The Lion and the Unicorn (Lionsville Shifters Book 1)

by Dara Fraser

  Eric was on the ground shaking, but that didn’t stop her. Truth be told, she wanted to kill him on the spot and that terrified her more than seeing the man before her quake.

  “As for the others, I am formally asking you to release them from your pack.”

  “D…d…done.”

  If she smelled correctly, Eric just peed his pants. She may be ending something, but she had a feeling she was opening up a whole new can of worms.

  “I now claim them as mine. You are to follow the same guideline I set forth for Leroy.”

  Love. Pull back. Leo put his hand in hers, anchoring her as she pulled the power back. She was a sweaty mess when she finally reigned it in and that was when the nausea hit her. Crap, the Theron were here.

  “Eric. Listen to me now. You are a piece of shit and I have no love for you, but I feel the Theron coming. Call to your people and get them out of here and you join them.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” He was up and gone in a flash. From the way he addressed her, he figured out who she was and self-preservation took over. She really hoped he got his people out.

  “Stay or run, love?” Leo pulled her from her wandering thoughts.

  “I don’t know.” Her voice was shaking and she wanted a checklist to follow. Checklists made all things easier. A second wave hit, but it felt not as close. “Stay.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Prophecy Time

  Samantha reached up to find the talisman. It was vibrating slightly. Yes, it was time. They sat on the ground facing each other. They had discussed and practiced the spell numerous times without the necklace, but this was it. Their one chance. Holding their left hands together, she grabbed onto the talisman with her right and began to chant the spell:

  What was once stolen will now be returned.

  Hunter becomes hunted and untamed become tamed as into the dream world you wander away.

  We harness the power of moon and sun to gather back what was unfairly won.

  They repeated it over and over again as the sky darkened. Samantha closed her eyes, trying to avoid the changing sky and maintain her focus. It was one thing to know that astronomically speaking there were eclipses, it was another to have one occurring for paranormal reasons. Samantha could feel it in the intensity of the vibrations of the talisman she was holding; their spell was causing this shift and it terrified her. No one should have that kind of power.

  Over and over again they repeated the words. Sybil told them that they would know when to stop, so they just repeated it over and over again, never once letting their hands go. Samantha tried to keep count in her head, but eventually it all became automatic and counting fell away with her fear. It was then that she finally started to feel the words and they finally began to make sense. A spark of hope rekindled in her.

  The vibration in the talisman intensified, and holding it now took concentration and strength. Every moment the difficulty increased, but Samantha and Leo never stopped saying the words they knew were meant to free their kind. Samantha knew her whole body was vibrating and if it weren’t for Leo anchoring her, giving her the fortitude to continue, she might not have had the strength to do what was necessary.

  There was a change. Samantha couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, but it hit her at once. Something was different. Good different or bad different, she didn’t know but different nonetheless. As that realization hit her, so did a blow from the necklace, so forceful that she let go, falling backwards as she did so. They were told that they would know when to stop, and she really hoped that being flung onto her back as a bolt of energy hit her was the sign she was looking for because all other options meant she failed. They failed.

  She could hear Leo’s voice, but it felt far away and mumbled. It took more energy than it should have to open her eyes and when she did, she was greeted with the panicked eyes of her mate. He sounded so far away, and yet she could see how close he was. She let her eyes divert from his momentarily as she tried to school the fear from hers.

  They weren’t where they started. Well, they probably were but only in body. They were in the woods from the painting, which meant they were dream walking. Part of her was terrified for their bodies, lying helplessly on the ground, but dream walking was something she knew. Something she could handle. All bets were off and she was in control.

  “Leo, are you okay?” Her voice was strong and normal. Now that she knew where they were, she could manipulate things to work the way they needed to. It must have been shock and fear that had everything so out of whack when she awoke.

  “Am I okay? Am I okay?” He repeated the mantra holding her tighter. “Oh, love, I was so worried about you, lying there, not moving after being flung from me by I’m not sure what, and you are worried about me?” He was kissing her cheek, and she felt moisture she could only assume was his tears.

  “Silly man, I’m fine. Better than fine. Do you know where we are?”

  “In your head?” He was tentative and she wasn’t quite sure why.

  She pulled away and began to stand. Seeing him struggling with letting her, she pulled him with her. “Yes. Well maybe, I’m not sure because of the spell part, but we are dream walking.”

  “Why do you sound so giddy about that, love?” His worried brow deepened.

  “Because, mate oh mine, here I have power. Here I have control.”

  “Oh, love, you have always had power.” He cupped her cheek and leaned in close. “What now?”

  Wasn’t that the question? She had absolutely no idea. All she knew was that she had more to do. It didn’t feel complete. Not at all.

  “Somehow we need to get the Theron’s power and trap it here. I say we look around first. This is not my creation, it was here for us. At least I don’t think it is mine. Usually I know.” Samantha was most concerned about that. She should know if this was her dream or someone else’s, and if it was someone else’s, how did they get there, and whose was it?

  “Samantha, love, I can feel your fears as I am sure you feel mine, but we have to remember the end of the story. We will be successful and allowing that to give us strength will only solidify the ending.”

  Turning around, she stepped onto her tiptoes and kissed him chastely on the lips, not that her body wanted chaste right now, but this was neither the time nor the place. “How did I get such a smart mate?”

  “Fate must just like you.” The jest of his words never hit his tone. He was as worried as she was behind his stoic façade. “Let’s walk around. I have a feeling we’ll know what to do when the time comes. That seems to be the way of things with these prophecies.” He gave her a halfhearted wink and they began to walk.

  The woods felt real, but the sound was off. They were silent. No animal sounds, and even though she could feel the breeze, the leaves made not a peep. It was eerily silent. The sky was that of a late afternoon in fall, with the sun setting, and at the rate it was setting, it would be night soon. She was highly doubting this was her dreamscape by this point, but they continued to walk in silence listening for the sounds that seemed to never come.

  At first they made ever-growing circles to avoid missing anything because of a wrong turn, but when a path branched off to the left, it felt to both of them like it was the way to go, and they followed it. As darkness grew, she felt a burning sensation begin on her neck. Her hand quickly went for the spot and she felt the necklace. It was radiating the heat, growing hotter by the second.

  “Leo, help me get this off.” Her voice gave away the magnitude of her freak out, and he had it off her in seconds.

  “What is wrong?” He held the necklace in his hand as if it were nothing and she reached to touch it, only to feel it burning once again, yet he responded to the heat not at all. “Samantha, I need you to tell me what is going on because right now I’m about to lose myself to my lion because he is sensing I’m not protecting you enough.”

  “The locket is hot. So very hot, but you are holding it like it is normal.”

  “It fee
ls normal to me.” He tore his eyes from her and started to play with the necklace, hoping to open the hidden compartment which appeared to no longer be there. “What do you think it means?”

  “That is the question, isn’t it?” She thought about when it started to heat up. They hadn’t done anything different. “Let’s walk back a bit and see if it is still hot.”

  They walked for a minute before he handed it back to her. It was fine. “Leo, I want to hold it in my hand and keep going the way we were.”

  “I want to say no to you.”

  “But you won’t because it is important.”

  “Yeah, something like that.” He reached for her hand. “I feel like this is it. Like we are almost at the end and I want…no, I need you to know that whatever happens, I love you and am proud of you and if I’m not here when this is all done—”

  “You stop that now. We saw the ending and that is that.” His eyes told a different story, but she wasn’t going to be able to do this if she let herself dwell on it. “Let’s go before someone spots us in the woods and wakes us up.”

  They slowly began to walk and as before, the necklace became hotter and hotter, at a slower rate, as if before was only a way to teach them what to do. They turned off to the side when she thought she saw someone, and the locket immediately turned cold. It was a game of hot/cold, only on steroids. The question was, where was it leading them?

  In the distance, a pond became visible, and as they got closer and closer, the sparkle of the moon over the water became less and less. How long were they really there? It was light, dusk, and now dark in what felt like a matter of minutes. Being a dream world meant it could be anywhere from five minutes to five hours.

  “How hot is it now, love?” Concern laced his voice.

  “It is getting really hot. I feel like the water is our final destination.”

  “That’s good. My lion is screaming to get out and the moon is disappearing.”

  She looked up and there it was—the second eclipse. Only this one was not in real life but in a dream.

  “I feel like I need to let him out.”

  “I feel it, too. I need your lion in whatever is coming next.” He leaned in and kissed her before turning away and transforming without taking off his clothes. It must have been all he could do to hold his lion in check.

  Her lion, for he was hers, walked beside her as she closed the distance. What she thought was a pond turned out to be more of a weird well. She barely reached the water when her hand began to burn with an intensity she could no longer bear, and the necklace fell into the oddly colored water in front of her as if it leaped from her hand of its own accord. The moon was almost completely gone now, and the water began to crackle. Her lion was roaring at something behind her, but she couldn’t focus on that now because her unicorn was taking over. Her unicorn was not like the predators’ inner beasts, who struggled for who had power. She was always just there, like a friend who always agrees with you, but right now she was taking over, and Samantha knew better than to hold her back.

  Her transformation was fast, too fast, and she was disoriented. Her lion took off like a bolt, but she knew that she was needed at the water. The crackling was now more than a sound. Maybe it always had been, and she needed her unicorn eyes to see it. She saw little flickers of light on the water. If it weren’t for the sounds, she would have thought them fireflies, but as one started to leave the water, she felt compelled to put her horn in the water.

  If she had thought the power surge she had felt earlier was strong, she had been sadly mistaken. The force of the power now hitting her horn was unlike anything she had ever felt or even begun to fathom, but her unicorn was strong and her horn stayed in the water as the “fireflies” charged at her horn. One by one, they disappeared until the crackling ended and her unicorn fell away, leaving her crumpled naked body by the water, unable to do anything other than watch the moon come back as she felt herself fade away. Samantha was not sure what had just happened, but whatever it was, she knew it just changed everything.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Home again

  Samantha woke up feeling rejuvenated as if she had just had a perfect night’s sleep instead of the crazy ride she’d been on. She could feel the warmth of the sun on her face, so either they had only been out a short time, or they were out for a whole night. Samantha was leaning toward short time because Dylan had threatened to come get them if they took too long. She cracked her eyes and allowed them to adjust as she brought herself to a sitting position, looking to her left as a snore tore through the air. Her sweet lion was sound asleep in lion form.

  Bending down, she ran her hand through his thick coat. Her beautiful lion was a snorer. Thank goodness he didn’t snore in human form. Not that she had heard yet anyways.

  “Leo, you need to wake up.” She allowed her voice to increase with each word. The last thing they needed was someone stumbling upon them with him in this form. She gave him a little shove, and he opened his eyes before shifting before her. “We’re back.” She gave a forced smile. They were back, but she still wasn’t sure what exactly happened and if it had worked.

  “We are?” He looked around, and she tried to avert her eyes from his yummy body. This was not the time. Well, it may be the time, but it was most assuredly not the place. “We are,” he added more confidently. “I was chasing those damn bugs and then I felt myself pull away.”

  Well that explained why his lion ran off. He was trying to get the escapees.

  “Now I’m feeling like I had the best night’s sleep.” He looked down at his state of undress. “And a bit cold.”

  “You look hot to me,” she teased. Getting back to the vehicle was going to be interesting. “Do you think we did it?”

  “I don’t know. Some of those things got away. What happened to the rest?”

  “I think they are in me.” She thought back to what had happened. She usually remembered everything in her unicorn form, but she wanted to be sure before finishing her answer. “I put my horn into the pool or well or whatever that was, and they all rushed to me and disappeared.”

  “Where is the necklace?”

  She instinctively reached for her neck when he asked. In theory, it should have been there since it was there when they began their dream walking.

  “It should still be here, but…” She took a quick look around. “I think it is still in the pool.”

  “Is that possible?” Leo looked beyond her and smiled. Turning back, she saw why. Dylan was wandering their way with a pair of jeans in his hands.

  “Is any of this possible?”

  “Hey, guys, I told you five o’clock, but then Sybil tossed me these and told me to leave now, so…” He bowed at his waist in an exaggerated show. “Here I am. Is it done?” The question was tentative, and Samantha wasn’t sure if it was because he was talking to his alpha or if it was because he was afraid.

  “As done as we could make it,” Samantha mumbled. She really hoped it was done enough.

  Leo pulled on the jeans Dylan tossed his way.

  “Did you bring backup?”

  “Yeah, I brought Alex.”

  “Good. He can drive the truck home so I can fill you in.”

  They were at the parking lot fairly quickly. The festival grounds were empty. It seemed that an unexpected eclipse followed by a terrible wind storm and what Dylan described as “freaky as fuck clouds” had pushed everyone out of there so fast, it looked like a tornado hit. Samantha assumed that was from their rush, but maybe the winds had gotten that bad.

  “So basically, we have Rose, Daisy, Darnell, Leroy, and the sisters’ mother. They are all alright, but I fear the old woman has very little time left. She is weak and very broken. I can’t even feel her wolf.” There was sorrow in Dylan’s voice and Samantha felt a call to be with the old woman.

  “Can we go to them?” she asked as the SUV door was opened for her.

  “Absolutely, love.” Leo gave her a quick kiss on the cheek
before pulling away as if he had forgotten. “Hey, Dylan,” he called over the vehicle, “Who is Darnell?”

  “Darnell is Daisy’s mate.”

  A roar bellowed behind them and a quick look back showed her that it was Alex. She had almost forgotten he was there, waiting orders. “Not her mate,” he stated far too loudly.

  “Alex, I saw the bite. Are you saying they’re lying? Are we in danger?” Dylan was in full-on protector mode and with every question, Alex seemed to be in less and less control of his lion.

  “Stand down.” Leo took a step closer to Alex, pushing power as he did, and Alex’s head slowly lowered. “Explain.”

  “He. Is. Not. Her. Mate.”

  Samantha could feel Leo pushing more power, but he remained silent.

  “He is not a danger, Alpha.”

  “How do you know he is not a danger and how do you know he is not her mate?”

  “Because, sir…” Alex seemed to struggle to look up and meet Leo’s eyes, but she felt no power being pushed at him. “He is my mate.”

  Leo nodded his head in understanding. “Very well. Best be heading back.”

  “Yes, sir.” Relief seemed to touch his eyes.

  “And, Alex.” The compassion she heard in her mate’s voice at those two words had her falling in love with him all over again.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “We will figure this out.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Alex stepped over and hugged Leo before climbing in the truck and pulling out of the parking lot.

  They stared as he drove off. Samantha was allowing what had happened to sink in when Dylan asked in typical fashion, “Wait, did Alex just say his mate was already taken? That fucking sucks.” Samantha loved that he completely skipped over what she believed was probably Alex’s coming out.

  “Fate doesn’t make mistakes, so let’s not dwell on that.” She smiled at her mate.

  They climbed in the SUV and she snuggled in the back seat with Leo, needing to feel his touch.