Page 33 of Into the Lion's Den (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

REESE

God help me, I’d been wanting to taste Sarah McAvoy for over a week, and the lion was thrilled to finally be the one calling the shots. But, having satisfied that curiosity by nuzzling her neck and getting the smallest of tastes, I retreated to the front of the structure and forced myself back into my human shape. We always kept an emergency pair of sweats in the barn, and I dressed quickly.

Throughout my metamorphosis, Sarah continued to cower behind the stacked bales of straw. Her heart beat so fast I could smell the adrenaline in the air. It made the cat want to reemerge and pounce, so I had to wait several more seconds before I felt sufficiently in control to approach her hiding place.

When I did, I took notice of what she was wearing, and dread sliced through me. “Do you have a death wish, or were you just not thinking?”

Sarah yelped, and her eyes snapped open. “Wh—? How?” She jumped to her feet, and her wide-eyed gaze swung around the barn. “Where did it go?”

For a second, I thought about gaslighting her, saying something like, “Where did what go?” That would have been the safest thing for my family.

But I had two loyalties now, because I’d also promised Sarah that I would protect her, and making the woman question her sanity wasn’t part of that agenda.

I leaned my back against the wall and crossed my arms. “It ran off.”

“But...” She returned her attention to me. “What are you doing here?”

“You left me a voicemail. Color me surprised, but you asked for my help.” I kept my voice as low and as even as I could, but the residual energy in the air kept my cat close to the surface.

It desperately wanted this woman—to mark her and to make her ours—and it was getting impatient.

Sarah blinked, either having forgotten about calling me or not comprehending how I got here so fast. Then she raised her hand and pointed at my face. “Your eyes. They’re...”

Shit. They were probably still glowing. I closed them and pushed the lion deeper into the recesses of my mind. I had a bad history of accidental revelations.

My father had been able to hide his true self from our mother for years—right up until my seventeenth birthday when I shifted for the very first time, completely involuntarily, and ruined things for him.

The moment she discovered the truth about whom she’d married and the five children she’d given him, she’d bolted out of fear.

While she’d never outed us to anyone else, her abandonment taught us a valuable lesson: humans preferred to live in ignorance of the full color of this world. Their feelings of safety and security depended on it.

Because Sarah had confessed to being in some kind of danger already, I wasn’t about to rock her world any more than it already was.

I opened my eyes, and her relieved expression told me that whatever she’d thought she’d seen in them was now gone.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

“What question?” She glanced over the top of the stacked bales toward the open barn door.

“Do you have a death wish coming out here, or were you just not thinking?”

She faced me with narrowed eyes and a sharper tone. “I didn’t think I was going to really run into a wild animal, Reese.”

“I’m not talking about wild animals.” I took a step closer.

She took a step backward and ran into the bales of straw. “Then what are you talking about?”

“You shouldn’t be out here.”

She tilted her head. “Am I still on resort property?”

“Yes.” I came even closer, moving slowly, conscious of the fact there was no one else around us for at least half a mile. Angel’s words echoed in my head.Why don’t you just sleep with her and get her out of your system?

She wetted her lips. “You own this barn?”

“Yes.” I reached out to touch her hair.

She froze, holding her body rigid. “What are you doing?”

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