The Lion and the Unicorn (Lionsville Shifters Book 1)

by Dara Fraser

  “Absolutely, sir.” She started to leave before adding, “Congratulations on finding your mate.”

  “Thank you. I feel honored that Fate has bestowed such an amazing gift to me.”

  Samantha didn’t even notice Mindy leave. She was so caught up in his words. Did he really see her that way? They had barely met, and it was less than an ideal way to meet, yet his words held such reverence. She had been allowing guilt to dance around all of her feelings. Maybe she needed to take a hint from her mate and enjoy this for the gift that it was.

  “Thank you,” she said absentmindedly.

  “For?” Leo put his hand on hers. She was amused by the idea that in many ways, they probably looked like a teenage couple on their first date, sitting like that.

  “For seeing me that way.” She focused on their connected hands. Such a simple and, in most cases, very innocent gesture, but in this case it lit her hormones on fire.

  “Nothing to thank me for. You are a gift; a gift I plan to treasure.”

  Samantha moved her hand so they could lace their fingers together.

  “One day, when this is all figured out, I hope you see me the same.”

  Well, crap on a cracker. She needed to get her act together and quickly. She’d had a mate for less than forty-eight hours, and she already managed to make him feel under appreciated.

  “Oh, Leo, I already do.” He smiled, but she could see how forced it was. He didn’t believe her. She wasn’t sure she totally believed herself. “More accurately, I feel this connection and awe for finding you, but I’m allowing my guilt and sorrow to bury it down.”

  His eyes showed his understanding. “We can discuss all of this later when we are alone, but know that I understand completely.”

  The way he said alone hit her hard. She had momentarily forgotten they were in a room of most likely all shifters, and at least a few of them would be able to hear their conversation. She had so much to learn about clan life and what her mate’s role in it all was.

  “I’m looking forward to being alone.” Ugg, that came out all wrong, and Samantha could see from the fire that briefly crossed his eyes that he took it how she said it and not how she meant it. “I mean…aww, never mind. No way I can talk my way out of that innuendo.”

  “Probably not.” The smile reached his eyes. She might not have completely removed his doubts, but she momentarily distracted him from them and that was good enough.

  “We have a pie, but it is still chilling, Mayor.” Mindy had snuck up on them almost like a panther, but she still felt wolf. “Cook says it should probably be good to go around three if you want it to have cream, or now if you think having it be warm would be all right.”

  “Mindy, it’s for Zara. What do you think?” Mindy’s shoulders relaxed. She must be friends with Zara. That, or the playful tone in Leo’s voice put her at ease. Either way, it was nice to see.

  “So, you’ll be back at around three, then?”

  “We will.”

  “I will go put your name on it.” She grabbed their iced tea glasses, which were still mostly full. “I’ll get these filled up for you. It looks like your lunch is just about ready.”

  Samantha looked around the diner. It was very crowded for such a small town. She felt like she was on one of the tv shows she used to watch as a teen. It fit the mold completely. Small town—Check. Big secret—Check. Everyone hangs out at the diner—Check.

  “What’s so amusing, my mate?” He had never used the term mate that way before and it warmed her.

  “It was a silly notion, that’s all.” He looked at her from across the table, waiting for her to continue. “I was thinking that this diner was the epitome of every small-town diner in all the television shows I watched as a teen. Although this town’s secret was not aliens, murder, or vampires.”

  Leo looked around the diner, nodding at people. “You’re not wrong. I hadn’t thought of that before. We just need a regular to sit there and drink coffee all day”—he pointed to the counter seat near the register—“and we would have it down perfectly.”

  “Well, no town is perfect,” she teased just as she caught the waitress out of the corner of her eye. Mindy walked to that exact spot Leo had been pointing to, coffeepot in hand, turned the mug over, and started to fill it just as the bell on the front door jingled and an older gentleman walked in. “You totally just set me up.”

  “Busted.”

  “Fate was right, wasn’t she?” His humor had been just what she needed. Hard to believe after the week…make that years, that she had just endured, that she could feel so much, dare she say, happiness after knowing him so briefly and knowing that more badness was to come.

  “Oh, she most definitely was.”

  What Samantha would have done in that moment to have had them alone. His words, as simple and innocent as they were, melted her like chocolate left in the sun. Two plates of food pulled her from that naughty line of thoughts.

  “Your iced tea!” Panic seemed to lace the poor waitress’s voice, having realized she had forgotten the beverage order.

  “I was actually thinking”—Samantha decided to save the poor woman from herself—“that iced coffee would go better with onion rings and was going to ask you to switch it out anyways.” The woman didn’t look as relieved as she hoped her words would make her. “Leo?”

  “You’re right, of course.” He winked at Samantha, and she wanted to crawl over the table to get to him. It wasn’t even a come-hither wink, either. “Would that be all right, Mindy?”

  “Yes, Mayor. Getting right on that.” She all but ran back to the kitchen.

  “I know you have never been part of a clan before, but you are the perfect alpha female.” She loved the pride that shined through as he spoke. “She needed that, and you saw it and acted.”

  Samantha wasn’t sure how to even answer that. Instead, she grabbed an onion ring, pretending to be preoccupied with its yummy goodness, which, to be fair, was very yummy. It was the first time he brought up her having an actual role. It was all happening so fast, she never stopped to think that she would have a place in the clan that was more than just being a mate. She would need to bring that up to him later, when they were alone.

  After swallowing her bite, she simply replied, “Thank you.” And left it at that.

  She watched as Leo removed half the things from his burger. In the end, anything that had come close to resembling something from a salad was gone. Her lips crept into a smile. He had done the same thing as she had to help alleviate Mindy’s nerves, only in his case, he ordered a burger with all the things he clearly didn’t want. He was a good man.

  “This burger was most definitely the right choice.” She took another bite of the greasy yum, making sure to hold it over the plate so all the greasy drippings would stay off of her borrowed shirt.

  “It is, and you should taste the cheese steaks. They only have them on Fridays, so the place is packed.” He took a bite of his burger, and it was all she could do to not wipe the bit of ketchup off of the corner of his mouth before he caught it with his tongue. He gave her a knowing look, which made her smile. She didn’t need to have all the right words to reassure him. Apparently her hormones made her intentions all too clear.

  “Those are my favorite. Maybe we can go on Friday?”

  “It’s a date,” he answered before taking another bite.

  A date. She liked the sound of that. Dating was not a part of the whole mating thing and the fact that he wanted to include it warmed her heart. It wasn’t just hormones to him. Truth be told, it wasn’t to her, either.

  They chatted and ate as people came and went. At one point, the chef came out with a second burger for Leo without him even asking. Leo did mention that lions could eat. It looked like the chef was also protecting Mindy from herself. When all of the dust settled, Samantha decided she would make it her business to befriend Mindy. She looked like she could sure use one and, quite honestly, Samantha could use one also.

  By t
he time they were done eating, a good portion of the afternoon was gone. They made a quick stop at the local general store and picked up some underwear and socks, along with a Lionville T-shirt, before finding a couple of pairs of jeans and a few tops at the secondhand store. Sadly, she would be stuck with her one bra until they could go into the city, but there were far worse things than that.

  Aside from a short “discussion” about who would pay for her clothes, they got along famously and conversation flowed easily. The discussion was just another misunderstanding about clan life. She wanted to show her independence, and he didn’t want the town to think he couldn’t or wouldn’t provide for his mate.

  She felt like a class-A jerk after that and wished they had a “Welcome to Clan Life” class she could sign up for. Not that it seemed to still be on Leo’s mind. If she read him correctly, the only thing on his mind now was related to biting, and after spending so much time in such close proximity to him, she was beyond on board with that.

  Chapter Seven

  Zara Explains It All - Kinda

  It was shortly after three and, according to Leo, they were almost at his sister’s house. Samantha balanced the pie on her lap, hoping it wouldn’t get jostled around too much. The cook had used bananas to make a smiley face on top of the cream for Zara, and Samantha wanted her to be able to see it as it was intended, not as a mushed mess. The mission would have been a lot easier if Zara’s home was not down what most would not normally consider an actual road.

  “This would be a fun place to four-wheel. Is that something you enjoy, Leo?” Samantha loved four-wheeling as a teen with her dad. It always made her mom a nervous wreck when they went out, but that never stopped them. It was too much fun.

  “Never been, actually.” He turned up a steep drive and she shifted the pie to compensate. “I spend most of my time in the city, but it sounds fun.” He pulled into a spot at the top of the hill next to a beautiful little cabin that looked like it had been plucked from a story book. “I like snowmobiling though, so I would imagine I would enjoy it.”

  “I’ve never used a snowmobile. There wasn’t much snow where I lived. I bet I would love it.” She looked toward the house and saw the curtain move. “Your sister is trying hard not to come out here from the looks of it.”

  He chuckled. “Sounds about right.” Leo got out of the vehicle and came around to her side, grabbing the pie. As she shut the door, he grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  “My sister is going to love you and she loves to talk, so ask her all the questions you can possibly think of. I will probably scoot out with Dylan when he comes home so you can have some privacy in case you have girly stuff to discuss.”

  Oh, she had a ton of girly stuff on her mind alright.

  They were barely at the stoop when the front door opened and out popped a short, very pregnant woman with her hair in a ponytail. Samantha gasped before she could stop herself. From her hair to her shirt to her height, this woman was the spitting image of what she had envisioned earlier that day. What the heck?

  “What?” Leo’s voice was laced with concern.

  “Not sure. Can we go inside now?” Her voice was shaky, but she was sitting on a comfy couch with Leo by her side within moments. She didn’t even remember going through the front door.

  “Samantha.” Leo was clearly starting to go from concerned to panicked. “Samantha, talk to me.”

  “Sorry.” Her voice was quiet but no longer shaking. Progress. “It’s that—I saw your sister before.”

  “When?”

  “When you told me about her this morning. I even saw her shirt. I was just imagining what she would be like, but then there she was, exactly the same.

  “Jackass.” Zara smacked her brother’s shoulder. Samantha had completely forgotten that she was there for a moment. “Seriously, what were you thinking?”

  “Zara, what the fuck are you going on about?”

  Samantha could tell by the way he said fuck that he was totally trying to get her riled up. What she couldn’t figure out was why.

  “Oh, don’t try to distract me. You know exactly what I am talking about.” Apparently she was not going to be baited. Interesting.

  “Zara.” Leo whipped out his alpha voice, and Zara worked hard to keep her head up. There must be a power to his voice Samantha didn’t feel. She needed to make sure to clarify that…after whatever this argument was about cleared up.

  “Don’t play coy with me. You decided to simply not mention that you could show her things? Like… I don’t know…your pregnant sister, perhaps?” Zara was fuming.

  “Fuck me,” Leo mumbled under his breath.

  “Maybe someone could explain this to me?” Samantha knew better than to get in the middle of family business, but since it was about her, she figured why the heck not.

  “Sorry.” Leo put his hand on her cheek and she sunk into it. All rational thought was now gone. “What my sister is so sweetly trying to remind me to—”

  Zara’s cough sounded remarkably like “ass.”

  “What Zara wanted to remind me to tell you is that I sometimes project pictures. It’s an alpha skill.” He turned to his sister, and Samantha was glad she was not on the other end of the stink eye he was giving. “What she failed to consider was the fact that you are a unicorn and it should not have worked, even if I intentionally tried to show you my sister, which I did not.”

  “Unicorn?”

  “Wait, before we get to that, let me see if I get this right.” Samantha needed to figure this out before they got to prophecy crap. “So as alpha, you can sometimes show people things, but I should not see them because I am a unicorn.”

  “Pretty much sums it up. Samantha, I wouldn’t hide something like that from you if I thought it mattered. This is all new to me also.”

  “But I saw her in the same shirt.”

  Both siblings burst out laughing.

  “That mystery is easy to solve. I have seven of these bad boys.” Zara pointed to her floral maternity shirt. “I picked one up in town when I first got pregnant and mentioned how much I liked it. Boom. Dylan went back and bought all they had in my size.” Zara shook her head and chuckled. “Men. Always thinking practical. Never once did he think to get other colors.”

  Samantha could totally see Dylan doing that, and soon she was joining in their laughter.

  “I say we eat pie and then kick out my brother.” Zara waddled away, picking the pie up off the coffee table as she went. Just as she was about to exit the room, she called over her shoulder, “Then we can talk about the good stuff.”

  “The good stuff?” Samantha caught Leo’s stare. “Are you okay with me talking about the good stuff with your sister?” He groaned and she began to laugh again. It had been so long since she had laughed, but two days into knowing her mate, it was flowing freely. Things were looking up.

  Zara came back in with a tray stacked with four pieces of pie. If looks weren’t deceiving her, she had cut the pie into just those four pieces.

  “Dylan should be back any second. He called just before you arrived saying he was coming home early. Something about the cat being away…”

  Zara handed each of them a piece of pie. It was delicious, and one bite led to two, led to the whole piece gone. Maybe the ludicrous-sized pieces weren’t so crazy.

  Dylan walked in as they were finishing up the final bits of the pie. His face lit up when he saw Zara. Would she ever have that with Leo? Samantha hoped so.

  “You saved a bit for me.” He leaned down and kissed Zara’s cheek. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t get too comfortable there, bucko.” Zara’s eyes danced with mischief. “My brother told me all about this morning.”

  “What about this morning?”

  Zara just looked at him.

  “Okay, maybe I cussed a little.” Silence. “Fine.” He sighed. “I cussed like a sailor.”

  Dylan turned to Leo. “Happy now?” Leo shrugged his shoulders, holding in a smirk. Zara
had just played her mate like a fiddle. Samantha saw the moment it clicked in Dylan’s mind.

  “Serves you right.” Zara pulled her mate in close. “If you let me go into town or do dishes or go back to work, I wouldn’t have so much time to think of ways to mess with you.”

  Samantha turned her head. The moment turned oh-too private very quickly.

  “Brother in the house. Alpha brother at that,” Leo called out. He, too, was avoiding looking at the two, who by the sounds of it were making out like teenagers on the love seat beside them.

  “Fine,” Zara conceded. “You and Dylan go hunt something and I will chat with your mate.”

  At the word hunt both Dylan and Leo seemed to sit a little taller.

  “Anything in particular?” Dylan asked.

  “I’m pretty hungry for turkey, truth be told.”

  “Turkey it is.” Dylan got up and walked toward the back sliding door, shucking his clothes as he went. Lions were so different than unicorns. Samantha turned her head before she saw something she didn’t want to see.

  “You, Samantha? Anything in particular?”

  What was the correct answer to that? Yes, beef from the store? She remembered how the two men perked up at the request to hunt and thought through all the animals that lived in this region of the country. Her family were all farmers and ranchers so this hunting thing was new to her.

  “I’m not much of a cook, but I was thinking since it was cold here in winter, maybe a rabbit or two to make some gloves?” His face beamed. She nailed it. “I can look up some recipes, too. I heard there is nothing quite like rabbit stew.”

  He leaned in and kissed her cheek, starting all the hormones racing once again. “I make a really good rabbit stew. My mom taught me when I came home with my first rabbit.” He walked toward the back door, dropping his clothes as Dylan had, only this time she watched. More like stared and drooled, but what can a girl do? His muscles were meant to be ogled. She was still staring even after he had joined Dylan.