Page 21 of Lion's Little Scamp

Stalking back and forth on the porch once more, he looked at his friends. “So where would your Littles take my mate?”

As he watched, Lonergan and Diego exchanged a glance before turning back to him. “Their fort,” they said in unison.

“They have a fort?”

“It’s not really a fort, but they call it their tree fort. It’s the only place in the woods they have permission to go without us. They use it as a girls’ only clubhouse,” Diego said as they started walking toward the line of houses along the back of the clearing where Lonergan and Diego lived with their Littles.

“All right, gentlemen, let’s get jackets for them and us. We’ll gather at the barn and go from there,” Lonergan said.

“I’ll meet you there,” Harrigan said, breaking off and running toward the helicopter hanger.

He only hoped the girls were actually there, and not lost somewhere in the woods.

After grabbing coats for the two of them, Harrigan ran to the barn as fast as he could. The others were talking quietly as he approached. Without a word, and before the others could argue, he stripped his clothes off. After handing his clothes, and Irish’s coat to Lonergan, he shifted into his lion form.

He took a deep breath and picked up the sweet scent of his mate. Turning his head left and then right, he walked a circle and then turned and began to follow her scent into the woods.

Chapter Thirteen

“What do you mean you think we’re lost?” Irish asked, sounding almost as grumpy as she felt.

They had been walking through the woods for what felt like hours and any fun promise of the afternoon had seeped away, leaving her tired, hungry and on the verge of a temper tantrum. She hadn’t had one of those in years. Showing temper in foster care was not a good idea and she had learned quickly to control her emotions.

“We’re not lost… exactly. Just slightly disoriented,” Talia explained as she and Poppy looked around.

Clearly, they did not know where they were or how to get back to the institute.

“Did you tell Master Sullivan where we were going?” Irish asked hopefully. When the other two just stared at her, she added, “So he at least knows where to start looking for us. We can’t be that far off-course, right?”

“Right,” said Talia without much confidence.

Poppy said nothing and avoided both their eyes.

“You didn’t tell Master Sullivan where we were going when you asked if I could leave early?” Irish guessed.

Poppy winced.

Alarmed, Irish said, “You didn’t ask if I could leave? I don’t understand. What did you tell him?”

“I really don’t think that’s important right now,” Poppy muttered.

Irish shivered and realized the temperature was dropping fast. Looking up, she could see glimpses of the sky between the tree limbs. The bright blue sky that she had marveled at during her walk to the barn after lunch had been replaced by dark gray clouds.

“The weather’s changing. We need to get back. Now.”

“Yeah, that would be great, if we could figure out which way to go,” Poppy said as she shrugged off the small backpack she wore. “Here, eat this. Maybe it will improve your mood.”

Unzipping the bag, she handed Irish a small colorful bag. She then handed another to Talia before taking one for herself.

Studying the bag, Irish saw it was a snack bag of cookies shaped like teddy bears. Oooo, yum.

Tearing the top off, she forced herself to stop and take a breath. Picking one cookie out, she ate it slowly before moving on to a second. Having lived homeless, she knew how to make food stretch. The others were finished with their bags long before she had reached the halfway point in hers. Rolling the bag so the rest wouldn’t fall out, she slipped them into her jeans pocket. She might need them for later.

“Can we go back the way we came?”

“Sure, if you know which way that is,” Poppy said, throwing her arms out. “The trees all look the same to me.”

Though she had never been camping on a formal basis, Sailor had taught her a lot in the weeks she had lived next door to him at the homeless encampment. Looking around, she studied the ground. Where they were standing, the groundcover was trampled down. She walked a circle around the other two girls, moving farther away, then made a second circle even bigger than the first, always looking at the ground.

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