Page 2 of Lion's Legacy of Flame

That is, we had one neighbor. They agreed to Steele’s price and moved out just two weeks ago. It made me furious, but I really couldn’t blame them.

Steele offered me twice as much, and I turned him down. I couldn’t see Mealtime becoming some soulless shopping district. There’s some beautiful land around us. It doesn’t need more parking lots.

The fire was awful. I was still in the building, the only one still working on a Sunday. When that fire hit, it started in the other corner and rushed across the front of the building. I didn’t realize what was going on until too late.

I was trapped and terrified. I thought, for the first time in my life, that I was going to die. I was backed into a corner, crouching under a desk and typing messages to friends and family when Brady smashed through the burning door to get me.

I looked up and it was like a god had stepped down from Olympus. Of course, I was starting to suffer from smoke inhalation, but I remember watching him walk over to me like fire was nothing to fear. He just came right over to me and scooped me up into his arms and carried me out.

Others rushed in behind him to check for other people, but I only talked to Brady. He brought me to an ambulance outside and as they took over my care, I begged him for his name. I couldn’t talk well, but he pulled his mask down long enough to tell me and to insist I let the EMTs do their job.

I held him in my dreams for the next few days as I worked through the mire that Mealtime became with just a few short minutes of fire.

Anyway, Brady is my hero. I’m determined to make him understand that.

The fact that he’s a very good-looking hero is just a bonus.

Chapter Two

Brady

I spend the whole day thinking about her, and when I wake up in the morning, my mind is still filled with thoughts of her. It’s a damned good thing I am able take off after breakfast because the pressure is building, and I need to go wild big time. Forty-five minutes after breakfast, I’m in the state forest far from prying eyes. My clothes are folded neatly in my car, and I’m not a human anymore.

Go wild.

That’s when we shift. Wait. No, not all shifting. If you just shift to be the animal for a while, but there’s no particular reason, we don’t call it that. When we shift to get the ability to handle human life, it’s called going wild. Sometimes, a wolf shifter needs to go wild because of the constraints of civilization. They need to be a wolf for a little while to experience the wildness, to enjoy the untamed animal for a while.

I’m not a wolf. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just illustrating that going wild is when we shift for a reason that has to do with enabling us to survive in the human world, if thatmakes sense. I’m a lion, not a wolf. A lion, like theking of the junglelion, is not a mountain lion. I’m a lion, and we’re far less wild than wolves. We’re more likely to need to go wild because our human life isn’t constraining things enough.

We thrive on order. We have regimented social structures and social demands on us. That’s lions.Some people call us the administrators of the shifter world.

There are dozens of shifter types. Tigers. Bears. Wolves. Lions. They’re the ones people know about since we announced ourselves to the world. Horses, gorillas, and eagles are a little less known but not too secretive. Non-shifters don’t know about dragons at all. They’re still not out to the world. Hell, dragons only announced themselves to shifters a few years back.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is I need to go wild and I’m glad I have the day off. I need to go wild because of Claire. I need to go wild because the way I feel about her makes no logical sense. She’s not the first woman I’ve rescued from a fire. She’s not the first woman who’s gone out of her way to thank me. She’s not even the first woman who does good for the city I’ve helped rescue.

She’s the first woman I think might be my legacy, though.

You know, there are mystics among us who think that there’s a supernatural force that brings shifters to certain situations. They believe that’s why a girl like Claire gets rescued. She does a great deal to increase food security for people in the city who are at risk. So, the mystics would say I rescued her because that’s part of my purpose, to rescue important people, like shifters are sort of divine agents or something.

Interestingly, Claire knows David, a tiger shifter who’s also a Company 417 firefighter. She doesn’t know he’s a shifter. She knows him because he has a charity that does a whole lot of good for the city, and so they’ve done some work together. I guess she’s good friends with Maddy, his wife. Maddy’snot a shifter. She’s human and she works at his charity. It’s called Tiger Treasures. The charity focuses on fixing neglected neighborhoods.

Anyway, Claire is focused on food security, and the charity she started makes a difference. With community gardens, food cooperatives, and support services for food banks and other food distribution charities, she’s making a real difference. Maybe that’s why I find her so alluring. There has to be more to it, though. I’m almost obsessed with her right now.

I pick up speed and try to outrun my thoughts of Claire. Eventually, my senses become filled with the forest around me. There’s a lot of movement because, well, the animals don’t enjoy my presence all that much. I’m not a typical lion.

Shifters tend to be about almost twice the size of the actual animal. So, I’m quite a shock to see in the wild. It’s why, when we’re going wild, we try to go out as remotely as possible. Humans would lose their minds if they saw us just loping down some suburban street. So, the forest is a good place to get lost, as long as you choose the farthest points.

It feels wonderful to be out here. I haven’t gone wild for a bit and, well, letting my lion out of the cage is very relaxing. I turn back reluctantly, and then, I hurry as my thoughts return to Claire.

I make it back to my car and shift back. I grab my clothes and start dressing. When I’m still pulling on my shirt, I peek at my phone. Damn! It’s already four and our dinner reservation is set for six. I finish dressing at lightning speed and race out of there.

I make it on time to the restaurant with two minutes to spare.

“Brady, you are very punctual.”

I turn and see her smiling and, well, it does, you know, light up the room. I know that cliche is used all the time, but it fits her perfectly. Her eyes are alight and she’s just glowing.

I can’t help but smile in return. “Well, being a fireman, punctuality is pretty much drummed into you. It wouldn’t do to hear the alarm then see a fireman sliding down the pole five minutes later.”

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