by Zoe Chant
How can I even be noticing his chest at a time like this? Danny’s in danger! Hayley mentally slapped herself. I’m a mom, I shouldn’t be thinking of anything other than my baby!
Stopping under the tree, Griff tilted his head up, his thick mane of blond hair brushing his broad shoulders. “Well, you’ve certainly got yourself good and stuck there, hey laddie?”
Danny had cowered low to the branch, leaving only a dangling, tufted tail visible. A faint, scared mew drifted down.
Griff put his hands in his pockets, looking completely unperturbed by the situation. “Funny thing,” he said conversationally to Hayley. “My littlest sister did exactly the same, first time she shifted.”
“Your…sister?” Hayley echoed faintly. A pair of wide yellow eyes appeared over the edge of the branch, thirty feet up.
“Aye.” Griff chuckled fondly. “Near panicked the rest of us, see, ‘cause Da had told us all to take good care of the baby while he was out. My other sisters shifted in reflex to climb up after her, and then they got stuck too. So there they were, four little lions in a tree, all too scared to shift back. And only me left with human hands and wits, trying to figure out how to get them all down before our da came home.” Laughter lines creased around his amber eyes as he smiled at her. “At least there’s only one cub to rescue this time.”
His sisters…can turn into lions too? It’s not just Danny?
The thought echoed around Hayley’s stunned mind as Griff pulled off his shoes and socks. Planting his bare feet in the grass, he looked consideringly up at the overhanging tree branches for a second. Then, he leapt.
Hayley gasped as Griff caught hold of a branch at least twelve feet above the ground. His biceps strained against his shirt sleeves as he pulled himself up.
He can’t be a regular human being, she thought, watching in amazement as Griff climbed the tree, using his arms more than his legs. Does he turn into a lion too?
“Ah, and that’s as high as I can go,” Griff said, edging out along a branch that dipped and creaked under his weight. Danny was still out of reach, on a thinner branch higher up. “So the next bit has to be up to you, laddie. What’s your name?”
“He’s-” Hayley started, but Griff waved her to silence. He kept his head cocked, his eyes fixed calmly on Danny’s.
Hayley didn’t hear Danny make even the faintest meow, but Griff nodded in satisfaction. “Pleased to meet you, Danny,” he said. “Now, I’m going to use human words to talk to you, but you can talk back just like that, aye?”
A pause, then Griff laughed. “I suppose I do talk funny to you. ‘Aye’ means ‘yes,’ or ‘okay,’ where I come from.” He laughed again. “No, not Africa. We have lions in Scotland too, believe it or no. Now, Danny, I can’t come to you, so you’re going to have to come to me. Your claws can’t grip so well going backwards, so I need you to turn yourself around.”
Hayley’s heart leapt into her mouth as the leaves rustled. “Be careful, Danny!” she called out.
“No, don’t look at your ma down there, Danny. You keep your eyes on me,” Griff said, a hint of steel entering his warm voice. “Hayley, we’re doing just fine up here. Could do without any distractions, please.”
Hayley bit her knuckles, in agony as Danny gingerly edged around until he was facing Griff. Under Griff’s patient coaching, he inched along the swaying branch toward the firefighter. Bits of bark pattered around Hayley like fine rain, dislodged by Danny’s scrabbling claws.
Danny stopped directly above Griff, but even from the ground Hayley could tell that he was still a couple of feet out of the firefighter’s reach. She wanted to call up to ask what Griff was going to do, but didn’t dare distract them again.
“That’s good, Danny,” Griff said. Carefully, he drew up himself up to a crouching position on the branch. His bare toes gripped the bark.
He can’t possibly be considering standing up on that twig?
If he had been, he thought better of it. With a grimace, Griff dropped back down to straddle the branch again, rubbing absently at his left knee. “Danny,” he said, very calmly. “In a moment, I’m going to ask you to do one more thing. But you’re going to have to trust me.”
Danny made a small, suspicious noise, half-mew and half-growl.
“No, I’m not going to tell you yet. When I do, I need you to let your lion instincts take over, without your human mind getting in the way. I promise you, I won’t ask anything you can’t do. But for this to work, you need to trust me as your alpha. Your lion will understand what that means.”
“What are you doing?” Hayley called, unable to help herself. She couldn’t control the tremble in her voice.
Griff made a short, quelling gesture at her with one hand, never taking his eyes off Danny’s. “In return, I’ll give you this promise. I will keep you safe. I will protect you. I will never, ever let anything harm you, not while I have breath in my lungs and blood in my body. That’s what an alpha lion does for his pride, and that’s my promise to you. So. Will you trust me?”
Danny had gone absolutely motionless, not even the tip of his tail twitching. Hayley couldn’t move herself, every muscle frozen rigid by a combination of terror and Griff’s magnetic, compelling charisma.
“Good,” Griff said softly. He locked his legs around the tree branch, freeing his hands. “Then as your alpha, I tell you…jump.”
Hayley shrieked, her hands flying to her mouth—but Danny was already in mid-air. Without a second of hesitation, he leaped straight into Griff’s outstretched arms.
“There now!” Griff hugged the cub close, rubbing his cheek against the side of Danny’s muzzle in an oddly feline gesture. “Well done, laddie, well done.”
Hayley rushed forward, hands stretching futilely upward. “Danny!”
“Let’s get you down to your ma,” Griff said to Danny, tucking him under one arm. The little cub snuggled against him, leaning trustingly against Griff’s broad chest.
Hayley hopped impatiently on tiptoe as Griff descended, a little more awkwardly than he’d gone up. Danny leaped for her before Griff had even reached the ground, claws tearing the firefighter’s shirt in his desperate haste to get to her. Hayley staggered as he barreled into her, nearly knocked off-balance by his surprising weight. She clung to him, tears finally spilling down her face at the feel of his little heartbeat hammering against her chest.
“Steady now, lass.” Griff’s strong hands grabbed her shoulders, supporting her as her knees threatened to give way. “It’s all right. Everything’s fine now.”
“No, it’s not! My baby’s a lion!” Hayley’s relief gave way to a familiar sense of parental outrage at her offspring for having made her worry in the first place. She thrust Danny out at arm’s length, glaring at him sternly. “Daniel Jamie Parker, you turn back human right this instant!”
Danny scrunched up his face, his little lion nose wrinkling. He let out a plaintive, distressed squeak.
Behind her, Griff chuckled ruefully. “It’ll be easier if you aren’t shaking him like a wee rag doll, Hayley.” Gently but firmly, he pushed down on her shoulders, guiding her to sit on the grass. “Let’s all just catch our breaths for a moment, hey?”
Hayley cuddled Danny on her lap, stroking his soft, spotted fur. “He will go back to normal, won’t he?” she asked anxiously.
“Oh, aye,” Griff said, and the tightness in Hayley’s chest eased at the utter certainty in his tone. “Just needs a little prompting, that’s all.” He knelt down next to her, the slightest hint of a wince flickering across his rugged face as he bent his left knee.
“Are you okay?” Hayley asked. She’d noticed him favoring that leg earlier.
“Ah, just been a while since I climbed a tree,” Griff said lightly, though she was oddly certain that he was in a lot more pain than he was letting on. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
“Me?” Hayley said blankly. It had been so long since anyone had been concerned about how she was doing, she almost couldn’t process the question. �
��That doesn’t matter. What-”
“Yes, it does,” Griff interrupted, with a hint of that strange, commanding tone he’d used on Danny. “You’ve had quite a shock. I have a friend who’s a paramedic. Would you like me to call him? Don’t worry, he’s a shifter too.”
“Shifter?” Hayley latched onto the strange word. “Is that what…” She gestured helplessly at both him and Danny.
“Yes, we’re called shifters. There are quite a few of us, all different kinds, even just here in Brighton. And you still haven’t answered my question.”
Hayley shook her head, trying to grasp the idea of a whole secret world of people who turned into animals. “What question?”
“How. Are. You?” Griff spaced out each word clearly, poking her shoulder lightly in emphasis.
His touch burned on her skin even through two layers of clothing. She was abruptly, acutely aware of how close he was. His intense eyes were focused on her with absolute attention. She could lose herself in those molten, golden depths…
He’s concerned about me because it’s his job. And here I am staring at him slack-jawed like some hormonal teenager.
“Fine. I’m fine,” she stammered, her cheeks heating with embarrassment. Under the pretext of moving Danny to a more comfortable position in her lap, she scooted a little further away from Griff. “I don’t need any help. Thank you.”
Fortunately, the firefighter hadn’t seemed to notice her inappropriate reaction to his proximity. Then again, looking the way he did, he was probably used to women losing their train of thought in his presence. “You just let me know if you change your mind about that, all right? In the meantime, let’s see about getting Danny back into his usual shape. Come here, laddie.”
Danny was normally very shy with everyone except Hayley, but he climbed down from her lap without hesitation. He stumbled a little over his outsized paws as he padded over to Griff, his big yellow eyes fixed trustingly on the firefighter’s deep gold ones.
The corner of Griff’s mouth quirked upward in amusement. “Still a wee bit stuck, hey?”
Plopping his fuzzy hindquarters down on the grass, Danny let out a woeful yowl of agreement.
Griff cocked his head to one side, looking down at Danny thoughtfully for a moment. “You must be hungry after your adventure. My sisters always told me that shifting takes a lot of energy, usually while stealing food off my plate. Bet you could do with a snack.”
Danny’s ears perked up. He let out a hopeful whine.
“That sounds perfect,” Griff agreed. He turned to Hayley. “Danny seems to think there might be a few chocolate chip cookies lurking in your kitchen. Mind if we have some?”
“How do you do that?” Hayley asked as she got to her feet. “Know what he’s saying, I mean.”
“Most shifters of the same general type can talk to each other telepathically,” Griff said, following her into the house. Danny bounced along at his heels. “Wolves to wolves, bears to bears, cats to cats, mythic to mythic…you get the idea. Makes it easier to communicate.”
So he is a lion shifter.
And there are wolves, and bears, and…what did he say?
“Mythic?” she repeated, frowning. “What on earth is a mythic?”
“Oh, you know, uncanny beasties,” Griff said casually, as if there was anything normal about people turning into lions and bears and whatnot. “Dragons, pegasi, wyverns, that sort of thing.”
Hayley stopped dead in the doorway of the kitchen, turning to stare at him. “Dragons?!”
“Don’t worry. They aren’t like the fiery monsters from stories.” Griff hesitated for a fraction of a second. “Mostly. But two of my best friends are dragon shifters, and they’re some of the kindest, bravest, most honorable men I’ve ever known. I’ll introduce you to them, and you’ll soon see that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Danny let out an impressed squeak, staring up at Griff in wide-eyed amazement.
“Aye, real dragons just like in Mike the Knight,” Griff said with a laugh. “One of them is a knight, actually. A proper one, on a quest and all. I’m sure he’d love to tell you all about it.”
Hayley wasn’t sure she was quite so excited at the prospect of meeting an honest-to-God dragon, but her heart did give an odd little skip at Griff’s casual assumption that she’d be meeting his friends.
Don’t read too much into it, she told herself sternly as she stretched on tiptoe to fetch the cookie jar down from its hiding place on top of the fridge. He probably just wants us to meet other shifters so that Danny can learn to control his powers from them. Griff can’t possibly want to spend his free time tutoring a stranger’s kid.
“Mm, these do smell good,” Griff said, taking a cookie from the jar. “Homemade, too. My favorite.” He took a big, appreciative bite.
Danny jumped up, dancing on his hind legs as he pawed at the cookie jar.
Griff shot him a stern look that made the cub instantly sink back against the floor. “Time for a lesson in lion manners. Alpha always tastes first, then mothers, then other grown-ups, and finally cubs. That’s how you show respect for other members of the pride. You want one, Hayley?”
Hayley was dying to ask him what he was up to, but held her tongue, trusting that he knew what he was doing. She shook her head.
Danny whined, his rump wiggling in barely-restrained anticipation.
“Good lad. Yes, it’s your turn.” Griff flipped a cookie to him.
Danny leaped to catch it, his jaws closing with a crunch. Then he froze, a comical look of dismay spreading across his face. He went cross-eyed as if trying to see into his own muzzle.
“Eh? No, don’t think so.” Griff ate the rest of his cookie with every sign of enjoyment. “Tastes fine to me.”
Danny’s jaws worked a few times. He spat out the soggy cookie, glaring at it with an air of wounded betrayal.
“Of course, lion tongues do work a bit different to human ones,” Griff added casually, as though this thought had only just occurred to him. “Can’t taste sweet things. Now, real lions don’t know what they’re missing out on. But you know how that cookie should taste…”
Griff trailed off, a broad grin spreading across his face as the air around Danny shimmered.
“Danny!” Hayley snatched her son up, overcome with joy. She anxiously patted him, searching for any remaining hint of whiskers or fur, but he was entirely back to normal.
And also, stark naked.
He wriggled impatiently out of her embrace. “Can I have a cookie now, Mommy?”
“You can have a cookie.” Nearly faint with relief, Hayley shoved the whole jar into his hands. “You can have all the cookies.” Leaving Danny to his feast, she threw her arms around Griff. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
She felt his hard chest rise with a sharp intake of breath. His strong heartbeat thudded against her cheek, his pulse as fast as if he was running a marathon, though he was absolutely motionless under her hands.
“Oh!” Hayley jerked back as if he was literally rather than just metaphorically hot. She was certain she was blushing from throat to forehead. “I-I’m so sorry, I just-”
“My pleasure,” he interrupted her, his voice a deep, rough rumble. He cleared his throat, glancing down at Danny. “Lad, where’d you leave your clothes?”
“Out in the yard,” Danny mumbled, spraying crumbs.
“Are you clever enough to get dressed all by yourself?” Danny nodded in response. “Off you go then, before you have any more of those. I need to have a word with your ma here.”
Griff waited until Danny’s bare backside had scampered out of sight before he spoke again. “Dad not around, I take it?” he murmured, very quietly.
Hayley couldn’t help flinching a little at the old wound. “No,” she said, trying to sound casual. “He left before Danny was born. He…wasn’t ready for kids. Why?”
“Shifting is hereditary. You get the occasional surprise quirk of genetics, but as a rule, shifter kids have at le
ast one shifter parent.” He cocked an eyebrow at her in unspoken query.
“Well, he certainly didn’t get it from my side of the family! But Reiner never said anything…” Hayley gasped, one hand creeping up to cover her mouth. “Oh. Ljonsson.”
“Dad’s last name, I take it?” Griff grimaced. “I’d say that’s pretty conclusive, then. Reiner Ljonsson. Hmm. He never told you what he really was? Not even after you became pregnant?”
Hayley shook her head. “He didn’t want anything to do with it.”
A low, savage growl ripped from Griff’s throat, making Hayley jump. “Sorry,” he said, looking a little embarrassed. “Lion got the better of me. We’re rather big on family. Or at least, we’re supposed to be. Do you have a way of getting in contact with him?”
“I can try,” Hayley said dubiously. “But I don’t think-”
“Mr. Griff, Mr. Griff!” Hayley cut herself off as Danny ran back into the room, his face aglow with triumph. He had his T-shirt on inside-out and his pants back-to-front, but he proudly presented himself for Griff’s inspection. “I did it all on my own!”
Griff’s eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter, but his face was solemn as he looked the boy up and down. “So you did, Danny. Well done.”
“Mr. Griff?” Danny sidled closer, his expression turning a little shy as he peered up at the towering firefighter. “Can…can I see your lion?”
Something flashed across Griff’s face, too quickly for Hayley to read. “I’m afraid not, lad,” he said, ruffling Danny’s blond hair. “I have to go, unfortunately. No doubt it’s nearly your teatime, and I’m expected back home for my supper too.”
Danny’s hopeful face fell. Hayley felt just as disappointed, which was completely silly of her. She couldn’t help glancing at Griff’s left hand. He wasn’t wearing a wedding band, but lots of men didn’t.
Of course a man like him would already have a partner. It’s no business of mine, anyway. Why should it make any difference to me whether or not Griff has someone waiting for him at home?
The corner of Griff’s mouth twitched up. “Just a friend who needed a place to stay,” he said, as if her entire embarrassing train of thought had been printed on her forehead. “He’s still a bit new to the entire concept of cooking, so it’s best if I’m home before he can get into too much trouble. It’s unfortunate for a firefighter to set his own kitchen alight, after all. But I’d like to come and see you both again soon, if that’s all right with you?”