Page 11 of Arbor

MEGAN

Aftertransferringthepotatoesfrom the baggies to the plates, Megan opened the mid-size fridge sitting next to the microwave and found all the toppings they would need. Using a tray she found shoved on top of the fridge, she carried all the toppings and two bottles of water to the loveseat, before she grabbed the plates and joined Arbor on the deck.

“Thanks, Kitten,” he expressed and gave her a quick kiss as he took the plates from her hands. “If you can’t move that table back, leave it. I’ll get it in a minute.”

After stepping back into the living area, she eyed the table. It wasn’t really a coffee table, but rather a large, rustic, wooden storage chest with heavy metal handles on each side and leather straps that secured the top closed. It was a gorgeous piece of furniture, and she was impressed by his resourcefulness. With his home being a small treehouse, storage was lacking. She wondered what else had a dual purpose in his space.

She must have stared at it for a while, because Arbor stopped next to her and handed her the plates that now had their steaks on them. Once she took them from his hands, she watched as he walked over, lifted the trunk, and put it back where it was supposed to be in front of the love seat. He moved the thing twice since she’d been there without breaking a sweat.

“Is that empty?”

“What? The trunk?”

She nodded.

“No. It has all of my photos, tools, and emergency supplies.” He moved the tray of condiments to the top of the trunk and patted the loveseat as he sat down. “Sit.”

Curious about how he was able to lift it so easily, Megan added his strength to her list of topics to discuss and took the offered seat. Her ass had just settled on the plush cushion when she realized she forgot the utensils. “Shit. Forgot knives and forks.”

“Relax.” He patted her thigh. “I’ll get them.”

For the next ten minutes, they doctored their potatoes and ate their food, keeping the conversation light.

After finishing her steak that had been grilled to perfection and turning to her potato, Megan asked, “Besides turning into an actual lion, what does being a… shifter mean?” She took a bite of her potato and looked over at him to wait for an answer.

He finished chewing a piece of steak and replied, “I’m going to save us some time here and just give you the basic facts. We’re born this way because one of our parents was a shifter, but we don’t have the ability to shift until well into puberty. How were we created to begin with? Well… there are some whispers that some gods created us, somagic,I guess.”

“Gods?”

He shrugged. “It’s what I’ve heard. Never met any god, so… sure. Anyway, we can’t bite you and turn you or anything like that. You either are a shifter, or you’re not.” He took a drink of his water. “Shifters are only predatory animals — Bears, wolves, tigers, lions, and so on. Well… as far as I know. Never actually met a rabbit shifter.”

Megan grinned at him as he winked at her.

“As far as abilities, we are much stronger, faster, have better hearing, able to heal faster, have great vision, night vision—”

“Superhero stuff.”

Arbor smirked as he cut another bite from his steak. “Sure.”

“And the light from your eyes?”

After clearing his throat, Arbor glanced over at her, before he focused on cutting the rest of his steak into bites. “When shifters feel extreme emotion, our eyes… glow or shine light… however you want to describe it. So… anger, lust, and in rare instances, joy. Usually, we keep a tight hold on our control and are able to stop it from happening by just regulating our emotions as much as we can. When we are around our mate, family, friends who know about shifters, or other shifters, we can let go of that tight control. Other times… the emotion is more than we can regulate and we lose the ability to stop it from happening.”

“Which situation was it out there?”

She watched as Arbor finished chewing the bite he had slipped into his mouth after his explanation. He set his plate down on the top of the trunk and carefully set the utensils on top. He obviously wasn’t done with his steak, since half of it was still on the plate, which caused nervousness to build in her gut at the act.

When he was done chewing, he took a drink of water and set the bottle down next to his plate. His gaze shifted to her, and she saw worry in his eyes. That didn’t help ease the nervousness.

“I was thinking about how you were mistreated by men… or at least what I know. I didn’t like it. It… pissed me off, honestly. I wouldn’t like that for any woman, but with you…” He sighed. “You’re not going to believe what I have to tell you,” he mumbled, almost as if he wasn’t really talking to her.

Wouldn’t believe it?She frowned. “Maybe, but you’ve told me a whole lot of stuff, and I haven’t called you a liar yet.”

He gave her a smile. “True.” He took a deep breath, as if he was preparing himself. “When we meet someone who is well-suited for us, in most cases, our animal recognizes them. I’ve heard it only happens if the shifter is ready for it or open to it, but that’s not important right now. Anyway, when we meet that person, our animal pushes us to claim them, and we feel compelled to take care of them, be close, make them happy, keep them safe, and things like that.”

“Okay,” Megan uttered and tried to understand what he was trying to tell her, but he was taking the long way around.

“If someone hurts them, our mate, in some way, we react… badly.”

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