael spotted them instantly and he hugged both Safir and Nora. “Grab beers, enjoy yourselves. Hey Nan’s here, she came all the way from near Brunswick Beach to hang out. If you see her and mingle, talk me up a little, or a lot. It’s completely up to you.”
After that Rafael got distracted by one of his pride mates wanting to spar. Nora had to laugh as he completely seized the opportunity to take off his shirt and wrestle in the sand, probably right in front of Nan.
“So who’s Nan again?” she asked Safir as they walked over to one of the huge beer coolers.
“She was this woman he had a thing with for a few months. That was until she left him, because Rafael has issues. In case you didn’t notice,” he said with a snort.
“Aw, well clearly he has feelings for her if she left him and he’s still trying to impress her…” Nora observed.
“I never thought they were any good for each other when they were together. Don’t know why she’s suddenly popped back up,” he said while handing her a beer. She took a small swig.
“Want to go be corny and put your feet in the ocean with me?” she said, grinning at him.
“And look up at the moon and kiss underneath the stars?” he asked in a slightly sarcastic tone, Nora held in her laugh and nodded. “Sure, sounds like fun,” he said spritely. She did laugh then while he pulled her in the direction of the water. As they walked back there was a sort of commotion in the trees. Then Safir pushed Nora behind him and she turned to see members of the pride shifting and growling at the tree line. It was too dark for her human eyes to make much out, until she saw one of Safir’s lions strike forward and drag a smaller lion out from the trees by its neck. It wasn’t necessarily fighting back, but was struggling somewhat against the vise grip of the other lion.
The party quickly escalated into slight panic and the humans present all scattered, running down the beach to get to the more populated areas. “I’m going to shift. Climb on my back and don’t let go,” Safir said in a tense, low voice. He shouted to his shifters to move in and try to weed the other lions out. Nora’s eyes widened at the thought of some unknown lion shifters trying to move in on Lion’s Bay. There hadn’t been a territory struggle since the days her grandfather was a young shifter. Beside her Safir quickly dropped to all fours and shifted to his lion form. He looked at her with his tan eyes and she dropped her beer before climbing on his back, hugging him as if he were a motorcycle. Her hands gripped his thick mane and he took off into the trees. Three members of his pride surrounded him to get them close to his truck. Nora held on for dear life; Safir was fast, but it wasn’t exactly the smoothest ride ever.
When he stopped she glanced up to see they were just a few steps away from the parking lot, but still in the cover of trees. She got off of him and he quickly shifted back, taking her arm and hurrying her to his truck.
“What happened?” she asked him as they got in and he revved up the engine before peeling out of the lot.
“We weren’t alert. Hell half the pride isn’t even here. We didn’t hear them until they were right on top of us,” Nora wasn’t sure if he was talking more to himself or her. Anyway her heart was still pounding in her chest so hard that she heard it like a drum in her head.
“How many were there?”
“About five, not many. They were probably just scouts,” he spoke brusquely and she knew he was pissed. “I’m going to take you home, I don’t want them tracking my scent to my place and finding you there.”
“Okay…” she said, not knowing what else to say or do, or how to help. Nora had to say she didn’t much like the damsel in distress role. Safir drove her to her place and walked her inside.
“I’ll come by when things calm down alright? I’ll also get Cooper or one of the others to guard the house,” he said and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth before leaving her. Great, suddenly she was being hidden away and guarded. Sometimes she wished the shifting gene didn’t skip generations. If she were a shifter she could be helping Safir out instead of being a liability for him.
Not knowing what to do other than worry, Nora sat in her living room. A book was on her lap, though she knew she wouldn’t read it. She kept glancing out the window every five seconds, looking into the trees that surrounded her house wondering what was going on.
*****
When Nora saw Cooper jogging in from the trees she stepped outside to greet him.
“Hey Coop, what’s going on?” she said, less trying to make conversation and more wanting to know what was happening with the outsiders.
“Hey Nora, we should step inside,” he said and she invited him in. Cooper was still young, just barely nineteen and Safir’s cousin. They shared a lot of resemblance though. They had the same hair and same tan-colored eyes.
“Nothing much has happened yet,” said Cooper. “Safir only gave me the order to come here. As far as I know it’s just a few scouts that ran in from the south. Most likely from the US or something. We were able to capture only one though. Our guys are still chasing down the rest before they cross borders.”
Cooper then checked Nora’s living room. He checked every window, his eyes scanning the trees for any disturbance.
“Sorry that you’re here babysitting me. I doubt anyone will come for me,” she said.
“Actually Nora…my cousin doesn’t want to freak you out, but those scouts saw him protecting you and running you from the beach. If any of them get back to their pride, that’s valuable information. Then it’s not hard to track a scent,” Cooper said. Nora’s eyes widened as that registered to her.
“Crap…” she sighed, Cooper simply nodded.
“You should get some sleep, it should be pretty uneventful for now,” he said. Nora snorted. As if she could sleep after what he’d told her! She sighed instead and sat heavily on the couch. She gave up with her book and grabbed the TV remote, but couldn’t concentrate on that either. After a few hours of mostly watching Cooper pace around the house Nora finally drifted off.
***
“Nora.”
Nora woke to the sound of Safir’s voice and opened her eyes to see him crouched over her. Relief spread through her and she threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug. “Everything’s fine, everything’s fine,” he chuckled.
“Are you sure?” she asked him, studying him intently.
“Well it will be, only one of their scouts got away, but we were able to find out where they’re hiding. They have an entire pride trying to move into Lion’s Bay, they came all the way up from Oregon,” he said.
“So what will you do?” she asked him.
“Drive them out. If we have to take a couple of them out to do so then so be it. We can’t run the risk of having too many shifters and being exposed up here. We’re one of the few pure lion territories left,” he sighed.
“Have you considered that’s why they’re trying to move up here? What about being diplomatic?” Nora suggested.
“Now of days it’s hard to even trust your own shifter kind Nora, when I became leader of our pride I made a promise to protect our way of life. That’s what I’m going to do,” he said with finality and she fell silent. “We’re going to move in on them pretty soon, I wanted to come give you an update,” he said.
“Be careful, please,” she told him and he chuckled.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be a piece of cake,” he promised her and she gave him a long kiss before he stood up to leave.
“Do I get to come?” Cooper asked Safir almost eagerly.
“No, you sta
y here,” he said and Coop visibly deflated. Nora bit back a smile and watched Safir leave, she prayed like mad that he and the pride would all come back in one piece. Glancing outside she saw the sun was just coming up. She watched as Safir shifted, then darted into the trees.
“You know sometimes I wonder if he’s always going to see me as a kid,” Cooper almost pouted.
“Well if you think about it, he gave you…potentially, the most dangerous job. What if they do track me? On top of that it also means he trusts you a lot to leave me in your care,” she said and his eyes widened.
“Well when you put it that way…” he said and she chuckled. Nora got up and stretched. She wanted some coffee. But Cooper was suddenly right next to her and ushering her into the hallway. “Stay here, don’t go near the windows,” he said urgently. Before she could ask what was going on he was gone. She heard the front door open and close and her curiosity suddenly rose. She quietly tiptoed to her bedroom and went over to the window, it faced the back of the house, she looked out, but just barely.
Nora gasped when she saw three guys who she knew weren’t a part of Safir’s pride standing next to her garden. They were scanning the area and Cooper was nowhere to be seen. One of the men turned his head towards her, his eyes locking with hers for a brief second before she quickly moved out of the window. Nora’s heart was pounding as she held her breath, she quietly made her way back into the hallway. But a loud crash caused her to yelp. It came from the kitchen. Nora was trapped as the hallway didn’t lead to any exits, unless it was through a window. She moved into her bathroom and shut the door, quickly trying to get the window open. It was big enough that she could shimmy out. But it was hard to pull open.
“Nora!” she heard Cooper’s voice and her heart rate spiked. “Nora run!” he yelled and she heard more commotion out in the front of the house. She finally got the damn window open and pushed the rusty frame up enough for her to get out. Only when she fell out onto the ground she was met by two men with grim expressions standing over her. They had appeared from nowhere.