Page 31 of Healing Her Lions

“Not at all,” Logan assures me. “He’s only dangerous to those that harm his family.”

“Who else will I likely meet?”

“Elijah,” Logan says. “He’s a cheetah. He’s mated to another cheetah named Saylor. They stop by quite a bit.”

“He’s a friend,” I guess, concentrating on the knife in my hand.

“Yes, been a good friend,” Logan says softly, making me glance at him.

“I’m glad,” I respond just as softly.

“If you go out with the girls, you’ll meet Harmony. She’s a panther shifter.” Lucas puts his feet up on the coffee table.

“That’s cool. I’ve never met a panther shifter.” That I’m aware of. I have been around Steph’s bear family and they have friends who are shifters.

“They are rare. She has three mates and just had a baby not long ago. They started the group here. Jax is the Alpha, and he welcomes all kinds of shifters,” Las explains.

“There are the dragons, too,” Logan mentions offhandedly, as if hanging out with a dragon is normal. “Bishop and Laken are gold dragons. They met Penny and mated her.”

“Did she turn into a dragon?” I slide the meat off of the board into the pan.

“She did,” he answers. “You already met Bash and Quinn. Marie is Bash’s mate, but Quinn isn’t mated.”

“It’s a family.” I smile into the pot. “What other shifters are there?”

“Coyotes,” Lucas sneers.

“Bad, huh?” I don’t think I’ve met one before.

“They certainly have a bad reputation,” Las says.

“Rabbits,” Logan says, and I laugh a little. “You may think they are harmless, but they can be crazy fuckers. Never underestimate them. You may meet Sally. She recently moved to town. She’s a friend of Saylor’s.”

“Any animal you can think of is probably a shifter,” Lucas informs me.

“Spiders? Snakes?” I ask, wrinkling my nose.

“There have been stories about them in the past, but I have never seen either one in person. As far as we know, they are extinct,” Logan shockingly answers.

“Wow.” I shake my head as I dump the noodles into the water. “That would be amazing to see that.” I tilt my head. “Or not.” I go back to the meat. “I’ve heard there are witches.”

A weird vibe enters the room, and I look at Logan. “It’s true. There are witches and warlocks. We don’t have any here presently. They are,” he pauses. “Mysterious and dangerous. Serenity, Ryker’s mate, found out she had witch blood when he turned her, but she hasn’t fully explored that because she became pregnant shortly after. Ryker would never let her put herself in danger.”

Lucas and Las visibly exhale, and the tension dissipates. “I’m excited to meet your friends.” I shake the soy sauce over the steak. “So, how does the mating work exactly?”

I hear choking from the couch and raise an eyebrow at them.

“The process once you decide?” Logan asks, recovering first, and I nod. “You have to be sure you want to spend forever with us. There is no turning back once it is done. The bond will be complete. The only way it would be severed is if someone died. The ones that are left behind will live in devastation.” He gets up and sits on the stool in front of me. “We mark you by biting your neck or anywhere on the body we choose, usually during sex.” A little tingle hits my clit. “It will be on your skin forever. Humans won’t be able to see it, but shifters will. It’s our way of marking what belongs to us.” I snort. “It is the way shifters think.”

“Does the bite turn me into a lion?”

“Yes. It will be painful.” Las joins his brother. “Your body will go through a tremendous change. The change is very personal to each human. We are born lions, so we can’t tell you exactly what you will go through.”

Lucas takes the last stool as I drain the noodles. “You will be able to ask Ava or Penny. They went through it.”

“Not the other ladies?”

“They are vampires. The process is different. Harmony and Saylor are born shifters. The dragons usually don’t bite; they burn their brand on her,” Logan says.

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