Page 29 of Wrong Number, Right Lion

“Listen. I need to think about this. This is... so… it’s so much.”

He was right, and in that moment I was glad that I had him bring his own car. As much as I didn’t want him to leave, it was good that he had a means to get the time he needed.

“At least let me walk you back to the car.”

I thought he was going to refuse me, but then, out of his mouth came one word in barely a whisper. “Okay.”

I threw on my shoes, shoved my socks in my pocket, and yanked my shirt over my head. I walked beside him. Neither of us touched. Neither of us talked.

Please don’t let this be the end.

15

ARLO

I blinked the tears away while squinting through the windshield. Not wanting to have an accident, I slowed down, allowing cars to pass me, and the ones that couldn’t or wouldn’t honked their horns.

Screw you. I just discovered the love of my life isn’t human. He has an animal inside him, a big scary lion. Hunkering down in the driver’s seat, I gripped the wheel tightly, glad I was in a locked car and not nose to snout with a huge cat. One with long sharp canines that could take my head off with a single bite.

I’d read articles about people in a safari park who’d been ordered not to get out of their vehicles or wind down the windows. Those who disregarded the rules met with a tragic end!

An imaginary snap reverberated in my ears, and I gripped my throat, reassuring myself that my head was still attached.

Shifters! Kalen was a shifter.

I thought back to the mental notes I’d made of his qualities and talents. He could see in the dark, had great reflexes and hearing, was a big meat eater, enjoyed being up high and surveying thelandscape before him. Even his hair and beard were lion-like in their coloring.

Our lives were so different, we could never be together. If I was married to an alpha and they said they were going for a run, I’d assume they were going jogging, maybe just for exercise or perhaps training for a marathon, perhaps raising money for charity.

But if Kalen headed out for some exercise, he’d be going somewhere isolated, strip off his clothes, and let his lion do whatever he wanted: running and hunting! I choked as an image of the lion’s head appeared on the hood of the car. Slamming on the brakes resulted in more angry beeping from drivers in the rear.

I pulled over and rested my head on the wheel, sweat dripping from my hairline and tears blinding me. This wasn’t real. I needed to meet Kalen and have him tell me it was all in my imagination. But as I sat in the stationary car, traffic whizzing by, a tawny hair on my pants caught my eye. I picked it up.

It wasn’t my color and had to be Kalen’s, except his hair was much shorter than this one. I gripped my belly when food threatened to erupt but couldn’t keep it down, so I opened the door and stuck my head out.

After emptying my tummy, I slumped in the seat, wishing someone would drive me home. I couldn’t ask Stephen because a) he’d say I told you so and b) I couldn’t reveal the lion shifter information. If I did, he’d book me a therapist appointment. Not that that was a bad thing. I had a lot of old grievances and learned behavior that I wanted to get rid of or change.

Nope, I was on my own. I gingerly pulled into traffic, and when I arrived home, I locked the gate, got Princess from her secluded spot, and brought her inside for the night. I needed company, and she was all I had.

“You’re not going to sprout wings or something, are you?”

She didn’t answer, and I suspected she wasn’t harboring a secret identity.

Standing under the shower, I made the water hotter than was comfortable ‘cause I wanted to feel something other than rage and fear. Kalen being who he was had ruined the vision I’d had of our life. Damn him and the lion who lived inside him.

We’d had sex, shared food and laughter, and he was hiding who he was. Thinking back to his cock, I wondered if the girth was influenced by his animal? Like, did house cat shifters have small cocks? It wasn’t as though I could jump online and find out.

Now I turned off the hot water and stood under a freezing waterfall pounding on my head. “No,” I screeched. This wasn’t my fault. It was his. Why did he agree to fix my roof, why did he answer the stupid call? He and his lion should have been out mauling a deer or something.

I stomped out of the shower, water puddling on the tiles, and flung on a bathrobe. Not caring if I dried myself off, I wrapped a towel around my wet head and collapsed on the mattress, pulling the bedclothes over me. It was safe under there and dark. The doors and windows were locked, Princess was safe in the house for the night, and no lions were allowed in, unless they could unlock a door.

Minutes and hours passed, and I lay awake, thinking Stephen had been right. Not about shifters but that maybe Kalen wasconning me. Why was he looking for a human partner when he had his pick of shifters? None of it made sense.

I must have drifted off because nightmares of lions chasing me, hiding and leaping out of unexpected places, filled my head. Screams filled the room when I sat up in bed, bathed in sweat.

When I flipped on the lamp, most of the bedding was twisted around me, while the rest was on the floor. I made myself hot tea and climbed back into bed.

Running through each of my issues, it hit me. Kalen hadn’t lied about who he was. He’d shown me the real Kalen, the human part. He’d kept his secret identity hidden because he wasn’t allowed to show me his lion.

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