by Meg Ripley
The line was silent at first, but then the chief spoke up.
“I’ll see you in three weeks.” Was all he said and hung up.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, jumping up and down.
“What’s all the excitement for?” I heard Trent approaching and immediately stopped.
“That was me getting three weeks of paid vacation to stay here with you in Acadia!” I smiled brightly, running into his arms and hugging him tightly.
“Awww, only three weeks?” he teased, but I heard a smile in his voice as well.
“Well, we’ll see how things go. Don’t push it.” I warned with a smile.
“Three weeks sounds amazing.” Trent whispered and tilted my chin up to kiss him.
I just knew that those were going to be the best three weeks of my life.
Epilogue – Trent
Three Months Later
“What do you think I should get her?” I asked Knox as we drove around the trail doing our late evening patrol before he watched over the gate that night. It was the Friday before Valentine’s Day, and I had the next day off. I wanted to do something special for Blanca, but our relationship was still so new that I was stumped on what to get her for the occasion.
“It’s tomorrow and you still haven’t gotten her anything? You won’t have a girlfriend for much longer if she finds that out. That’s how you thank a girl for leaving the FBI to join local law enforcement for you?” Knox chuckled, and I winced.
He was right: I had procrastinated too long. After everything Blanca did to be with me—and to preserve the secrecy of our clan—she deserved better. She’d worked closely with Ramon and the conclave over the last few months, and after all that time, they concluded the pathogen must have been a mutation of the rabies virus, based on the similar antibodies they were able to isolate from the shifter’s serum and spinal fluid. Without her hard work and devotion to the case, who knows how long it would have taken the clan to make this discovery.
“She’s just always with me; I hardly have time to myself when I’m not working. Not that I’m complaining or anything…” I winked at Knox.
“Yeah, getting all that ass must keep you pretty preoccupied,” Knox laughed.
“Okay, enough about our sex life; I need ideas, man,” I pleaded with him.
“Well, it’s a little too late to go out and buy something. All the stores in Bar Harbor probably closed at 6, as usual.”
Shit, he’s right…What am I going to do?
“So, you could take her somewhere, or make something for her? We both know you’re not that good with your hands, though,” Knox snickered.
“That’s not what she thinks,” I joked. “Alright, so crafts are out of the question. I could bring her somewhere…hmmm…”
I thought long and hard about a romantic place I could take her to. Picturing Bar Harbor in my head, I couldn’t really think of any places that she would really love except the beach, but I doubt she would want to go there at that time of year. Being February in Maine, every inch of the area was completely covered in snow and ice. I wanted to light up her day and make it really special.
That’s it!
“I know what I’m going to do.”
****
“Where are we going?” Blanca asked in a sleepy voice, a blindfold over her eyes. She would have fallen asleep in my Jeep if I hadn’t been driving so fast. It was a little after 6am and I was flying through Acadia, trying to get to the location I had painstakingly set up only hours ago.
We have to make it there before first light… I thought, checking my watch. Okay, we have about 10 minutes to get there and get settled.
I could see the base of the Cadillac Mountain trail in front of me and I knew I had to slow down a little. There were a lot of twists and turns on the path and falling off a mountain for Valentine’s Day was not my idea of romantic.
I checked my watch again.
6:20am. Come on…Only 8 more minutes…
And there was the spot. I pulled over and jumped down from the Jeep, rushing over to the trunk to grab a duffel bag. I was glad I was bundled up in my flannel-lined jeans, a thick, navy-blue sweater, a fleece neck-warmer, gloves, and my ranger bomber. It was thirty degrees out, and I was sure to tell Blanca to dress warmly when I woke her up. I walked over to the other side to help her down, and she jumped out of the Jeep, sporting an outfit that closely resembled my own: a black turtleneck sweater, skinny jeans, fur-lined boots, mittens, and a parka. I watched her put her hood up and then grabbed her by the hand, leading her to the site.
I took a final scan of the area, making sure everything was perfect.
“Can I take the blindfold off now?” Blanca was shivering a little and sounded slightly annoyed. She didn’t really like the cold, but I was about to help with that.
“Not yet. I’m going to help you sit down, okay?”
“Sit down? In the friggin snow?”
“Just trust me, Blanca.” I said, reassuringly.
I helped her down onto a blanketed area that she couldn’t see. I had laid out two comforters on a patch of ground that I cleared the snow from so it wouldn’t melt under us as we sat. I watched her feel around her.
“It’s soft, but not wet. So, it’s not snow…”
“You’re right; it’s not snow,” I laughed, sitting next to her. I pulled two more comforters out of the bag I brought from the Jeep and wrapped one around her. She snuggled into the blanket and I thought it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I smiled and pulled out two thermoses, guiding one into her hands.
“It’s so warm!” She seemed intrigued. “What is it?”
I opened hers and positioned it at her lower lip.
“Blow.” Just when I thought she couldn’t get any cuter, she let out small breaths against the cup, almost completely missing the opening. I hoped it wouldn’t be too hot for her. “Okay, drink.”
She tentatively placed the thermos against her mouth again and sipped it slowly.
“Peppermint hot chocolate, my favorite!” A huge smile spread across her face as she took another sip of the sweet, creamy drink.
I checked my watch. Oh shit! I almost missed it!
I quickly removed her blindfold and she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly. Once her eyes adjusted, she looked in front of her and that’s when it happened.
In the distance was Hunters Beach, the water crashing against the rocks. The sun had just burst into the sky, rising almost as if from underneath the water. I glanced over to her and her mouth was open in amazement, her eyes lighting up as the sun shone on them.
“Oh my gosh, Trent; it’s breathtaking!”
“Yeah…and so are you…” I whispered. Seeing the sunrise against her face was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She looked over at me with a loving smile and threw her arms around my neck, her lips against mine. We shared a deep and passionate kiss, warming me from the inside out. She didn’t seem to mind that the blanket had fallen off her.
“Thank you…” she said, finally pulling back. I saw tears pooling in her eyes.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, baby. Every day, I’m so grateful you decided to stay up here with me,” I said, pecking her lips. She settled into my arms and I wrapped the blankets around us, making a mini fort. She sipped her hot chocolate and I grabbed mine, planting a kiss on the side of her head.
“I love you, Blanca.” I whispered into her ear.
“I love you too, Trent.” She turned her head to kiss me again, beaming, and she turned back to the sunrise. We watched as the sunlight spread across Acadia, over us, lighting up the whole world, and I smiled, thinking of how we got to see it first that day.
THE END
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Lion’s Love And Honor
Part One
Saved By The Alpha Lion
When Charlie Flax gets wind of a burst of troubling criminal activity interrupting his family’s planned move, his pregnant wife Natalie urges him not to worry; after all, things like this tend to happen in their little Southern California town during the summer, but it always dies down by fall.
The other members of his pride hear the same from their mates, but something about their letters and calls doesn’t sit right with the Marine. After seven long months, he’s eager to return home and see what’s really happening for himself.
The truth is worse than he could imagine; a group of rogue lions has moved into their territory and are trying to wrest power from their matriarchal clan. Natalie and their unborn cub have been threatened and targeted so many times that she no longer leaves the house unless she’s surrounded by people capable of astounding violence.
Charlie is furious, but before he can form a plan, he’s face to face with a lion shapeshifter from the gang—and he has some dangerous decisions to make. What do these lion shifters really want—and how far are they willing to go to get it?
“Flight One eighteen now boarding first class passengers at gate three B; would first class passengers on flight One eighteen to Puerto Vallarta please begin boarding at gate three B now?”
Charlie was standing next to the terminal’s enormous conveyor belt, staring blankly at one spot and waiting for his vermillion duffle bag to float before his unfocused eyes. He was distantly aware that he hadn’t moved in a full minute—maybe more—but he was too absorbed in the task of trying to monitor every change in his environment to care about how strange he looked. Evan wasn’t around yet to remind him to be “normal,” so he was happy to keep twitching his ears toward the sound of rapidly moving feet even though the tiny human bones in his ear canal weren’t nearly as sensitive as the ones in beast form. He wanted to be alert, but his eyes were fatigued from the flight, and it was starting to make him jumpy.
Captain Roberts, please call gate seven; your co-pilot is holding. Captain Roberts, please head to the nearest courtesy phone to speak with your co-pilot who is holding at gate seven.
The announcements were clashing with his train of thought more solidly than usual, and he knew why; automatically, his right hand moved to the pocket of his jeans, where Natalie’s letter was folded into a compact rectangle already worn from being handled so much. He’d memorized its contents, but he kept pressing it to the tip of his nose to try to drag a few more particles of her scent into his lungs. Even months into her pregnancy, she still retained the same base scent: warm honey and sharp, sweet smoke, a heady aroma that warned of an intensity he knew could be fatal. She was the strongest person he knew, and the brightest; she often taught him something in her missives or phone calls without even meaning to, and never backed down when she knew she was right.
I got into a fight with Ariel while she was helping me pack up the basement because she wouldn’t believe that bears don’t really hibernate. My mother called and complimented me on my all-fruit dressing; she usually hates avocados, I was so surprised. Did you see that news story about all those diners that got sick—can you believe that waiter thought salt in coffee was a harmless prank? Grade school mistake.
This time, however, her letters had been cheery but sparse; they lacked the bubbly detail that usually padded out the thick envelopes she sent weekly, and sometimes even twice a week. Natalie no longer spoke of her chance meetings with old high school friends, or whose wife was having a hard time dealing with loneliness; now it was just pregnancy symptoms and a series of oddly detached retellings of incidents around their neighborhood. Their last phone call—right before the plane took off—had been the worst.
“Nat, I know something isn’t right.” His hand was sweaty so the slim black cell phone kept threatening to squirt from his grip. Evan was buckling into the seat next to him and fixating on the threads at the hem of his shirt, but Charlie knew he could hear every word. “I can hear it in your voice. I see it in your letters. Evan says Ariel isn’t acting right, either.”
“Charlie, everything is fine,” Natalie said soothingly for the fifth time in as many minutes. “A few busted windows, some kids jumping other kids…you know it happens.” The gentle rasp of her voice was carefully avoiding taking on heavy undertones, but Charlie could almost see her anxiously winding her dark brown hair around one finger as she paced around the living room. “We’ll start the move again when you get here. It’ll be fine.”
“Why did you have to stop the move in the first place?” Charlie asked. “I don’t understand that. The boxes were all finished five months ago. You said someone damaged the truck?” He remembered when he was younger having his property stolen or smashed when people found out he was a shifter. It was illegal, but it never stopped them, and the cops were often in on the games, since the shifter population intersected with the inner cities so often.
“The axle is bent,” Natalie answered, interrupting his reverie. “I want you to take a look at it before I get it messed with first. You know I’m useless with that sort of thing.”
Charlie closed his eyes, trying to keep the panic from spilling into his voice. His broad chest was tight with anxiety. “No, I don’t know that, Nat. Are you kidding me? I was with you when you made our old mechanic cry.”
“And I never got to know the new one!” Natalie retorted, her voice shrill. “I’m afraid of pissing this one off, too. Charlie, I don’t get what the big deal is. You’ll be home soon, and you’ll have all your answers then.” Her forced nonchalance snapped something inside him, and suddenly he was shouting.
“The big deal is that something crazy is happening and my wife is acting like it isn’t!”
A red-faced man twisted around in his seat to look at Charlie after he finished, and Evan laid a hand on his broad shoulder. The marine swallowed his anger with extreme difficulty and lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into the phone. “But I’m scared. Evan is scared, because Ariel won’t talk to him about their garage burning down— he had to hear it from Riley. You’re not telling me what’s stopping us from moving, and I know it’s more than the truck, because we have more than two friends with trucks and SUVs. And I’m hearing about people—grown men and women, not just kids—getting beaten and left in the streets. What’s going on, Natalie? And why won’t you tell me about it?”
The silence stretched on for so long that Evan turned to look at Charlie, his brown face forming a question when he didn’t hear Natalie speak. Charlie was about to ask if she’d hung up on him when she drew a deep, shaky breath and slowly let it out.
“Charlie. I…just trust me, okay? You’re right. You’re absolutely right, but I need to you trust me. Okay?”
It was the raw quality of her voice that finally broke the shell of tension around his heart and allowed him to relax. “Okay,” he answered. “Okay. I trust you.” Even though this is killing me.
“Thank you,” Natalie said, and there were tears in her voice. He realized then that the weight of holding this back from him was killing her, too. Whatever this is had better be worth it.
His bag came crawling by him on the carousel just as he snapped out of his memory, and h
e almost didn’t catch it in time. Charlie thrust one long arm out and closed his fingers around the bag’s thick strap just before it disappeared behind the curtain to be spun around the carousel again.
“Nice catch, Flax,” Evan said behind him. He’d already located his suitcase and was pulling it behind his body as he strolled up to Charlie, his wiry frame far too relaxed given their situation. “Got everything?”
“Yeah.” Charlie slung the bag across his shoulders and playfully popped his friend on one of his narrow shoulders. “How the hell are you so calm, Reynolds? You’re like a wind-up toy whenever we’re on deployment, and you’re the one who told me about all the attacks. Are you high?”
Evan grinned and fell in step beside his taller friend as they headed for the exit. “Just on life, Flax. Besides, we’re finally home. That means we can get to the bottom of this.”
Charlie looked sharply at Evan, whose dark chocolate face was mostly hidden behind a pair of huge sunglasses, but he could still see the grim determination on his face. “You sounded…very certain about that,” he said slowly, dragging his green eyes up and down his best friend’s stoic expression. “Did you find out something more when you called Ariel in the bathroom?”
Evan gave a single curt nod that set Charlie’s heart racing.
“Well why didn’t you say so!” Charlie yelped, and several people in the crowd ahead of them turned toward his raised voice. He felt blood rush to his cheeks and he cursed himself for losing control of his volume again.
A man caught his gaze in the crowd, short and incredibly tanned, with dark blue eyes and a full mouth pinched together in what seemed to be surprise. His sandy blonde hair was being lovingly ruffled by a lovely copper-skinned woman with black curls who seemed to be trying to style his wavy coif, but he was staring so intently at Charlie that he was ignoring all of her muttered instructions. Charlie felt a curious ripple of power pass between them, and it intensified as they got closer. Eventually the charge was unbearable, and he broke their gaze and lowered his head as they hurried past the couple. What was that about? Charlie thought, but as soon as they were out of the doorway and under the blazing Southern Californian sun, he grabbed Evan by his forearm and pulled him into the shade of the parking garage to their right, the incident driven from his mind.
