Page 25 of Lucius

“Where is Lucius? Why isn’t he here and why are you guys acting like this is totally normal? Someone talk to me, damn it!” Her voice rose higher with each word and he could see she was spiraling toward panic.

“Son, you better shift back before she passes out.”

“Son?”

She looked at Caesar and then at him.

It took a moment for Lucius to stop concentrating on Sidney and focus on turning back to human, but once the shift took over, he easily returned to his two-legged form. He straightened and rose to his full height.

“Sidney.”

Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates and she started to breathe fast like she was hyperventilating.

“I didn’t just see that. I didn’t!” She took a step back and then shook her head, smacking her cheek. “Wake up. Wake up!”

“You’re awake, Sidney,” Lucius said.

Something soft hit him in the side and he saw a pair of sweats from a stash kept in the kitchen storage area. Slipping them on to cover himself, he cautiously walked to her, his hands up like he was showing her he was unarmed.

“Stay back.”

He froze. “Okay, sweetheart.”

“Nuh-uh, don’t call me that right now. What thehellis going on here? You’re…what did I just see?”

Her face flushed and she looked around the room, where the alphas stood around the perimeter. His brothers had slipped outside to guard the door in case she tried to bolt.

“I’m a shifter,” he said. “Everyone here is. I’m a lion and my dad is alpha of our pride.”

“That’s not possible.”

He moved a little closer and her upper lip curled, which made him freeze again.

“It is possible. You saw me go from lion to man.” He took a small step toward her and then another when she didn’t react to him getting closer. Lowering his voice, he said, “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry I scared you. I don’t know how I shifted in my sleep, but my lion is so enchanted with you he must have wanted to comeout to see you for himself. I would never have shifted on purpose to scare you.”

“You can’t control him?” she asked warily.

“No, I absolutely can. But the lion and I are part of the same person, and I can only assume that I felt so comfortable with you that my shift just happened. It wasn’t a conscientious choice, and I’m incredibly sorry that you were frightened.”

“Frightened isn’t quite a strong enough word.” She relaxed fractionally, but her wary gaze told him she was still working things out in her mind.

“Terrified?”

“At the least.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You said that.” She rubbed her thumb between her eyes. “You say…shifters? These people here can turn into animals? How does that even happen? And how have I never heard of this before?”

“It’s a secret we’re very careful to keep from humans,” he said. “You can imagine how devastating it would be to our people if word got out that shifters were real. Humans aren’t known to be compassionate to creatures that are different than they are.”

She stared at him in silence for a long moment.

He glanced at the alphas and his dad shrugged.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked finally.

“Yes,” he said. “When I knew I could trust you and you loved me. You’re my soulmate, Sidney, the one female on the planet meant to be mine. Fate brought you to the park so that we could meet.”

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