A Lion's Heart: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Shadow Shifters Book 7)

by A. C. Arthur

  “It is unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced before and as hard as I try to go back and recall any anomaly related to being a shifter that would possibly explain how this is possible when we’ve only known each other such a short time, I cannot come up with any.”

  She didn’t have an answer and she didn’t like that. She wouldn’t like not knowing something. The sound in her voice was almost sad. Decan did not like that.

  “Let’s go,” he said simply and reached around her to disengage the locks on the door.

  As the wall pulled back providing a seamless opening Nisa slipped through first and Decan followed. As with all the doors leading above ground, they stepped out into a forested area with trees instantly surrounding them. The climate above ground had changed significantly in the years the Shadows had been underground. This led to a decrease in the human population in more than sixty-five percent of the once occupied areas. Big cities had dwindled to look like ghost towns, vegetation growing through concrete walkways, trees sprouting and maturing through abandoned buildings. Deserts were filled with dwellings created amidst sandstorms. Vehicles now possessed larger tires able to navigate the many different terrains that had evolved and to move at speeds greater than the shifters that the humans chased on a daily basis.

  Managing to ensure that each of their doorways were protected from sight and scent had been a huge feat for the Shadows, but as the above ground world had changed, so had the underground one they’d created. Their technology had advanced significantly under their private and unsanctioned lifestyle. They’d been able to not only amplify their own transportation systems, but create new weapons and protections against the elements and the humans. It was a new world, Decan thought, as his booted feet trampled over old branches and debris. A world that the Shadows deserved to live in openly.

  He walked only a couple of steps ahead of Nisa affording her the only amount of privacy he could. The chuffing sound of her cat signaled she’d shifted and seconds later Decan shed his clothes and did the same. She brushed past him in a slow motion that signaled she was open to him walking with her.

  Decan would guess this wasn’t what a human would call a normal sight—a white lion and an exquisite yellowish brown jaguar. They moved at an even pace, large paws pressing into the earth while mature trees provided a canopy of protection. It was well past midnight and all was dark. Where there used to be sounds of night creatures echoing throughout forested areas at this time, now there were sounds of the unknown. Not just wildlife, but whatever else lurked in an atmosphere that had been cloaked in mysterious weather anomalies and increased solar activity.

  Moonlight broke through the thicket of trees creating dramatic slashes of light through the total darkness. Nisa’s coat looked golden whenever she walked through the light, fading into the darkness mysteriously as she moved past it. She was a glorious creature to look upon, the strength in her legs and flanks apparent. The pride and fierceness set in the way she held her head high and stared straight ahead as if there were nothing out there that could frighten or conquer her, was astounding. And entrancing.

  Decan could not stop watching her. Of course his cat was keeping all its senses on alert because he knew that danger could appear at any second. Still, he never took his eyes off her. She wanted to run long and hard, to cover miles and miles of territory in an attempt to exhaust herself of all her worries. It was what she’d become accustomed to doing. Decan could admit that the act in itself was helpful. If she weren’t who she was and the world weren’t what it was now, then there would be no concern.

  He knew this terrain. There was a creek toward the south. Coming up close to her he made a grunting sound and then took the lead, running through the maze of trees at a speed that allowed his mind partial freedom. She followed close behind, not willing to let him have too much of a lead. They ran far and fast until his paws touched the cool water first. He shifted and submerged himself beneath what he knew in the light of day would be a clear spring beneath an eighteen foot waterfall. At night the place was dark and shadowy, the atmosphere a thick humid haze.

  Decan loved to swim. He enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness and being surrounded by the powerful element. When he finally came up for air, lifting his hands to drag them down his face, his eyes opened to see her not five feet in front of him. She’d shifted as well and had also submerged herself in the water. Now she was upright with everything from her shoulders down under water, her head tilted back, arms raised, hands squeezing water from her hair. She looked exotic, like a vision from some surreal dream, as water rolled off her arms, dripping from her elbows and spotting her face. Her lips parted as she sucked in air, eyes opened to mere slits, and as if summoned, luminescent moonlight rested over her, casting her dark hue in an ethereal glow.

  He was speechless. Breathless. Motionless. For endless moments as even the lion inside him remained still. In awe.

  “You stare a lot,” she said without turning to him.

  “You’re something to stare at,” he replied.

  “I’m sure you’ve seen plenty both above and underground,” she continued and then lay back on the water to float.

  “Not like you,” he told her truthfully as he closed some of the space between them.

  There was a need to be close to her, all the time that Decan didn’t feel like fighting at the moment.

  “You’ve seen the world. Both worlds and you chose to come back underground. Why?”

  “I have something to do there,” he admitted.

  She didn’t break her stride and Decan stayed close, treading water.

  “I do too,” she told him.

  “But you like coming above ground,” he said extending his arm so that he could touch her fingers with his own.

  She did not pull away at the contact.

  “I feel like I belong here,” she told him. “You could say I’m the child that wants exactly what her parents tell her she can’t have.”

  There was a hint of humor in her tone, but when she continued, Decan knew just how serious she was.

  “Actually, I’m the woman who wants more. I want what we should all have without fighting or compromise. It’s an intense feeling, one that I’ve always known I would act on…damn the consequences.”

  “Damn them, huh?” Decan asked and laced his fingers with hers, holding on as if he thought with her admission she might swim far away from him.

  She turned then, just slightly so that water sloshed over part of her face.

  “We should not be prisoners, hiding underground to appease a world of fools who are too afraid to realize that man and animal have co-existed for a very long time,” she told him.

  “They’ve co-existed as man being the ruler and animal—”

  “Being smart enough to let man think he’s ruling them, but still commanding our space and killing man when he reached beyond our boundaries,” she continued his statement.

  Decan couldn’t help but smile because she thought a lot of the same things he did.

  “This is dangerous,” he said after a time.

  “Being above ground where the humans that hunt us might easily come upon us,” she said and then shrugged. “I guess it is. But it’s also living.”

  Again, Decan agreed.

  “I was referring to this thing between us,” he added.

  She stilled.

  “I shouldn’t want you,” he admitted. “But I do.”

  “Okay,” she whispered and let him pull her toward him. “I guess I’m not supposed to want to be touched by a lion. But I do.”

  And touch her he did.

  Decan found her other hand, lacing his fingers through hers as her body aligned with his beneath the water. At first he held her hands under the water, then he lifted them until her arms were above her head, her head tilted back slightly.

  “I like touching you,” he whispered. “Far too much.”

  His fingers slid slowly down the length of her upstretched arms, gliding along her s
oft skin similar to the way rivulets of water had as well. When he continued down, keeping his fingers only on her, touching the curve of her breasts, she let her arms fall down, hands going to his shoulders.

  “It is a delicious temptation,” she said. “One I never imagined existed.”

  “The things I want to do to you will probably surpass your imagination as well,” he admitted as he cupped her breasts.

  The weight of them in his hands was intoxicating and Decan wanted to close his eyes and simply continue touching her. But he knew that wasn’t a good idea.

  “Try me,” she told him and leaned in closer to kiss his shoulder.

  Her tongue moved in circles over his skin, her fingers gripping him tighter. This belonged to him. Her touch, the soft whisper of her words, the warmth of her tongue, it was all his. Decan knew this because it felt more right than anything he’d ever thought would in his life.

  “You’re…this isn’t… we can’t,” he finally managed, the words ragged in his throat.

  She paused and looked up at him. “Not one thought I’ve had since I was fifteen was what it should have been. I know who I am and what was expected of me. But I also know what I want.”

  She kissed his chest, moving from one hardened nipple to the other, taking the tight buds between her teeth and biting down until Decan could do nothing but let his head lull back and groan. She was acting like a woman who knew what she wanted. Regardless of the facts—she was the Assembly Leader’s daughter and eleven years younger than him. Her mouth was hot on his skin, her nails scraping along the insatiable creature resting just beneath the surface.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” Decan continued as the struggle became harder.

  He became harder. The moment she wrapped a leg around his waist and rubbed her bare center against the length of his arousal.

  “It’s okay, Decan,” she whispered and lowered a hand between them to grasp his cock, rubbing him along her swollen folds. “I’m not looking for a joining or anything so permanent. I believe in fate and things happening for a reason. You were selected to bring me here,” she continued, gasping when the crest of his cock rubbed over the tight bud of her clit. “You were selected to bring me…pleasure.”

  That word, in her voice…Decan wanted nothing more than to sink deep inside her at this very moment.

  “If that’s what you want,” he replied without contemplating whether he should or what would happen if he did.

  He moved a hand to the base of her neck, then up to bury his fingers in her soft, damp hair. He pulled her head back roughly, aroused further by the surprised look in her eyes and the quick lick of her tongue over her lips. He stared at her mouth, visualizing how delicious his cock would look moving in and out of it. On a hungry sigh Decan slammed his mouth over hers, his tongue thrusting deep into her mouth as her nails dug into the skin of his biceps. He kissed her until the warning bells were silenced in his mind. Until his lion was roaring with need and he thought he could hear her jaguar responding in turn. It was the strangest thing, and then…it wasn’t. He’d heard stories of cats knowing their companheiros before the human part of the shifter figured it out. It was an instant recognition causing the animals to be immediately drawn to each other in ways that the human sometimes could not explain. The bond was strong and tended to take over anything else.

  Decan had certainly believed in the companheiro connection, he just didn’t believe he would find one, not after everything he’d been through. Hell, he didn’t even know if he wanted one.

  The sound of Nisa moaning just before she sucked his tongue deep into her mouth, had Decan giving up on any of those thoughts. All he could manage was the here and now.

  Tearing his mouth away from hers wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. She looked up at him in question and he said only one thing, “I’ve got you.”

  She looked like she trusted those words and when he lowered her back into the water, she went willingly. He stretched her body out the same way she’d been when she was floating and then quickly moved around her once more, until he could lift her legs and place them on his shoulders. Her bottom lip now caught between her teeth, Nisa stared up at him while moving her arms under water to stay afloat. Her nipples poked through the water’s surface. His cock throbbed at the sight and his hands tightened on her calves.

  “I’m not an easy shifter,” he said, his voice gruff. “When I take, I take it all.”

  “Take me,” she told him, her eyes blinking and changing to the golden hue of her cat. “Take me, now.”

  Decan pulled her up even closer and almost smiled when he realized she was in tune with his thoughts. He lowered his head and touched his mouth to the waiting heat of her pussy.

  She tensed and whispered something incoherent just as he used his tongue to separate her folds. Letting his hands fall, Decan placed them at the base of her back for further support. The action also brought her closer, an effort his cat greatly appreciated as he flattened his tongue and licked her from her clit back to her entrance, delving so deep inside her, she squirmed in his arms. Her scent was everywhere now, sifting quickly through his nostrils, over his tongue, slipping down his throat. His cat purred at the delicious bliss unfolding. The man pressed his face further, until he felt as if he might be drowning in her.

  She arched her back, moving her head from side-to-side, causing ripples in the water as he continued. Licking and thrusting his tongue inside of her, sucking and enjoying. Her thighs convulsed as Decan pursed his lips and pulled her clit into his mouth. She trembled all over and when he figured her climax had completely taken her, Decan shifted, moving so that he could hold her upright in his arms once more. He kissed her again, letting her taste herself on his lips. Letting his senses attempt to return to normal. She’d tasted sweet and felt like a slice of heaven as she’d thrust her hips to meet his ministrations. He held her tightly against him, keeping his eyes closed so as not to let the outside in. That would be a mistake, he knew. The questions, the warnings, the reality of how badly he’d messed up was waiting for him the second he opened his eyes. So he kept them closed, kept his hands on her skin, his tongue rubbing languidly against hers and he enjoyed.

  For once in Decan’s thirty-one years, he enjoyed being with a woman. With this woman.

  What did one say after that?

  How was she supposed to act now that he’d…or rather they’d…?

  Decan’s reaction was to hurry them back to land and shift. It was quick and bewildering. Almost as fast as he’d finally ended their kiss and moved them through the water. For a second Nisa wondered if he’d scented danger, but when she let her mind go clear long enough to try and scent something on her own, she came up with nothing. So this was officially his reaction to the undeniable pleasure he’d just brought her?

  Okay, well she would simply follow suit. For now.

  She shifted and they ran back in the direction they’d come until they were once again at the entrance to Oasis. She moved faster this time, dressing in the leggings and t-shirt she’d worn and slipping on her shoes. Decan was just pulling his shirt down over his head when she turned around to face him.

  “You don’t have to try to figure out a way to tell me that this changes nothing. I already know that. We’ll go inside and to our separate rooms and I’ll be at breakfast with you and Jace in the morning,” she told him.

  He let out a breath as his hands fell to his side. “We’re in no position for these types of changes. And I’m not sure you should attend the meeting tomorrow.”

  Nisa nodded. “The changes I want to make will require me to attend that meeting.”

  When he was going to say something else, she raised a hand to stop him.

  “As you probably know from watching me all those months, I’m pretty tuckered out after a run. So this is where I leave you,” she said and then turned to open the access door. Because, unlike the one last night, this was one she could open.

  She didn’t want him to say any
thing else, didn’t know how she would react if he did. She’d told him the truth. She wanted him. He’d given her a bit of pleasure as a preamble? Or as a parting gift? She wasn’t certain. However, what she was clear on was that she would not stand there and beg for more, no matter how much she wanted it. Pride was oftentimes a bitch.

  He followed her through the door and stuck right behind her as they moved to the elevator and then she went to her room. Nisa did not speak to him again, nor did she turn to look at him. He’d given her something no other man had given her. Sure, she’d mastered providing her own orgasms by the time she’d turned sixteen, but this time was totally different. Never had she felt the pleasure traveling so fiercely through her entire body. And while her virginity was still intact, she felt like the super orgasm was enough. Right?

  Even if it wasn’t, to her cat’s dismay, it was all they would have because Decan was clearly intent on only doing his job from this point on. She was too for that matter, so madam cat would just have to deal with that. Nisa was adamant about that fact as she kicked her shoes off and dropped down onto the bed, thrusting a pillow firmly between her legs in an attempt to quell the still throbbing need.

  CHAPTER 9

  “I want you to attend the gala and take the meeting like we discussed,” Jace spoke after they’d had breakfast.

  “There’s a Croesteriia who we came across in the tunnels. She has information about the murders. I can take her with me,” Decan said before Nisa had a chance to speak.

  He was trying to keep her quiet. They all were.

  Nisa had been first in the dining hall, already filling her plate from the buffet when they’d all come in with shocked and worried expressions on their faces. She’d taken a seat at the table and had eaten that food as if it were the best in the world. Her decision to continue with her original mission had been solidified when she’d finally fallen asleep last night. Whatever was going on between her and Decan was secondary. And whatever Jace said to try and stop her would fail dismally thanks to her early morning research efforts and a phone call from Shya.