by Zoe Chant
“She’s at work, and cannot be interrupted.” Daddy glared down at Miss Hunter, his lion looming behind his narrowed eyes. He looked like he was thinking of eating the teacher in one big mouthful—owp!—just like the Tiger Who Came To Tea. “You will hand my son over to me. Now.”
Miss Hunter flinched, her face going white and funny-looking. “I-I- I suppose we can make an exception. Just this once. Danny, go get your things.”
Danny hopped down out of Daddy’s arms, racing to collect his bag and coat before his teacher could change her mind. He grabbed his picture too, being careful not to crumple it.
“I made this for you,” he said, a little shyly, as they walked out of the school. “It’s a present.”
Daddy’s fierce eyes softened as he took the paper. “This is very good. This is you, here, isn’t it? And here’s your mother, and here’s…” His eyebrows drew together. “Wait. Why have you drawn me with long hair?”
“That’s not you. That’s you.” Danny helpfully pointed out the big lion he’d drawn. “That’s Mr. Griff, holding Mommy’s hand.”
We’ve been bad, Simba whimpered, as Daddy’s mouth tightened into a hard, thin line.
“No we haven’t,” Danny whispered to his lion…though he wasn’t entirely sure about that himself. Daddy looked awful mad about something.
“And why,” Daddy said, a hint of a snarl in his voice, “is ‘Mr. Griff’ in this picture?”
“Because it’s a picture of our family,” Danny said, puzzled. “Mr. Griff’s my alpha.” He brightened as something occurred to him. “Does that mean he’s your alpha too, Daddy?”
He jumped as Daddy ripped the paper in half, crumpling up the piece with Mr. Griff and dropping it on the ground. “He is not your alpha. I am your alpha. Now, come on.”
He isn’t our alpha. Simba’s ears flattened. Why is he saying he is? Has he beaten our alpha?
“Daddy, you didn’t fight Mr. Griff, did you?” Danny asked nervously, having to trot to keep up with Daddy’s much longer legs.
“Not yet,” Daddy growled. He glanced down at Danny sharply, suddenly looking a little wary. “Why? Do you think he’s stronger than me?”
Yes, Simba said, with complete certainty.
“Um…” Somehow, Danny didn’t think Daddy would be happy to hear that. “Mommy says it’s not nice to fight people, anyway.”
Daddy snorted. “‘Mommy’ isn’t a lion.” He pointed at a car—a real nice car, sleek and low and so shiny Danny could see his own face in the bright red paint. “Here we are.”
Danny’s eyes widened. “Wow! Is this really yours, Daddy? It’s like a real-life racing car!”
“It is a real-life racing car.” Daddy looked happier, his tight shoulders easing down. “Bet your so-called alpha doesn’t have one like it. In you get. We’re going for a ride.”
Thrilled, Danny climbed into the leather passenger seat—then hesitated. “Daddy, there’s no booster seat.”
“So?” Daddy slid behind the wheel. “There’s a seat belt.”
Danny squirmed, torn between his desire to ride in the amazing car and dutiful obedience to Mommy’s repeated safety warnings. “I’m not allowed to ride without a booster seat. It’s against the law.”
“Human law.” Daddy snorted again. “We’re lions. We make our own laws. Now buckle up.”
Simba nudged him, wordlessly urging him to obey the bigger lion. Danny didn’t need much persuasion. He happily clicked his seat belt shut. “Where are we going, Daddy?”
The car roared like an animal as Daddy started the engine. “It’s a surprise.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Griff
“You have been pining all day,” John announced without preamble, barging into Griff’s room without knocking first. “You need to eat.”
“I’m not pining,” Griff said, without looking round. He lay on his back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m resting.”
“‘Resting’ involves taking care of your body, oath-brother. You are pining.” John thumped a tray down onto Griff’s bedside table. “I have made you nourishing soup. By boiling things.”
From the smell that hit Griff’s nostrils, John had made soup by boiling all the things. “Thanks. But I’m not hungry.”
John hummed, ominously. Griff rolled over to see the sea dragon glaring at him with narrowed eyes, the mysterious soup rising up out of the bowl like a cobra.
*You will feed yourself,* John said telepathically, as tendrils of soup wove around his outstretched hand. *Or I will feed you.*
Faced with the prospect of having terrible soup magically forced into his bodily orifices, Griff sat up quickly. “Ah…on second thought, I’m starving. Need more than soup. Would you be offended if I made myself a sandwich?”
*I would be delighted if you made yourself a sandwich.* John didn’t stop humming as he followed Griff to the kitchen, the soup coiling around his wrist like a monstrous snake. *I will keep the soup ready, though. Just in case you lose your appetite.*
Griff shot him a level look as he started slicing bread. “John. Did you make terrible soup on purpose?”
*I do not follow your meaning,* John sent, his blue eyes as wide and tranquil as a tropical lagoon. *I am just a simple sea dragon who does not understand your strange land ways. Eat your sandwich.*
Griff shook his head ruefully, but complied. John waited until he’d swallowed the last bite before letting the reeking soup slide off his hand and down the drain.
“There,” the sea dragon shifter said, sounding pleased. “Now you have fortified yourself. Restored in body, you are prepared to steel your soul and face your destiny.”
“What destiny?” Griff said suspiciously.
John slid Griff’s cellphone across the kitchen table.
Griff looked at it. “My destiny involves the phone.”
“Your destiny involves your mate.” John pointed at the phone. “Call her.”
Griff groaned, rubbing his palms over his face. “John…”
“More terrible soup,” John rumbled, “could be made.”
“I don’t care if you force feed me cream-of-pickled-herring-and-peanut-butter,” Griff snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the sea dragon. “I am not calling Hayley. For a start, I don’t even know her number.”
His forbidding expression never changing, John handed him a scrap of paper. “Now you do.”
Griff’s lion and eagle stirred, hackles rising with suspicious jealousy. He thrust them back down again. “Why do you have Hayley’s number?”
“Because I asked her for it, last night.” John shrugged one massive shoulder, his stern face softening a little. “I know you, my oath-brother. I knew that you would choose to tear out your heart rather than risk causing your mate future pain. But there is some pain that can only be embraced. Your sacrifice is noble, but misguided. You are being too honorable.”
Griff let out a short, ironic huff of breath. “Says the literal Knight?”
“Honor is not a shield to hide behind.” John nudged the phone closer to him. “It is a sword, to give you the strength to face your demons. You must face what frightens you, oath-brother. You must not flee from it.”
Griff slammed his fist down onto the table, making his empty plate jump. “For God’s sake, I’m not frightened of Reiner! It’s just that he’s Danny’s father. He’s the one that Danny wants, the one he needs. Not me. I can’t get in the way.”
“I did not mean Reiner. I meant what truly frightens you.” John met his eyes, his own deep and dark. “Living.”
Griff was saved from having to try to unravel that one by his phone ringing. He caught it as it vibrated off the table. Unknown Caller, read the display, followed by a number. He glanced from the screen to the note. It was the same number.
Hayley’s number.
“Your mate cries out for you,” John said, as Griff’s thumb hesitated over the End Call button. “Will you truly ignore her plea?”
His
eagle and lion both leaned against his mind, from opposite directions, until Griff felt like he would be crushed flat between them. A warning, prickling energy ran over his skin. Griff clenched his jaw, but had no choice but to submit to his animals’ desires. He didn’t have the strength to resist another uncontrolled shift.
He put the phone to his ear, silently cursing his own weakness. “Hayley?”
“Griff!” Adrenaline surged through Griff’s blood at the sheer panic in his mate’s voice. “Reiner took Danny. They’re gone.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hayley
Hayley clung to Chase’s long black mane, the wind whipping her own hair across her face. At any other time, soaring through the sky on the back of a pegasus would have been a magical experience. But right now, she was too sick with dread to think of anything other than her missing son.
“Reiner hasn’t taken him to the airport, at least,” Griff shouted into her ear. His powerful body pressed reassuringly against her back, his strong arms holding her steady. “He can’t be more than a few miles away. Chase says that he can sense Danny clearly.”
At least that means he’s alive. Hayley held onto that thought as tightly as she gripped the pegasus. It was cold comfort. Alive wasn’t the same as unharmed.
“Hayley.” Griff’s arm tightened around her waist. “I’m Danny’s alpha. I’d sense if he was in trouble.”
Please let that be true, Hayley prayed.
Chase curved his neck, looking back at Griff with one black, intelligent eye. Hayley felt Griff nod as if in response to something the pegasus shifter had said. “Chase says they’re down there, in those woods up ahead. Hang on.”
Despite the warning, Hayley still lurched as Chase banked hard. Only Griff’s grip kept her from sliding off the pegasus’s slick back as they spiraled down.
Griff leaned over, his intent eyes scanning the trees below. “There, Chase! I saw them. Put us down in that clearing over there.”
Chase obligingly swooped down to the clearing, beating his wings hard to settle gracefully to the ground. Griff slid off his back first, with a brief grimace as he landed on his bad leg. Nonetheless, he lifted Hayley down easily, setting her on her feet.
“They saw us landing,” he said, pointing into the woods. “They’re coming to meet us.”
“Danny!” Hayley cried out, unable to keep the shrill note of panic out of her voice. She stumbled across the clearing, tufts of dry brown grass catching at her feet. “Danny!”
An excited mrrrr-row! answered her. Hayley fell to her knees, sobbing in relief as Danny bounded out from between the trees. He was in lion form, his spotted, tawny coat perfectly blending with the autumn leaves. There was something more confident, bolder, about his movements as he bounced toward her. He no longer tripped over his own paws, or let his tail trail forgotten behind him. He had the fluid, beautiful grace of an animal. A real animal.
He’s not a little boy dressed up as a lion, Hayley realized, properly, for the first time. He is a lion.
She was knocked flat on her back by the power of his pounce. He bumped his forehead enthusiastically against her own, clearly delighted with himself—and then paused. He sniffed her, an anxious-sounding mrrr? rumbling in his throat.
“Your ma was worried sick about you,” Griff told him. He didn’t raise his voice or look at all angry—just stern, and serious. “We all were. We didn’t know where you’d gone.”
“It’s all right now,” Hayley said quickly, feeling Danny cringe under Griff’s obvious disapproval. She hugged him tight, rubbing her face against his soft fur. “Everything’s okay, baby. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Danny’s rough pink tongue licked gently at her tear-streaked cheek. He whimpered, looking up at Griff.
“You weren’t to know,” Griff said. His gaze moved to the tree line, and his jaw set in a hard, tight line. “But he didn’t tell us.”
Hayley’s pulse leaped as she caught sight of an enormous, golden form slinking through the undergrowth. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to grab her child and run, run, away from the dangerous predator.
It’s only Reiner, she tried to tell herself…but there was no “only” about it.
She’d only ever seen lions lazing around in zoos before, safely behind bars. She’d never realized before just how big they were. Reiner’s massive jaws could have comfortably engulfed her entire head. His paws were bigger than dinner plates. She couldn’t move, couldn’t take her eyes off that powerful, terrifying form as he stalked toward her.
Griff’s hand fell on her shoulder, protective and comforting. There was more than a hint of snarl in his voice as he addressed Reiner. “That’s enough. Stop trying to intimidate her.”
Reiner halted, though his lip wrinkled back a little, exposing a fang. He sank to his hindquarters, curling his tail over his front paws. His entire attitude was insouciant, just daring them to object to his behavior.
Maybe it was Griff’s solid presence at her back, or maybe just anger sparked by Reiner’s arrogant, entitled air, but Hayley found her courage at last. Danny jumped off her as she surged to her feet.
Striding up to Reiner, she poked him right in his big pink nose. “You do not take Danny anywhere without telling me first! Ever!”
Reiner glared right back at her. His tawny form shimmered, turning back into a man. “I am his father,” he said haughtily, apparently completely unselfconscious about being stark naked. “I have the right to be with my son.”
Reiner might be entirely unabashed by his lack of clothing, but Hayley wasn’t. She jerked her eyes back upward, her cheeks heating. He was just as athletically muscular as she remembered. She didn’t find him at all sexually attractive anymore, but she had to admit he was still, objectively speaking, a beautiful man.
Once, that sculpted, powerful body had completely addled her mind, blinding her to the flaws hidden under the attractive surface. She didn’t regret the relationship—she’d gotten Danny out of it, after all—but she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.
From Reiner’s sudden smirk, he’d caught the involuntary drift of her attention. “Thinking of old times, Hayley?” He flexed a little, his abs tightening. “If you’re feeling a pang of regret, I might be persuaded to give you a second chance.”
“You left me, Reiner!” Hayley jabbed him again with her finger, this time in the middle of his hard chest. “You do not get to just waltz in here and claim full parental rights. You haven’t even acknowledged Danny before now!”
“Hayley,” Griff said warningly. He turned to Danny. “Lad, me and your ma and da need to have one of those boring grown-up conversations now. Why don’t you go play with my friend Chase over there? Practice your pouncing.”
Chase stomped one back hoof, shooting Griff a look that was clearly the equine equivalent of I will get you for this. Nonetheless, he pranced away, swishing his long black tail invitingly at Danny. The lion cub didn’t need any further encouragement. With the enthusiasm of a kitten spotting a laser pointer, he bounded after the pegasus.
“I thought this was something you’d probably prefer he didn’t hear,” Griff murmured to Hayley apologetically. His voice hardened as he turned to Reiner. “You only became interested in Danny once you learned he was a shifter, didn’t you?”
“Of course,” Reiner said, as if this was not only understandable but admirable. “What on earth would I want with a human child? I kept track of him, naturally, just in case it turned out the shifter genes bred true.”
“If he’d never shifted, you would never have gotten in touch?” Hayley said, unable to comprehend how anyone could be so cold. “He’s your son, Reiner, regardless of whether he turns into a lion or not!”
“If he was not a shifter, he would be no son of mine.” Reiner looked across the clearing at Danny, who had managed to leap onto Chase’s back. Reiner’s expression softened as he watched Danny cling onto the pegasus with all four paws, his milk-teeth nipping playfully at Chase’s neck.
“But he is. And he is a son to be proud of. Look at him! So bold and fearless. He will be a true alpha one day.”
Hayley couldn’t deny that there was genuine affection in Reiner’s voice. “Well…I’m glad you’ve at least decided to take an interest now. But Reiner, you have to see things from my perspective. I know you’re trying to make up for lost time, but I nearly died of terror when I went to pick Danny up from school and discovered that he wasn’t there. You can’t do that again.”
Reiner glared back at her, his customary arrogance sliding back in place like a mask. “I will do what is best for my son. He needs to learn shifter ways, not to be locked up in some useless human school. Why did you worry? You knew he was with me.”
“Yes, but I don’t know you, Reiner! You wanted me to kill Danny before he was even born!” Angry tears sprang into Hayley’s eyes as she remembered his horrible parting words, years ago. “How was I supposed to know you didn’t just come back to finish the job?”
Reiner’s muscles bunched with outrage. “How dare you imply that I would ever harm my son!”
“Both of you, that’s enough.” Griff spoke quietly, but his voice rang with that odd, iron-hard note of utter command. “He’ll hear you if you start shouting at each other.”
Hayley had indeed been about to yell at Reiner, but she found that her mouth had snapped shut of its own accord. Reiner too subsided, though he didn’t look at all happy about it.
“I am Danny’s alpha,” Griff said to Reiner, that ominous, forceful growl still edging his words. “He is a member of my pride, and I am bound to protect him. I can tell that you would indeed never hurt him, but that does not mean I trust your judgment. Until I am satisfied that he is safe in your care, you will not take him anywhere without my permission.”
Reiner held Griff’s stare. His lips pulled back from his teeth, like a lion baring its fangs. “I could challenge you for him.”