by Amira Rain
I wasn't even sure if Cameron had fed him dinner the night before.
With tears now streaming down my face, I gave Sunny a kiss on the top of his knotty little head, then got his food and filled his bowl to the brim before getting him some shredded chicken from a plastic container in the fridge for a treat.
While he began wolfing all of it down, I sat next to him on the kitchen floor, eyes still misting over because of my guilt. I was so focused on him and his eating, wanting to make sure that he didn't choke, that I didn't even hear Cameron come into the house until I heard his heavy boots thudding in the kitchen. I looked up just in time to see him look at Sunny with a frown.
"He's hungry again? I gave him two full bowls this morning along with a scrambled egg...and he had full two bowls for dinner last night, and also a large handful of shredded chicken. At the rate he's going, he's going to be the tubbiest yellow lab that ever lived."
Now feeling slightly better about how hungry Sunny had seemed when I'd arrived in the kitchen, I got to my feet, wiping my eyes.
"He just really likes food, okay?"
With his face immediately registering alarm, Cameron crossed the distance between us in three strides and took my face in his hands.
"What's wrong? Why have you been crying?"
My tears had subsided, but now they filled my eyes again, and I resigned myself to the fact that it was probably just going to be an emotional morning, maybe not surprising, considering the stressful and upsetting events of the previous day.
Experiencing an ache in my chest similar to the one I'd felt the day before, though not as strong, I wiped away a few tears before telling Cameron that maybe we should go sit down at the table and talk. Once we were seated, he at the head of the table, not challenged for the spot any longer, and I right beside him to his right, I briefly told him the whole saga that began with Cynthia telling me that the government was sure that either he or Elliot was in league with the Angels. I finished the story right at the point that Cameron had come charging into the building site the day before.
Cameron had taken my hands in his across the table when we'd sat down, and he had continued to hold them while I'd been speaking. Now he gave them a little squeeze before responding to what I'd said. "I'm sorry to say that none of this comes as a huge surprise to me. In fact, I'd kind of inferred a lot of this. I've suspected Elliot of working with the Angels for over a month, but I could never prove it...which is why I never said anything to you about it. Without proof, I figured you might just think I was being a jealous lover, trying to eliminate the competition."
With a sigh, I conceded that I might have, then went on to apologize to him for suspecting, and even eventually believing, that he was the traitor. "I should have known better, Cameron. But I just started having all these suspicions, some of them fueled by Elliot, and then what you said to me yesterday about you not being able to allow yourself to love me, and you not being the man I think you are...and then I discovered that you're not building a new house on the site...and all those things just made me think that you were the one."
Heaving a deep sigh, Cameron gave my hands another squeeze. "I think I owe you some explanations. Everything I said yesterday was the truth, but it killed me to say it to you."
"Well, what did you mean by it all? Why can't you allow yourself to love me, and why aren't you the man I think you are?"
Cameron heaved another sigh. "I'm not the ever-strong shifter you might think of me as. I'm a damaged man, Jayme. I'm a man with a past that has made me not want to let anyone else into my heart ever again. I've learned that loving people only brings pain in the end, so I haven't allowed myself to do that anymore. That's why I couldn't let Sunny inside the house, even after I'd been feeding him for weeks. I just didn't want to allow myself to love him."
Seeing his gray eyes filled with such clear pain made my eyes begin to mist anew, and I quietly asked him to tell me what had happened in his life that had made him put up a wall like he had.
With bright sunlight filtering in through the dining area curtains lighting his face with a soft, golden glow, he took a deep breath before speaking. "I lost a lot of friends while I was in the military...some of them very good friends...men I saw as my brothers. Then, The Takeover happened, and I lost my parents and my two younger sisters, all of them killed by the Angels in those first few chaotic weeks. Like your father, my father was also killed while trying to fight them...while making a stand with a group of other men who just wanted to keep the city of Chicago free.
"The Angels even killed our family pets...a cat and two dogs who were all like family members. But even after all that, I knew I had to pick myself up and keep fighting, just like I'd always done. I became a shifter not long after my family was killed, and the government dispatched me to lead a tiny village of shifters and Gifteds in western Tennessee. There were only about twenty of us there, and for a few years, everything was good. We got along, fought hard, and successfully defended the area that we were supposed to, despite being such a small group."
Cameron paused, still looking at me, but with his eyes somehow far away at the same time, almost seeming to look right through me.
"What happened, Cameron?"
Refocusing his gaze on me, he cleared his throat before continuing. "I arrived back to the village after a brief trip one night to find that all my fellow fighters were dead. All the shifters that I considered my brothers, the Gifteds I considered my sisters, and one Gifted that I loved. All of them had been overtaken by a group of Angels. They'd even killed our six dogs, one of them my own."
Cameron paused to clear his throat again, and I told him I was so sorry.
After saying thank you, he cleared his throat once again before continuing. "Shortly after the massacre, the government reassigned me to a different village in Tennessee, but after several months, I found I just didn't want to be in the state anymore, so they reassigned me here, where I resolved to put everything in Tennessee, and everything even before that, in the past once and for all. I resolved never to allow myself to love any person, or any creature, ever again, so that I'd never have to feel any pain ever again...but, damn, you've made it hard, Jayme. You've made it so hard for me to continue to refuse to allow myself to love."
Blinking back a few tears, I told him that he didn't have to continue on fighting. "That's no way to live, Cameron. That's just torturing yourself. It's almost a slap in the face to everyone you ever loved and lost, too...do you seriously think they'd all be happy to know that you've been denying yourself love for so long?"
He didn't answer, just dropped his gaze to our clasped hands, looking a little ashamed.
"You owe it to yourself and everyone you loved and lost to at least try to love again, Cameron. At least try to allow yourself."
Again, he didn't answer, and I gave his hands a squeeze.
"I'm not going anywhere. With my skills as a Gifted, and with you helping to protect me, I'm not going to be killed."
He finally looked up from our hands. "You can't promise that."
"Well...no, but I can try to trust that I won't be. You can try to trust that I won't be, and we can take steps to make sure that I never am." Pausing briefly, I looked deeply into his eyes. "You have to start living again, Cameron, and part of that is loving someone. I love you, and it will break my heart if you can't even bring yourself to at least try."
Now it was Cameron's turn to look deeply into my eyes, and he did so with his own eyes turning just slightly pink.
"I'll try, Jayme...and really, it's not even try. I do already love you, but I promise I'll try not to keep you at arm's length anymore out of fear of being hurt."
With a blink of my eyes sending a few tears rolling down my cheeks, I smiled.
"I like the sound of that."
A short while later, Cameron and I set about making biscuits to go with some eggs and ham for our first breakfast together without Elliot.
When the biscuits were done, Cameron took a bite o
f one right out of the oven, piping hot. "Mm. Definitely better than sandwich bread with cold butter."
Sunny thought so, too, begging for bite after bite until Cameron finally cut him off, calling him a greedy little thing. Although even after that, I saw him slip Sunny yet another tiny bite under the table.
After breakfast, Cameron and I enjoyed a long lovemaking session in my bed, just holding each other in the soft sunlight once our passion had been spent.
After a quiet minute or so just spent thinking, I lifted my face from his chest to look at him.
"I can't deny that sharing a bed with you and Elliot was...well, it was definitely a thrill. But from here on out, I just want you, Cameron. I just want us to fulfill each other emotionally and in the bedroom...just the two of us." I paused, studying his face. "If that's what you want, too, anyway."
He slowly curved his mouth into a devastatingly sexy half-grin.
"I was hoping to hear you say something to that effect sometime."
Being that Michael Crowley wasn't informed that Elliot and Brent had been killed, he and all the Angels and wolves under his command attempted to attack Haverwood two days later, as planned. However, the attack didn't go quite as they all expected, with all of us Haverwood fighters killing many of them and driving the rest away before they even got within a mile of the village. Having had advance notice, we'd had ample time to plan and prepare for the attack, which gave us a crucial edge, since they outnumbered us at least three-to-one.
It was only the next day that I realized I needed to place a long-overdue phone call to Cynthia. Answering right away, she immediately asked me if all was all right, and I said that it was.
"Better than okay, actually."
"You mean you've been able to determine which of the alphas is working with the Angels?"
"Well, I eventually figured out who he was, and...he's dead now. Haverwood is safe now, and everyone's looking forward to starting a new chapter."
Especially me. So far, my life with just one boyfriend only was treating me amazingly well. After coming to terms with Brent's betrayal, Dana's life with just one boyfriend seemed to be treating her amazingly well, too. In fact, now that she understood that Jason had only been distant because he'd been working with Cameron to try to get proof of Elliot's treachery, and was very preoccupied and on edge as a result, Dana told me she was nearly certain that Jason was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and that she never wanted to have a relationship with two men at the same time again. We both agreed that as fun as a relationship of three could be, sometimes things were just better with two.
That September, late in the month, when the leaves were just beginning to show the first signs of turning gold, Cameron led me out to the building site, which I hadn't visited since narrowly escaping with my life. Surprised to see that the foundation of Elliot's grand mansion had been completely removed, I asked Cameron what had happened to it.
He responded by saying that he'd had all traces of it destroyed and hauled away because he wanted to built a completely new house in its place. "I've been thinking maybe a house for the two of us, and Sunny...maybe a few kids down the road."
Suddenly speechless with my heartbeat accelerating, I didn't respond, and Cameron continued, taking my hand.
"When I first arrived here to Haverwood, I didn't want to go through all the trouble of having a brand-new house built, because it just seemed kind of pointless, not being able to plan and build a house when I didn't think I'd ever be able to do that with a woman I loved. Things are different now, though. I love you, Jayme, and I'm not afraid to allow myself to say that and feel that now. I want to build you the house of your dreams, and I want us to live in it as a married couple, 'til death do we part."
"What?" Complete shock had kind of just pushed the word from my mouth.
Fighting a grin, Cameron suddenly got down on one knee in front of me, right in the dirt. "Will you marry me and make me the happiest man alive, Jayme Adler?"
With an enormous lump in my throat, I could only nod in response at first, eventually managing to get out a yes. Seeming a little overcome by emotion himself, clearing his throat repeatedly, Cameron pulled from his pocket a gorgeous square-cut diamond ring and slid it on my finger just as the sun began sinking low in the sky, bathing the trees with brilliant, fiery light.
Three months later, Cameron and I were married at a lavish ceremony at a banquet hall in Hastings. Ashley, Dana, and Sarah were my attendants, and Kenna served as the flower girl. As ring-bearer, Sunny had quite an important job to do, but he didn't take it very seriously. With a white velvet pillow with the rings pinned on top attached to his back with a Velcro loop, Sunny was supposed to just come to Cameron and me when I called him. However, after just a few steps down the aisle, he suddenly paused, turned, and made a beeline back out the double doors and into the hallway, where he took a sharp left, heading straight for the reception area and all the food already set out on the buffet. By the time someone was able to track him down and grab the rings, he'd already managed to gobble up half a serving tray of roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.
That evening, while Cameron and I slow danced our first dance together with everyone in attendance looking on, he whispered near my ear how "utterly gorgeous" I looked. "As long as I live, I'll never forget how radiant you look right now, in your beautiful gown, with your eyes sparkling like diamonds."
Overcome with emotion, I looked at him with tears welling in my sparkling eyes.
"Promise me you'll love me forever."
With his own eyes becoming a bit shiny, he smiled.
"I couldn't stop loving you if I tried."
He soon dipped me, and I laughed with joy, knowing that the happily-ever-after I'd always dreamed about had officially begun.
THE END
BOOK FOUR
GIFTED
TO THE LION
A PARANORMAL SHIFTER ROMANCE
AMIRA RAIN
Copyright ©2016 by Amira Rain
All rights reserved.
About This Book
Ever since Paulina Mars discovered she was gifted with supernatural powers, she had only known one life.
That life was fighting for the good of the world alongside the Angels on the promise that they could resurrect her murdered family.
However, everything that Paulina had ever believed was dramatically put in to doubt when a WereLion called Mark entered her life.
She knew she should not get close to what was considered to be her enemy, but the charm of a lion is simply impossible to resist..
This is a Paranormal Romance full of action, adventure and mystery alongside sensual scenes of romance. Please only read if 18+.
CHAPTER ONE
Within a few minutes, I was going to be fighting for my life in more ways than one, and it wasn't even dawn yet. The Angels wanted to attack while it was still dark. They liked the dark and always felt more comfortable fighting under the cover of it, as opposed to broad daylight. I really didn't care either way.
The first way I was going to be fighting for my life was literally. As a part of the attacking Angel force, I knew I'd be a target for the lions of North Haven and their Gifteds. I knew they probably wouldn't think twice about trying to kill me, even though I wasn't an Angel myself, but a Gifted. That wouldn't matter to them, if this group was anything like the other groups of lions I'd faced.
They had all come charging at me, lions snarling and Gifteds zapping, each time I'd made my entrance onto the battlefield. I realized this could have simply been out of self-defense because I always charged them first, though from what the Angels had told me, the lions and Gifteds would have tried to kill me anyway. They were said to hate anyone who fought alongside the Angels, and I'd been doing so for nearly three years.
By this point, I'd fought in at least two dozen battles, maybe even three dozen. I'd really lost track. After the first few battles, they'd all kind of started to feel the same. Zap lions; zap Gifte
ds; duck or retreat to avoid return fire; repeat. Repeat; repeat; repeat. Just like any good soldier.
During the fight that would be taking place in just a few minutes, I literally wouldn't only be fighting for my life. The second way I'd be fighting for my life would be fighting for my family members, because they were my life. They had been up to about three years earlier, anyway, when they'd all been slaughtered by a horde of Angels led by their leader, Dylan Darringer, who commanded most of the Angel groups in Northern and Eastern Michigan.
It had happened a few years after the Takeover, on the very day that I had discovered that I was a rare "late bloomer." Gifted, which was to say one who hadn't developed powers shortly after the Takeover, when most Gifteds had.
Only hours after my stunning discovery, the Angels, led by Dylan, had stormed my hometown of Traverse City, in Northern Michigan. Wanting to seize the picturesque tourist town for their own, at first they'd tried to take control of it without bloodshed. They also wanted to enslave the inhabitants, but, then all of us inhabitants had fought back.
We'd at least refused to just hand over our homes, farms, wineries, and other properties. Some of the men, including my dad and my grandpa, had tried to drive away the Angels with shotguns, though to no avail. Guns had no effect on the sorcerers; no man-made weapons did.
In the end, the Angels did no less than kill over half the city's residents and enslave the rest. My family members were among the dead, although I'd fought to defend them with every last ounce of my brand-new Gifted power, zapping at the Angels until I collapsed, falling unconscious in a pool of my mom's blood.
One of the Angels had zapped her right in the eye, at least a dozen times in rapid succession, almost having an effect similar to what a gunshot might have had. My other family members were killed in equally horrific fashion, each of them seeming to freeze, whether in fear or pain or both, upon being initially zapped.