The Lion and the Unicorn (Lionsville Shifters Book 1)

by Dara Fraser

  “Fuck!” She found herself, in bed, eyes open, and cussing, where she had a moment before been in the arms of her future mate. She heard his door open and for a moment she willed him to be coming to her, but his footsteps got further and further away. She shifted her ears and heard him rustling through the kitchen drawers. What was he…oh yeah, they had work to do. He’d woken up and immediately went to write all the things he could remember down as she cussed and threw a pity party for one.

  Shifting her ears back, she sat up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and resolved to do the same. She went to where her bag should’ve been before remembering she had left it at Zara’s. She would have to join Leo in the kitchen and pretend that her body was not on fire for his. Being polite, he would pretend that he didn’t notice, but being a shifter, he would be able to tell. As aroused as she was, he probably already knew from a few rooms down. Shifter senses were not always a benefit.

  Samantha sucked in a breath, smoothed her shirt, and put on her preverbal big girl panties before walking to the kitchen. The sight before her was hilarious. It looked like Leo had not one, but three junk drawers in his, scratch that, their kitchen, and all three were now upside down on the floor as he mumbled something about knowing he had a ton of pens. She had to laugh and when the first sound escaped her lips, he looked up and his eyes met hers. My goodness, even with his hair all messy, his shirt all wrinkled, in this silly situation, he was breathtakingly gorgeous.

  “I came to find a pen.” She never let her eyes break from him. It was a dangerous move, considering how revved up he got her, but she couldn’t look away. “Mine are all in my bag back at Zara’s.”

  “Feel free to help.” He broke eye contact and looked back to the mess at hand. “I always throw spare pens in these drawers, and yet here I am needing one, and I can’t find a single, solitary one.”

  Samantha squatted on the floor near the mess. She saw everything from the bread bag twist ties, to random screws, to a key, but no pen. Moving the items to the side, she began to make little piles of the items. She knew they would all end up back in a mishmash once they finished looking, but it made her feel good to have some order when everything else was complete chaos.

  Leo saw the method to her madness and they worked in silence. In the end, they had too many small piles to count and fifteen pens. It caught her as funny that there had been so many there but hidden in plain sight. Wasn’t that always the way. Like the cartoons where the little old ladies can’t find the glasses that are perched on their heads.

  “I probably don’t need this huge pile of used twist ties, huh?”

  He must have had every single one from the day he moved in.

  “Yeah, why do you have them all anyways?”

  “My mom used to save them. I guess it was a habit. I can remember her using them exactly one time, and it was when my shoe lace broke and I was going to be late for school. That sucker kept my sneakers on all day.”

  His eyes filled with warmth every time he mentioned his mother. It was nice to see another glimpse of his life.

  “Will I meet her soon?”

  “I wish you could, love.” He stood up, twist ties tucked into the front of his shirt, which now functioned as a makeshift basket. “She passed a few years before I became alpha.”

  Samantha knew that kind of loss firsthand and her heart hurt for him. She had no idea what to say to give him comfort, so she said nothing. She got off the floor, walked to him, and hugged him from behind, leaning her head on his back.

  “It was a long time ago.” The hurt in his voice gave her no indication that it felt that way to him. She squeezed him harder. “She died in a hunting accident while visiting my sister in Alaska. Some jackass in a helicopter shot her.”

  “I’m sorry.” As lame as it sounded, it was the only thing she could think to say. She had heard about the aerial hunters, but this made it real. “She was running?”

  “Yeah, she was running with my nieces and nephews and when she heard the helicopter, she told them to change and ran away from them, hoping to keep them safe. They were, but she wasn’t so lucky.” Leo turned around to face her, twist ties now pricking her belly. “The bastard didn’t even stop to get his kill, so we don’t know who he even was.”

  As horrible as her own family’s murder was, and it took horror to a whole new level, she at least knew who killed them and had hope of finding closure.

  “Well, enough about that. We need to get these twist ties gone because they’re going to leave a mark.”

  She had forgotten about them.

  “We could put them in a plastic bag to keep them all together.” True, they were only twist ties, but they were a memory to him. If he was throwing them away because he thought he should, she wanted to give him a way out.

  “Nah, there will always be more.” He dumped them in the trash. “Besides, look in the next drawer.”

  She looked inside to find a whole drawer of nothing but twist ties. It looked like a bunch of them were the kind that used to come with garbage bags and they were still all joined.

  “I think it is safe for you to throw those out, then.” It was such a roller coaster of a night. “Let’s get this cleaned up and get everything written so we can get back to bed.”

  Samantha bent to the floor and started to refill the drawers, hoping they would easily go back in on the runners. There was no way they would stay organized once they were opened and closed a few times, but at least all the pens would be in the same drawer. For now anyway.

  After the last drawer slid into place, it became clear that sleep time was over. Out of the corner of her eye, the sun was beginning to rise. At least they got a bunch done while sleeping instead of pulling a true all-nighter. Now they had a chance to stay awake all day. Maybe.

  “I’ll make us coffee and then we can get to writing?” she offered.

  “Have you used a percolator before?” Leo teased.

  “Well, no.” She could run a commercial pot with auto feeds, so it couldn’t be that hard. “But I got this.”

  “I have a better idea. You go grab a shower and I’ll make the coffee.”

  A shower did sound nice. “Wait, are you saying I smell?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  She faux pouted at his teasing.

  “So go bathe so that you smell like soap instead of tempting me so. Then we at least have a shot at getting some work done.”

  Her face was burning hot and most likely a bright shade of red as she went to grab a shower. Yeah, shifter mating was a whole new ball game.

  Chapter Eleven

  Research, Research, Research

  It was almost noon and after three pots of coffee, hours of discussion, and more note taking than she had even done while in college, they seemed to only know three things for sure:

  1. They were fated mates.

  2. Somehow their mating was tied into defeating the Theron.

  3. The answers were somehow in the story book.

  Other than that, they had nothing but conjecture, and that meant they needed help. They were in the midst of deciding whether to call Granny and meet her somewhere or to call a meeting of the elders when a knock came at the door and startled them both.

  “Expecting company?” she whispered. Over the past few years, she’d learned to be overly cautious about things like a simple knock on the door. His hand on hers told her all would be well.

  “No, but it’s my sister and her mate.”

  She went to question how he knew, and he interrupted before she got out the first word.

  “Alpha.”

  Yeah, once all this mating and destroying the Theron stuff was done, she would need to polish up on the clan/alpha stuff.

  The knocking increased. In her fear for nothing, they’d rudely left his very pregnant sister on the porch.

  “Come in,” he called over her shoulder.

  Leo didn’t need to say it twice. His sister waddled across the room with a huge grin. A grin that cried out
mischief. This was going to be interesting.

  “You forgot your bag yesterday. I would’ve been here earlier, but Dylan said someone at the office neglected to show up, so I had to wait until his lunch.”

  Samantha heard a snicker from behind and looked up to see Dylan clearly amused at his mate’s antics.

  “I told Dylan he could just drop me off and pick me up after work, but you know how the stubborn head is.”

  That earned her a knowing glance from both men.

  “Thanks.” Samantha grabbed the bag and forced herself not to look through it. Cognitively, she knew nothing was missing, but for so long it had been her lifeline. Her important items were in the safe and Leo had a spare toothbrush, so even the toiletries meant nothing.

  “You want to look through it.” Zara called her on her small hesitation. “It’s okay, you know. I’m not hurt. I know it’s all you have. I would’ve brought it over last night, but we were—”

  A cough interrupted Zara.

  “I was going to say we were wanting to give them privacy, but now…” She gave a half-handed smack to her mate’s chest. “Thanks to your oh-so-subtle cough, my brother and his mate know you were making me scream your name all night long. Happy now?”

  The look on Dylan’s face was priceless. Samantha didn’t even look to Leo because no one wanted to hear that from their sister. No one.

  “I was hoping”—Samantha hoped a quick change of topic could get her to stop seeing pictures of her future sister-in-law and her hubby in the throes of passion—“I could borrow that book you showed me yesterday?”

  “It’s in the car.” Dylan was out the door faster than she would have thought possible. He probably wanted to get out of there before Zara spoke again. She was a spitfire.

  “What my mate meant is that we brought it for you as a gift and left it in the car.” Zara leaned in close and whispered, “He was a little embarrassed by my outburst.” Zara winked. “Maybe he will leave us be now.”

  “Or maybe, dear sister, he’ll be afraid you’ll scar your dear sweet brother with more innuendo and TMI and now plans to stay all day.”

  Zara hmphed and plopped herself at the kitchen table. “Fine. Got any decaf?”

  “We have milk.”

  Samantha loved the way he said we even when it was something as silly as offering a glass of milk.

  Zara mumbled under her breath about a conspiracy against her before conceding to a glass of milk. The glass was half empty by the time Dylan rejoined them at the table and handed Samantha the book.

  Samantha blocked out all of the small talk at the table and reread the book from beginning to end. She knew she was missing something but couldn’t put her finger on what exactly. The story was simple, yet it wasn’t. There was so much hidden between the words. She wished that she had paid more attention to all the stories her family used to tell when she was small. Maybe if she had the unicorn version of this tale, combined with the lion’s, she could make sense of it all.

  A hand on her shoulder startled her and she looked up to see it belonged to Leo. “I’m guessing you missed all of the conversation?”

  “I was trying to find a clue in the book. I know it has to be there.” She closed the book and pushed it to the center of the table, officially giving up for the moment. Maybe a break between reads would give her a fresh perspective.

  “We’ll figure it out, love.” He squeezed her shoulder, and she felt the honesty in his words. He might not know how this was going to work, but he had faith that it would and she held onto that.

  “So, lunch?” Zara’s stomach growled on cue.

  “We gotta feed the pregnant woman,” Samantha joked.

  “Truth,” Zara adamantly agreed. “I smell rabbit stew.”

  “You do, Sister, but it has only been in the slow cooker for a few hours. It will be tasteless.”

  “You can’t have your sister over, carrying your nieces and/or nephews, and tease her with rabbit stew only to say ‘no stew for you.’” Zara’s over-the-top pouting had her mate holding in his laughter.

  “Zara, no stew for you. Besides, no one invited you over, you know.” Leo pulled out a pile of packages of meat from the fridge. “For you, I have only steak.”

  “Eeeeep.” Steak seemed to fit the bill. “Dylan, go start the grill.”

  “Yes, dear, but don’t even think about angling for some sweet tea while I am out there.” He stopped at the back door and looked back to his mate. “Leo likes it without sugar, and you wouldn’t want me to tell them all you were only screaming my name last night in an attempt to prevent me from pouring that syrup down the drain.” He didn’t quite get the door closed before a shoe bounced off of it.

  “Must you throw things in our house, Zara?” Leo rummaged through the cabinets before pulling out a platter and a grill spatula.

  “So no tea for me?”

  “You can have tea.” He went to another cabinet and pulled out an array of spices. “Just no syrup for you.”

  Samantha looked back to the book, wanting to read it again while the siblings bantered, but pulling her fair share was probably the better call. She grabbed a cloth to clean off the table.

  “I’ll make a salad or something to go with the steaks.”

  Zara waddled to the fridge as Samantha cleared and washed the table, effectively dropping every last paper and the book as she did. Only her. She put the cloth back on the table and remembered how her grandmother used to tease her about how it was better to drop one thing than to carry everything at once and risk dropping them all. Drop them all she did.

  Picking up the papers, she put them in a neat, if unorganized, pile as Leo knelt behind her, picking up the book. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing is breakable.”

  “I know, it’s just that we worked all day, and I turn it into a big disorganized mess to avoid a second trip to the counter.” Now she was sounding like her grandmother. She still missed her so.

  “Hey, look here.” Leo held the book in front of her and was pointing to the unicorn wearing a locket, sleeping. How had she missed that before? Was it in all of the pictures or just the one of them sleeping? Samantha turned through the pages. It was only in the one of them sleeping. What the heck. How did Sybil know to paint the locket Samantha’s grandmother gave her all those years later? There were too many questions and not enough answers. This wasn’t something to discuss over the phone, either. Shifter business stayed low tech for a reason. It was safer.

  “Road trip?” Samantha asked without looking away from the page.

  “Road trip.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Road Trip

  They were on their way to town within five minutes, leaving Zara and her mate to the steaks. Samantha grabbed all of her items from the safe in Leo’s office, leaving only money. If Sybil knew about the necklace all those years ago, she might see other clues they had missed. Samantha was doubtful a silly statue and cheap, mostly bare journal held any secrets, but she didn’t want to risk it.

  They called Sybil to let her know they were coming and possibly arrange a place midway to meet. Some place the Theron hadn’t known Samantha to be, and Sybil’s store wasn’t that place. It appeared they shouldn’t have worried. Her answering machine said, “I’m where the flowers are brightest, so leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Silly Granny.” Leo chuckled as he hung up the phone without leaving a message.

  “How’s that?”

  “She tried to be all clever and sly. True, the Theron won’t know what that message means, but there is no way they would think that was just your everyday answering machine message.”

  “So you know where she means?”

  He nodded.

  “She may be more clever than you give her credit for. She is old and a painter, so maybe people would think it was her being artsy?”

  “I guess, but sometimes I wonder how she stayed safe all these years. I wish she would come back to the clan.”

  Samantha
heard longing in his voice. “Why did she leave the clan?”

  They were driving with the windows up, but unlike before, Samantha knew what the mating sensations were and was better able to handle them. Sort of. She still had to work hard at not putting her hand on his thigh and running it upward. Even the topic of his grandmother did nothing to curb her urges.

  “She left when her brother stepped down. She said it was to give me an easier transition, but with how things are falling into place, I’m guessing there was more to it.”

  When his hand landed on her knee, Samantha wanted to ask him to pull over and explore her more thoroughly. These mating urges were both a blessing and a curse. Against all of her desires, she opened the window all of the way and sucked in a breath of fresh air.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled, with absolutely no remorse in his voice. Nope, smug lion was happy about the effect he had on her. In another situation, she would have been just as happy.

  “Liar.”

  “I totally am, but I’m your liar.” He squeezed her knee again before returning his hand to the steering wheel. “As I was saying before you started distracting me with your legs.”

  “Go on.” She was not letting the conversation head back to body parts and feelings.

  “I hope after this whole prophecy is over that I can convince her to come home.” He lowered his window also. Yeah, he was feeling it just as badly as she was. “Of course, that means we would need a new place, but I planned to build a cabin of my own once I found my mate, so it will only be crowded for a few months.”

  “Your house is far from crowded with one extra person.” The place was on the small side, but they could easily make it work.

  “Our,” he growled.

  “That’s what I meant,” she conceded. They crossed the state border. Since she had slept most of the trip to Lionville, Samantha had no idea how much further they actually had to go. “Anyway, Mr. Growly Pants, how much further do we have?”

  “Granny’s message meant to meet at her painting retreat, so maybe a half an hour.”

  “Do you think Frank arranged this, too?”