by Lisa Daniels
“I hardly think that Bryce or I need your help.”
“And yet you asked me to come here. To protect her while you did what, exactly?”
“I was checking on Bryce.”
Braxton folded his arms over his chest.
Leland began to mumble, “Who really should be moving on soon. Alright, I see your point. But shouldn’t you be leaving with us?”
“Not quite yet.”
“What could possibly keep you here?”
The enigmatic smile reappeared, “There are a couple of things. But I would rather surprise you when the time comes.”
Leland threw his hands in the air. “You know that I am the leader. You are not the one who is supposed to be making plans and executing them without permission.”
Braxton smiled, “When have I ever followed anyone’s rules or asked for permission?”
Leland covered his face with his hands. “Talking to you is like talking to a sphinx. Can’t you just… let someone help you when you need it?”
Braxton opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes moved around and the shifter bit his lip for a moment before speaking. “And I sincerely appreciate your concern. But right now, the best thing you can do for me is to get to safety. And actually talk to Jada about what you want instead of making her beg for it.”
“What about you?”
At this point I started to laugh. Both shifters turned to look at me. Braxton was frowning, but Leland growled, “What are you laughing at?”
“You guys are ridiculous. Thank you, Braxton, for telling me. And Leland, if you want me to be your mate, he’s right. You just need to ask. If you don’t, it just confirms that you could never be interested in me that way.”
Leland’s mouth hung open as Braxton looked at me smugly. “I guess my work here is done. I’ll leave you to finish figuring out what to do.”
“Are you sure you shouldn’t leave with us?” Leland was like a broken record, hoping that Braxton would see his logic. But Braxton wasn’t helping by being so evasive either.
“I’m—” Braxton began to answer.
I quickly cut him off, a grin on my face. “He wants us gone so that he can focus on his own analysis. Considering how long you have taken analyzing me, I dare say that Braxton is going to take forever determining if she is right for him. Losing a mate will make him hesitant to take another.”
Leland looked at me, his mouth once again open. Braxton pursed his lips, but he was clearly trying to hide the smile on his face. “It appears he has made a good choice. You are absolutely abysmal at understanding things that are close to you. But your understanding of the situations of others more than makes up for it. I think that you two will do very well together.” Without another word, he shifted into a tiger and left the floor.
“Show off,” Leland muttered after his friend.
“Holy hells, he’s a tiger!” I moved to the cell door and tried to get another glimpse, but Braxton was already gone.
“You heard him. He would lose in a direct match against me.”
“A tiger? You think you could beat a tiger?”
“Easily.” He shrugged and stepped into the cell.
“So you are, what, a lion in your other form?”
“Does it matter?” Leland looked at me before pulling me into his arms and kissing me. His arms pulled me to him with an urgency that I had never felt before. When he stopped, he looked down at me. “So you are willing to stay with me?”
I gave him an amused smile, “Of course. I never thought you would ask.”
“Since when do you ever wait for people to ask?”
“When I actually care what the other person wants. Or what is best for them. But you are so handsome, why would you want me?”
“I’m not as handsome as Braxton, so why didn’t you want him?”
I laughed, “So many reasons. Starting with that smart mouth of his.”
“You have a smart mouth.” His lips met mine, and his tongue slipped between my lips. “Such a smart mouth.”
“Are you saying you like that?”
“I love that. Perhaps that is why I am having such difficulty believing that you want to stay with me.”
“You have to be joking. After everything you have done for me. After the way you took care of me and made me feel secure. And I am really looking forward to more nights like—” I shut my mouth, my embarrassment kicking my unfiltered words away before they could escape.
“Go on,” Leland looked down at me. “You are looking forward to more nights like what?”
“You first.”
“What?”
“I will finish saying what I was going to say, if you tell me what your other form is.”
“That is an incredibly personal question.”
“And I was sharing an incredibly personal thought.”
“You are going to cause me nothing but trouble.”
“Of course. Isn’t that why you chose me?”
Leland laughed, then turned and walked out of the cell.
I began to follow him. “What are you—” I did not have a chance to finish asking what he was doing when he began to transform. Within seconds I was staring into the face of the largest creature I had ever seen—a brown bear.
“Oh.” I stood frozen to the spot, in awe of how enormous his other form was. Leland wasn’t small as a human, but I had no idea how he was able to become so compact compared to his animal form.
After another couple of seconds, Leland had his arms around me. He lifted me up and pressed my back against the cell bars as his lips sought mine. They ran down my neck. Still a little too weak, I couldn’t quite get my legs around him.
“Right.” The intensity of his kiss ceased almost immediately. “You still need some time.”
My eyes were closed because I desperately wanted him to keep going. I began to kiss his neck. “I want more nights like the one we spent in my room. I want all of my nights to be like that one.”
“Oh, but you test me, my little Jada. You test me.” To my surprise, he put me down. “Do you think you have enough strength to hold on to me?”
“Um, I guess.”
“Good. I know somewhere we can go. If at any point in time, you need me to stop, tap me on the shoulder. Promise you will.”
I looked up into his eyes, “I promise.”
He nodded at me, then picked me up like it was our wedding night. Long strides got us to the door far more quickly than should have been possible. “I’ll carry you as far as I can. But once we are out of the dungeon, you are going to have to hold on.”
I nodded, Leland’s plan becoming more obvious.
We were leaving. Braxton now had a purpose and Bryce was just biding his time. There was no reason for us to stay.
Once we reached the guard room, he jumped out of a window, completely unnoticed. It was a testament to just how preoccupied the guards were that there were only a couple left and they were paying no attention to their prisoners.
“There is going to be some severe punishment metered out when they realize you are gone, too,” I murmured as Leland helped me onto his back. “Hopefully it won’t make things more difficult for your friends.”
There was a low rumbling, and I was left with the impression that Leland was laughing.
I turned to look at the palace. For 19 years it had been where I lived, but it had never been home. There was no one chasing us, no one even noticed as Leland padded down to the lake and headed into the open area that I had looked at almost every day of my life.
The palace shrank as my future unfolded before me, much different than I had ever imagined.
Chapter 10
Beyond Boundaries
Leland headed toward a small range of mountains that was visible from my window. Though the distance was much further than I had expected, it still seemed a bit close given how many people were out looking for me.
It had been a bit rough, but I had managed to hold on to Leland as he climbed up the mount
ain. As soon as he reached a level place, he stopped.
“Do you want me to get off?” I asked, my body feeling a little stiff from having held on to him so tightly for hours.
He gave a slight nod. I slid off his back and began to brush the dirt and fur off of my pants. They had not been cleaned since I had put them on so many days ago. I had lost all track of time, but the smell alone reminded me that it had been too long.
“I’ll need to wash these,” I muttered to myself.
“Nonsense,” his voice was right behind me. Before I realized what was happening, my body was being carried up the mountain. “Hey, I’m alright to walk. You don’t need to carry me, you know.”
“What if I just want to carry you?” His eyes were intent as he moved further up.
“Well, I… I guess that is fine, then.”
He looked down at me, and for the first time I saw a softness in his eyes that I was certain hadn’t been there before. It made me blush. Looking down the mountain, my eyes sought the palace.
“Are you regretting your choice?”
“Oh, sure. I could be married to a man who saw me only as a baby vessel. If I died because my father starved me, the prince would just marry someone else. What a dream for any woman!” I couldn’t help but keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
Instead of the annoyance I expected, Leland laughed, “Yeah, I guess when you put it that way, it does make a difference. Don’t worry. If you don’t want kids, I’m perfectly fine with that. You are a bit more to me than a way of furthering my own lineage.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that.” I looked up at him, “If you can make me feel like you did that one night whenever I want, I’ll give you as many children as you want.”
Leland looked down at me, “I don’t do that so that you can owe me. Believe me, that was entirely my pleasure.”
I giggled and nuzzled into him. “You should have been more like this from the beginning. A big softy.”
“I’m not a big softy,” he snorted a little.
“But I understand why you weren’t. I wasn’t exactly the easiest person to talk to.”
“You weren’t bad, though. Just guarded. I don’t think there is anyone who would blame you for it.”
“I promise to work on it so that I don’t act like that with you. It may take some time, so please be patient.”
“Take all the time you need.” He looked down at me. “We are here. It’s not quite like what you are used to, but I think it will be comfortable enough for what we need.”
“It can’t be any worse than your cell.”
He looked down at me with a strange look in his eyes and a smirk on his mouth. With that, he carried me into a cavern that was much larger than the opening suggested. And it wasn’t what I thought caverns were supposed to look like. “Where are we?”
“It’s one of our hideouts. Since shifters go to the city with some regularity, we have an easy place to rest while we assess and monitor. It’s one of many near human cities around the world.”
My brain felt like it was on overload, but that last part caught my imagination. “Shifters travel all over the world?”
“Of course. We can’t keep convincing women to leave from the same city without incurring far too much attention. Besides, this isn’t the only country where women have it rough.”
I shook my head, trying to process everything. “This is a lot to take in. Maybe we can discuss it some other time. I’m still reeling from everything else that happened to me over the last week or two.”
He gave me a soft kiss on my forehead. “Take all the time you need. In the meantime,” he took me over to a sofa and put me down, “we will wait here to make sure they get out alright. Are you hungry?”
I looked up at him, “A little, yeah.”
“I’ll make something, then you get some sleep.”
“Will you stay with me while I sleep?”
He smiled at me, “Of course. But you will have to forgive me for rejecting any advances until I deem you well enough.”
I scrunched up my nose, “I can’t say that makes me happy.”
“It doesn’t make me happy either. But I would rather make sure you are healthy than unnecessarily risk your health.” He moved over to a small kitchen area and began making food. It was so strange to see a place like that in the middle of the mountains. The cavern was nicer than the palace. And this was just a little place for them to plan. Shifters were definitely an entirely different species.
My eyes watched Leland as he cooked. It was beyond me why he had chosen me. I wasn’t particularly attractive, I mouthed off and deflected, and I had caused him a lot of problems.
Over the next few days, Leland showed me what the strange object was. After he had met me, Leland had asked Bryce to monitor me to see when I went to the armory. While in there, he was to make sure I got the device.
“So, it was Bryce who entered. You know, you could have just told me.”
Leland’s cheeks turned a little pink. “I didn’t want you to see him. The plan worked, you got it, and now here it is.” He held it out to me. “Would you like to try it?”
I allowed him to distract me, because if I were being honest, I just wanted to be close to him. He was still refusing to touch me, so any contact with him made me happy.
Leland showed me that by looking in one end, things were easier to see. It was an ingenious little device that let him monitor what was happening at the palace. For several days, he showed me how it worked, and we played a few games looking through it.
I pointed out a few locations in the palace that shifters could probably use in the future, particularly if Leland told others about the passages.
One day, Leland returned from monitoring the city, a huge smile on his face. He put the device down and strolled across the cavern.
“Well, one down, one to go.” He flopped down near me. “More like two down. Braxton was right. That little brat found his own mate and completely forgot about everything else.”
“To be fair, he did save her life, and that tends to bring people together. Not to mention the fact that the woman was gorgeous.”
Leland’s eyebrow went up. “You saw her?”
“Yeah. Remember? I tried to get Falmen in trouble because of what happened that day.”
Leland’s mouth twitched and a half grin appeared. “Ah, Falmen. Interesting character.” He moved a little closer to me. “So you say that she was good-looking, huh?”
Rolling my eyes, I looked over at him, “Are you wishing you had been the one to save her?”
He shrugged, “Not particularly. I already know that she is very attractive, but that is definitely not enough to draw me to her. And there is no chance it would be enough for Bryce.”
“Yet he seems enamored with her. He didn’t spend nearly so long analyzing her as you and Braxton spent on me and whomever he’s interested in watching.”
“When you see Bryce, you’ll understand why he wants a lot more than looks. I think she won his heart because she fell for him without knowing what he looked like.”
“Is he that unattractive?”
Leland looked at me then sighed, “No, he is easily the best-looking shifter. It made it much harder for him to trust anyone because women wanted him for his looks. I mean, Braxton wasn’t wrong about that part either. Bryce is much older than any of the other shifters without mates.”
“He’s older than you, even?”
Leland frowned, “Yeah. By a good bit. Why would you think that he isn’t?”
“Well, you are the leader.”
“And?”
“Usually older people are leaders. That or genetically related. Are you related to the last leader?”
“Not at all. When our last leader disappeared, I was chosen. Okay, Braxton was chosen first, but he declined. He said he makes a better advisor, which was the position he had with our last leader. When he made it obvious that he couldn’t be persuaded to take the position, I was chosen.”
/> “I think that is for the best. Braxton seems amazing, but I don’t see him as the kind of person who wants to be at the forefront.”
“Is that your way of saying I seem like I want the attention?” He was giving me a look as if daring me to agree.
I laughed, “No. I mean you seem like you can make a decision, then get people to act. You lead from the front. Braxton doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would be comfortable giving orders.”
“Yeah, that is true. I doubt he believes anyone would listen to him if he tried to be more direct.”
“I don’t know how that could be true. If you will forgive me for saying so, he seems like the most mature shifter.”
“That’s a very cruel statement of fact. I mean, given that he is a good bit younger than me. He always did come across as much older than his age. And it’s why I couldn’t just leave him behind to die. I really hope that he decides to take a new mate. I can’t imagine anyone more deserving of another chance.” Leland’s face was directed toward the cavern opening, and the hope for his friend was clear on his face. “He deserves so much better than what has happened to him.”
I moved closer to Leland and kissed his cheek. “I think you make a fine leader. Not that I know what the rest of your kind are like. It is clear that you care very much for your friends, though.”
He turned and looked at me, “Of course. Protecting our own is always our first priority until we take a mate.”
“I’m sure they remain a priority.”
He looked into my eyes and tilted his head to the side. “Of course, but our mates and children are always our first priority.” Leland’s eyes went to my mouth. Without any further words, he leaned forward and gently kissed me. The tender kiss quickly turned into something more passionate. Leland began to stroke my cheek as his body covered mine. “I think you are well enough now.”
I kissed his lips several times to leave him wondering for a few moments. “Hmmm, I don’t know. I’m feeling a little…” Before I could finish, his hand moved up my calf and thigh. Instead of speaking, I moaned as his hand glided over my leg and around to the top of the back of my thigh.
