Page 29 of Lucius

He nodded. Lowering his head, he kissed her and the whole world fell away for a brief moment. She put her arms around his neck and anchored herself to him, reveling in the kiss.

Just an hour ago she’d woken up pissed, and now she was kissing him back like her life depended on it. They still needed to talk and get to know each other, but at least she understood her feelings now. It wasn’t too fast; it was how it was supposed to be with soulmates.

How crazy was it that she’d gone to the park and met a guy who happened to also be a lion?

“Oh, can I sketch you?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said with a chuckle. “Your bag is in the kitchen. The alphas have your phone since they don’t want you to have it without someone keeping an eye on you with it. Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I just need to check in with my mom. I told her I’d be late, not that I wouldn’t come home at all.”

“Do you need to go home?”

“I don’t know. Can I leave?”

“I can take you to your place with an escort, but you can’t stay. I have to bring you back here.”

She rested in his embrace. She thought she should feel a little stifled and angry that she wasn’t allowed to just leave on her own, but the idea of how serious the secret of shifters was kept coming up as a very good reason for them being careful.

“I’m not going to worry about it today,” she said. “I’d like to text my mom and tell her I’m taking the day off and I’ll be by tomorrow. I don’t know what to do about all that, though.”

“We can figure it out, together.”

“Good. Now about breakfast?”

“Let’s go to the market, sweetheart. Then I’ll shift for you.”

She couldn’t wait.

Lucius foundout her phone was with his dad for safekeeping, so they went to his house where Sidney sent her mom a text, which she showed him as she typed, tilting the screen so he could see. He hated that she was being treated like a criminal who couldn’t be trusted, but rules were rules. All in all, she seemed to be taking things in stride and he was grateful for her change of heart.

“Okay, she’s pissed I’m not coming home today,” she said with a sigh as she read her mom’s response. “I think tomorrow is going to be a battle with her. I’m not in the mood at all.”

She handed the phone to Caesar and said, “You can turn it off. I told her I’d be back when I’m back and that she needs to accept that I was due for some time off and I’m enjoying myself.”

Caesar pressed the side button and the phone turned off. “It’ll be here when you need it again. Sorry about all this.”

“Don’t be,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I spend too much time on it anyway.”

In the market, Lucius and Sidney grabbed breakfast from the counter, where he introduced her to Alpha Joss’s human mate, Jeannie.

“Welcome,” Jeannie said as she took their orders for the special of the day, which was banana walnut pancakes withwarm syrup and fresh churned butter. “If I can answer anything for you about being a human among shifters, just reach out. I’m happy to chat. In fact, the mates all get together a few times a month to hang out, so you’ll be invited to that next time.”

“That sounds great, thank you so much.”

They sat at a long table where his brother Amadeus and several of their friends were also seated, and he introduced her to everyone. They got coffee and orange juice, and when Jeannie called their order, he grabbed it and brought it to the table.

“This looks amazing,” Sidney said.

“Nothing but the best for our people,” Amadeus said. “The bears handle the food for park visitors and employees, but Jeannie was working in the food service industry before she met Joss, so she’s working with them. Lexy is human and she’s mated to Win, one of the gorillas, and she’s a baker. She runs the candy shop along with our resident lioness, Jenni, plus Lexy’s friend Trina, who is also human and mated to Justus over there, who’s a bear.”

Justus waved from the end of the table.

“Jenni is the only lioness?” she asked.

“Yep,” Lucius said. “She’s mated to Devlin, who’s a human.”

“So who is left without a mate in the pride?”

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