by Dara Fraser
“And then they both disappear.”
“Huh?” She thought this was leading to kissing and instead it was leading to the sun and the moon disappearing. That didn’t sound good. Not at all.
His hand caressed her cheek. Maybe kissing was coming. “In the story, the unicorn and lion decide to catch each other and they disappear. The world is so saddened by their disappearance that they decide to put all of their grievances aside and a new era of peace is upon them.”
She pulled back. She really didn’t like the sound of that. “Wait, we disappear and then the Theron will stop hunting shifters and all will be right with the world? That makes no sense.”
He took a step closer to her, closing the space she put between them. “Not exactly. It is when there is both a solar and a lunar eclipse during the same day.” He reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. “And we don’t convince the hunters to stop hunting, they will always have that.” He ran his thumb along her cheekbone, and she used all of her inner restraint to not lean in and kiss him. “We take away their ability to do so.”
“How—”
He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before she formed the whole question in her head. It was a good thing she liked this guy because fate was not messing around when it came to her wanting him. That one kiss, as chaste as it was, set her more ablaze than any previous kiss she’d ever had.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he took a step back.
“I’m not.” Screw that. She was hoping for more.
“No, not sorry I kissed you, sorry I…well, I have no idea how to do this. This mating call is…well, distracting, and all I can think about is kissing you.” She looked at him, unable to figure out what the problem was with that. “Fine. All I can think about is biting you and with the whole legend…I should be preparing for all of that…and knowing danger is about to find us…” He let out a sigh.
“I’m assuming your sister will go over that biting comment with me since that’s not at all a unicorn thing.” It took all she had to stay rational instead of throwing herself at him, begging for more kisses. She attempted to pull the conversation away from lips, but now she was picturing them on her neck like a stupid vampire movie. She shook her head to clear the image and regain some self-control. “That leaves us with the legend. When does this double eclipse thingy happen?”
He rubbed his hand through his hair. “See, that’s the thing. It should never happen. That is not how astronomy works.”
She thought back to her one astronomy class in college, wishing she had paid more attention. She only had one semester of college before her life fell apart, and she wished that she had taken it more seriously. She pulled up exactly zero info from her class. She only took it because she liked the planetarium and it gave her access to it for all things, including the light shows.
“So what does that mean?”
“It means that I have no idea what happens next or how.” He started to walk away. “Coming?”
She just stood and stared. Did he really think she would follow him around like a puppy? Mating call or not, that was just weird.
“Samantha.” He walked back to her. “I’m not trying to be all weird or bossy or whatever it is I am coming across as.”
“Bossy and evasive.” Might as well put it out there.
“That.” He grabbed her hand. “This is just too much for me. I know you feel the call, but it is different for me.”
He better not be pulling the “I’m a guy” card. She decided to give him rope and see what he did with it. Not that it really mattered. He was hers regardless, but it helped to set boundaries early.
“Because you are a guy?”
“What?” He looked at her like she was crazy and then his eyes shifted in realization. “Samantha, Samantha, I am not that guy.” He shook his head as if clearing it. “I meant because I am a predator by nature. The urge to bite rides me as hard as the urge to chase.”
Well, if that didn’t send her body ablaze. She swallowed, hoping that focusing on that small act would distract her from the sex turn this conversation had inadvertently taken. Not that he said anything blatantly sexy. Arggggh, fate.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so when I walk away like that, generally it is to regain control, not to be rude or bossy. At least not with you.” He reached for her hand and she gave it to him, and they walked back to the house.
“I admit it, though, I sometimes do it to the elders just to rile them up a bit. Keeps them on edge.”
She laughed at that.
“Do you want a travel mug of coffee for the ride to town?”
“That would be perfect. I’ll go get my bag.” She was back before he finished putting the lids on their cups.
“If I wanted to get a safety deposit box or something in town, could you help me do that without an ID?” She could keep all of her important things with her like she always did, but it would be nice to have it somewhere safe in case they really did disappear.
“You have no ID?”
“Umm, no. I lost it when I first fled and getting it replaced meant staying someplace for long enough to have an address and letting people know I was there.” He just looked at her, as if waiting for her to continue. “I was on my way home for winter break when the Theron found my family. I got a flat tire on the way home and was much later than I had planned. It looked like that flat saved my life because they were barely gone when I arrived to find my family…”
“Gone?” he offered and she nodded, glad she didn’t have to recount how she found their decapitated bodies, all in unicorn form. Even after all these years, she wasn’t ready to talk about that.
“I felt them getting closer, so I transformed and ran with nothing. I planned to go back, but they burned it to the ground.” She took in a deep breath, focusing on the facts and trying to leave her emotions packed behind the memories. “Unfortunately they sensed me, too, and have been after me ever since. So…yeah…no ID.”
“I remember that in the news.”
She hadn’t thought it was big news, since it was in the papers as “family dies in ranch fire,” but being the leader of a clan, it made sense he would know it was more.
“That was years ago.” He walked up to her and enveloped her in a hug. “All those years alone and on the run.”
“I’m not alone anymore.” It was weird to say, but she felt it to be true. Score one for fate.
“No. No, you’re not.” He let her just be. This time she could feel it was for her and not him. It was nice.
“So, can you help me?”
“This time I wasn’t ignoring your question.” He kissed the top of her head and pulled away. Samantha made it her day’s mission to get to the real kissing and soon. “I actually forgot how the conversation started. Yes, I can help you and can even get your IDs reissued if you want. You can always use the safe in my office, too.”
“Actually, that would be perfect.” Why hadn’t she thought of that? “If I leave them in there, if something happens to us, the next alpha will have access to them.”
Leo grabbed the coffee cups. “Nothing is going to happen to us.” It was a nonnegotiable statement and in the voice she guessed he used when asserting his authority. Darn lion made her hot just telling her they were not going to die. Imagine if he put on the charm?
He walked past her and she followed. She might not normally be that girl, but she sensed he needed her to be right then.
They were in the truck headed to town in minutes, but it felt like hours because Leo had yet to speak. She finally decided the silence was too much and went to turn on the radio. As she reached for the knob, he stopped her hand by weaving his fingers with hers.
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“For letting me process all you just told me without getting all...” He slowed at a stop sign.
“Pissy?” she offered.
“I was thinking chatty, but pissy works.” The truck started forward again. “So what do
you need to put in the safe?”
“After the fire, the first thing I did was go back to my dorm to get clothes and a couple of things I felt like I had to keep. Weird things for the most part. A necklace my grandmother gave me, a little metal statue my father gave me, and a journal my mother started for me and gave me when I went to college.” She went to pull her hand away to pull the items from her purse, but he was having none of that. “At first I thought it was because they were all I had left, but the more I think about it, the more I think they mean more than that. I’ll show you at your office.”
“I think we’ll go there first and that way you can meet my beta, and if you want, give him your information so he can get a replacement ID for you.” She tensed up. “Or not. That was just an idea.”
“I say not, for now. If that’s all right.”
“Whatever you need. This is all new to you. At least I had Frank’s foresight and childhood stories. You’ve been going at this blind.”
They turned the corner and she saw town coming up. It was tiny and she immediately felt as if this could be home. It had been so long since she had one that the idea wrapped around her like a blanket on a cold winter’s night.
They pulled into a parking spot labeled “Reserved For Mayor” and she held in a laugh.
“Mayor, is that what they call you?” She could hardly picture him in business suits and kissing random babies.
“No, they call me Alpha, but we have to keep up appearances. We may be a shifter clan, but this is a human world.” Wasn’t that the truth.
“Wait, so I have to call you Alpha?” She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.
“There is much to discuss about living in a clan, I see. No, but only because you’re my mate.” He turned to face her and she followed his lead. “Technically, you should until we officially are mated, but you aren’t part of any clan, so that is really not accurate, either. I guess what I am trying to say is…”
“Things will be easier and more defined once we mate?” That conversation with his sister was going to be an interesting one.
“Yes, they will be, but I was going to say you can call me Leo.” That worked for her. He turned toward his door. “Don’t forget your coffee.” And with that, he popped out of the truck, opening her door before she managed to grab her purse off of the floor.
“Well aren’t you the gentleman?” She liked it, too. She hadn’t had more than a one-night make-out session since she ran away. It was nice to be treated like a lady.
“I have my moments.” He leaned in close. “I have a mate to woo.” He pulled back before she could turn her head and steal a kiss. He wasn’t wooing her. He was driving her batty. “I’m in the town hall.”
“How cliché, Mr. Mayor,” she teased as she climbed out of the truck.
“It’s Honorable Mayor Sampson to you.”
“Oh, is it now?” She shook her head in amusement and took his hand as he led the way.
Chapter Five
Safekeeping
The tiny building they called Town Hall didn’t take long to tour. It looked to Samantha as if her new mate actually did most everything in town. Aside from a clerk, Mrs. Jones, when she first walked in, she had yet to meet anyone. Apparently poor Mrs. Jones did all town-related paperwork, from dog licenses and vehicle registrations. Not that Samantha thought many lions went around with dogs. Shifters were people, true, but that didn’t mean a dog would not sense the predator in them and be less than snuggly.
“This is my office,” Leo said as he opened the door. There was nothing grand about the space. It had two big metal desks, like the kind teachers often had, a few file cabinets, and a couple of mismatched bookshelves.
“It’s nice.” It wasn’t fancy, but it worked. “Why two desks?”
“Actually, it’s a temporary office and I share it with my beta, I mean the ‘Lieutenant Governor,’ while they redo the main offices. This was a storage room.” That explained only having one window.
“Remodeling?”
“More like repairing–broken pipe in the ceiling.” Yeah, it didn’t take water much time to do a whole lot of damage. “But Frank called me the day before and told me to move all the file cabinets here, so all was good.”
“He really did see a lot, didn’t he?”
“He saw a lot of partials, like moving the file cabinets, but not the hand-carved desk that was in the town for generations.” He walked to a door in the back, opening it to expose a large, old-fashioned floor safe. “The only thing he seemed to get pretty good details on was us. He said we were why he had the gift in the first place.” Leo fiddled with the lock a few times before he finally got it opened.
Samantha walked to the desk and opened her bag. She didn’t have much, but what was in there was a disorganized mess. He came up behind her, standing so close she could feel his warmth.
“The whole top shelf is open.”
She leaned back into him and he wrapped his arm around her. It felt natural and she was in no hurry to move. “I only have three things to go in there.” She tried to look for them, but the angle made it oh-so awkward.
He let her go and walked around to the other side of the desk, probably trying to be helpful. Darn man was going to turn her into mush.
She pulled out the journal first. It was the largest item in her purse and therefore the easiest to find. It was just a store-bought journal from a discount store. Nothing special there, but the first few pages were a letter from her mom about how proud she was of her daughter, so that made it priceless.
“My mom started this for me.” She handed it to him. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to explain. She had never showed it to anyone. It was probably all the mating-pull gobbledygook.
She dug around some more and found the statue. It was more of a knickknack than a statue, but when her father gave it to her as a small girl, she named it her ‘special statue’ and the name stuck. It was a little girl holding a book in one hand and a turtle in the other. He’d told her he saw it at the antique sale and had to get it for her. It was far from antique, but she loved it anyways. She handed it to Leo, who took it and looked it over, as if it were as precious as gold.
“My dad gave that to me when I was around seven. Said it reminded him of me because I like to read and had a turtle stuffy I used to carry around as a toddler.”
Samantha went back to her bag and felt around for her necklace. One by one, she took things out of her bag. First her brush then her wallet then her toothbrush and toothpaste, followed by her face cream. Leo’s hand stopped hers. She looked up, and for a quick moment she thought for a second she saw a glimmer of hurt in his eye.
“What?” she asked.
“Why do you have all of that with you?”
“Because this is where I keep it?” What was he getting at?
“You always keep your toiletries in your bag?” The hurt look came back, only this time it stayed. “So you can leave?”
“Before, yes. I knew I might leave at any time.” She walked around the desk and leaned into him. “Now, however, it was just habit. Nothing more. I’m not leaving.” His arm wrapped around her.
“Good. Because fate only gives us one mate.” He tried to tease, but it came out more melancholy than jolly.
“Good thing she gave me a good one.”
He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Yes, she did.” He let go and she went back to digging in her purse. As she took one thing out and then another, she began to worry. What if she’d lost it? True, it was only a thing, but it was precious to her and she had managed to hold onto it all these years.
“Wait, what is all this?” Leo asked, looking at the plastic sandwich baggies of money.
“Well, I don’t have ID, so no bank.” She was sure it looked like more than it was because there were so many small bills, but she had managed to save a few thousand over the past few years, most of them while working for Frank.
“Did you want to keep it here? You don’t have to, it
’s just, that has to be kind of stressful, carrying all you have all the time.” He had her there. She was always holding her bag, fearful if she put it down, it would all be gone. It was then she realized that she hadn’t been doing that since she met Leo. It was as if her priorities had switched without her even realizing it.
“Actually, that would be great.” He seemed to like that answer. It probably made it more real that she was staying, bite or no bite. Samantha went back to searching her bag. This time she hit pay dirt and pulled out her necklace. It was a sun and moon, the sun behind the moon. Why had that not clicked before? Pheromones… That’s why.
“Here, check this out. My grandmother…” She handed him the necklace. “She knew.”
He looked it over slowly. “What’s inside?”
“Nothing, it is just a necklace.” He went back to it and pulled the moon away from the sun. In all the years she had it, she never knew it was a locket.
“It’s a locket, love, but one that is meant to trick the eye. Your grandmother must have been like Frank.” He looked inside, squinted, and held it to his face, then handed it back to her.
Samantha immediately saw why he squinted. While the opening was large enough for a portrait, her grandmother had written a note in handwriting that seemed almost too small to be possible:
Remember your stories, trust your lion, and know you are loved.
“You alright?” Leo asked in a low tone, giving her the option of plausible deniability if she didn’t want to reply.
“Yeah, it’s just a bit much.” She handed it back to him. “So shall we get these all in the safe and call your sister?”
“That sounds like a plan.” He placed them in the safe, as if they were as priceless to him as they were to her, and put the sandwich bags of money next to them. “I’ll call my sister and we can be on our way.”
Leo took out his phone and dialed.
“Hey, Zara.”
Samantha was tempted to shift her ears. She had a feeling she wanted to hear both sides of this conversation, but politeness won out.