Page 61 of Just a Friend for the Lion
“Mother,” I say again, and this time the title is cold, distant. “I love you. I do. But I’ve made my choice.”
“Carter, you can’t be serious about a normal!”
And she better hear me when I say this next part.
“I am very serious, Mother. She’s not a political match. She’s not royalty. She doesn’t give a flying fuck about titles. But she’s mine, and that means something. At least it does to me.”
I don’t wait for her response.
I just turn and walk out the door, into the sharp fall air, clutching a box full of baseball cards, old comic books, and a clay paw print I made in second grade with my dad.
The whole ride back to Newark, I try to shake it off.
The guilt. The anger. The ache in my chest.
But it clings like MJ’s scent on my skin—earthy, spicy, real.
Mom doesn’t get it. But I do.
I’m MJ’s now.
And I have to make sure she knows it—before it’s too damn late.
Someone honks loudly and speeds around me.
Shit.
Try to focus.
But my Lion’s restless. Agitated. Pacing inside me like he knows something’s wrong.
By the time I pull into the garage, I’m edgy as hell—and the moment I step through the front office door, I know something’s off.
Tony’s voice bellows from the hallway like thunder.
“—that was a massive breach of trust! Do you even know what you’ve done?!”
“What the hell’s going on?” I ask, stepping inside to find Tony towering over Tricia like he’s about to go full primal.
She’s pale, stammering, completely caught off guard.
Tony wheels around to face me.
“Your new HR specialist just told a human woman—your mate, I assume—that you were servicing Pride females in heat.”
My blood goes cold.
“You what?” I bite out, pulse spiking like a missile.
Tricia lifts her hands, eyes wide. “I—I didn’t mean anything by it! She just—she smelledlike you, and she said she knew about Shifters. I’ve been having a real bad day, Mr. Leone and I might have taken it out on her, but I assumed?—”
“Shit. You’re fired. Get out.”
I run a hand through my hair and face Tony.
“When was she here? MJ?”
“She left about half an hour ago,” Tony says grimly. “Fast.”
