Daughter of Lions

by Banks, Catherine

  “One time I got a broken collarbone, a broken nose and a black eye,” I answered in a whisper.

  “Why didn’t your mom call me?!” Dad asked loudly, nearing a yell.

  I stepped back from him and whimpered. The entire pride growled as they collectively worried about the cub whining.

  Dad pointed at me. “Sit on the log and tell us everything.”

  I turned as though to head for the log and instead ran as fast as I could into the trees behind us. I had no hope of evading them for long, but because they were so worked up from finding out about me being injured they would be forced to change and then they would all come to search for me. Hopefully the change would sidetrack them long enough that they would forget what I was supposed to tell them.

  I ran into the forest, weaving around trees and creating a crazy looping trail. I heard the first lion to change’s roar and increased my speed. They were faster in lion form, but I had been playing with them since I was a baby so I knew how to lose them, at least for a short while.

  The scent of the forest now surrounding me was relaxing and felt like a warm hug, making a smile spread across my lips despite the circumstances. This forest would always be home to me, so much more than the smelly city that my mother lived in. I circled two trees and dashed through a bush only to come back through it and go back around another tree. I finally made it to the lake on the other side of the trees and dove in without hesitation. Luckily my cell phone was in my jacket pocket which was on one of the logs back at the house. The lake was surprisingly warm and with each stroke I watched the fish move farther and farther away from me. I swam all the way across the lake to the other shore and made a large circuitous route back to the house. My teeth were chattering as I made it back to the campfire, which was luckily empty. I sat down and sighed as the fire began to dry me. It would take them a little while to follow my path since the water erased my scent for a little ways on the other side of the lake.

  “Do you really think it’s wise to taunt a pride of shapeshifters?!” asked Brandon angrily from the log across the fire from me only a few seconds later.

  I jumped in surprise and said, “Stop doing that!” How had he gotten back so quickly?

  He walked around to me as he finished buttoning his pants. “One of them could have hurt you. One of them could still hurt you.”

  I shook my head and stood up, crossing my arms over my chest in defiance. “They would never hurt me. I have been playing with them since I was a baby.”

  “They could always hurt you! We are not human. We are animals and you are too fragile. You are not one of us!”

  I looked into his eyes, stupid, but I did, and said, “You don’t think I know that?! You don’t think that I wish every day that I could have been one of you?!”

  He blinked in shock and stepped back from me, surprised by my hostility. “What?”

  Tears leaked from my eyes. “Why are you treating me like this? Why are you acting like I am some pathetic rabbit?”

  He reached out towards me and then jerked his arm back. “You are a rabbit. Do you know how easily I could kill you?”

  “Why are you treating me like this? Do you want me to feel like crap? You don’t even know me!” I yelled at him.

  “I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” he said softly. “I wasn’t trying to be mean to you.”

  I wiped at my eyes. “Stop trying to protect me. These people are the only family I have.”

  “Yet you run away from them?” he asked.

  I laughed angrily. “I wasn’t running away from them. I was just distracting them so they wouldn’t get all angry about me fighting boys.”

  “So the boys do hurt you?” he asked with a bit of growl in his voice. “I think I’ll enjoy riding back with Steven when he takes you home.”

  Lions began walking into the area, sniffing my legs and rubbing their bodies against me. I let them scent mark me and watched as they disappeared into the night to change forms and get dressed.

  “You won’t be taking me back,” I told him. “I don’t want you going with us.” No matter how hot he was, I was not going to let that override his infuriating protectiveness.

  Brandon shrugged. “It’s up to Steven, not you.”

  Dad, Sarah and Mark came back first. Sarah wagged her finger at me. “That was dirty.”

  I sighed and dropped to the ground on my knees, giving up. “I know.”

  Mark squatted down in front of me and lifted my chin with his finger. “We indulged your run and swim, now tell us everything.” Brandon took a step forward and Mark grabbed him by the throat. “Stop being so protective of her. She is in no danger from me.”

  Brandon bobbed his head once and Mark released him. Brandon backed up three steps and sat on the nearest log.

  I grabbed a twig from the ground and tossed it into the fire. “I told mom that I fell during cheerleading practice, that’s why she didn’t call you.”

  “You lied to your mom?” Dad asked in shock.

  I looked up at him and decided now was the time to tell him the complete truth about my mother. I had been hiding it because I did not want him to take me away from her, but I hated keeping the truth from him. “She is never home and when she is all she does is ignore me. She said she wishes I was like her. She said I act like…” I stopped talking and looked at the ground. “I started the fight club and we used pads at first, but one of the guys, this jerk who hates me, challenged me to a barebones fight. I accepted, but he had been hiding his true fighting ability. He’s the one who beat me up.”

  “I think I will have a talk with him when I take you back,” said Dad quietly.

  I stood up and grabbed his arms. “No! Dad, please don’t. I can take care of myself.”

  “If you could take care of yourself you would not have gotten broken bones,” said Mark.

  “You guys cannot protect me all the time,” I said as I wiped at the tears in my eyes. “I have to take care of myself and I have been doing fine.”

  “You need someone to protect you. I think I will assign someone to stay with you,” said Dad as he looked at Mark.

  Mark nodded his head. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  Sarah nodded her head. “Me too.”

  “No!” I yelled. “I am tired of you all babying me. I know I’m not as strong as you all or as fast, but I do not need a babysitter.”

  “A human boy hurt you.” said Dad angrily. “And your mother seems to be useless and still stuck on herself.”

  “She doesn’t mean to be hurtful,” I whispered, knowing it was a lie even as I said it.

  Dad wrapped his arms around me and hugged me against him. “Why won’t you just move in with me?”

  “I have friends there. I have cheerleading,” I whispered. I wanted to move in with my Dad, but I was afraid to leave my mom. I wasn’t sure if she could handle both my Dad and me leaving her despite her attitude towards me. Plus I didn’t fully fit in here. Not that I really fit in at school either. I was human, yet I wasn’t. I had no true pride to run with.

  “You have friends in the pride. You could do cheerleading at the high school,” he offered.

  “I can’t,” I whispered.

  Sarah asked, “Why do you push away from us still?”

  I looked at Brandon and then back at her. “Because I am not one of you.” I pulled away from my Dad and headed towards the house. “I’m an outcast wherever I go.”

  I opened the door and walked to my room, falling onto my bed and crying myself to sleep.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Can I wake her up?” asked Sarah.

  “No,” said my Dad. “Let her sleep more.”

  “It’s one in the afternoon,” said Mark in exasperation. “She should not even be able to sleep this long.”

  “She has got to be hungry,” said Sarah.

  On cue my stomach growled. I sighed and rolled over, glaring at the three adults who were standing in my doorway staring at me. “What?” I asked t
hem.

  Mark and Sarah looked down with smirks on their faces and Dad just smiled. “I made lunch,” he said.

  I rolled over and pulled my blankets up. “I will eat later.” I was really hungry, but I did not want to get out of bed yet.

  “Sheila wants to see you,” Sarah said. I sighed and rolled out of bed and to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Of course Sarah would use the one thing that she knew would get me out of bed. Sarah followed me in and leaned against the wall. “Talk to me.”

  I set my toothbrush down and rinsed my mouth out. “Nothing to say.”

  “How long have you been feeling like this? Why didn’t you say anything before?” she asked as she watched me.

  “Since always and because it will not change anything,” I answered her questions in order.

  “You know that we love you, right?”

  I walked to her and leaned against her body to comfort her and me at the same time. Lions were big on touching and I could tell by the stiffness in her upper body that she was upset. “Yes, Sarah. I am not mad at any of you, well, except Brandon. I am mad at him.”

  “He likes you,” Sarah whispered as she hugged me. “That’s why he tries to protect you and why he doesn’t like Mark touching you.”

  “He thinks I’m a rabbit,” I whispered. “He doesn’t like me, he just wants to kill me.”

  Sarah gasped and pushed me back. “Victoria Anne Crown!”

  “It’s true,” I said defensively, “He told me that I am a rabbit and I should not tease you all because you could kill me.”

  Sarah sighed and shook her head. “He was just being protective even if he went about it the wrong way. He likes you Victoria. A boy likes you.”

  I smiled. “A boy at school asked me out.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

  I laughed. “He asked me just before Dad got there and he sent me a text that said he thought I was beautiful.”

  She smiled. “Well you are.” She tapped her chin and whispered, “This presents a dilemma.”

  “Why?” I asked as I brushed my hair and looked at her in the mirror.

  “Because Brandon likes you and this other boy likes you. Who are you going to choose?”

  I shrugged. “Brandon may like me, but I am too human for him, just like every other lion here. So, I will date the human and hope I am human enough for him. Not much of a choice. Besides I don’t come here enough.”

  She shook her head and followed me out to the living room. “You are perfect the way you are. It doesn’t matter what your genes are. Having mixed genes is usually a big plus for most guys. Give Brandon a chance. He may prove you wrong.”

  I rolled my eyes at her and rounded the corner, right into Brandon’s chest. I stepped back from him with my eyes on the ground and whispered, “Sorry.” He didn’t say anything so I stepped around him and walked into the kitchen where Dad and Mark were whispering to each other. Mark slid a plate across the counter towards me, never breaking his conversation with Dad. “Who cooked this?” I asked.

  “I did,” said Dad.

  I nodded my head then started eating. Mark asked, “Why would you refuse my food? I am not courting you.”

  I shrugged. “I can never be too careful around you. Plus I am almost sixteen now so I figured I should get used to doing this type of thing.”

  Dad smiled proudly. “That’s my girl.”

  Mark rolled his eyes. “You are too young for me.”

  I smiled. “Only for two more years.”

  Dad growled. “You will always be too young.”

  “I’m going to start dating boys,” I said matter-of-factly.

  He shook his head. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  I waited until I finished my food to say, “Mom told me I could start dating when I turned sixteen.”

  He growled. “You are too young! You’re mom…” he stopped the insult and sighed. “You can only date a guy that I meet and approve.” He said it like he was giving in and bargaining with me. How the hell was that a step forward for me? That was a step in his direction, not mine!

  “You will never approve of any guy!” I argued as I put my plate in the sink. “Plus you do not visit often enough for that. I cannot have a guy ask me out and say, ‘Sorry but you have to meet my Dad first so we will have to postpone our date for at least three months until he visits’. No one would ever date me if that were the case.”

  “You already have someone in mind?” Dad asked as he held up my cell phone.

  “You went through my text messages?!” I asked in shock as I walked to him and snatched my cell phone out of his hand. In truth I was not surprised that he had gone through my phone. Lions are very protective of their young and an Alpha is the most protective of all. It made it even worse that I was mostly human and did not live with him where he could watch me all the time or have another lion he trusted watch me.

  “I will not allow you to go out with some guy who does not have enough balls to tell you that you are beautiful to your face,” he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “You are impossible!” I screeched, throwing my hands up in to the air. I rinsed my plate and put it in the dishwasher and headed towards the door. “Come on, let’s work on the car.” Dad followed me out to the garage where I found Brandon bent over, under the hood of my car messing with the battery cables. “What are you doing?!” I asked angrily.

  Brandon stood up and wiped off his hands with a red shop towel. “I just finished putting the engine back and was making sure everything was tight and all the fluids were full.”

  “This is my car!” I said angrily.

  “I thought you would be happy that it was ready for you to drive,” Dad said innocently. “Brandon is good with cars and offered to help me get it ready for you.”

  “This was our project car. How can it be our project if he does it?!” I screamed in irritation and walked out of the garage to find Sheila walking towards me.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I want to go home,” I said loudly. “I can’t even enjoy my own car now! Everything is getting taken away from me.”

  She wrapped me up in a hug and rubbed my back. “Calm down and come talk with me.” She had the most calming voice and the power to make me go from seething to sleepy in two seconds flat. Dad said lionesses like her were key in werelion prides where things escalated quickly when someone was mad.

  I let her lead me into the woods until we were far enough away from the house that they would not hear us and where we could sit on the ground without anyone bothering us. She turned towards me and said, “Tell me what’s going on.”

  I did. I told her everything, starting from when Dad picked me up at school until the incident in the garage.

  She smiled at me the entire time I was talking and when I had finished said, “You have a crush on Brandon.”

  My mouth dropped open. “What? Did you not hear everything I just said?” She must have stopped paying attention at some point to come up with that.

  She laughed. “I did hear everything you said. You like him and just do not want to admit it.”

  I did not want to admit that she was right so I pointed at her belly to change the subject. “It’s your turn to spill.”

  She smiled. “Paul and I mated four months ago.”

  I hugged her tightly. “That’s so great!” Paul was her lifelong crush and someone I considered my brother. I knew that they had been planning on mating for a while, but it was werelion law not to mate until the lioness was eighteen. Dad thought the age should be raised since teenagers were finicky even at eighteen, but he had not changed it yet. Besides, Paul and Sheila had been planning to be mated to each other since we were six years old. I doubted they would suddenly change their minds.

  She nodded her head. “I know. It has been great.”

  I looked out at the trees that were as familiar to me as the donut shop two blocks from my mom’s house and
whispered, “Maybe you are right.”

  She smirked at me and said, “I know I am. Just give the man a chance.”

  “He fixed my car!” I yelled in defense of my reactions.

  She punched my arm playfully. “He was trying to be nice. Maybe you should try being nice to him for a change. From what you have told me, you have sounded pretty childish and grumpy. Not to mention a few other adjectives that I will refrain from using.”

  I hated it when she was right. I tugged on a piece of her hair and groaned loudly. “Okay. I will make nice.”

  We walked back to the house to find Brandon waiting outside for me. “Before you yell at me again, let me talk to you,” he said in a calm voice.

  I did not want him to say anything to make me mad so I interrupted him, “I’m sorry, Brandon. I should not have yelled at you.”

  The surprised look on his face was priceless. He looked at Sheila and asked, “Did you give her drugs?”

  I exhaled noisily. “I know I have been acting bi-polar and I’m sorry. Thank you for fixing my car.”

  He looked at me like I might bite him and then smiled, apparently pleased that I was finally giving him the thanks he deserved. “You’re welcome.”

  That was all of the niceness I could manage without letting him see that I liked him so I pointed at his chest and said, “But I am still mad at you for calling me a rabbit and a fragile human.” I pushed past him into the house and heard Sheila giggle behind me.

  “It’s alright, Brandon,” consoled Sheila. “Just give her some time.”

  “You want to go ride bikes?” Mark asked from the living room where he and Dad were sitting on the couches, talking.

  I nodded my head and headed towards my room. “Let me get changed.”

  Sarah followed me in and shut the door behind her. “Will you go shopping with me when you get back from riding?”

  I stared at her in shock. She didn’t need me to go shopping with her when there were over fifty other lionesses in the pride. It could only mean that she was up to something. “Of course I will. What’s up?”

  She fidgeted with a button on her shirt. “There is a party this weekend and I wanted to get a cute dress and I really wanted your opinion and help when I go pick it out.”