The Lion and the Unicorn (Lionsville Shifters Book 1)

by Dara Fraser

  “Or maybe more accurately, who you shouldn’t save.”

  She walked to the board and ran her fingers under the sentence. That couldn’t be right. Why would her mom not want her to save people if her gift could do so?

  “I say we ask Granny about it, love. She would have a better handle on it. Your mom probably got a lot of her information from her mom, and since Granny and your grandmother were friends, there is a good chance she holds insight.”

  She leaned back into him. “The last one?”

  “The last one now looks completely different after you mentioned they being plural. Your father, my heart, is filled with as much pride for the woman you are becoming as I do.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and gave them a reaffirming squeeze. “Did you pull this all from memory?”

  “Yeah. I have read it a ton and was afraid if I lost it I would lose my last bit of her.”

  “What did you think she meant by this?”

  “That my father’s heart was filled with…oh fuck.” She closed her eyes wanting to will it away.

  Her mother referred to her father as “my heart.” This was not about who to save or not save. It was about whether it was worth sacrificing her mate for the better of all. She crumpled to the floor and sobbed as her body pulled itself from sleep. She was not sacrificing her mate. It was simply not going to happen. There had to be another way.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Waking from a nightmare should make them go away, right?

  Samantha woke from her slumber with tears streaming down her face. Had her mother really asked her to think twice before sacrificing her mate? She could think all day long and the question would have to be no. Not just no. Heck no. Not when she finally found him.

  A light knock echoed through the room. At first Samantha thought it was down the hall, it was so faint, but when it began again, she let out a faint, “Come in.”

  She had expected Leo on the other side of the door. If she was pulled from the dream and awake, she had assumed he would be also. At least that is how it happened last time.

  Sybil sat down next to her. “Samantha, do you need a woman to talk to about this mating stuff?”

  “No, Sybil, this is not about that.” She pulled herself up to a sitting position and moved over a bit to give Sybil a better place to sit.

  “It is about Leo though.”

  “Yes, it is about Leo.” She sucked in a breath before telling Sybil all about the night before. Well not all about it. She skipped the kissing. Granny just nodded and smiled encouragingly, not even pressing when tears overtook her. She was the perfect listener.

  “Your mother, from what I can tell, was not a seer like Betsy and put in things she had heard from her mother. Is your journal here?” Samantha pointed to the side table. “Ahhh, I see. So yes, your father was your mother’s heart. That is a saying unicorns use for their mates quite a bit. I think because there is no actual biting, but I never asked Betsy.”

  Samantha had hoped briefly that Sybil was so cool and calm because they had gotten it all wrong.

  “So when she says follow your heart and your heart will never lead you astray, I think she is talking about Leo. He is a good man and fate chose well for you.” Sybil leaned in close. “I would say that even if he were not my grandbaby.”

  “What about the part about giving your heart and they being worthy?” That was, after all, the crux of all of her anxiety at this point.

  “Two different hearts, I believe. He is or will be your heart if you ever get around to mating.” Great, she was on that again. Samantha had to chuckle. “The other part doesn’t read like that. As I said before, I think your mother tried to weave things into this that Betsy had mentioned over the years but didn’t quite get them spot-on.”

  “I still don’t understand.” She pulled the pillow onto her lap.

  “When you do a spell and do it correctly, it takes a lot out of you. You have to give it your all. There is a saying my mom used to say to me when I was sure I did a spell right and it flopped, ‘A spell without heart is just words.’”

  Samantha was sure her eyes about bugged out of her head. Did Sybil just tell Samantha she was a witch? Was there even such a thing?

  “Close your mouth, dear, it is unbecoming.” So it wasn’t her eyes bugging out, it was sitting there with her mouth hung open. Nice. “No, I am not a witch. There are no real witches. At least, none that I know of. Well, there are Wiccans, but you know what I mean, not broomstick witches.”

  Crap. She’d asked it aloud.

  “What are you, then?”

  “I am a lioness. Our family is the alpha line, so we are able to harness the magic of our shifts better than most and over the years we have learned to use that for good.”

  “Sounds like a witch.” Sam slapped the pillow over her face. She had not meant to be so rude.

  “It does, but trust me, we are not.”

  Pulling the pillow down, she was greeted with nothing but warmth. At least Sybil wasn’t visibly perturbed by her rudeness. “So how am I to do a spell? I’m just a unicorn.”

  “Oh, sweet girl. You have no idea, do you?” Sam just stared at Sybil. “Unicorns are the most powerful and magical of all the creatures.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, sweetie. Coming from any family line, you would’ve been able to cast the spell. Unicorns never took advantage of their power and fate rewarded them with more.”

  Samantha remembered that line. It was in quite a few of the stories her mom and grandmother had told. How had she missed it?

  “And your family was and is the main target of the Theron for a reason.”

  Samantha had always wondered why they had been so brutally after her. They had her whole family, and there were other herds scattered throughout the country.

  “Your family is the last of the very first unicorn family. The alphas of all.” Sybil gave a subtle nod, and it was almost as if she were looking past Samantha at someone else. Samantha took a quick look behind, expecting to see Leo, but no one was there. She was brought back to the conversation as Sybil grabbed her hand. “Now that they are all gone, you are alpha of all alphas.”

  Surely she would have remembered her family mentioning that. “So I am technically alpha of all the unicorns?”

  “No, my dear one, you are technically the alpha of all the alphas.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Not the inheritance she was looking for

  Samantha was still in shock over what Sybil had said when Leo joined them. She faintly registered that he was sitting next to her, his hand on hers. There were voices, but they sounded far away and jumbled, and she didn’t bother to try to focus on them. Samantha was too focused on the notion that she was not only an alpha but the alpha. Somehow she had immense power and responsibility she neither asked for nor could fathom. She couldn’t begin to process anything else in the room. She probably wouldn’t have even known they were talking if Leo’s hand wasn’t grounding her, just a wee bit.

  In some ways it explained a lot. After all, the Theron were after her with a ferocity that seemed far too intense. Samantha initially thought it was because they were afraid she could identify them, but logically that would have waned over her years on the run. If she were going to go to the authorities, she would have done so when it first happened. In some ways, it made no sense. She had no power. At least none she could identify at the time.

  The line of the old stories kept playing over and over again in her mind. Unicorns never took advantage of their power and fate rewarded them with more. Maybe she had it because she never used it. If that were the case, would using it make it go away, or was this all about abuse of powers? Was it something her mate could teach her? Would he still want her if she had more power than he did? How far did all that providing crap go? Would he not want her? She wasn’t sure her heart could take his rejection.

  The mumbling in the background got louder and Samantha tried to push it down. She needed to think. The vo
ices were persistent and as she felt her head turn on its own, she was completely pulled to the present before her. Leo had his hand on her cheek and when her eyes met his, she saw fear.

  “Love, are you back now?” Samantha nodded ever so slightly. “Samantha, please say something. Anything.”

  “Hi.” It wasn’t what she knew he wanted, but the worry in his eyes subsided the tiniest bit. She had never noticed how much eyes gave away before she met him. There were times she knew more from them than she did from his words.

  “Dear, that was my fault. I probably should have had a better segue into something that earth-shattering, but honestly I wasn’t 100 percent sure until that very moment that you were the last.”

  “Granny.” Censure was clear in his voice and she stopped talking.

  “Samantha, I need you to tell me what had you going from thinking too much to abject terror or panic or whatever that was pouring off of you.”

  She could hear him trying to use his alpha voice, but as with all the times before, she didn’t feel his power. That only strengthened Sybil’s case that she was an alpha. Or was it the alpha?

  “I was thinking about what your granny said and pieces started to fit together. I think she is right about the alpha thing, but I don’t feel it.” His eyes never left her, but he remained silent. Darn man knew she was leaving out what he wanted to know. “And then I wondered if it would change all things.”

  “All things?”

  She tried to get away with a nod, but his eyes searched hers, and she knew he would keep doing so until he had his answer. It was so intimate having him look at her that way, and it gave her the bravery to just let it all out. Well, whisper it out. “I was wondering if this changed how you would feel about me. You are alpha of your clan and, well, this could be a game changer, and I don’t think I could handle that.”

  “Granny?”

  “I’m just going to go for a run. A long run. Maybe catch some more rabbits for my granddaughter. She loves my stew.” Sybil babbling would have struck Samantha as odd if she didn’t have boulders settling into her stomach. As she heard the door latch closed, she stiffened up, prepared for the blow. He was going to be kind about it, but the immediate, “of course I still want you” didn’t come, so she knew it would be bad.

  “Samantha.”

  She turned her body so she was fully facing him and not just twisted awkwardly in the bed. He deserved her full attention. This couldn’t be easy for him, either.

  His hands now held both of hers, and she wanted to hold them tight and never let them go.

  “I’m going to bite you now.” His voice was all alpha, though he didn’t show power in his eyes like he did when he had that voice with his sister or Mindy. He said it as fact, but he left room for her to decide.

  “Are you sure?” She wanted him more than her next breath, but she wanted him to need it as badly as she did, not because he felt obligation. That would only lead to badness.

  Heat flared in his eyes. He was sure.

  “I have been sure since the moment I met you, and the feeling grows stronger with every smile you give me, every new thing I learn about you, every touch of your hand.” His hand tightened on hers. “Every moment of every minute we are together, it’s a struggle to keep my lion at bay. When you look at me, I see my future in your eyes. You tell me so much with those sparkling blue orbs. Am I sure? I’m more than sure, but we both need to be sure.”

  “What about what Sybil said?” She wanted to melt into his arms and beg him to bite her now, but she had to be sure that he knew whatever it was wasn’t going to be a game changer.

  “Changes nothing.” His hand left hers and found her cheek. She leaned into it, never letting her eyes leave his. “That’s not completely true. Of course it changes all kinds of things, but it doesn’t come close to changing how I feel about you. It only shows me once again how favorably the fates look upon me to give me not only a kind, compassionate, strong, beautiful, and intelligent mate but a powerful one at that.”

  “So…”

  He leaned in close, distracting her from any argument she was trying to put together. Sometimes she was her own worst enemy. Here was this amazing guy, laying all of his cards on the table, a table fate set, and she was trying to find the flaw in it.

  His cheek pressed against hers, and the heat of his breath on her ear set her on fire. “Say yes.” She was thankful she was sitting because there was no way she would have remained standing after that. She would’ve been a pile of lovesick goo on the floor.

  “Yes.” Samantha’s voice was husky and laced with more than just agreement. There was no way her answer could have been misconstrued.

  Samantha pulled back to find his mouth. They needed to be kissing and now, but before she was able to get a millimeter away, he was kissing her cheek and then down her neck. There was no way she was moving out of that. The kisses started out as pecks but passion filled them quickly, and as she let out a moan, his chest began to rumble the beginning of what she was sure would be a roar. Who knew a roar could be so flippin’ sexy?

  His lips left her neck momentarily and the next thing she knew, she felt a pinch where her neck met her shoulder, followed by a flow of emotions that could only be summed up as bliss. True, unadulterated bliss. She never wanted this moment to end. Never. The emotions intensified and she felt his chest reverberating against hers. He was purring. For her. She made his lion purr.

  “I love you.” His mouth kissed where he marked her, but she could hear him clear as day. His animal must still be in control, but where was hers?

  “And I you.” She let her head fall into the crux of his neck, only then noticing that at some point in all of this, she climbed onto his lap. Her first inclination was to get off so she didn’t hurt him, but the evidence beneath her told her that he was liking her there just fine. “That was...”

  “It was.” He agreed immediately and pulled her even closer. She found herself yawning and having to force herself awake. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this. It felt so peaceful and right, but her body wouldn’t cooperate and she felt herself drifting asleep. Just as she was about to lose consciousness, Samantha felt her unicorn again. Darn beast was pulling her into sleep. Bitch.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Unicorn dreams

  Samantha woke up dream walking, but instead of in her little dream office, she was in the woods behind Leo’s house. What the heck had her unicorn been thinking? One moment she was savoring her post-mating bliss with Leo, and the next she was being forced asleep so she could go outside the room she was actually really in. She called to her unicorn but nothing.

  Samantha sat down to wait out her apparently mandatory time in sleep land. All of the events of the day were slamming into her, and she no longer felt the peace she had only moments before she fell asleep. Was she really mated? She felt all of his bliss pouring off of him and took it in as her own, but was it hers also? Could she truly mate with him without at least a nibble? Not that she felt even the beginnings of an urge to do so. Okay, when she was in the woods with him, naked, nipping at his pecks may have crossed her mind, but that was a whole different kind of biting.

  “There you are.” Samantha looked up to see Leo and in dream speed, she was up and running to him. She wrapped her arms around him and started kissing him. He took control of the kiss almost immediately, and she once again started to feel the amazing rush of emotions rolling off of him.

  Using the last bit of self-control she had, she pulled back the tiniest bit and spoke against his lips, “Those feelings, are they yours or mine?”

  “Mine, I think. More kissing.”

  Who could argue with that? She could. Darn her overthinking.

  “Wait, I just have something to say and then back to all the kissing.” She leaned in close to his ear. She didn’t want to chance seeing a glimmer of disappointment in his eyes. “Sorry I fell asleep. I couldn’t help it.”

  “Of course you couldn’t. We needed to be h
ere.”

  “What?” She expected a ‘don’t worry about it’ or a ‘you’re forgiven’, not whatever this was.

  “Didn’t your unicorn tell you?”

  “Tell me what? Darn thing pulled me in here and away from your lap. A place I kind of wanted to stay for a while.”

  “Well, you aren’t there now. I put you to bed. That is why it took me so long to get here.” She had a vision of the two of them snuggled in bed and inwardly cursed her unicorn again. She could be there for real instead of here only in spirit.

  “So what was she supposed to tell me?”

  “I’m not sure. When you were falling asleep, she told my lion to follow you and then run.”

  “Run?”

  “Run.” He pecked her lips and changed into his lion before her eyes. The nice part about dream walking was you never had to worry about ruining clothes. He was off like a shot.

  That was when she felt the pull. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She was the predator and he was the prey. She had to catch him. Her unicorn forced a shift, and she was running faster than she ever had. She would scold her unicorn later, for now she had a lion to catch. She ran. Lions were fast, but he was a sprinter and she had time on her side. Using her ears and sense of smell as a guide, she followed him. He wasn’t blocking her like he had that day in the woods, but he wasn’t letting her catch him, either. He gave her a couple of false leads, and she was proud that she missed not a one of them. Or so she thought.

  The river approached quickly and his trail ended. Darn lion crossed the river. She went back and took a running leap over the water. She had always been a good jumper, but it would have been a close call if she had not been dream walking. She found his scent immediately. He was close. She was right, she just needed to give him time to slow down. As his scent became more powerful, so did her need to catch him. If this was half of how he felt about biting her, the man had superhuman willpower.