Page 24 of Lucius

Lucius rolled his eyes. Sitting back on his haunches, he let out a whine, wanting desperately to get to Sidney. He wanted to shift back to human, but his dad hadn’t told him he should, so he was stuck for the moment as a lion and unable to comfort his mate or tell her what was going on.

He couldn’t imagine what she was feeling right now and how absolutely terrified she must have been.

The alphas came out and as the door shut he could hear Sidney say irritably, “I just want to see Lucius, why is that so hard? Is he okay? Someone talk to me, damn it!”

His whiskers twitched. She might be scared, but she cared about him and that meant the world to him.

Joss shook his head. “How on earth did this happen?”

“Well, it happened to Win,” Atticus said. “Which is why we said no more sleeping outside of the park.”

“Clearly that didn’t stop Lucius from shifting,” Alistair said. The alpha elephant looked at him and chuckled. “You must have felt really comfortable with her to shift like that.”

Luciusdidfeel comfortable with Sidney. His lion had probably picked up on the feelings that had been coursing through him all day. He felt like he’d known her forever. And making love to her? Feeling her fall apart in his arms and knowing that he was the reason for her bliss? It made him feel like they’d been together for years, not just hours.

Marcus scrubbed a hand through his dark hair. “You know the drill, Lucius. She can’t leave the park until we know for certain that she won’t tell a soul our secret. What happened tonight is dangerous on so many levels.”

Lucius nodded and exhaled, his whiskers twitching.

“I think,” Caesar said, rubbing his chin, “that we should bring Lucius into the cafeteria and let him shift in front of her. That way, she’ll see the truth with her own eyes and it won’t just be him telling her that he’s the lion.”

“That makes sense,” Joss said.

“Yeah, unless she freaks out again,” Marcus said.

“Well, if she does, we’ll all be there to help,” Atticus said. “Lexy freaked out when Win shifted to human, but it helped her see the truth.”

The alphas were quiet for a moment. Lucius leaned to the side and stared at the building, wishing he could see Sidney. He was going crazy not being with her when he could still feel how stressed she was.

Her emotions must be super high if he could feel them when they weren’t mated yet.

He chuffed and Caesar said, “Okay, so we’ll bring Lucius inside and he’ll shift. Then he can talk to Sidney. We’ll postguards outside the building in case she does try to run, but once he shifts, we can leave them alone.” He gave Lucius a long look. “You know you can’t let her leave? You have to make her understand how serious our laws are. She can’t tell anyone.”

He nodded as the heavy weight of what Sidney was about to endure settled on his shoulders.

She was about to learn a truth that few humans knew.

Shifters were real, and the guy she’d had sex with hours earlier was one of them.

How would she react?

He followed the alphas to the cafeteria and walked inside. Sidney gasped harshly and took a step back, but Amadeus was at her side and barred her from moving too far away.

“You’re okay, Sidney, you’re safe,” Amadeus said.

Lucius didn’t particularly like his brother being so close to his soulmate and he growled softly.

“Hey, turn back and we’ll talk,” Amadeus said.

“What the hell is going on?” Sidney demanded, her voice shaky with bravado.

“Sidney,” Caesar said as the other alphas began to push the tables and chairs out of the center of the room. “We’re sorry that you were scared tonight. We’re sorry that you went to bed with Lucius and woke up with a lion.”

She wouldn’t stop staring at him and Lucius took that as a good sign. She wasn’t trying to climb the walls or screaming her head off.

Maybe some part of her recognized him?

He sat on his haunches and let out a loud purr.

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