Savage Craving: A Shifting Destinies Lion Shifter Romance (Lion Hearts Book 4)

by Cecilia Lane

  “You motherfucker!” Dash shouted.

  Spell broken, Lilah whirled to face the front of the barn. Seth stepped in front of her, but danger didn’t appear. Not any to her person, anyway. The closest it ever came was being put on the spot to pick between better insults or placing a bet on who’d piss off Trent first. When she’d quietly voiced that Dash seemed the safe answer to both, the pride had responded with a raucous round of jeers and laughter.

  One last truck pulled to a stop before Dash and Lindley came to blows. Seth relaxed when Trent and Hailey stepped out. After a brief exchange of words, the alpha’s mate made her way toward them while the alpha went to work cursing the others into backing down from whatever new irritation they conjured together.

  Hailey held up a thermos. “You didn’t make it down for breakfast, so I brought coffee!”

  Seth’s phone rang before Lilah could answer. He took one last look around before excusing himself. Lilah watched him retreat into the tack room on the other side of her door.

  His door, she corrected herself. His pride. As kind as they’d been, the sooner she could get back to her own life, the better.

  “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know that was required.” Lilah smiled politely. “Do you do breakfasts together every morning?”

  “Don’t apologize. Nothing’s required,” Hailey insisted. “Besides, trying to require anything around here is like trying to herd a bunch of cats!”

  The last part she shouted toward the others with a wide grin that grew even bigger at the chorus of groans she received.

  Lilah smiled at her feet. They weren’t what she’d expected. Loud, sure. Violent, yes. But not deadly or threatening. She found herself relaxing a little more around their antics with every hour that passed.

  Hailey reigned over the others, but there weren’t any hard feelings or objections to her human status. Trent still stepped in and threw around his authority as needed, but he was utterly devoted to the woman.

  Then there was Colette and Dash, who thrived on giving each other shit. Lilah was certain neither knew what ‘too far’ meant.

  Kyla and Lindley acted as caregivers, dousing fires before they flamed up too hot. When they weren’t adding fuel to the fire, anyway.

  The only ones she wasn't sure about were Rhys and Sage. At first, she thought they were a couple who didn't like the soft PDA of lingering touches and quick kisses of the others. The more she watched, though, the more it became clear they worked hard to keep their distance. Exes, maybe. Or maybe courting and desperate to keep it under wraps with Sage's older brother so near. Lilah found it hard to believe anyone missed the furtive glances they shot when they thought no one—including each other—looked their way.

  And then there was Seth.

  She still couldn't quite pin him down. He'd remained as tight-lipped and evasive as ever, even if he kept a close watch on her. Quieter than the others, too, they included him in the trash talk but he rarely took the bait. He was a recent addition to the team, from what she understood, but that was where the trail ran cold. Where he came from and why he chose to settle in Bearden were her biggest questions concerning the not-shifter man.

  Even with Seth’s less than forthcoming information, they weren’t Jasper or the dangerous shifters from the prison. They weren’t the monsters from her past. The Crowley lion pride were rough and wild, but extremely protective of each other. And since she’d arrived with Seth, they counted her as one of their own.

  Insane. Absolutely bonkers. Never would she have guessed the sudden changing of the winds would blow her into the middle of a shifter-run ranch in Montana.

  Seth stepped out of the tack room. “That was Jaime,” he said, flicking a glance to Hailey, then turning his attention to Lilah. Hailey, giving them a light smile, found something interesting at the other end of the barn and left them alone. “She’s in town and wants to meet this morning.”

  “Here? Today?”

  “Here, today,” he repeated. “I was thinking we could head out early and get breakfast. If you’re up for it.”

  She couldn’t help but read a challenge in his words, but didn’t know exactly what he hinted at. Going out with him? Going out with him, in public? Going out with him, in public, surrounded by a town full of shifters? Each held its own worry.

  Lilah chewed on her lower lip. “Is that wise?”

  “Kyla’s already there for her shift, and you’ll be safe in town. We take care of our own around here.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly, trying not to let her nerves get the better of her. Shifter town, full of shifters. Not her idea of a party. Then again, the Crowleys had been nothing but respectful during her brief stay and she was antsy to do something.

  She never understood how so many people in fiction and real life violated house arrest or witness protection orders until she faced the monotony of it herself. She’d stayed mostly in his room in the barn, only venturing out to chat with the others or stretch her legs. Looking at the same walls for hours on end really made her appreciate random strolls through the park near her apartment or running out for groceries when she realized she’d forgotten a key ingredient.

  “You’re the security expert,” she added.

  Besides, the trip would give her time to probe a little more into the mystery that surrounded Seth Foster.

  Chapter 11

  The trees thinned out as they neared the town and more houses filled the gaps. Then those clustered tighter until they gave way to the streets and buildings like the small town where she’d grown up. A strange note of nostalgia took hold in Lilah’s heart when Seth turned them onto Main Street and she got her first look at the enormous town square.

  People wandered through, or simply lounged on benches or blankets for a chat. A handful of children and their dogs raced up and down the steps of a gazebo at one end of the square, having the time of their lives while their parents watched from nearby.

  Seth waved a group across the road, then crawled forward toward the firehouse. Lips twitching to hold back a grin, he jerked his chin back at the gazebo.

  Lilah gasped when she realized the dogs were, in fact, tiny bears cubs.

  She turned back to him with eyes as wide as saucers. “Out in the open, just like that? That’s allowed?”

  “Welcome to Bearden.” He didn’t hide his amusement as he drove on.

  Brick buildings lined both sides of the street. Trees decorated the sidewalks, and manicured flowers decorated the base of the thick trunks. The majority of the shops were open at that hour, and people bustled in and out the doors, all up and down the street. The scene could have replaced any small town if not for the furry individuals dotting the crowd.

  Lilah could hardly peel her eyes from the window. Her heart pounded against her breastbone and panic ticked away at the back of her head. Flashes of the past tried to wedge their way to the front of her mind, but none of those memories lined up with the calm peace of the midmorning street. “Are they all shifters?”

  “This time of the year? No. There are a good number of tourists in town. Not all the residents are shifters, either. A few humans live here with their mates.” He idled for a second, then swerved to grab a parking spot right on the side of the road. “We’re here.”

  ‘Here’ turned out to be Tommy’s Diner. The smells of the place made Lilah’s stomach rumble even before she stepped inside, Seth’s hand on the small of her back.

  Kyla greeted them with a wave, which brought a scowl to the face of the man moving past her with a tray of food in his arms. He set the plates on a packed table with hard clinks before spinning around and pointing to an empty spot in the corner.

  “There,” he grunted. “We’ll be with you when we can.”

  Lilah shot Seth a questioning look, but he shrugged. "That's Tommy," he said as an explanation. "You get used to it. The food helps soothe any hurt feelings."

  That definitely seemed to be the case. For all his gruffness, the tables stayed full. Kyla barely had a chance t
o say hello between taking their order and scurrying on to the next group squeezing into seats along the counter.

  Lilah turned to watch the bustle along the sidewalk. She tried guessing which of the groups of friends, couples, and families were shifters and which were human like her, but unless someone strolled by on four paws or let some extra color bleed into their eyes, she couldn’t tell. Which was precisely the point, she mused, and made them so dangerous.

  “I can’t believe this place has been here the whole time,” she said softly, not wanting to be overheard by any of the other patrons.

  “It’s always felt a little touristy to me. Even before—” he caught himself and quickly corrected, “Even in the early days of open access.”

  Lilah watched him from the corner of her eye. Before when? Before the big reveal? From what she understood, humans hadn’t been welcome guests until then. What business did he have in the shifter town if he wasn’t of the furry variety?

  “Here you go,” Kyla announced and quickly shoved their plates off a tray. “Need anything else?”

  They barely shook their heads before she spun away with a promise to return shortly to check on their drinks.

  Lilah dumped a packet of sugar into her mug and gave it a stir, eyeing Seth from under her lashes. She had a list of questions a mile long and didn’t know where to begin. Something innocuous would be helpful. She needed to start small and work her way up. “You do this legal kidnapping thing often?”

  Seth snorted. “I’d hardly call protection detail a kidnapping.”

  “I don’t know,” Lilah drew out her words. “You’ve dragged me into your truck multiple times and we’ve fled into the night for parts unknown. Sounds a little like kidnapping.”

  He sat back and gestured toward the door. “You’re free to go whenever you want.”

  “And you’re free to follow, I presume?”

  Seth shrugged up a shoulder. “I won’t get paid otherwise.”

  “Classy,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m glad you see this as more than a payday.”

  “You think I’d subject myself to spiked drinks for the hell of it?” He speared a sausage link and waved it in her direction. “That’s an extra bonus for hazard pay.”

  Lilah laughed, then leaned in conspiratorially. “I can do it again if you’d like. We could really work the system.”

  “If I’m taking all the risk by, say, being poisoned, I’m taking all the reward.”

  “Greedy.” She planted her elbow on the table and propped her cheek on her fist, stirring her coffee absently. “How did you get into this sort of work?”

  “Jaime, actually. She hooked me up with the security company years ago. Protection services, skip tracing, those are my areas of expertise. I used to do more with them, but these days it’s mostly just when she calls in a favor.”

  “Oh? How did that happen?”

  Something uncertain flickered in his eyes. “She helped me when I ran into some trouble when I was barely off my mother’s apron strings.”

  Lilah softened. She found it hard to imagine the tough, powerful man across from her ever having trouble, but he’d been a boy at some point in his life. “That sounds like Jaime. Her work with teens and young adults was why I applied at the firm in the first place.”

  “Did you always know you wanted to grow up to be a bloodsucker, I mean, lawyer?”

  “Oh, I’m not a lawyer. I couldn’t handle being in front of a courtroom, hoping my words and explanations of the evidence convinced people to side with me. I know there are law practices that don’t involve trials, but those never really interested me.”

  “So, not a lawyer, what then?”

  “Paralegal. I make the paperwork go round.” She twirled her finger through the air, then turned serious. “But it’s more than that. It’s giving these kids another chance so their lives aren’t defined by dumb mistakes. They aren’t forgotten once the bill is paid, either. Jaime blocks out time each week and has us check in to make sure they aren’t shirking their community service or falling back in with the bad crowd. I like to think we’re making a difference, one person at a time.”

  “How does Jasper Crowley fit into that picture? He must have aged out by now.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “Bad luck,” she said sadly. “Extremely bad luck. What’s the line from that movie... ‘I’m not even supposed to be here today’? I usually work under Jaime, but another lawyer in the firm needed the assistance.”

  “Why the legal side? Why not social work or something along those lines?”

  “Ah,” Lilah said with a pained smile, “that gets us into the time and cost analysis. I couldn’t wait the extra years to even get started, so I went with the quickest option to get out on my own and still help others.”

  He leaned back and cocked his head. “Rough time, then?”

  “Yeah.” She stopped herself from saying more. How did he do that? She was trying to grill him, not the other way around. Something about the man made her feel comfortable enough to talk about her troubled thrust into young adulthood. Not a single therapist had accomplished that feat. “Yeah,” she repeated. “You could say that.”

  He reached across the table and captured her wrist. There wasn’t any demand in the touch. The stroke of his thumb over her skin offered comfort. Solace. An understanding she didn’t find very often, and even less when she opened up with her life story.

  “You’re not defined by what happened to you.”

  “Sometimes I think I’m cursed,” she admitted.

  “Oh, well, in that case, proceed with all caution. Curses are like being allergic to the world.” His mouth twitched into a half-smile and he winked. “You can’t pretend that peanut won’t try to kill you.”

  Lilah let off a single note of laughter. Without knowing the circumstances, he’d already given her more support than she’d received from her parents. They’d wanted to fix her and put her back the way she’d been. Seth propped her up on her feet and offered her an arm to get moving again.

  She glanced up and found him looking at her. Consuming her, more like it. She could practically feel his fingers ghosting over her skin as his eyes dropped from her face and swept down her neck.

  Her heart kicked against her breastbone. She’d felt those touches. His thumb had grazed more than her inner wrist when he searched her for the stash of sleeping pills. Dumb. She’d been so fucking stupid to try that move. Even stupider to deny she’d done anything. She really needed to make a t-shirt out of it. I tried to escape my bodyguard, and all I got was this sexy, sexy pat-down.

  His eyes had been dark, then, too.

  Lilah snatched her hand back. Too shrill, she asked, “Are you close to your family?”

  “It’s been a few years since I’ve been home, but I make sure to call my mother every week to catch up.”

  “Momma’s boy? I’d never have suspected.”

  “Damn right. That woman did everything in her power to keep me on the straight and narrow. That I didn’t listen is my own fault.” He snorted, and the teasing light in his eyes turned serious. “She deserved better than the son she had, so I’m trying to make up for it now.”

  It was Lilah’s turn to sit back with surprise. His was such an honest, mature answer that added depth to the few things she knew about him. Troubled. Stubborn. Not afraid to admit he was wrong. That was her kind of catnip.

  “I’m not interrupting, am I?” Jaime asked smoothly from the side of the table.

  Lilah jumped, then dropped her eyes as a fine flush spread over her cheeks.

  Thankfully, Jaime didn’t seem to notice. She shooed Seth to the side and took a seat next to him. “I didn’t expect to see you two so early,” she went on, “but while we’re here…”

  Lilah leaned forward. “Has anything happened?”

  Jaime flashed her a triumphant smile. “So, digging right in, pressure over the escape has obviously pushed investigations into overdrive. The former warden has confessed
to sending one of the escapees to your apartment as a little last mission before freedom. On an unrelated note, if you ever come into bribe money, don’t spend it on a vacation home in Tahoe or a cherry red convertible you keep in your home garage. Those tells get you seated in an interrogation room before you can transfer bail money from your offshore accounts.”

  “That’s it?” Lilah stared at Jaime blankly when she stopped speaking. “It’s over? I can go home?”

  “Hold on a minute,” Seth objected. “I saw the state of her apartment. Has any of that been fixed yet? How are you so sure this fucker doesn’t have others waiting in the wings?”

  Good questions. Ones she wished she’d asked.

  “Repairs are scheduled to be completed today, with clean up finished tomorrow. You can pick up new keys from the front office. A security system has been installed, as well.”

  “And Jasper? He’s still on the loose.” Lilah worried at her lower lip. They hadn’t heard any updates about his capture. If he could bribe the freaking warden in charge of keeping him captive, she didn’t want to know what lengths he’d go to tie up a loose end. What had Hailey called it? Daring to survive?

  “At the risk of sounding callous, I don’t see how one woman who played a minor role in his escape would factor into his next steps.” Jaime reached across the table and gave her hands a squeeze. “With the former warden’s confession, you’re no longer the only voice left to give him away. There’s a nationwide manhunt drawing power from every law enforcement agency in the country. He will be found.”

  Lilah spied Seth shifting in his seat from the corner of her eye. Jaime might have been confident, but the man assigned to protect her didn’t agree.

  “Everything will be ready tomorrow?” she asked. She glanced at Jaime, then met Seth’s hooded expression. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be safe and forget the whole nightmare of death and threats and the scent of smoke and blood. She just wanted to be happy and normal.

  Her heart sank when Jaime nodded. “Everything.”