“Fate does not make mistakes, Penny,” Col said before Kann could respond to Penny’s fears. “Kann says your soul glows for him. You are his mate, which makes you part of the Tribe. We protect our own.”
“But, I—” Penny started to object, but stopped when Col flashed her the look, the one that had made all of them at the table vote unanimously to make him their chief. Their Vraka. He was a prince. A son of a royal house. Authority exuded from him as naturally as snow fell from the Alaskan sky.
“You are safe with us, beautiful,” Kann stated to the table.
“I told you.” Naomi licked syrup off her fingers. “Part of the family.”
Kann watched his mate’s shoulders slump. Tears pooled in her eyes and ran in tiny rivers down her ivory cheeks. “She’s broken.” His tone was hoarse, like he’d been stabbed in the gut.
“I’m okay,” Penny said with a sniff. She touched his hand and Kann’s worry dissipated instantly. She’d touched him. Not only that, she was still touching him. “It’s just that no one has ever called me family and really meant it. I’m a complete mess and I’m afraid that Jake or someone he hired is going to show up and kill me and I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”
“What happened to your family?” Naomi said, stroking her mate’s arm while she spoke.
The air around the table had cooled considerably and Col’s eyes weren’t gold anymore. Kann didn’t dare move. Penny still had her hand on his arm. He wanted it to stay there as long as possible.
“My parents were killed in an accident when I was a baby. I didn’t have any other family, so I went into the system. My first placement neglected me, and their home got shut down when I was six. The only thing I really remember was always being hungry. I jumped from foster home to foster home after that.”
“God, I’m so sorry. I grew up with a huge family. I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like to have no one to support you.”
Kann pulled his arm away from Penny’s hand and draped it around her shoulder, pulling her close to his side. “You have family now. All of us.”
Penny gulped and sniffed again. She didn’t pull away either. Just leaned into his side.
“How did you end up in Anchorage? Or did you grow up there?”
“No. I was in Florida as a child. When I graduated high school, I got a full ride to MIT.”
“Damn. That’s amazing,” Naomi said, her mouth slightly full of pancake.
Color crept into Penny’s cheeks at Naomi’s comment. He would have to remember to ask what MIT was later.
“I graduated as one of the top mechanical engineers in my field. My specialty is ballistics.”
“Like weapons?” Naomi asked.
Penny nodded. “I got offered contracts by companies all over the world and I picked Vicenti Inc. Apparently I also picked the one that was corrupt and run by a murderer. I’ve been in Anchorage for six years. I never suspected anything.”
“We will take care of him if he shows up here,” Col rumbled from the end of the table. “You have nothing to fear.”
“I don’t think you understand. Jake is ex-military. He’s trained. Can any of you fire a weapon? You can’t just shift into an animal. He’ll kill you as man or beast. And what if it happens in town? I won’t have any of you getting killed for me.”
“She’s right about the shifting. We have to be careful. I’ve told you before if anyone sees us we’re toast. The government will lock us up and throw away the key.” Naomi bit off a piece of bacon and chewed for a moment. “This is a ‘stand your ground’ state. If we shoot him and he’s coming after one of us we’re good. The sheriff will investigate, but it won’t go further than that.”
“We don’t even own a gun,” Kann said. “And what does ‘stand your ground’ mean exactly?”
“It means that it’s legal for a person to defend themselves in a dangerous situation with the use of deadly force,” Penny said quietly. “That’s one of the reasons I stayed in Alaska. If I had to defend myself, at least here I wouldn’t likely face retribution for doing so.”
“An animal attack would be easier,” Saul grumbled from the other side of the table.
“If you attacked a guy, you’d have every hunter in town tracking your ass down and shooting at every single mountain lion they could find. And God forbid if anyone actually saw you or Kann. They would think you escaped from the zoo in Anchorage. There would be so much media up here looking for you, we’d have to leave. Also, none of us would be able to shift for months. Maybe even years.”
Kann groaned along with everyone else at the table. Naomi was right. Penny was right. This situation couldn’t be fought in animal form. They couldn’t risk exposing the tribe.
“So, when can you start teaching us to shoot?” Naomi asked. “Mr. Curtis has hunting rifles we can borrow. Probably a couple of shotguns too.”
His mate sighed and leaned into Kann’s side. “If the weather holds, we can start tomorrow. We’ll need ammunition for practice. I brought several boxes for my handgun, but I don’t have anything for rifles.”
Naomi nodded and glanced up at Col. “Will you come with me to talk to Mr. Curtis?”
“I would be nowhere else, my love,” Col answered with a smile. “Finish your breakfast, we won’t leave for a while yet. Saul and Tor, you need to make rounds and clean the snow off the cabin roofs before the next storm blows through.”
“Of course, Vraka.”
Without fail, Naomi burst into giggles at her end of the table. Kann shook his head and struggled to hide the twitching smile trying to spread across his face.
“Naomi,” Col growled down at his mate.
“I’m t-trying,” the small woman gasped out like she was trying to regain control.
“Why is she laughing?” Penny asked in a low voice.
“Col is our Vraka, our chief. It is a term of respect and Naomi has decided that it sounds like we’re cussing at him.”
“Excuse us,” Col huffed, giving Kann a nod before plucking Naomi right up out of her chair. She snatched at the last piece of bacon on her plate before Col carried her off cradled in his arms. Naomi was still laughing when they disappeared down the front hallway of the cabin and into their bedroom.
“He’s gone soft.” Tor chuckled. “Usually he tosses her over his shoulder.”
Kann met Saul’s gaze over the table but didn’t speak. Col’s behavior had changed slightly over the past week. Tor’s observation was correct. Col was being much gentler with Naomi than usual—not that he was ever harsh.
Saul nodded his head and Kann sucked in a breath. He hadn’t smelled a difference yet, but if Naomi was with child that would certainly explain Col’s shift in behavior.
“He’s just being careful because—” Penny snapped her mouth shut. All eyes turned to her at the table, including Kann’s. His mate knew something they didn’t. “Never mind,” Penny mumbled. “How about we go do some target practice with my piece now?”
Kann smiled. “It’s my turn to clean up, but we can in a few minutes.” He squeezed Penny’s shoulders, grateful that she hadn’t pulled away, but disappointed that he had to release her for the moment.
Saul and Tor got up from the table. “Probably be afternoon before we get back from knocking down all the snow.” Tor pushed his chair back up to the table. They both put on their winter gear and were out of the cabin before Kann even stood up from the table.
14
Penny stood up, grabbed a couple of plates and followed Kann to the sink. Naomi had left a large pot of water heating on the stove. He scraped the food bits into a trashcan and then put some soap on a rag and started wiping, dipping his rag into the pot of hot water as he needed it. When he was finished, he ran a little water from the blue tank sitting on the counter next to the sink. She reached for the clean drying cloth and held out her hand for the clean plate.
“I can help,” she said.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Isn’t that what fa
mily does. They help each other.”
Kann flashed her a megawatt smile. The kind that made her knees weak and butterflies flutter in her stomach. After everything she’d learned, she was still attracted to him. Crazy attracted. The fact that he was a lion was less and less important the more time she spent around him. He was a man—who happened to be able to shift. Or at least that’s what he said.
Kann handed her the plate and she rubbed it dry with the towel while he worked on the next one.
“Can I see your lion again?” she asked, setting the plate on the counter.
Kann handed her the next one without missing a beat and cleared his throat. “Sure, but I—are you—”
“What?”
“I just don’t want you to be scared of me. You let me touch you at breakfast and if I shift for you…” His voice trailed off and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t want to lose ground. You have no idea how much it hurt to see how frightened you were of me earlier. I shouldn’t have hidden the truth from you. It was wrong. I just—”
Penny sighed and stacked the next plate on the counter. “Well, I’ll have to be honest. I don’t think there ever would’ve been a good time to come out and say, ‘hey, by the way Penny, I can turn into a lion’.”
“True,” he gave a half chuckle and started on another plate. A loud thump from the other side of the cabin had Penny jumping just a little. Heat crept into her cheeks. Col and Naomi weren’t exactly being discreet. When Penny looked back at Kann his eyes were flickering gold and his expression made her body thrum with anticipation.
Was she really okay with this? Naomi had made a solid argument that they were just as much human as she was, with a little something extra. It was that extra bit that still had her thinking. Mostly it was the bite thing she wasn’t so kosher with. Did she really want to be a lion? What would that entail? Haha, besides a tail. And she had so many questions about Kann and his tribe. Where were they were from? How did they get here—to Alaska?
The wall bumped again, and she heard a muffled moan. She swallowed hard and looked back down at the dish she was drying. Warmth crept up her neck and into her cheeks. “How do you all live together?”
Kann laughed out loud this time and retrieved a few more dishes from the table. “Back home we lived in tents. It is not something that bothers us. Most of the tribe would eat together for meals. Only our sleeping areas were separate, but still not far. It was safest to be close together.”
“Why?”
“Raids. Tribes were always fighting over hunting grounds or harvest areas. We always had sentries, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. The closer you were to the main group the safer you were.”
“That sounds scary.” She stacked another dry plate. “Where are you from? Africa? India? How did you get to Alaska?”
He shook his head and scrubbed out a coffee mug. “We’re from another world. We came through a portal to earth. Our world—Reylea—was burning. Volcanos. Earthquakes. Saul and I were two of the last that made it through before our valley was swallowed up by fire.”
Penny gasped. More from the horror of realizing he watched his world burn, than the fact he was from a different world altogether. “I’m so sorry. How many did you lose?”
“Everyone but Saul.” Kann’s voice was solemn and heavy with emotion. “We couldn’t reach them. We were climbing, and the wall face gave way. There were dozens from our tribe and hundreds more behind them of other tribes that never had a chance. We all thought we had more time.”
Penny wiped her eyes and sniffed. “Out of an entire valley of people, only the four of you made it through?”
Kann frowned. “There are a few others. About half of a wolf pack made it through. And there are a couple from the Bear Tribe living on the other side of town. We’re trying to get them to move closer and join up. Not the wolves, the bears,” he added quickly.
“Why not the wolves?”
“Wolves don’t get along with anyone, especially dragons. The Li’Vhram house pushed them out of the valley and into the hills decades ago. No one really remembers why. They attacked Naomi once. It was Exodus Day though, so we’d just come through. They seem to be sticking to the Denali range now for the most part, except they attacked a store in town a couple of weeks ago.”
“So, because you’re all with Col and Naomi, you’re on their shit list too?”
Kann chuckled. “That’s a very succinct way of putting it. Yes.”
“Do you think they will come back to town?”
“Eventually, yes. Unless they move further west and find another town to settle in, but I wouldn’t put it past them to try for Mystery again. Hatred is something very difficult to let go of and they’ve been carrying it a long time.”
“But you said all the Tribes fought and raided.”
Kann shrugged. “Yeah, but the wolves murder women and children. They have no honor. Our skirmishes over hunting grounds and harvesting areas are mostly a show of strength. We have dueling challenges or burn tents. It’s never…”
“Senseless death?” Penny offered.
“Yes,” he sighed, going back to washing.
Penny went and gathered up the rest of the dishes and set them on the counter next to Kann. She put a hand on his back, wanting desperately to help him in some way. To lose so much like he had. A whole tribe. Family. Friends. And now to be living with people he would’ve naturally fought with in his home. That took strength and a lot of character.
He put the plate down in the sink and turned to face her. His heated gaze met hers, but even through the sparks of gold she could see where the pain seeped between the cracks of the wall he’d erected. This bright, funny, compassionate man hurt more than he would ever probably let on.
She slipped her arms around him and hugged. He was tense for all of five seconds and then his arms encircled her, pulling her even closer. She nuzzled his soft blue flannel shirt. He smelled good. Like male and fresh air and something she couldn’t pin down. Probably lion.
“I’m glad you’re here, but I’m sorry you lost your people.”
“Creating the new tribe helped, but seeing you, Penny. When you walked into the grocery store and I saw and felt your soul call to me. It was truly the first time since coming here that I had genuine hope. With you I can have a family. A future.”
“That’s a lot to lay on a girl.” Penny’s voice was muffled by his shirt. “If I’m being really honest, the idea of you biting me scares the crap out of me.”
“I would never do anything you didn’t want,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
“But Naomi said it’s hurting you. Not biting me. That you won’t get relief until we do. And now that I’ve had a moment, I’m not scared of you. I realize you’re still the same man I slept with last night. And I am so attracted to you…I’ve never been so attracted to someone before. Ever.”
“Are you afraid of the pain or of becoming like me?”
“Both.” She pulled away from his chest so she could look up at him again.
“I have been told that because the bite happens during climax it isn’t as uncomfortable as it sounds.”
“You bite during sex? As a person? Not as a lion?”
His eyes widened, and his eyebrows rose as shock covered his face. “If I bit you as a lion it would hurt you, kill you even. I have fangs even in this form, but keep them retracted most of the time.”
“Can I see them?”
Kann stared down at his mate. Her soul glowed so brightly, making her white skin seem alive with magick. So beautiful. Mesmerizing. It was difficult to keep his mind working in a straight line when all he could think about was getting her naked again. Claiming her. Doing exactly the thing she was still scared about.
He was an ass.
If she needed more time, that was what he was going to give her.
He opened his mouth and let his fangs descend slowly. They throbbed in his mouth, eager to bury themselves into Penny and bond them for life. Join their souls.<
br />
“Oh my,” Penny whispered. “It’s like those vampire movies, except you’re not going to drink my blood, right?”
He shook his head and pulled back his fangs. “Yes and no, the magick-benders say that to bond souls we must give a part of our self to our mate. It’s more of a transfer than a withdrawal.”
She cocked her head to the side like an animal puzzling out a problem. His mate’s mind was always calculating something.
“What’s a magick-bender?”
A loud thump on the roof and a shout sent him running outside. Penny was right on his heels. He jumped from the porch into the snow and turned to see Saul straddling the ridge of the front part of the cabin’s roof. The side closest to him was bare again, showing the shiny green of the metal slats. A huge pile of snow was on the side of the house and Tor was shouting incoherently from within the pile.
“What the hell?” Kann shouted. Penny started down the steps and then stopped when she reached the snow-covered ones. She backed up and craned her neck, trying to see up on the roof.
“We figured we’d start with our cabin,” Saul called out. “I won. Tor lost. He went down with the snow.”
Kann bent in half and wheezed in a breath while he tried to contain his laughter. He waved at his friends and headed back inside with Penny.
“What was that?” Penny asked as he shut the door behind him.
“They were fighting on the roof.”
“That’s what that noise was?”
He nodded, still battling the urge to laugh.
“Are they okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m pretty sure they were trying to see who could shove the other off and knock the snow loose at the same time.” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek and then walked back to the sink. He hadn’t meant to kiss her right then, but it’d just felt natural and if he hugged her again he’d never let her go. In fact, visions of bending her over the counter had already flitted through his mind more than once. His dick was hard and straining behind the zipper of his jeans. At least he was still in his snow pants, so it wasn’t completely obvious that he was walking around with a rock-hard erection.
I'm Not Lion To You_Soulmate Shifters World Page 12
