Page 10 of Lion's Second Chance King

“Aunt Kaitlyn?” Makayla asks.

“Makayla, I know you have questions, Honey,” she says, “but you’ll have to wait.”

I shift back and look at her. “But I can tell you that Kaitlyn is your aunt. She is your father’s sister, and both she and I have dedicated our lives to protecting you. That’s all I can tell you now, Kaitlyn. You must trust me.”

She is terrified, of course. She takes a breath and says, “You’ll tell me everything.”

“I will.”

She doesn’t think before she says, “I’ll trust you.” She turns to Kaitlyn. “And you, too.”

I nod and say, “You two need to get dressed. Then, get in the garage. When I give the signal, just drive through the garage door and don’t look back.”

“But…”

“You said you would trust us,” Kaitlyn says. She takes Makayla’s hand and leads her away. In the process, the throw blanket covering Makayla up falls off. I can’t help but take a moment to admire her rear end as she’s led away. I don’t know which family wants to use Kaitlyn as leverage in their political games. What I do know is that whatever family is involved in this power play will be destroyed.

I open the front door and step out onto the front lawn naked. She’s in a cul de sac but I already know there are no innocent bystanders. The men wouldn’t risk it. I stand there and take in the situation. Eight or nine of them. I wait for them to show themselves. By now, they’ve certainly figured out that I’m a shifter but they don’t know I’m Royal. They won’t know until I shift.

Soon, they know.

They know too late, though.

And die sooner than they expect to die, I’m sure.

Chapter Eleven

Makayla

I’m doing a very good job of being patient, I think, but after two hours of waiting in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, I just can’t handle the wait anymore. “Aunt Kaitlyn,” I say, “What the hell is happening?”

“Watch your language, young…” She stops and looks at me and then both of us burst out laughing. I think that really breaks the tension for me and a moment later, the two of us are holding each other. I’m giggling like crazy and then I’m crying and then finally, I’m calm.

Wordlessly, she leads me to the couch and sits me down. “First and foremost,” she says, “are you and Daniel serious?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

She says, “You and he were both naked and your clothes were scattered all over the floor, Makayla,” she says. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had sex but I still remember certain basic facts.”

I blush pretty damned hard over that. How in the world did I forget that the two of us were naked? I say, lamely, “You look pretty hot, Aunt Kaitlyn.”

She laughs. “Oh yeah. That’s the great thing about being a shifter. You keep your figure for a while.”

“But you’re still sick?” I ask. I think my tone makes clear the part I don’t add. Or is that all bullshit, too?

“I’ll be sick for the rest of my life, Baby,” she says, “but it could be a very long life. I’m not sick when I’m a lion and?—”

“Wait… Holy shit! What the hell with the lion thing?”

She reaches forward and strokes my cheek. “You’re in a bit of shock, I think. Maybe. In any case, you’ve had a shock. That’s why you’re thoughts are kind of jumping around.”

“Aunt Kaitlyn,” I say, “I love you but I swear I don’t want to hear anything out of your mouth other than explanations.”

“I’m a lion,” she says, “and so is Daniel. Humans settled on the term shifter, and I suppose that’s as good a term as any. Your father, my brother, was a shifter. Your mother was not.”

“Am I a shifter?”

She shakes her head. She explains how unions of shifters and humans work. Evidently, it’s a fifty-fifty chance when a shifter has a baby with a human. But, since I’m partly shifter, any child I have with a shifter will be a shifter. It’s the fucking craziest conversation possible.

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