Mane Attraction

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Published by loveyoudivine Alterotica 2011 Find us on the World Wide Web at www.loveyoudivine.com

MANE ATTRACTION BY

SARAH MASTERS

Dominic Hurley is presented with a mission—by a lion who changes into a man. Can he fulfill destiny’s wishes without bringing himself harm?

One

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his was the life. Sitting up on my bed, back

against a few pillows, cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. All right, so it wasn’t the most exciting thing to do, but after a hard week working my ass off, a Friday night kicking back was just what I needed. Shame I didn’t have anyone to share this time with, but what the hell. Rick was out on the town—my pal, by the way— and I hadn’t much fancied joining him. Besides, I always felt awkward, you know? Like, I’m gay and he’s not. Watching him hit on women got old a while back, and finding a bloke to spend some time with was hard in the clubs Rick took me to.

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Difficult to judge who was into what, know what I mean? I stared at the TV, the reception fuzzy because the damn whacky aerial needed tweaking. And I couldn’t be assed to get up and tweak it. Too much effort, what with the alcohol flowing through my veins, the cigarette smoke making my head light. How many had I sunk so far? Three beers? Four? I glanced at the bedside cabinet. Eight empty bottles. Shit. The show on the TV was doing my nut in. Some boring crap about a cop trying to solve a crime. A cold case, been cold for so long the damn thing was iced up, and it didn’t take a genius to work out the cop was going to get a light-bulb moment in a minute and crack the fucking thing. Jesus. I should have gone out with Rick—Rick with the hairy chest and back that I kind of wanted to tell him might put women off. A creak outside had me jerking my head toward the fire escape doors. I rented an apartment—the Brit name for a flat that’s just a little bit fancier than your average place—with

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sky-high rent, a shower that dribbled water, and a bloody doorman who never manned the damn doors. I begrudged paying a service charge for that kind of crap. The creak sounded again, and I smiled. It had to be Rick, pissed as a fart and on his way up here to lament the fact there were no decent women out tonight, something he did way too often for my liking. I wished he didn’t use the fire escape. It wasn’t funny when you were sprawled naked in bed of a Sunday, morning glory standing to attention, and found your best mate staring at you through the glass in the door. Fuck, he was such a— I stared through that glass, frowning because, hell, Rick ought to be standing out there right about now. The stairs only creak twice—once on the middle step and once on the top—so unless he was crouched down behind the wooden bottom half of the door, something was way off. He was probably fucking about, planning to scare me. Wouldn’t be the first time. I swung my legs off the bed and stubbed my smoke out in the overfull ashtray I kept meaning

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to empty but never did. Standing—head was a bit fuzzy, but hey, whatever—I staggered over to the door and looked out. Nope. No Rick. The only thing out there was the sprawling city of London topped with a black sky and gray smoggy clouds. Lights, bright and multi-colored, stretched for miles, an expanse of illumination that never failed to amaze me. Yeah, I dug that kind of thing. But not the damn lion sitting on the balcony, looking up at me. Okay, eight beers didn’t usually mess with my mind like this, but tonight they had. I shook my head and blinked. The lion was still there. Now, if I’d smoked a joint I could understand the big bastard’s appearance, but… My legs weakened, damn near sent me to my knees, and my heart beat so hard I thought I’d have a heart attack. Yeah, the reaction to a lion sitting on your balcony does that to a body, know what I mean? Who the hell sees this kind of shit after a couple— all right—eight beers, eh? Dominic Hurley, that’s who. Thirtysomething, sad-bastard-with-no-life Hurley.

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The lion yawned, showing teeth that shit the life out of me and a cavity that could easily fit my head inside. Okay, having arms and legs like jelly wasn’t something I wanted to cope with right now—if it had been just from the beer I wouldn’t mind—and I staggered a little, reaching my hand out to steady myself on the wall beside the door. A groan that sounded human followed the yawn as the lion’s mouth closed, and that lion, that massive, should-be-in-a-zoo-or-Kenya lion, winked. Yeah, as insane as it sounds, it winked. Like it was more than just a lion. But that was just stupid, wasn’t it, to think like that? Those animals didn’t have human qualities. And they didn’t damn well come visiting blokes on a Friday night for a bit of a chinwag and a game of poker. It was the beer. I knew it, the lion knew it, and I swung the door open. The lion remained seated, looking me up and down as though deciding which part of me to eat first. Surreal as all this was, I fully expected to snap out of whatever dream I was in any second…now. I didn’t snap out of anything. The beast was still there.

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Come on, joke’s over, brain. You can stop fucking with me now. Evidently, my brain wasn’t done fucking. The lion blinked several times and lifted its chin. He sniffed the air, nostrils flaring, and a light breeze shimmied his white-gold mane. He really was a magnificent sod, but I was buggered if I’d let him in, which is what my instincts were screaming he wanted. Maybe I’d fallen asleep. Maybe I’d wake in the morning with the recollection of what went on inside my head while I slept and laugh my ass off about it The lion reared up on his hind paws—fuck me sideways, he’s got a big cock—and something weird started happening. His paws changed to feet and hands, his body into a human’s, that shaggy mane of his the last thing to disappear. Unless you counted the blond stubble on this guy’s face and the shock of long blond hair on his head. Oh, and the curly, corn-colored thatch around one hell of a long cock dangling between his legs. A man. Is standing. Stark naked. On my balcony.

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I had no clue what to do. Should I crawl back into bed, close my eyes and wait for morning? Should I hurl, because that’s what I felt like doing? I didn’t do either of those things. Instead, I said, “Uh, hi.” Wasn’t that a stupid thing to say to him? Uh, hi, like he was real and going to answer? “Hello.” I stared at him, rolling that word and the sound of it around my mind. It was deep, gravelly, just like a lion would sound if it could talk. And it—he—had, hadn’t he? I hadn’t just imagined that bass rumble, which, incidentally, zipped through my body and made me just a little hard. No. Oh, no. I was not getting a hardon over some big bronze bloke that didn’t even exist. “Um, and you are?” I asked, wondering how stupid I could get. How much more insane. “The name’s Levian, but you can call me Levi.” Like the jeans. And didn’t it sound just a little bit whacky? Levi the Lion. Jesus fucking— “Are you not going to ask me in? It is cold out here.”

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It would be cold minus the fur, I’d give him that, but the weather hadn’t shrunk his cock. “Um, yeah. Come in.” I stepped back, pulling the door wider so he could enter. And man, he was one big motherfucker, and I wasn’t just talking about his sexual equipment either. He was broad, shoulders filling the doorway, stomach washboard flat complete with washboard lumps and bumps. God, what it would feel like to run my hands over those pecs… Stop it. He’s a lion. A man lion…thing. An alcohol-induced vision. He stared at me, raising one beefy arm to plunk a meaty hand on my shoulder. His touch was heavy, pushed me down an inch or two, and I looked up at him, wondering what the fucking hell was going to happen next. I was dreaming, I got that, so maybe I ought to just go with the flow. Let the scene unfold of its own free will. “What is your name?” he asked. “Dominic Hurley. Friends call me Dom.” “I need you, Dom Hurley.” He pushed me backward to the bed, the scent of him strong and

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musky, his rippling muscles tormenting me, making me want to run my hands over every bloody one of them. The backs of my knees hit the mattress, and my legs bent. I dropped down and sat, his hand still on my shoulder, and studied his face. His irises, they were like chocolate-colored balls flecked with amber, so damn penetrating I found it hard to breathe. A Roman nose sprinkled with light freckles dominated his face, and cheekbones the size of my palms tapered down to a strong jaw and rigid chin. Okay, a jaw and chin covered by stubble that I wanted rasping against my skin, but strong and rigid all the same. I wanted to fuck him. For him to fuck me. “I need you,” he repeated. “To do something. I was…drawn here. To you.” “Oh right.” I continued to stare, mesmerized by the sheer size of him and the heat radiating from his hand into my shoulder, right down into the damn bone. I imagined his whole body covering me. Man, I’d burn up. “What do you need me to do?”

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What could it hurt to play along, eh? He took his hand away and closed the door. My stomach flipped. I mean, if this wasn’t a dream, this was where it could turn nasty. Newspaper headlines flashed through my mind. Man gets attacked by lion. Big beast holds man prisoner for several weeks and fucks him senseless. “I can do that too, if you like.” The man, Levi, strolled over to the TV, powerful body swaggering, and switched it off. “Um, you can?” The room was now in semi-darkness. The only light coming in was through the door window, weak moonlight that may as well give up trying to penetrate the London sky. That was a bit of a shit, because I’d enjoyed looking at his body. And I’d wanted to see his ass for a bit longer. He turned from the TV and stood at the foot of my bed, legs apart and hands folded across his chest like he was some sort of ancient warrior. His eyes glowed orange. Okay, I know I wanted light, but— “I am a warrior. And I need your help.”

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Jesus. He could read my mind too? That’s all I bloody needed. I decided to test that theory. I want you to climb on this bed and fuck me. Come on, I dare you. Fuck me hard, big boy. “As you wish.” What the hell? I scooted back on the bed, huddling up by the headboard, my heart going like the damn clappers and my pulse thudding in my throat. He’d heard what I’d thought. And not only that, he was willing to do what I wanted. Since when did I get so bloody lucky? His eyes glowed brighter. “Since I find you so attractive. Since you are destined to be my mate. That is when you got lucky.” Levi leaned over and planted his hands on the mattress. He stood in a prime position for me to go around behind him and…no, I had to stop this madness. It wasn’t really happening. I wasn’t here, in my apartment, with a lion who had changed into a man. I’m not. Not, not, not. “I am afraid you are. And we do not have much time. Tomorrow we have work to do. I came

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to this place, this London, to find the man I am destined to be with. Once I found him I am to… It does not matter. I have found you now. I will reveal more at first light.” “Destined to be with? You what?” “I do not understand this ‘You what?’ Is that a regional term?” “Uh, yeah. Listen, where the hell are you from? You sound…old-fashioned.” God, if my body didn’t stop shaking… Levi laughed, a loud roar that almost had me crapping my pants and waiting for the neighbors to show up at my front door. “I am originally from another time. Perhaps that is why I sound alien to you. But I am here now, with you. And I am ready to make you my mate.” I glanced down his body, to his weighty cock that bobbed up and down, its hardness too tempting for words. Could I handle that? Fuck me, he was bigger than the dildo Rick’s last permanent girlfriend left behind after she moved out. And that was saying something. That sucker was huge. “I will not hurt you. I am able to…adjust myself to fit.”

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Adjust himself to fit? What, is his cock like some kind of tool he can make bigger or smaller? “Something like that. Come. Let me make you mine.” Oh God. This has got to be a dream. This guy’s too hot to even think about fancying me. And besides, he’s a lion, and he hasn’t explained that part of him yet. “That is what we will discuss tomorrow. But tonight I am a man. A man with needs like yours. So, what is it to be? May I fuck you or not?” May he fuck me? Too bloody right he could. I hadn’t had sex in quite a while, and turning him down would be kind of childish, right? Besides, I was dreaming, so morals and all that crap could go out the window. I could fuck who the hell I liked while I slept! He stared at me, the orange glow in his eyes diminishing a bit. I opened my mouth to ask whether he was some kind of demon—I mean, lions didn’t usually have mini halogen lamps in their heads—but a shiver ripped through me and silenced my ever-inquiring mouth. Things were getting serious. I could tell by the way his lips

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curved up in a sexy smile and the muscles bunched in his biceps. The thought of those strong arms around my body sent me dizzy, and I blinked, half afraid of what he was capable of doing and half wanting to find out. “Do not be afraid. You are my mate.” He smiled—minus the fangs now, thank God—and dug one knee into the mattress. Sliding his hands along the bed, he brought his other knee up to join the first. “I love you already.” “You love me?” I blurted, wanting to laugh but holding it back because, shit, this guy was sincere. “You don’t even know me!” I hugged my knees, crouching into a ball because oddly, I knew that if this guy touched me, I’d be undone. “It does not matter whether I know you or not. That you are my mate is all that matters. Does it not work this way here? With you?” He sat back on his haunches, his massive frame blotting out sight of the TV and most of the wall behind him. His cock jutted out, hard and ready, and he slid his hand up his thigh toward it. “Uh, no. Love at first sight is rare. We, um, grow to love our mates.”

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He gripped his cock in his huge fist and began massaging it up and down. I couldn’t deny it, I was turned on, but the size of him had me quaking. I know he’d said he could make it adjust to fit, but that kind of shit just didn’t happen. Did it? Fuck, he was driving me crazy. My cock throbbed, my balls ached, and my damn guts kept rolling over like a kid’s at Christmas. “Don’t you have any problems with people over you being gay?” I longed to touch my own hard-on but kept my hands fisted, my knees tight to my chest. “Gay? What is this gay?” Levi pulled down so slowly on his cock I thought I would come in my pants. Him touching himself was so bloody erotic I almost lost it. “Uh, man-on-man action. You know, me and you. Two people with cocks fucking. Or two females fucking.” “I have no concept of this gay or why I should have an issue with it. You are my mate, that is all that concerns me. I am drawn to you, know you are the one I seek, and my cock and eyes are not

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complaining either. I am finding you most pleasing to the eye, and thoughts of sinking myself deep inside you made what I hold so hard. That and the love I feel for you. I have found you after a long time searching, Hurley. I smelled you once I came to this London.” He sniffed the air and growled deep in his throat. “And I smell you now. A scent that I want to drown in. Let me make you mine. Let me take you.” His way with words was oddly endearing, and if he was right and I was meant for him—and I wasn’t dreaming—I had to think about whether I could live with this guy. I mean, I’d tried this kind of thing before and failed after two bloody weeks, but could I give it a decent go with Levi? And why the hell was I even contemplating it? He’d only been here five minutes! “Look,” I said, loosening my hold on my knees a little. “I’m honored you feel this way about me, really I am, but here, where I come from, you have to make a go of it, you know?” “What is this ‘go of it’?” “Uh…” Crap, explaining stuff to this guy was proving harder by the minute. “Like I said, you

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have to grow to love someone. Grow to understand their quirks, see if you get along before you commit.” “I have already committed. Mmm, do you not want to feel my cock?” I swallowed. “Um, yeah, I do actually, but we need to get a few things straight before I do.” “And what would they be?” He licked his lips again. “This feels good, my hand upon my cock. You will like it inside you. I can bring you much pleasure.” Jesus Christ on a bike, he was fucking with my mind. I’d never had a bloke act this way before, so confident and assured. I was used to the first time with a new guy being fumbles under the covers, our bodies hot and sweaty because the damn quilt tog was too high. But this? Man, I wanted to lose myself in him, let him do whatever the hell he liked. “Ah, so you do love me. I thought you might.” Levi massaged himself harder, long slow strokes that I imagined felt bloody good. “Love isn’t the same where I come from, mate.” “Mate. You called me mate. Mmmm.”

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Shit. “Yeah, it’s a London endearment. Just something we say. Like love, pal or whatever.” I knew as soon as it came out I’d said the wrong thing. “Love. We are getting somewhere.” He opened his eyes fully and stared at me. Locked me in his gaze so I felt like I would fall. “Let us talk about the things you expect from our relationship tomorrow. You will gain some lion qualities once I am done with you. For tonight, we need to bond. When we do, you will soon see that everything I have said is the truth.”

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orning light dancing over my closed eyelids

made me stir. What a damn good dream. Even my ass hurt as though the sex had been real. I kept my eyes closed, letting my senses become alert to a Saturday morning I’d spend cleaning up my apartment—or not—and sinking a pint or two down The Cowshed pub. The thought of the lunchtime grub on offer there had my mouth watering. My stomach grumbled, reminding me of the lion bloke from my dream, and I huffed out a laugh. Like it was ever going to be real. Get a damn life, Hurley.

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“Of course it was real.” Oh, fuck my old boots. I didn’t just hear Levi speak, did I? “You did. I am here. Open your eyes.” No. I can’t. “Why not? Are they stuck together?” No. “So open them.” Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but the balcony door and a weak sun trying to push through the clouds. It looked like it had rained overnight, the clouds pregnant with more rain from what I could see of their gray bellies. Another typical London day. Except it wasn’t, was it? No. Normal didn’t have a lion bloke from my dream somewhere in my room. Normal didn’t have my ass stinging and my cock still buzzing from a night of unbelievable sex. Cautiously, I rolled onto my back. Levi the Lion, in his get-me-a-hard-on-asquick-as-a-blink pose, filled my bedroom doorway. “I have taken the liberty of making some breakfast. We will need food to give us strength to get through this day.”

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Oh, fuck. “Tell me I’m still dreaming. Tell me you’re not standing there naked with a hard-on. And if I’m not dreaming, have you given any thought to the fact you’ll need to put some clothes on before we can leave here and do whatever it is you have planned?” He nodded, blond hair swishing, the ends covering his pecs. A curtain I wanted to pull aside so I could see the sunshine. “I looked in your armoire,” he said. “Armoire? What the hell is one of those?” I sat up, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my hands. When I lowered them, he’d be gone. Yeah, he’d be gone. He wasn’t. Shit. “Yes, that.” Levi pointed to my wardrobe, a crappy flat-pack effort that leaned to one side and threatened to fall over. “Inside I found some soft trousers with a curious waistband that looks like it might prove suitable. And a Tshirt—one perhaps left behind by some other lover?—that is clearly too big for you. They will do for now.”

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“Shoes. What about shoes?” I swung my legs off the bed and padded over to my armoire—what a damn cracking term—flinging the doors open to inspect the contents. My favorite combats weren’t hanging where they usually were, but a couple of pairs of jeans would see me through the weekend. It appeared last week’s laundry was going to have to wait. I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “I found some boots.” Levi stretched his hands toward the ceiling, his prominent stomach muscles asking me to run my hands all over them and drag him back to bed. Well, they didn’t exactly ask, but you catch my drift. “Boots?” I frowned, trying to think if I even owned a pair that would fit him. “Yes, boots that feel much like that condom of last night. They smell similar too. Green. Thick soles. They are also too big for you, I would wager.” A light clicked on inside my mind, and I let out a burst of laughter. “Oh, fuck me. They’re wellies!” “Willies?” Levi cocked his head.

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“No, wellies. Wellington boots. Rubber things fishermen use. Kids too. They like splashing in puddles while wearing them.” I pulled out some jeans and a light blue sweater with a faded curry stain on the front that I’d never managed to get out. Shoving the sweater back on the rail, I chose a black one instead. Sans stain. “And whose are these wellies?” Levi crossed his arms over his chest, legs apart, his stance that of someone I didn’t want to come to blows with in a dark alley. “They were my dad’s.” I dressed quickly, not wanting to continue this conversation. I’d shower later. “Were?” “Yeah. He’s dead. So,” I walked across the room and took a pair of socks from my chest of drawers the TV stood on, “what’s for breakfast?” “I found some eggs—a little close to being on the turn, but no matter—but I could not find any meat. I need meat.” I bit back a crude remark at that. “Ah, right. I’ll nip down the road to the little shop. Will bacon do you?”

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“Bacon?” I smiled, a sudden rush of tenderness for him seeping into my gut. If he was from another time, this one must seem pretty damn confusing. “Yeah, pig. Boar.” Ass on the bed, I reached for my boots, which lay haphazardly at the bottom of the bed from where Levi must have knocked them over last night. I slid them on over my socks. I still can’t get over this weirdness. “It is not weirdness. It is fate. Hurry. I need some pig.” I stood and slid past Levi, trying not to touch him. If I did, the pig would be left waiting in the fridge at the shop. “I won’t be a minute. Shop’s only at the end of the road.” At the front door, I took my trusty black puffa jacket off the hook and shirked into it. “Right. I will don those clothes while you are gone.” Levi followed me down the hallway. I glanced back at him as I opened the front door, looking him up and down knowing those clothes weren’t going to be a good fit. “Uh, good luck with that.”

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Checking my pocket for my keys and wallet, I closed the door and dashed down the steps leading to the main doors that faced onto the street. As usual, the doorman wasn’t there— probably ensconced in the cleaning cupboard with the woman who tidied the lobby—and I pushed through to outside. The air assaulted me—literally—smacking me upside the head and aiding the throb of a hangover headache. On the street, I walked at a brisk pace until my asshole chafed and I had to slow down. Shit, if Levi planned on hanging around for a while, I’d have to get used to this feeling. The corner shop had never seemed to welcome me so much. I hadn’t had a cigarette yet, or my obligatory cup of coffee, and the thought of having both made me burst through the door harder than I’d intended. Inside, I browsed the fridge, shoving several packets of bacon inside my basket. I figured a lion would need more than the usual two rashers. A hot drinks machine belched at the end of the aisle, and I zoomed in on it, seeing the shop owner, a chubby Asian with a beard that rivaled

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Levi’s mane, prodding the coffee button. I waited behind Chris, as he liked to call himself, the aroma and steam of the coffee pouring into his cup too much to handle. I needed a hot drink, and I needed it now. Chris shifted away on slippered feet and took up his position behind the counter before he realized I was there. “Oh hello, Dom.” He eyed me through wide eyes framed by a rather bright cerise turban. He usually wore white, and I wondered whether it was his birthday today or something. “Nice headgear,” I said, nodding at him then returning my attention to the drinks machine. My money slid down the internal shoot, the loud scrape of it jarring my nerves. That was some hangover I had there. Jabbing the coffee button, I salivated while waiting for my cup to fill. “It was an accident,” the owner said. “I wasn’t thinking straight this morning.” He selfconsciously patted his head. “You and me both, mate.” I took the coffee and blew it, dying for a sip but knowing from very

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recent experience that the shit from this machine was so damn hot it had the ability to burn the skin off the roof of my mouth. “I need to speak with you, Dom. Quietly. My wife thinks I have gone mad.” Chris glanced toward the bowels of the shop to my right, his gaze landing on the rear door where Sangeeta probably sat balancing the books. “Oh, right.” I dumped my basket on the counter, noting the way Chris’ eyes widened at the sight of all that bacon. If he asked me why I wanted so much, I’d tell him I’d started the Atkin’s diet. “What’s up then, mate?” “Um…come closer.” He beckoned me with one hand and leaned across the counter, the top edge of the basket digging into his chin. “I saw something last night,” he whispered. “Did you?” I whispered back, unsure why. The shop was empty and the rear door was closed. No way anyone would hear us. “What was that then?” “Something that went into your apartment.” Oh fuck. “What?” My hands shook, and hot coffee slopped over my fingers. I held back a

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pained yell and passed the cup to my other hand, flicking the coffee from the other. “Nothing went into my apartment last night.” Chris eased back and lowered his chin, looking at me from beneath heavy-lidded lashes. “Yes it did. I watched it go inside. You forget we live opposite. I see everything.” “You do? That’s great, mate, but maybe you were tired. You know, seeing shit?” “Oh, I see shit all right. In the form of a great fucking lion.” My heart stopped. My legs weakened. The coffee cup dropped out of my hand and smacked on the floor. Hot liquid splashed up and burned my leg through the jeans. The heat reminded me of this ancient Chinese massage I’d once had where some woman dipped a rag in flaming water and applied it to my body. I cursed and gritted my teeth, hopping about a bit to get some air to my skin. “I saw it, Dom. I did. Big thing. And you let it in.” Chris folded his arms across his smockcovered chest and nodded sagely. This was all I bloody needed. If Chris had seen Levi, who the hell else had too?

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“Oh, come on, Chris!” I walked away, back to the coffee machine, and slipped a few coins inside. Coffee spurting into the cup, I turned back to face him. “You got a mop? I need to clean this up.” I pointed at the coffee, now pooling on the floor with no steam coming off it whatsoever. Typical. “Don’t worry. I clean it up. But just know that I know, yes? I know you have a big fat lion in your apartment. Your landlord will not like that. No pets allowed, he says.” I took the coffee and walked back to the counter. “Whatever, Chris. I’m sure you’ll realize you’ve made a mistake sooner or later.” “No mistake, no.” He grabbed the bacon and began scanning it, shoving it into a plastic carrier bag. “I will be watching for when you take your lion out for a walk. It will need to piss and shit soon.” I didn’t answer, instead paying for the bacon and asking Chris for a packet of Benson and Hedges. He supplied them, and I almost ripped the packet open right there and then. I badly needed a cigarette. Outside, I felt in my pockets

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for a lighter and drew it out, sparking a flame and inhaling the smoke deep. It wasn’t a dream. I’m not dreaming now. Levi is the real deal. I strolled back to my apartment, savoring my cigarette and managing to get in two sips of coffee before I reached the lobby doors. Before entering, I gazed up at my balcony door on the third floor, the zigzag of the fire escape like a prehistoric ribcage fashioned into steps. I glanced across the road at Chris’ house, knowing he had a clear view from his front bedroom windows but wanting to check all the same. He’d seen Levi, no doubt about it, and somehow I had to deal with that when, and if, Levi changed into a lion again. Wonderful. Inside the lobby—hey, the doorman actually stood leaning against the right-hand wall reading the local rag—I took the stairs to my apartment one slow plod at a time, holding off seeing Levi. If he was still there, then I’d have to face up to the fact that everything was in-my-face real and wasn’t going away any time soon.

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I wasn’t sure whether I even wanted him to go away. He was a quirky fucker, all right, but being with him was like… I don’t know what it was like, but it felt good. Maybe I could help him with his “quest” this weekend, have another fuck or two, and bid him farewell by Sunday night, no harm done. It helped to have a plan. I found Levi in the kitchen with his back to me at the sink. He stared out the window above, having parted the rather grubby net curtain that I really ought to take down and wash. He looked absurd in a pair of gray jogging bottoms that fitted too tight across his ass, the darker gray T-shirt only just reaching his waist, and the bright green wellington boots, the top edge ending mid-shin. No doubt about it, he needed new clothes. “We do not have time for that.” Levi turned to face me. “We must eat the pig and be on our way.” I placed the carrier bag on the counter and took out the bacon. As I opened the packets and laid rashers on the grill pan, I said, “So, what are we doing today?”

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“We are going to visit this London zoo.” Levi walked to the small pine table and plunked down onto a chair. It creaked with his weight. “I have a pride member there.” Oh, for fuck’s— “Right. And he’s there because?” I shoved the grill pan under the heat and filled the kettle, glancing over at the big man. Levi rubbed his palm across his chin, the rasp of stubble sending a spear of want up my cock. “He was captured. You people think our species are just dying out, yes?” I nodded, unsure what people thought about lions. To be honest, I hadn’t given them a damn thought beyond knowing one starred in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Discussing wildlife wasn’t my strong suit. “There is a rogue lion among us, wanting to usurp our king. He has been ensuring our pride members are either shot or captured, placed in zoos. This displeases us greatly. He wants to reduce our numbers to the ones he can control. The ones he has convinced to follow him as king.”

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“Riiiight. And my job here is to…?” The kettle had boiled, so I poured water into mugs then spooned in instant coffee. “Go with me to the zoo. I will keep an eye out for people watching you.” “Watching me what?” I grabbed milk out of the fridge, noting the carton held only enough for our coffee. Great. The last thing I wanted was to have to see Chris again today. “Watching you slip a tool through the fence so my pride member can shift into a human tonight and escape.” “What?” He eyed me with such hope I knew I wouldn’t refuse his request, but shit, his plan had so many flaws. A new roof had recently been put on the lion enclosure, and even if the lion man did escape, how would he get out of the actual zoo? “He will wait somewhere inside until morning, when the gates open. We will be there to greet him.” “And then what?” I walked over to him and placed his coffee on my litter-strewn table. I really did need to learn some housework skills. Also,

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Levi answering the questions in my mind would take some getting used to. I didn’t like the idea of him knowing all my thoughts. “I can only access those that relate to me or our quest. If, for example, you chose to think licentious musings about another man, I would never be aware of them. But,” he picked up the mug and held it halfway to his lips, “I intend to make sure another man never fills your mind.” I squirmed from a crazy burst of pleasure I got from him feeling this way about me—if my take on it was what he’d meant. “Yes. I do not wish my mate to yearn for another. Only me.” He sipped, his hair falling forward to obscure his face, and a flash of how he’d first appeared to me burned bright in my mind. “Do you turn into a lion often?” The bacon spat, and I pulled the grill out, flipping the rashers over then shoving them back under the heat. “I am only a lion when I need to hunt or search someone out. Like I sought you. For the most part I am human.” He sipped his coffee.

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“Okay. And how the hell did you get to London from wherever you came from without being seen? A lion striding down the road is a pretty out-there sight, mate.” A warm smile filled his face as he lifted his head and looked at me. “Mate…ah. I came here on a freighter, but I almost got caught several times.” “All right. And how do you intend going back to your world or home?” I leaned my ass against the counter and hugged my chest, realizing I still had my jacket on. Taking it off, I threw it toward a spare chair. It landed there then slid to the floor. “This is where you will help me again.” Levi sniffed. “It smells as though that pig is done.” I pulled the grill pan out and heaped the bacon onto a plate, taking it to Levi with a knife and fork. I needn’t have bothered. He picked it up with his fingers. I wouldn’t be taking him out to eat, then. “What will I have to do?” I suddenly didn’t feel hungry, so turned the grill off and shoved the remaining uncooked bacon in the fridge.

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“You will procure us some passports.” It seemed since meeting Levi I was always screeching “What?” and this instance was no exception. The word left my mouth like a creaking door hinge and I winced at how whiny I sounded. “How the fuck do you expect me to manage that?” “What has fucking got to do with anything?” He pushed a rasher into his mouth and chewed, frown deep on his brow. “It doesn’t. Look, I can’t just get you a damn passport. It’s not like I can walk to some office and pick them up. There are forms to fill in. Photographs to take. Birth certificates to produce.” I shook my head. “No, it’s just not possible. You’ll have to find someone else for that.” Levi chewed then swallowed. “And, my mate, that is not possible. It is written that you are the one to do this.” “What a fucking surprise.” “You would like a surprise fuck?” “No!” I groaned, needing time away from him before I went insane. “Listen, you eat the pig and drink your coffee. I’ll take my coffee and have a

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smoke in the living room, all right? I need some time alone to think about this. How I’m going to do what you want.” Why was I even entertaining it? Jesus, a lion appeared last night, and after one fuck I was prepared to possibly break the law. Twice. Once at the zoo and once by getting passports from wherever the hell I’d get them from. “It will be all right,” Levi called as I walked down the hall. My shoulders slumped. The faith he had in me was great, but he didn’t know me very well. I was just a bloke who worked packing books into boxes before shipping them to customers overseas. I didn’t know any shady people, and I certainly didn’t want to get to know any either. I sat on my battered leather sofa that had more scuffs than the school shoes from my youth, and sparked up a ciggie. Mug balancing precariously on a stack of comics—yeah, a guy’s got to have some childish indulgencies, all right?—I pondered the mess I’d found myself in. And it was a mess. Yesterday, the life that stretched before me had been same old same

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old, but now? Now I was expected to break the bloody law and help two lion men across the damn border to…? “Where are you from?” I shouted. “Where do you have to get back to?” Levi appeared in the doorway. “A place in South Africa. A hidden place.” “Great.” I expelled a heavy breath. “Well, I’ll be able to take you to the airport, providing I can get the bloody passports, but from there on out you’re on your own.” He frowned, arms bowed at his sides, hands clenched into huge fists. “You are not coming with me?” “Fuck no!” I blurted, wishing I hadn’t because the shock and sadness on his face told me more than I actually wanted to know. “I can’t. My life is here. It might not be much, and I might not be going anywhere career wise, but London is my place, you know?” “I understand.” He walked down the hall, his leaden footsteps making me feel all kinds of bastard. “Maybe you could come back and visit some time?” I called, getting up and following him back

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into the kitchen. “With the passport, it should be easy. Or,” I smiled brightly, “you could stay here with me instead of going back.” He stood at the window again, his broad back almost obscuring the small pane of glass. “I cannot. I must ensure I see this through. You are supposed to be with me every step of the way. My king said… And it has been written.” “So you said.” I walked up beside him, leaned my hip against the counter and my elbow on top. “Written where? And who by?” “By the ancient among our pride. Those dead and gone now. The future was written in an old tome, one my king keeps locked deep inside a cave underground. I have seen it myself, before I came here. I had to read it to make sure I knew exactly what to do.” “And this tome. It said I would manage to get the passports?” I was curious now. “Yes. It mentioned a man. Big and brown and hairy.” My internal alarms went off. “Don’t tell me I’m going to meet a damn bear now.”

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“No, you will not. He is just like a bear.” Levi licked his lips and blinked slowly, a cat in the lazy sun. “Does this bear have a name?” I waited for his answer with baited breath. “Yes, he does.” “Which is?” “Rick. His name is Rick.”

40

Three

W

ith a pair of bolt cutters concealed beneath

my jacket, we walked out of my apartment block, and man was I conscious of not going past the corner shop. If Chris saw Levi, that would give him something else to question me about. So I led Levi in the other direction, got on the Tube, traveling to Camden Town station and getting the 274 bus that drove along Parkway, which took us to Prince Albert Road. Once there, we got off and headed toward Outer Circle and the zoo entrance. The place was open from ten a.m. until five-thirty up until October 30th, so we had plenty of time to find the lion enclosure, what with this still being

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September. It cost us seventeen-fifty each to get in—bloody hell!—and because Levi didn’t have any money, I had to foot the bill. It was a small price to pay considering what he’d given me last night. Inside, we grabbed a map and took the path that led to the lion enclosure. Gorilla Kingdom was on our left, and I must admit I thought of Rick. Okay, gorillas were hardly bears, but they were just as hairy. We passed the bearded pigs on our right— bearded, what the…?—and headed toward a fountain spurting great arcs of water that sat outside the Big Cats area. We strode past the tigers, fearsome beasts, and people eyed Levi curiously. All right, his outfit left a lot to be desired, but there was no need to stare at him looking quite so alarmed. I was surprised he wasn’t cold, wearing only a T-shirt up top, but he didn’t appear to suffer from the fast-approaching autumn weather like I did. Outside the lion enclosure, I felt all eyes were on me. They probably weren’t, but because we were about to do something illegal— just like when a policeman walks past, even when you haven’t done anything wrong it feels like you

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have. How I was going to get the damn bolt cutters inside was a dilemma we hadn’t considered. Now the enclosure had a roof, I couldn’t throw it over, and the holes of the diamond-wire fence where we stood weren’t big enough to slip the tool inside. I glanced around and spotted a black iron fence with rails. The cutters would fit through there easily, but a gaggle of spectators stood staring at a male lion sprawled out asleep on a concrete base. “Over there,” I said and led Levi toward the fence. “We’ll have to wait for those people to sod off.” Levi nodded and trailed me, his hair flowing behind him as a sly wind crept up on us. We jostled between a man and a group of kids, and Levi stared at the lion, his eyes a bit watery. “That is him. Kaden. He has a scar on his nose from when we fought as cubs.” I glanced around to make sure no one had heard Levi then looked at Kaden. A long, hairless streak went from between his eyes to the tip of his nose. A tooth-punctured kid’s football lay beside

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him, as did a pumpkin. I wasn’t aware lions ate them. “He should be eating pig,” Levi said, his voice low and sad. Kaden opened his eyes and lifted his head. He stared right at Levi, eyes widening, and heaved himself upright. Christ, his paws were massive. Kaden padded toward the fence, standing inches from us. He cocked his head. “Hello,” Levi said, reaching through the bars amid shrieks and gasps from the crowd. Several people stepped back, hands to chests, and I must admit I felt like doing the same. “I have come for you.” Kaden nuzzled Levi’s palm then licked it. “We have something for you.” Levi ruffled Kaden’s mane then leaned forward and whispered, “We will meet you outside the zoo tomorrow morning at ten.” Kaden appeared to nod, stepping back and striding regally across the concrete. He glanced back, and we followed him along the fence. People remained to see what would happen next, and I cursed them and wished they’d just

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bugger off. I needed to slip the cutters through. Kaden stopped beside a bush at the start of a grassy area where a female lion sunbathed beneath a tree. Kaden nodded then yawned, showing teeth bigger than Levi’s were when I’d caught a frightening glimpse of them. I sidled up to the fence, lowering the cutters from beneath my jacket and holding them against my leg so no one could see. Glancing around to make sure the coast was clear, I pushed the cutters into the bush and stepped back as though I hadn’t just broken the law. Whistling, I nonchalantly walked away, hands in jacket pockets, and headed back toward the tigers. Levi followed, sticking close to my side. “Thank you. Now you must work out how to get the passports. You need to see this Rick.” I didn’t answer until we’d left the zoo and were walking to the bus stop. “I’ll call him later, though I doubt very much he’ll be able to help. He might know someone who can, but then I’m getting into dangerous territory. One person leads to another, and I’d be leaving a trail that will point right back to me should the police become involved.” I

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sighed, crossing the busy street and waiting at the bus stop. Levi planted a hand on my shoulder. “Why would the police become involved?” “Oh, I don’t know. I’m just saying. I’m not comfortable doing this shit.” I stuck out my bottom lip, knowing I looked like a sulky kid but not giving a crap. I didn’t ask for this. We didn’t speak while on the bus, and when we got off I took Levi to a shopping center, kitting him out with a couple of pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts, a sweater and some boots that didn’t make him resemble the world’s biggest dork. At least he’d look presentable in public now, although his long hair marked him out as different from the average Londoner. He looked almost Swedish. Definitely a foreigner. Back at my apartment, I telephoned Rick and organized to meet him in The Cowshed at eight. Not the best of places to ask him about the passports, but it would have to do. I didn’t want him coming here and seeing Levi. Oh, Rick knew I was gay, but he had an awful habit of acting like a child whenever he met one of my blokes,

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chanting stuff like “Oooh, Dom’s got a boyfriend!” Classy bloke, Rick. After the call, I turned to Levi, who lounged on my sofa, his body nearly taking up the whole damn thing. “I’m meeting Rick at eight. You’ll wait here until I get back.” “That is not possible.” Levi frowned, looking up at me as I paced back and forth in front of the coffee table. “Well, it’ll have to be. If I take you with me—” “It is written that I go with you.” “Sod what’s written,” I snapped, feeling immediately guilty because of the look on his face. I’d hurt him and he clearly didn’t understand why. “Look, sorry. This is all a bit…surreal. I’m not used to so much going on in my life.” “That is all right. I understand.” He stood and stepped over the coffee table, standing before me with his hands upon my shoulders. “You are tense. I think you need some relaxation.” “Yeah. I’ll relax when you’ve gone to South Africa. We need to eat dinner before we go out.

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And let me just say, for the record, I’m not pleased you insist on coming.” “Oh, I insist on coming. Soon, in fact. Shall we go into the bedroom, or are you happy to fuck in here?” His directness startled me, although I should have expected it. He was the same last night. He’d obviously never taken classes that taught tact. “Um…” I couldn’t deny his closeness wasn’t a turnon. He stepped an inch closer and pressed his chest to mine. The top of my head reached level with his mouth, and I stared up at him. Into those glowing eyes that mesmerized me and made me say, “In the bedroom.” **** Levi looked damn hot in his new clothes. He would pass as “normal”. Funny, because he was hardly normal, now was he? Still naked, I rested on the bed with my back against the headboard and watched him brush his hair. He did so with long, lazy strokes, and I wanted to

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get up and run my fingers through it. Mess it all up. Fist it. “It is nearing the time we must go to this cowshed.” He placed the brush on the drawers beside the TV. I didn’t recall ever using the brush nor where it came from. My hair, cropped short and purposely styled like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards, didn’t need a brush’s influence. Fingers did the trick, and with a bit of hair wax, I was good to go. Levi, however, could possibly do with securing his in a ponytail, but then he’d remind me of Hulk Hogan, and that image just didn’t appeal. “Yeah,” I said on a sigh, wishing we didn’t have to go anywhere and could stay in my apartment forever. Were did that come from? Shit. Was I getting attached to the big guy? Seems I was, because thoughts of saying goodbye to him at the airport came to mind and I kind of felt sad. Maybe there was something to this mate business after all. Were my lion qualities coming into effect, whatever they

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were? Or maybe I’d just been so starved of sex and affection I’d mistaken what we had for something more. “Or maybe you realize you are better off with me in your life.” Levi stared at me, his eyes flickering amber just a touch before dousing to their original color. “It will be hard to say goodbye. But I will return from time to time. It will be easy once I have the passport. Once mated, a lion shifter cannot go long without seeing his mate.” That didn’t sound so bad, actually. A longdistance relationship might suit me better. Best of both worlds. I’d get to see Levi for weekends of rampant sex, plus get time to myself when he returned to his home. “If that is what you want, and that is all I can have, then I will take it.” Levi smiled as though he knew something I didn’t. “But in time you will change your mind. Once you start to gain some lion qualities… Yes, it was written, so it shall be.” “What was written?” It gave me the creeps a bit that some long-dead lion blokes may have

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already planned my life out. I’d always gone with the idea that you made your own destiny, changing things you didn’t like when your life took a drastic turn for the worst. Not that this was for the worst, but… “Your life has been written. You belong with me. Fight it all you will, but the end result will be the same. We will be together. Living in the same place.” Levi walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped with his weight, and I rolled toward him, my thighs pressed to his lower back. I dug one elbow into the bed and propped my cheek in my hand. “And what place is that?” If it was South Africa… Could I live there? Leave my beloved London for him? And conversely, could he leave South Africa for me? “I did not read that far. I read up to the point you came back to my home with me, but the fact that we live together in the same place was made clear from the start. I will be allowed to read some more once I am home, and then I will

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find out where our home will be.” He dropped his hands between his open legs and laced his fingers together. “Dom, it is difficult for me to help you understand my love for you. How I can love you as I do when we have not known one another very long. Just as it is difficult for you to help me understand how you must spend time with your mate and grow to love them. I know nothing of this grow. But I will wait until the growth has come.” I wasn’t given to bouts of soppiness, but right then I could have gladly cried. Everything had happened so fast. It was hard to take it all in, was a lot to accept, and I just wasn’t ready to throw caution to the damn wind and take a leap of faith. I hadn’t been hurt in the past— much—but I’d had my fair share of upsets at breaking up with someone. Maybe I was afraid that if I loved too quickly, too deeply, if Levi ever walked away… “I cannot walk away.” He glanced sideways at me and reached one hand across to stroke my cheek. “And even if I could, I would not. One day you will feel the same way about me. But for

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now… We must go to this cowshed and continue with the quest.” The quest. Right. Finding out how to get fake passports. Top Saturday night entertainment. Blowing out a big breath, I hauled myself off the bed and walked to the wardrobe, sensing Levi’s gaze on my backside as I selected some clean clothes. I wondered if red scratches scored my ass cheeks—not that it mattered if they did. I’d enjoyed every damn minute of that. I dressed unhurriedly, even though the time for meeting Rick drew near. It didn’t matter if we were late— Rick tended to get blasted at The Cowshed first then move on to the clubs—but if I was honest, I didn’t want to go at all. Putting this off wasn’t really an option, though. Well, it was, but I didn’t think I could back out now. It was too important to Levi that I help him out. I left him sitting on the bed, went to the bathroom and slathered some shaving gel on my face. I hadn’t shaved since Friday morning, and the stubble had begun to irritate like a bitch. Weirdly, Levi’s hadn’t grown. I’d have to remember to ask him about that.

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“I am able to use my abilities,” he called, “to control many things.” Ah, that solved that query then. “Oh right.” “You will soon be able to do much the same. I must warn you,” he appeared in the doorway, leaning one muscled shoulder against the jamb, and I stared at his reflection in the mirror, “that you may suffer some…disorientation when your qualities start manifesting.” I dragged the razor down my cheek, my hand shaking, and nicked the sodding skin. Blood oozed out of the cut and seeped into the surrounding foam. “Ouch.” I eyed him, wishing my cock didn’t pulse every time he came near. “And how long will it be before they start manifesting?” “They have already.” He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. I looked in the mirror at my cheek. The cut had healed. Well, color me gobsmacked, because I damn well was. This just didn’t happen, was insane. “Jesus…” Using a towel, I wiped away the blood and foam. No nick. No more blood. No more hairs.

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“What? How did…? I only shaved one strip!” I turned to face Levi. “This is too fucking weird, mate.” He smiled—my use of mate again, I reckon— and nodded as though satisfied. “It will not be long before your sense of smell increases. Your speed when you run. Your ability to hunt people down.” I dropped the towel over the bath edge and faced him again, ass propped against the sink. “Hunt people? Look, I know I said I’d help you, but I’m not into hunting.” Levi laughed, the rich sound echoing around the small bathroom. “It is not that kind of hunting. Searching, that is a better term. I estimate that by the time we are in this cowshed, you will have a better sense of who you must seek after speaking to Hairy Rick.” I puffed out a laugh. Rick would so get mad if he knew he’d been described that way. “Right. So. I reckon we’d best get going then.” “Yes, we must. I only hope Kaden manages to cut the fence tonight. If he is not outside the zoo tomorrow morning, I have failed my quest.”

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I brushed past him, going into the bedroom to pull on my boots. He followed and adopted the same pose in the bedroom doorway. “But you said it was written. So he must get out. I must get the passports. You get to return home. Job done.” “Yes…” He stared out through the balcony door window. I stopped mid-task and looked up at him. “That didn’t sound too good.” “No, it did not. Although it is written, it does not mean the quest will be easy, that it will run smoothly.” Oh great. He clearly knew things I didn’t. “So there are pitfalls. Is that what you’re saying?” “Pitfalls? There are obstacles put in our way, yes. But—” “Bloody wonderful. Just bloody grand.” I finished tugging on my boots, hung my head in my hands, and stared at the carpet. It needed vacuuming. “So tell me what these obstacles are.” Tell me I’m going into danger and you can just fuck the hell off and find some other mate to do your dirty work.

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“I cannot find another mate. You are it. And it is written—” “Yeah, yeah. It is written. Whatever.” Annoyed and a little scared at things seeming out of my control—I don’t have to do this…I don’t!—I strode into the living room and grabbed my jacket. Snug inside it, I walked to the front door. “You coming then, or what?” “I am coming.” His words zipped me back in time to our recent sexual encounter. Stifling the urge to indulge in fantasies, I yanked open the door. Chris stood outside on the landing. Oh, fuck me… “Chris.” I stared at him. The cerise turban had been replaced with his usual white. “Uh, lovely to see you.” I glanced over my shoulder. Levi must still be in the bedroom. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Got some buy-oneget-one-free deals on in the shop that you couldn’t wait to tell me about?” Chris studied me with suspicion, his eyes narrowed and his head tilted. “No. I heard something on grapevine.”

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“Ah, the grapevine. Last time you heard something on there was when you found out the council were removing the payphone outside your shop.” He leaned forward, head moving left to right before he brought his face close to my cheek. He smelled of expensive cologne. “This is far more important than the payphone.” His gravelly tone sent shivers down my back. “Someone else saw the bloody lion.” I sprang back in alarm, heart rate picking up incredible speed. “What? I mean, they can’t have. There is no lion.” “I saw it, someone else saw it. You saw it.” Chris pulled back and smiled smugly. “How do you know?” Levi, please stay in the bedroom… “Some thug came into my shop ten minutes ago. He talked to another thug. Equally menacing, do you know how I mean?” He nodded. “They talked at the coffee machine. Said sight of the lion had been reported somewhere around here but they didn’t know where. I left Sangeeta in the shop and ran here. To tell you to

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get away with the lion. They plan to kill it.” Oh shit. “Well, they’ll have a hard job, because there is no lion.” Chris sniffed and glanced across the landing toward the main stairs. “Whatever you say. But you must get out. They will find you.” He turned back to face me. “And the lion.” Walking toward the stairs, Chris paused at the top and looked at me over his shoulder. “I like you, Dominic. You good customer. You buy many things. I don’t want to lose your custom.” Chris disappeared down the stairs, leaving me with hollow legs and a heart that rattled around behind my ribs like a pinball. I wanted to go back inside, crawl into bed and pretend this wasn’t happening. “You cannot.” Levi came up behind me, planting a kiss on the top of my head. “I told you there were obstacles.” I spun to face him. “Obstacles! Death is a pretty fucking big obstacle, mate!” “But we do not die. There is nothing to fear.” He cupped my cheek, and damn his skin was hot and soothing.

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“But we might get hurt. Hurting is almost as bad as dying.” I wanted to vomit. “It is time to go. Hairy Rick will be waiting.” Levi twisted me around by my shoulders and gently shunted me out the door. “It will all work out fine. You will see.”

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Four

T

he Cowshed bustled with half-cut customers

intent on getting bladdered. I pushed through the ribald crowd, wishing I was one of them. Off my face without a care in the world. Instead, I was leading some giant of a man through my local boozer, on a quest to see a hairy friend of mine who had never given any indication he practiced anything remotely shady. At the bar, I turned to make sure Levi had kept up. The crowd parted and allowed him through, people gawping up at him like he was some kind of freak. I laughed inwardly. If only they knew. He reached my side, and I ordered us

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both a beer. Whether he’d ever had one or not remained to be seen, but I needed a bit of alcoholic courage flooding my system in order for me to approach Rick. Said man leaned against the jukebox on the wall to the right of the bar, a bottle of beer held loosely in one hand, his knees looking as though they’d give way any second. Jesus. What time had he started drinking? I sensed this was not going to be a cut-and-dried operation. His clothes— reckon he’d slept in them last night—gave him a dodgy appearance, a far cry from the Rick I knew. He was usually so well presented. All right, so he normally had a crease down the middle of his jeans from where he’d pressed them, but I couldn’t hold that fashion faux pas against him. Not when he’d been such a good pal, sticking by me when I came out and not batting an eyelid. Well, he’d batted them a bit. The barman slid our beers across the bar, and I gave him a tenner, walking away without waiting for my change. I turned back to Levi, pointed to tell him to stay put, and weaved through the throng toward Rick.

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His eyes widened when he saw me, and his mouth worked like he had too much to say and his mind had trouble processing how to get the words out. What the fuck was wrong with him? “All right, mate.” I feigned selecting a song. Hey, I might as well act like someone from a movie, because my life had suddenly turned into one. “You, uh, you okay?” Rick pressed his chest to the side of the jukebox and reached out one hand to grip my wrist. “Someone’s after you, mate.” “After me?” How the hell did Rick know? My guts churned. “What for?” “Something about a lion.” Rick had kept his voice low, but I still glanced around to see if anyone heard. “A lion?” I slid a quid into the jukebox slot and chose a few songs at random. “Yeah, a fucking lion.” Rick nodded, his unusually greasy hair flopping over his forehead in lank strands. He took a long pull from his beer. “I been told to tell you not to go to the zoo tomorrow.” Shrugging, he went on. “Don’t ask me! I have no clue who they were.”

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“They?” My damn guts clenched again. “Yeah. Two blokes. Nasty-looking. Hands like plates, know what I mean?” No, I didn’t, but I had a good imagination. “Oh right. And you know them how?” “That’s the thing.” Rick tried pressing even closer to the jukebox but slipped on the shiny surface. He lurched to the side then righted himself. “I don’t know them from Adam. After you rang to arrange our meeting, they came to my flat. Told me to tell you to back off if you knew what was good for you.” Christ, even their dialogue matched a crappy movie. “Okay. Tell me exactly what they said.” Rick looked up to the ceiling, trying to recall. “They said…tell your friend that if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t help the lion.” He paused and stared at me. “Is that some kind of code? You into drugs or something?” I held back a chuckle. I wanted to laugh, but really, this situation wasn’t anything to laugh about. “Something like that. Listen, I need to ask you something.”

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Rick sprang back, his hands held midair as though warding me off. “Hey, I’m not being no drug runner.” I grabbed him by his jacket and hauled him toward me. “Keep your bloody voice down. I don’t want you to be a fucking drug runner. I just…need you to point me in a certain direction, that’s all.” “What’s that then?” He squeezed my wrist until I let go. Leaning close to his ear, I said, “I need to know where I can get fake passports.” “You what?” Again Rick sprang back, almost colliding with some woman in a skirt up to her ass and a top that could have been a belt. “How the hell am I meant to know someone like that?” Think! You must know someone. It was written that you did… Rick backed away. “Man, your eyes are all funny.” They were? Fuck it! I blinked, hoping they weren’t doing what Levi’s did. “Listen, Rick. Just think for a minute.” Rick stood still. “Now they’re back to normal.” He shook his head.

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Hopefully he’d think he’d imagined it. That he was drunk. “Rick! You must know someone.” I stepped toward him, hands out in a pleading gesture. Jesus, if I had to lick his feet to make him remember even the smallest nugget of information, I would. I just wanted this crap to be over. I glanced down at his mud-caked shoes. Uh, maybe not. He cocked his head, waving his beer bottle around, narrowly missing Belt Woman’s head. “Now I think about it, there is someone who I think does that kind of thing. Though I don’t know them personally. I’m not into that kind of shit. And I didn’t think you were either.” “I wasn’t. I’m not. It’s just—” “Ladbroke Grove. That’s where we are, right?” I nodded. God, he must be wasted. “Guy you need runs a corner shop down the road, like that Chris up by your place.” I didn’t stay to ask him how he knew. Turning, I shouted my thanks and pushed toward Levi, who swigged a mouthful of beer and winced.

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He saw me coming and placed the bottle on the bar, puffing out his shoulders like he was about to start a fight. “Come on.” I grabbed his jacket sleeve and guided him outside. A light rain fell, the misty kind that drenches within seconds and gives your skin a clammy feel. Levi put his arm across my shoulder, the weight of it heavy, and stared across the road. I had no idea which direction to take, left or right, so closed my eyes and concentrated. How I knew to do this I didn’t know, but when I opened my eyes, it felt right to walk toward the turning into Kensal Road. Levi followed me without speaking and I sensed he knew not to interrupt my new lion sense. God, listen to me. Like I’m goddamn Spiderman or something. There it was, a corner shop, the inside brightly lit, a cacophony of goods inside, all jumbled haphazardly on shelves that looked like they could do with being replaced. At the door, I took a deep breath then shoved inside. The air, hot and cloying, wrapped itself around me, and the scent of spices—nutmeg and

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cinnamon if I wasn’t mistaken—made me feel sick. A bearded guy sat behind the counter reading a magazine. Red-headed, he reminded me of a preppy kid just out of college, all neat and tidy, his white polo shirt collar starched to within an inch of its life. He glanced up at our approach, eyes narrowing a bit, seemingly not in the least fazed by Levi’s size. “Can I help you?” His crisp, upper-class accent didn’t belong around here, with the people who spoke the more common-sounding London brogue. Right away my inner radar switched on—like I’d ever had one before and knew what I was talking about—and I eyed him, trying to work out the deal here. Maybe he just worked nights while the owner took some leisure time. But something told me I was way off base. “Uh, we were told to come here.” I leaned across the counter, my sleeves brushing against small boxes of Wispas and Mars Bars. “For passports.” The guy stood, looking down at me as I looked up at him. “Hmm. And who sent you this way?”

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“Rick.” I stood upright and shoved my hands in my jacket pockets. He made me nervous. Jumpy. “I don’t know a Rick. Perhaps you could elaborate some more.” He kind of glided around the counter and walked to the shop door. Flicking down the nub, he drew down the window blind and reached behind him. And produced a gun. My guts went south. So far south it was like they hit the damn floor and bounced back up again. “Hey!” I held up my hands. “No need for that, mate.” He jerked the gun as if to tell me I should go into the back of his shop. “I’m not your mate.” “No.” Levi stepped forward, his arms bowed at his sides, his fists the size of frozen lambs’ legs. “He’s my mate.” “Oh. Right.” The guy lowered his gun and jammed it back in his waistband. “I was told to expect you. Come this way.” “Expect us? By who?” I scuttled after him, behind the counter and through a beaded curtain doorway. Levi trailed us.

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The guy stopped and turned to face us, the room we were in littered with various boxes of canned goods, packets and the usual cornershop produce. “It doesn’t matter who. Just know you are in the right place at the right time. It was written…” Good God above. If I heard that damn phrase one more time I was likely to lose my rag. “Yeah, so I heard. So you can help us, yeah?” He nodded and strode through another doorway to the rear. I followed, me wondering why Levi had virtually left this to me, and found myself in a studio-like room. A camera was set up in the far-left corner on a tripod, and on the opposite wall, a white projector blind hung from the ceiling. A backdrop for people posing for photos. Yeah, we were in the right place. “Where is the other fellow?” The guy stroked his beard with a finger and thumb. “I was told two passports were needed.” “They are. He’s still in the zoo.” It sounded nuts, even to me, but this was the truth of the matter, and I didn’t feel being dishonest was of benefit here.

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“The zoo. Righty ho. You’ll have to come back tomorrow then. With him.” The guy held out a hand for shaking. “My name is Harold, by the way.” Harold. I wasn’t going to laugh. Who the hell called their kid Harold these days? I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. So, we’ll come back once we have our friend with us then, yeah? Morning some time.” Harold nodded. “That is fine. But you must make sure you reach here by noon. It is written—” “Jesus! Would everyone stop saying that?” I shoved my hand through my hair, fingers snagging in the tacky wax. Harold sighed. “I would, but it is a fact that you must get here before noon. If you don’t…it will upset the balance.” “Balance?” I dropped my hand from my hair and patted my pockets for my cigarettes. I was out of smokes. “Look, don’t bother explaining. Just give me twenty Benson and Hedges and know we’ll be back before bloody noon.” I strode out of the room, not caring whether Levi or Harold followed. I’d take the damn smokes

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off the shelf myself if I had to and toss a tenner on the counter. I just wanted out of there. Out of the insane shit that was getting weirder by the minute. And I wanted some damn nicotine. **** Levi walked beside me down my street, strangely silent since we’d left Harold’s shop. Mind you, I hadn’t struck up a conversation either. I had too much going on inside my head. Was Harold part of some network of people who had signed up to save the lions? Was there a website devoted to those whose passions were keeping lions safe from extinction, and once they’d signed up they were directed to another site where they had the option to join in the fight for the prides? I had the urge to laugh. Really fucking laugh, because shit, last night I’d had the world’s most boring life, and tonight— My balcony door was open. Swinging in the wind. Had I forgotten to lock it? I started walking faster, and Levi placed a hand on my forearm to slow me down.

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“It would be wise to allow me to shift and investigate.” He pulled me to a stop and looked down at me, his eyes glowing amber. “Shift? You’re having a bloody laugh, mate! You can’t just shift in the middle of the damn street!” I looked up the road, across to Chris’ house. Knowing him, what he’d heard on the grapevine had got his curiosity up and he’d camped out beside his bedroom window, drinks and snacks at the ready. “No, we’ll have to go in through the main front doors or the fire escape, like normal people.” “But there may still be danger. I would rather you allowed me to—” “Still be sodding danger? You knew something was going to happen at my place, didn’t you?” His pained gaze told me he had. “Shit! Why didn’t you warn me?” “Because you may have telephoned the police and everything would have been exposed.” He lifted a hand to stroke my face, but I jerked backward. “Yeah, I’d have made everything off balance.” Angry, I strutted toward my apartment, the ire

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inside me enough to see me through if some ponce was still inside. I had a feeling someone had been in there—and the swinging door wasn’t the only indication. I felt it deep in my gut. My bones. Heart skipping beats, I took the steps to the main doors two at a time and barged into the foyer. The doorman wasn’t there again—there was a surprise—and I cursed beneath my breath. If he had been here when whoever the fuck had arrived intent on going into my apartment, we wouldn’t be in this scenario. “He was here. But the men, they ‘sorted him’.” “Sorted him?” I started walking up the stairs that led to my apartment. “Where did you learn that kind of language?” “I heard it in that cowshed.” Levi’s heavy footsteps followed me up the three flights, and as though my stomach could take another bout of clenching, it rolled over again. I’d shit myself if I wasn’t careful. My front door stood closed. I stopped outside it and pressed my hands to the wood, the metal number nine cold against my skin.

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Eyes closed, I waited for the disorientation, but none came. What did was the undeniable knowledge that my apartment was empty. Whoever had been in there was long gone. I opened my eyes and looked at Levi, who beamed at me, a lock of his hair sticking to the stubble on his cheek. “Your eyes. They have changed.” “Yeah, so I’ve been told.” I smiled to take the sting out of my words. They’d sounded sharp, and I hadn’t meant them to. I felt weary, so damn tired of the turn my life had taken. Why did this have to happen to me? Why couldn’t Levi have just found me, fucked me, and we lived happily ever after? “Because sometimes you have to fight for what is yours. For what you want. Then you will appreciate it more when you get it for keeps.” A smile tugged one corner of Levi’s mouth, and a dimple peeked through the stubble on his cheek. “I have been, and am prepared to fight. Are you?” Damn him, but he knew I was. I felt connected to him somehow, either by lion sense

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or just emotions, and despite this being the wackiest, strangest thing to ever happen to me, I’d see it through to the end. “Yeah. But I’m not prepared. We’re working in the dark here. Or I am anyway.” I gave him what I hoped was a look of reprimand then fished in my pocket for my keys. “Come on.” I slid the key in the lock. “Time to see if we’ve been left any clues as to who’s looking for you. Maybe they’ll be accommodating and have left a business card.” Sarcasm aside, I was shitting myself here. Walking into the unknown wasn’t my cup of Earl Gray. Not that I’d ever liked the stuff. Tasted like paper. I swung the door open. The hallway appeared like we had left it. Well, there wasn’t much that could be fucked up here anyway. Unless yanking coats from the hooks beside the door and throwing them around was something thugs had on their breaking-in to-do list. Though I knew deep down no one was inside, I still crept down the hall like some kid getting up at midnight to raid the fridge. It wasn’t until I’d made it to the living room doorway that I realized

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I was the one leading. You’d think, what with Levi’s size and whatnot, I’d have wanted him to take charge. But no. I wanted to do it, even though I was frightened, and it just seemed right that I did. Besides, if by some trick to my senses someone was in there, and I turned into the doorway now and they attacked me, Levi would be able to get away. Damn. He was getting under my skin. No one attacked me. I stared into the living room—not a thing out of place, thank God for small mercies—then walked inside. Everything was how it should be. Well, not how it should be. My place needed a damn good clean, there was no getting away from that. But whoever had been in here—and they had, I could smell the bastards— had no intention of behaving like actors and ransacking my home. Hmm. Maybe this movie script wasn’t so bad after all. The rest of the apartment was the same. We stood in the bedroom, and I watched the curtains across the window beside the door billowing into the room. Rain had sluiced inside, wetting the carpet just inside the door, and I walked over to

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lock out the wet night. My boots squelched on the carpet, and I turned to ask Levi to find me a towel, only to find he stood there holding one. Shit. That mind-reading thing again. I laid the towel down and stomped over it, soaking up the rain. Tiredness came over me, a great wave of it, and I stooped down ready to pick the towel up, my hand outstretched. My head lightened, like my brain had disintegrated, and I slumped down to the floor. Nauseous, I closed my eyes and breathed deep. Levi’s warm hand clamped over my shoulder, the heat from it radiating inside me and giving me a much-needed boost. Suddenly refreshed, I was able to stand— brain back in place, thank God—and made it to the bed. Flopping down onto my belly, I winced as my head struck something solid beneath the quilt. With a sigh, I fumbled under it until my fingers came into contact with whatever had been placed there. And it had been placed there, no doubt about it. Nothing had been on the bed before we left except us. I pulled out a ceramic lion cub, a tacky knickknack some old dear would be proud to display

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on her living room mantelpiece. I frowned, aware that Levi had got on the bed and rested beside me. “Everything is going according to plan.” I looked at him, wondering what the hell the cub could mean. Okay, it was a lion, but still. “All right. So what’s the point of this? Why leave a crappy little animal figure in my bed?” “They are letting us know that if we continue to try and rescue our pride members from zoos, they will go after the cubs.” Oh. Well, that wasn’t right. It was one thing to threaten adults, but kids? No, I wasn’t having that. If it meant I’d die trying to help, even though Levi had said I wouldn’t, then I’d keep going with this until…yeah, until I was dead. “I knew you would. I had no doubt.” Levi stroked my hair, hand trailing down my back to rest at the bottom of my spine. I rolled onto my side and pressed against him, needing human contact. I felt vulnerable all of a sudden, lost and wanting. “Just tell me one thing. If you know how this is all going to pan out, just

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tell me…will they come back tonight? Are we safe here?” “No, we are not. It is time to visit a hotel. They will have been watching this place since their visit. They will know we are here.” I got angry again. “So why the hell did you let us come home? Why risk our lives?” Shooting upright, I stood beside the bed and stared down at him. “Do you have a bloody death wish or something? If I knew what was going to happen next, you can sure as shit know I wouldn’t walk into danger.” I stalked to the wardrobe, trying to tell myself I didn’t care that Levi had looked at me with pain in his eyes, that his whole demeanor was one of a sorry person who had no control over what he did. I yanked a bag out the bottom of the wardrobe and jammed clothes inside—a change for me and Levi. His silence annoyed me, really pissed me off, so I dumped the bag on the bed and, while zipping it up and getting into a state, I demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me?” Levi hauled himself off the bed and blew out through pursed lips. He tousled his hair, looking nothing like a big tough man, but a child, lost and

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vulnerable. “Because if I did, if I try to change events, I will lose you.” “Oh. Right.” I stared at him, feeling his emotions seeping into me in waves. Shit, he really did love me. “I see.” I hauled the bag onto my shoulder. “Is that why you’ve been letting me just get on with this?” Levi nodded. “That is part of the reason, yes.” He bowed his head. “And the other part?” I walked across the room and paused at the bedroom doorway, glancing back at him standing beside the bed. He lifted his head, sparkling amber gaze boring into me. “I must let you lead so that you prove you are worthy of being in our pride. I want you there. With me. I cannot—will not—be without you now. I have searched too long. I cannot lose you a short time after we met. These hours, they are not enough. I need an eternity with you, to learn everything about you. For you to grow to love me.” “An eternity?” I blinked, wondering if he’d meant what I thought he’d meant. “I can’t live for eternity, mate.”

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“Oh, you can. And you will. You signed up for being immortal the moment we mated.”

82

Five

I

sat on one of two single beds in our room at

the Hotel Meliá White House, a five-hundred and eighty-one room monstrosity that would cost me an arm and a leg, putting a severe dent in my credit card. But hey, I’d never stayed anywhere posh before, so what the hell. There was a first time for everything. I’d booked us into a “classic” double room, only choosing the two-single-bed option to save any raised eyebrows and scornful looks. The room was so posh I almost didn’t want to step inside it. The highly polished, ornate furniture, walnut perhaps, shrieked class and money, and

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the smoky gray mirror above the bed, another gold-framed mirror over it, gave me wicked ideas. As did the mention in our booklet of a magnifying mirror… We had satellite TV, a coffee and tea maker, and, chuckle of all chuckles, whoever had written the booklet seemed quite proud to announce the room was totally soundproofed. A trouser press stood in the corner, and I thought of Rick. He’d have a whale of a time pressing his jeans here. I fingered the striped linen coverlet draped over the white quilt, wondering, not for the first time since last night, what the hell I’d got myself into. If I was immortal, if Levi and his pride were immortal, how did they get killed? If you were immortal, didn’t that mean you were dead? Unkillable? “No, it does not.” Levi stood with his back to me at the window, gazing out over a lightspeckled city that sat beneath a shitty, rain-laden sky. “It just means if you are lucky enough not to get killed, you could live for a very long time. We can heal ourselves, never be sick for long, but we are not immune to death.”

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He had yet to remove his jacket and his hands were inside the pockets. What was he thinking? Of home? Of what was to come? What we had to do? “Yes. All of those things. And I am also thinking about you.” His hair rested in a straight sheet down his back, reaching his shoulder blades. As he turned, it bunched in a rope-like coil around his neck. “We have much trepidation ahead, but we will get through it. There are many years in front of us in which we can love one another. Do not worry. You will not die.” I flung myself backward, knees bent at the bottom of the mattress, arms stretched above my head. I wanted…I wanted sleep. Sleep in Levi’s arms. He chuckled, walking over to stand beside the bed. “But there is no room for me in there. A single bed was not designed for two people, let alone a man my size.” “Shame you can’t shrink your body as well as your cock then,” I said, smiling and closing my eyes. I felt him climb on the bed, the mattress dipping with his weight, and his warm breath on my face told me he hovered close. Yeah, I was

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tired, but never too tired for what I thought he had in mind. Sex with him had been pretty awesome so far, frantic, us using lots of energy, but given my lethargic state, I could just do with him tending to my needs slowly, no rushing to touch and suck and come. “You would like me to attend to your needs without you having to do any work, is that correct?” he asked. I smiled again, reckoned this mind-reading lark wasn’t so bad after all, and stretched my arms some more, reaching out to try and get my fingertips to touch the poles of the headboard. “Why would you want to touch the headboard when you can touch me?” Levi said. I opened my eyes a tad and peered at him. “I wanted to see how the struts felt in my fists.” “Ah, I see. You wish to give me full permission to do as I please while you lay with your body open to receiving. This is interesting. Before, you wanted to be in just as much control as I.” “Yeah, well, that was before, and moods change, right?” “I like this mood.” He winked and smiled.

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I closed my eyes again and let Levi undress me. Listened to the shuffle of fabric as he undressed himself. My cock hardened, strained with every whisper of material as it left his body, and I fought the urge to open my eyes. But no, I was going to keep them closed—my senses heightened more that way, and I wanted…fuck, I just wanted to feel everything he did. The bed dipped again, and my heart went like the clappers. Christ, he hadn’t even touched me— not unless you counted his inner thighs pressing against the outside of my calves—and I was excited. “Oh, yes. I see you are quite excited, Mate.” His mouth engulfed my cock, the surprise of it making me suck in a breath and squirm beneath him. Hips rising, I pushed my cock deeper into that wet warmth, loving the way he created suction so his mouth held me clamp-like. I lowered back down to the bed with the press of his hand on my belly, and gripped the headboard poles in readiness for what was to come. And it came, a slow, fucking fantastic suck up my cock that went on for what seemed forever. He ended the upward glide with a swirl of his tongue

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over my tip, around the head, then plunged back down again. Shit, he was good at this. My balls ached, throbbed so hard it was like I hadn’t come in months, and I groaned, enjoying the sensation as he bobbed his head up and down. The vein pulsed in my shaft, beating against his tongue, and I scrunched my toes—my God, he’d have me coming pretty damn quick if he kept this up. He pulled away, leaving me feeling abandoned, probably having read my thoughts about coming. “No, I didn’t mean… I don’t want you to stop, Levi.” “I am aware of what you meant, but just in case you did come too soon, I decided I would prolong the moment.” His lips brushed my nipple, his fingertips tweaking the other, and I lifted my pelvis, blindly trying to make my body come into contact with his. He must have arched his back, because damned if I could feel the heat of him anywhere except on my nipples. He sucked and licked, flicked and pulled, and set my cock to pulsating so hard I imagined I could come just from the nipple attention. His lips released me then

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claimed my mouth, his tongue probing inside and swirling, exploring. I kissed him back, his body heat definable now, and gripped the headboard tighter. I’d swear my knuckles had whitened. It seemed I couldn’t get enough of him. I pressed my lips to his—harder—and twirled my tongue—faster—pushing it deeper inside. He reciprocated, giving me a kiss that would have knocked my socks off had I been wearing any. Then his hands seemed to roam everywhere at once, seeking out parts of me no other had touched. Each contact, each glide of his palms over my body set me on fire. I clenched my teeth, muffled whoomphs and groans seeping between them, loving the sweet torture of being unable to touch him but wanting to give him back what he was giving to me. “It is not a sign of weakness to give in and touch me, Mate,” he said against my nipple. “I know, but I…” “You want both now, yes? To be taken and to take.” The breath from his laugh skimmed across my chest. “It is possible, but I had been under the impression you just wanted to take.”

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“I did. I do. I… Fuck, I did until you started touching me all over.” I kept my eyes closed but ached to peek at him, to see his blond hair splayed over my torso, his lips close to my skin. One little look wouldn’t hurt, would it? “You are a bundle of indecision,” Levi whispered, the sound husky and sending a spear of fuck-meright-now-before-I-explode throughout my body. And man, did I want him to fuck me right now. “As you wish,” he said, hair tickling my skin as I felt him lift away. My stomach knotted in my excitement, and in any other circumstances I’d have felt sick with it. Yeah, that’s how much he affected me. A pure, all-encompassing range of emotions and feelings that swamped me with their intensity. How the fuck it had come to this in such a short time, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to question it now. Not when the bed lifted with him getting off and a rustle sounded as he rummaged through my bag. The lube. A condom. Fuck. Hurry! “Patience,” Levi said. Abruptly, I felt his need. It sped through me, tangible, a real thing I couldn’t put a name to,

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except it ripped along my veins like I’d injected a drug. Hotter than my own need too, and something else, something I couldn’t get a handle on that made me realize how much he loved me, made me ashamed that I didn’t love him the same way. “Yet, Mate.” Absurdly, I wanted to cry. He listened to my thoughts and didn’t take offence at them, knew that where I came from love needed to grow. I cared for him, yeah, there was no denying that, but not anything like the force of feelings he had for me. Part of me wished I’d come from where Levi did, so I could have fallen head over fucking heels in love with him right off the bat, but it hadn’t worked like that, and it was useless me wishing otherwise. “It will come in time, my Dom Hurley. As will you.” The tease in his last few words heated me further, my sex drive going through the damn roof, and sod it, I opened my eyes to find him standing at the foot of the bed. He held the lube and a condom, one eyebrow quirked, and rather than chastise myself for giving in to look at him, I drank him in.

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Beautiful. No other word for it. Yeah, it might seem a womanly word, but Levi was beautiful. Taut skin on an abdomen packed tight with hard muscle, bronzed by the sun of a place I had never been but suddenly wanted to visit. Levi smiled, one that transformed his face from a serious, lust-driven man to a bloke who had been given the best thing since sliced bread. “I told you, did I not, that you would want to go home with me.” Did I really, though? And where the hell had that idea come from anyway? “Your lion is coming to the fore. Directing you in where you should go. As is my lion. He tells me I should fuck you. You want that, yes?” Yes, I wanted it. I nodded, an almost frantic bobbing of my head, a too-eager admittance, one I never would have given before meeting Levi. With him it didn’t matter, this seemingly easy way I wanted to do whatever he wanted, please him in bed before pleasing myself. “How quickly you have changed your desire,” Levi said, opening the condom and rolling it over his cock—still too large for me at the moment, but he’d shrink the bugger when the time was right.

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“One moment you wanted me to take you while you submitted, the next you wanted to have some control back. And now, you wish to please me instead of taking what you originally wanted. It is working, this mating business. You are truly mine.” I was—I knew it then like a sucker-punch to the gut. There was no getting away from it, this destiny bollocks, this mapping out of my life that I’d tried to deny existed. Here he was, the bloke who was meant for me all along. So why had I fought it? Was I frightened of giving myself so wholly to one person, was that it? Fuck knows, but I don’t give a shit anymore. Just take me. Love me. Levi smiled, a pleased smile but one tinged with a hint of sadness. Why was that? “I had begun to think you would never feel this way,” he said, climbing on the bed. He dropped the lube beside me and settled between my open legs, hands smoothing up and down my stomach. He lifted my ass onto his thighs then, gaze locked with mine the whole time, and trailed his fingers down over the tight skin either side of my cock. Fuck, my dick bobbed, shouting

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out its need—my need, his need—and I sucked in a sharp breath to steady my fast-beating heart. Still looking at me, Levi splayed his fingers at the juncture of my thighs and traced his thumbs along the soft skin beside my balls. He sunk them lower, tips brushing my ass cleft a second before he eased them deeper. One thumb skated across my hole, and I clenched involuntarily, the contact expected but a surprise at the same time. He had teased me for longer before, but as though he sensed how much I wanted him to fill me, he was foregoing excessive foreplay. “Sometimes a quick fuck is necessary, Mate.” His piercing gaze threw me for a loop, sent my head spinning until I had to close my eyes to regain my equilibrium. How the hell did he do that to me, send me almost senseless with just a look? “This is what love is, Dom. It feels good, yes?” He sunk his thumb deeper, popping through the pucker, and leaving it there, a maddening tease. I opened my eyes. “It… Everything feels good.” “Close your eyes again.” I obeyed, and strangely, his thumb felt thicker than it had with my eyes open. He probed, and I

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widened my legs some more so he had better access. I wanted more than his thumb inside me, wanted his cock there, wide and stretching, giving me that feeling I craved of being so full it snatched my breath away. He removed his thumb, movements suggesting he reached for the lube, slathered it over his length. I couldn’t resist. I opened my eyes to watch his curled fingers surrounding his rod, their glide up and down languid and sure. My cock bobbed again, and a fierce ache throbbed in my balls. I needed him. Now. He settled me more comfortably on his thighs, and I closed my eyes at the feel of his cock tip touching my hole. He entered, just enough to make me heave in a long breath, and waited out the stretch and burn. He toyed with my nipples, ran his hands over my chest, then shunted in a little more. Eventually, after what seemed an age, because shit, I wanted him in me fast, he filled me. I peeked through heavy lashes as he rose to his knees, taking my lower half with him, his hands holding me firmly about the waist. The position—I’d never been fucked with just my

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shoulders and head on the bed before—was a novelty I didn’t think I’d tire of. I gripped the headboard poles as he moved in and out, and seeing him watch his cock slide turned me on. He glanced up, met my gaze, and then my world turned on its axis. He pumped harder, his expression telling me he was close to coming. His pulsating cock vein beat against my rim every time he pulled out, my own matching the throb of his. I could have let go of the poles if I wanted to, fisted my cock and brought myself off with a crashing orgasm, but Levi read the thought before it had even fully formed. He grasped hold of me, his grip firm and unrelenting as he jerked me off, his other hand still on my waist and his cock thrusting in and out of me. It was too much. All sensations combined, coalescing into one giant whoosh of feeling that spun me over the edge. Watching him, feeling him, wanting him—everything exploded at once. Cum sped out of my cock, its heat warming my belly, and Levi’s orgasm spewed out of him, hotting up my insides despite the condom barrier. He closed his eyes, face screwing up as a second ejaculation left

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him, and I let my eyelids close, unable to keep them open when so much emotion filled me. My arms ached from me holding the poles so tightly and, as Levi moved his hand from my waist to support the base of my spine, I relaxed my grip a little. As my orgasm continued—short ejections that stretched my cock hole—my body went limp. Levi held me in place. He groaned, the sound morphing into a low growl, and stilled his hips, unmoving in my ass and slowing on my cock. He’d fisted me dry, I had nothing left to give, and I opened my eyes to watch him pull out of me and let go of my pulsing dick. Lowering me to the bed, he planted his hands either side of me, leaned down, and licked my spunk. Seeing him do this without any trace of embarrassment endeared him to me more, and I sunk my fingers into his hair while he cleaned me up. Once he was done, he reared up and regarded me with amber-flecked eyes. “I love you very much, Dom Hurley,” he said, his voice cracking on the last word. A lump expanded in my throat. “Yeah, well, what’s not to love?” I joked, unable to return the sentiment.

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He smiled and got off the bed, disappearing into the bathroom. The sound of water filtered through, and even though all my energy had been stolen with that fuck, I hauled myself off the bed and joined him. The shared shower gave us long minutes of washing each other, taking our time to explore one another’s bodies without the frantic need to fuck and be fucked. This was also new to me, something I’d secretly wanted but hadn’t been fortunate enough to get before. Yeah, this lion-bloke had got to me all right, and as he soaped my cock then stepped back to allow the water to drain the bubbles away, tiredness overcame me. He took over, sensing I was about to drop where I stood, and dried me, settling me back into my bed. I closed my eyes, a brief feeling of being alone making me a bit sad, but the big man joined me on the small mattress, spooning me with his great paw of a hand laying possessively over mine, and I felt complete.

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Six

M

orning came, rude and abrupt, and I didn’t

want to get out of bed. Didn’t even want to open my eyes. Thoughts of what we had to do today filled my mind, obliterating the moment of calm I’d had upon rousing. I hated it when that happened. When fate only deemed it necessary to give me a few seconds of calm before tossing all the shit back into my head in one great dump. Still, we had a quest, a job to get done, and laying here wasn’t going to help the cause one bit. I opened my eyes and found Levi staring out the window again, already dressed, his hair slightly mussed. I’d forgotten to pack a brush. I imagined

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him finger-combing it, imagined him getting dressed, and my morning glory strained against the covers. “I wish we could…indulge,” he said, remaining in place. “But we must go to the zoo. At least the weather is a little better today.” I stood and made my way to his side, staring out the window at the kind of blue sky that had you thinking it was hot outside when really the air was freezing. Mother Nature was a sneaky damn bitch at times. “Okay. I’ll just have a quick shower then.” I went into the bathroom—God, what a room!—and thumbed the shower button. The marble tiles were cold on my feet, but the memories of us in the shower last night took my mind off it. Water cascaded out of the showerhead and I stepped beneath, thankful for the warmth and gentle patter on my head. Finished, I dried off and hung the towel on a rail then walked back into the bedroom to dress. “Kaden will obviously get out all right, otherwise we wouldn’t be going to the zoo.” I wanted to test him, see if he’d continue with the mission whether

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things went wrong or not. I kind of wanted more assurance that he loved me like he’d said. Greedy of me when I’d felt it last night, but the love of a lifetime didn’t happen to me. Did it? “He will be waiting.” Levi turned from the window and eyed me up and down. His cock bulged his jeans. “You ought to watch yourself.” I nodded toward his cock while pulling on a sock, dancing on one foot and praying I didn’t fall ass over tit. “If you let that kind of thing happen in public, you’ll be carted off and labeled a pervert.” “If loving you and my cock responding because of it is perverted, then I am a pervert.” He smiled, a wistful lift of the lips, and shit, my heart went and melted. “You’re screwing with my head, mate.” I shook it to clear the image running through it—me and Levi in a place I’d never been, walking across a field of lush grass, a peach sunset striping the sky, my heart so full of love it threatened to burst. Was that a peek into the future or just my wishes coming to the fore? I had no idea if these lion qualities included spying on what was to come.

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“I am glad you see us in the field,” Levi said, stepping toward me, hand cupping the back of my head. He brushed his lips against mine, the sensations that fleeting union brought swelling my cock. “And you may want to be careful too.” He glanced down at my pelvis. “Or you will be named a pervert.” I laughed at that, loving his sense of humor. I had so much to learn about him, but what I had so far, I liked. A lot. I dressed after he stepped away, Levi watching, my cock not getting any smaller, and winced as I almost caught the damn thing in my zipper. Ready for the task ahead, lower regions sufficiently smaller so I could at least walk without a swagger, I glanced around the room for my smokes. We’d booked in for two days, as per Levi’s instructions, so I didn’t need to pack our bag yet. Hotel Meliá White House was forty-five minutes away from Heathrow Airport by taxi, and only a short walk away from London Zoo. The location was perfect for our mission. Cigarettes safely in my pocket, my heart feeling like it sat in my damn mouth, we left the hotel via The Level entrance. I wouldn’t have minded

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nipping into the Davidoff Café, one of the many places to eat inside the hotel, but breakfast would have to wait. I’d be going into the hotel’s Longfords Bar later, I knew that. A stiff drink would settle my nerves and set me up for something stiffer in the bedroom. Then I thought about Kaden. I’d have to book him into the hotel for the night. He’d have no money on him, no clothes, what with having lived inside a fur coat for God knew how long. My credit card could take the brunt, but I wasn’t sure my wages could, with the new monthly payments I’d need to shell out on this little extravagance. Outside, I stood beneath the long yellow canopy over the path, taking a moment to inhale the cold, sharp air and look around. It stood to reason that if someone was watching us, if people knew what we were doing because it was written—argh!—then we might have spectators checking us out right now. I sniffed the air, feeling a right prick for doing so, and closed my eyes for a second. I felt no danger, no sense that anyone bad was here, and opened my eyes.

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“It is safe here,” Levi said, zipping his jacket right up to his lightly stubbled chin—he hadn’t done that shaving trick this morning, then. My jeans grew uncomfortable again. Can we just go back inside? For five minutes? “Stop it.” Levi failed to hide his smile. “We have work to do.” He didn’t look uptight or upset, so I took that to mean collecting Kaden would go smoothly. We headed along Albany Street and toward the zoo. My guts griped, as though someone wrung them like a drenched cloth, and I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth to quell any nausea before it even thought about coming. Despite Levi’s assurances, I found myself repeating Please let Kaden be there, please let Kaden be there inside my mind. “He will be there. It will be good to see him again. As a human.” Levi stared ahead, hair blowing back from his face like streamers. He looked so awesome, so bloody fuckable, that for a moment my mind went blank. He’d stunned me senseless. My head wasn’t happy at being empty for long, though. Different scenarios flooded

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in. What if someone waited at the zoo? A sinister someone, hiding out with a sniper rifle ready to shoot both Kaden and Levi? If that happened, how the hell would I explain it when questioned by the police, that I was with them because some lion in South Africa insisted on kidnapping lions and killing others? Crazyville here I come. Another one—getting back to the hotel, only to find some gangster-type blokes waiting in our room, guns at the ready, eyes peering out through balaclava slits. I didn’t fancy seeing anyone’s brains splattered over the nice décor at the hotel. It would be an obscene mess in a perfect setting. I had to stop this dark humor. Or maybe that was my way of coping with things. I suspected that was so, but still, my main priority should be keeping Levi safe, not worrying whether blood splatters on the carpet would actually be seen due to the spotted pattern the one in our room had. Levi laughed, startling me and passersby. “What’s so funny?” I asked, smiling at people as if to let them know Levi was mental and I was his carer. Nothing to worry about here. Big man always laughs like that when out in public.

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“Your thoughts. Do not worry. The carpet will not be soiled.” He looked sideways at me, his eyes showing hints of amber light. “I do love you, Dominic Hurley. You are a precious find.” I swear my heart swelled. “I’m glad you think so, Levian… Hey, what’s your surname?” God, I’d fucked this man and didn’t even know his full name. “Brook. Levian Brook. I was born beside one. We are named after the places of our birth.” He looked wistful, as though he could see his homeland in his mind and wished himself back there. “Glad to know it was a brook. I mean, it could have been next to a toilet. Levian Shitter doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.” He roared again, literally, and several people screamed in fright, running as though their life depended on it. I cracked up, really laughed, not giving a toss whether we were being stared at. It felt good to be so carefree. Until my head seemed to fill with air and everything inside my skin vanished. I stopped walking, vision blurring, hand out to steady myself on anything, something. Levi gripped me from behind, hands beneath my armpits, and

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guided me somewhere to my left. He pressed me down—onto a bench I guessed—and pushed my head between my knees. The disorientation. Wonderful. It was a motherfucker of a sensation, one I didn’t want a repeat of. I inhaled deeply, fighting the nausea that crept up my gullet. Silver stars danced beneath my closed eyelids, and my body seemed to collapse in on itself so I felt like a sac of skin and nothing else. Empty. The outer casing of a sausage with the meat squeezed out. Levi roared with laughter again—glad he could see the funny side of my thoughts, because I bloody couldn’t—and rubbed circles on my back. “It will pass very soon. I am glad this has happened now, and not outside the zoo.” I fought to sit upright, wanting to query why this couldn’t happen outside the zoo. What did fate have in store for us when we got there? I knew Levi wouldn’t tell me, but my mouth worked sluggishly all the same. Frustrated that I couldn’t control my body, I thought my questions so Levi would know what troubled me. “It is best you do not know. Just relax. If it makes you feel better, you and I will be safe.”

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I know I shouldn’t be so selfish, but his words calmed me and relief sagged my body even further. I didn’t know this Kaden, hadn’t formed an attachment to him, and really, I shouldn’t be glad that he may not be safe and we would be. Levi omitting Kaden’s name from his last sentence had told me as much—the lion was in danger once he stepped outside the zoo. I wish I knew what was coming. I could deal with it better, having some foresight. And it wasn’t like I wouldn’t go through with the quest now. Not with cubby kids being threatened. Not if it meant me not being able to be with Levi for eternity. Yeah, I’d accepted it. Accepted what had been written. Accepted this whole damn freaky scenario for what it was—fate telling me where to go, where I belonged. My rationale screamed I was possibly going mental, but I had proof I wasn’t. Levi was a lion, Chris had seen him as a lion, and I’d bet my last quid Harold the redheaded passport-maker had also seen lions—not just on the Discovery Channel either. Slowly, my body filled with everything that was supposed to be in it. Handy things like bones and

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muscles. I opened my eyes and stared at the concrete path, not daring to risk lifting my head yet in case the movement made me throw up. The nausea receded, and eventually I looked up, raising my head in slow-mo. Levi stared down at me, his eyes narrowed with concern. “Do you feel better now? I do not wish to press you, but time is moving on.” Time. Yes. We needed to be at the zoo. I glanced at my watch. Ten minutes until opening time. Warily, I stood and tested my body’s ability to carry me along the path. It seemed to have got over its weakening state, and I felt very close to my normal self. Like I was even normal anymore. Levi tucked his arm in the crook of mine, and we rounded the corner into Prince Albert Road. As we neared the zoo—or more poshly named the Zoological Society of London—I noticed the crowd outside was a big one. Sunday trading would be brisk, then. Nervous—something was going to go down, I just knew it—I leaned against the iron railing fence opposite and glanced all around, watching as

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people approached the waiting throng. Everyone looked so normal, so Sunday. Not that I expected sinister people to wear a badge proclaiming them as such, holding their weapon of choice in plain view. No, but I’d have sworn I could spot a weirdo at fifty paces. Evidently not. Levi stood beside me, staring at the entrance. He was waiting for something, and not just Kaden. I sensed it keenly. I looked across the road at the two white, house-like structures either side of the entrance, gabled white struts between them holding up a greenish roof with the zoo sign emblazoned on the front. Thick greenery grew across the centre of each house, creeping along the central roof, and beneath the hanging foliage of the left-hand house stood a man. He didn’t look a threat, just some innocuous bloke smoking a cigarette away from the crowd. Like he was courteous, not wanting other people to passive smoke. Kind of him. He wore a long, black mackintosh—more bad-movie madness—belted tight at the waist. Black trousers peeked below his coat, the hems topping what looked like a pair of Doc Martens. Hmm. They didn’t gel with his outfit,

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and I wondered if he’d put them on for kicking the shit out of someone. Us. I picked up on Levi’s unease and studied the man harder, reaching into my pocket for a smoke of my own. The man acted as though he hadn’t clocked us, but I reckoned he had. Reckoned he was there for a reason—and that reason wasn’t to go and see Peter the Penguin or Lionel the Lizard either. His blond hair, slicked back, framed a prominent brow and, from what I could tell from this distance, a pair of bulging eyes. “He going to be a problem?” I asked, sticking my cigarette between my lips and moving to light it. Or trying to. The bloody wind blew out the lighter flame. “I think that is him, yes.” Levi puffed up his chest. I almost yelled “My hero!” before clamping my lips around my ciggie and finally managing to get the bugger alight. Now wasn’t the time for dark humor. “Right. Any way to prevent what he’s going to do? Got any little tips for me?” Levi cleared his throat, and a light blush colored his cheeks. Anger? “I cannot interfere. You must proceed as you see fit, although I am relying on

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your knowledge of London. Places to hide afterwards.” Places to hide? That didn’t sound good. I opened my mouth to question Levi further, keeping my gaze on the guy over the road, but the big man by my side stilled my tongue. “When what is written happens, although you may be alarmed somewhat very shortly, we still manage to get Kaden back to South Africa.” Alive or dead, though? That was the question prodding my brain right then. “Alive.” Phew. That was a relief. I had no time to relish the feeling, though. London Zoo was open for business, and the crowd surged forward, eager to get inside to the ticket booths, pay their fee and enjoy the delights on offer. I didn’t see caged animals as any form of delight, but maybe that was just me. The man opposite glanced our way. If he’d tried to be surreptitious, he’d failed. “Fucking bastard’s spotted us,” I said, then sucked on my cigarette until the inhaled smoke burned my lungs. My guts rolled over at thoughts

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of whether he had a gun or his mates were lurking nearby. If he had a few buddies, they’d easily overpower us. “But if you say we get away,” I muttered, smoke pluming out with my words. “Come on. Let’s go and find Kaden.” We strolled across the road, me fully prepared to go inside the zoo and lead the other lion outside. I reached into my jacket pocket to get my wallet out but didn’t need to follow through with the action. Levi grabbed my wrist and nodded toward a man standing just outside the entrance wearing a navy blue, all-in-one zoo outfit. Tasty. The fashion police would have a field day. Thank fuck Kaden used his brain and isn’t standing there naked. “Kaden?” I asked, eyeing him briefly then flicking my gaze at the other bloke who’d been waiting and watching us. “Yes, that is him.” Kaden smiled, glanced side to side, and stepped toward us. I made eye contact, jerking my head to let him know we weren’t alone and his escape was being monitored. Levi reached Kaden and took his elbow, steering him along the street with me close

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behind. I looked over my shoulder and found the watcher following us, his shoulders hunched, hands deep in his pockets. He could be feeling for a gun, anything… This shit was all a bit much for me when I allowed myself to think about exactly what was going on, so I switched my mind off from the dangers and concentrated on what we had to do next. “Take a left down there,” I said, coming abreast of Levi and pointing to a road ahead. “Dart down the street with Kaden, and I’ll deal with the bloke following.” Levi gave me a sidelong glance and opened his mouth as though to protest. He closed it quickly without uttering a word. “That’s right,” I said. “It’s up to me how we deal with this. You just follow instructions.” I might have sounded like I was feeling all kinds of bravado, but fuck me, my legs were on their way to turning into jelly, and my heart rate had picked up so swiftly I reckoned I’d have a heart attack any minute. “Now! Go! I’ll meet you down the street in a bit.”

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Seven

L

evi took off down the side street with Kaden,

the pair of them running full tilt, and I turned quickly, facing the weird bloke from outside the zoo. He smiled, showing teeth that were long past being saved by a toothbrush and paste, and I almost blurted out that he needed to visit a damn dentist. Now wasn’t the time to discuss molars and incisors—unless this man was a lion himself and, once he shifted, could rip my arm off with his gnashers. The thought gave me the jitters, but I puffed up my chest and balled my fists. “Look, mate, fuck off, will you?” I sounded hard and menacing, but whether I could pull it

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off for much longer was another thing altogether. “You are involved in something much bigger than you can handle,” he said, hands still in his pockets, eyes bulging so much I wondered when they’d shoot out of the sockets. “It is best you let me take the lions.” “Fuck you,” I spat. No damn way was this fella taking my Levi. “Your Levi?” The bloke raised his eyebrows. “What, you can read my mind as well?” “I can. I am…able to despite not being your mate. I am a big leader; I have these abilities.” “Well, bully for you, mate, but I’d rather you kept out of my head and pissed off out of here.” I thumbed the air in a direction away from where Levi and Kaden had gone and flicked my cigarette into the road. “You would do well to let me pass, Dominic Hurley.” So he knows my name too? Fuck. I bet he’s one of the bastards who broke into my flat. “Oh yeah?” I said, acting tough despite shitting bricks. “Yes.”

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“I won’t let you go after them. It’s not—” His fist connected with my nose—fuck, that hurt!—and I reeled backward from the force and shock. Hands going up to cover my face, I watched incredulously through my fingers as he calmly strode past me and walked down the side street. “Oi!” I shouted, cuffing the blood streaming out of my nose while I followed him. “I said I wouldn’t let you go after them and I meant it.” “I am sure you did,” he threw over his shoulder, picking up his pace. I wished I had a gun so I could shoot this bloke in the leg and get Levi and Kaden to safety. The levels I would go to surprised me, told me how much Levi meant to me now, but I didn’t have a shooter or any other weapon I could use. Without thinking of the consequences, I ran up behind the man and leaped onto his back, circling his neck with my arms and pressing them against his windpipe. He jerked, trying to fling me off, but I held on tight. He lifted his arms and grabbed hold of my hair, yanking at it until I heard a rip like Velcro. Damn shithead had pulled out my hair!

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That pissed me off. I rocked on his back until he lost his balance and lurched forward. The ground came up to greet us, and although I knew he’d smash into the concrete and take the brunt of the impact, I still risked getting hurt. I closed my eyes as the asphalt drew closer—damn, we were falling in slow motion—and braced myself for when we hit. We didn’t. I was hauled off the bloke’s back and into the air for a brief second before being deposited on my feet. I snapped my eyes open to see the man fall flat on his face, motionless on the ground as a slow-moving circle of blood seeped out from beneath his forehead. I glanced to my right to find a stranger standing there in just a pair of well-worn tracksuit bottoms, a foodstained white vest, and nothing on his feet. “You all right, fella?” he asked, rolling his shoulders and looking more than a little pleased with himself if his self-satisfied smirk was anything to go by. “Uh, yeah, I am now. Thanks for that.” What else could I say to a have-a-go hero who’d undoubtedly come out of his home to help?

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“Not a problem. I tell you, we get all sorts around here. I was at my kitchen window,” he lifted his chin to indicate a flat above a tool shop beside us, “doing a bit of washing up and whatnot, and saw you leap on his back. Fucking fine move, mate. Didn’t think I’d get down here in time, thought you two’d be scrapping like dogs by the time I got here, but I reckon I moved faster than I thought.” “Yeah.” I stared at the bloke on the ground. He still wasn’t moving. “What shall I do about him?” “Fuck all you can do if he’s dead.” He shrugged. “Oh, shit.” I hunkered down beside the prone form, checked for a pulse and found one. “He’s all right. Thank God for that.” I breathed out, more relieved than I had been in a long time, and combated the urge to puke my guts up. “Best you get going then,” my helper said. “Go on. I’ll ring it in. No one around here will say you were here. They’ll either make out they didn’t see anything or say the bloke tripped over.” “Are you serious?” I’d never walked away from something as severe as this before. I mean, blood

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had pissed out of the bloke’s head, and even though the bleeding seemed to have stopped now, a head injury wasn’t something to be taken lightly. “Yep. Serious. He’ll be all right. Go on, off you go.” I stared at my nodding rescuer and then back down at the man. As I lifted my head and caught sight of Levi and Kaden peeking out from behind a bush a way down the street, my mind made itself up. “All right. If you’re sure I should go…” “Yep, on your bike,” he said, walking back toward the tool shop. Without thinking any longer, I ran toward Levi and Kaden, guilty about leaving some lion bloke out for the count like that but not knowing what else I could do. Levi eyed me solemnly, remorse etching his face. “I am sorry. I knew he would attack, but not that he would smack your beautiful face.” I cuffed my nose again. “It’s all right. I’m more concerned about that bloke back there, even if he did lump me one.” “Oh, he will be all right. It was written that it looks worse than it is. He will get well again and

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try to cause us a problem a little further down the line.” “Fucking great,” I muttered, leading the way through the streets and lighting up another ciggie. I needed one after what I’d just been through. “So, you mentioned we needed to hide. Doesn’t seem like we do. We can just go back to the hotel and—” “Dom.” Levi’s voice was low and ominous. A chill went up my spine, and I looked in the direction he stared. Two big brutes stormed toward us, fists balled, their faces full of anger and we’re-gonna-fuck-you-up-so-bad I wanted to turn tail and run. “Oh, Jesus. Where did they come from?” I quickly looked for a means of escape, but seeing as only houses lined the road either side of us I didn’t hold out much hope. “You will possibly be startled again,” Levi said, “but it is your job to protect us. We are not allowed to engage in combat with these men. If we do, it will—” “Upset the balance. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Only I can get battered.”

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Really, I was allowing myself to possibly have the shit kicked out of me based on what some lion had written centuries ago. Normally, I’d expect my mates to help me out a bit in a fight, but something inside told me I really did need to do this by myself. If I didn’t, I might not be accepted into Levi’s family, and being without him seriously wasn’t an option anymore. Yeah, I’d fully accepted it, and as the brutes bore down on us, their anger seeming to increase by the second, I just had to get through the next stage and hope for the best. “Leg it!” I yelled at Levi and Kaden while running forward at full speed. I ducked my head and rammed it into the gut of one bloke, making him stagger backward and plonk down on his ass. His pal wasn’t amused and grabbed my arm. Swinging me around to face him, he lifted one knee and jabbed me in the nuts. There was surprise number two, then. The excruciating pain radiated from my bollocks and into my body, spreading to all four corners. I saw stars—seriously, I did—and my head lightened. Bending double, I gritted my teeth then flipped

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upright, anger giving me the impetus to surge forward, fists flailing and legs kicking at the guy who’d hurt my fucking equipment. “You wanker!” I screeched, pummeling him as he pummeled me back. Every contact of a fist brought pain, whether it was him hitting me or me hitting him, it didn’t matter. More hits rained down on me in the scuffle, and I guessed the other guy had found his feet, although I couldn’t see much, what with now being held in a headlock, my gaze fixed firmly on the ground. This shit sucked. I couldn’t take on these two bastards and win. Unless… I lifted one hand and, making my fingers like claws, dug them into one man’s shag pouch and twisted. Now he knew how it felt to have your privates manhandled. He yelled out, and for good measure I gave him another squeeze and twist then shoved him backward into a privet hedge. He disappeared inside it, the greenery swallowing him up, twigs scratching at his face. I stood upright, bucking the other guy off my back and spinning around fast. My foot connected with his chin—who knew I could do a roundhouse like

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that?—and I heard a crack as his jaw undoubtedly dislocated. It was gross, it wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, but I had little choice here. It was fight or be beaten. Levi being captured or going free. The jaw bloke roared—Jesus, was he a lion too? I didn’t hang about long enough to find out. I ran back the way we had come, hoping that Levi and Kaden had found a safe place to hide and I’d find them soon. I made it through the streets without being pursued and came to a stop at the end of the original side street we had walked down when the first man had been following us. The blue lights of an ambulance swirled on top of the big white vehicle. My guts rolled over, and I knew there was no way I could walk down there. Not until the ambulance had left, anyway. A short, low whistle sounded to my right, and I glanced that way, expecting to see some dog walker commanding his hound to heel. Levi’s head poked out of a bush and Kaden’s appeared soon after. Levi beckoned that I join them, and I thanked God that some people loved foliage and

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had ten-foot hedges keeping their front windows hidden from passersby. Inside the hedge, the three of us sandwiched together, I got my breath back and took a moment to steady my rattling nerves. Somehow I’d hurt three men without that much effort, and I wondered how I could have, considering the weedy type person I was before. Well, not a weed, but not exactly boxer material. “I told you,” Levi said, “that your lion qualities would come out.” I shook my head. “Yeah, but if they’re lions too, their strength would outshine mine, surely, because they’ve been lions for longer. Fuck, I’m not even a proper lion yet.” “Perhaps they should be stronger, but it does not seem so.” He smiled, and I resisted the urge to fall into his arms and have him caress this madness away. I couldn’t afford such a luxury, so instead squeezed his hand while properly inspecting Kaden over his shoulder. He hadn’t said a word any time I had been in his company, and I wondered if he even spoke English. His pale skin

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unnerved me a little now—hadn’t he shifted into a man at all since he’d been in the zoo? Got a bit of a suntan?—and his recessed eyes spoke of him being ill or at the very least worn out. I hadn’t taken much notice of him outside the zoo but realized now he was in sore need of a few good meals and some tender loving care. “So long as it isn’t you doing the tender part,” Levi whispered. I smiled, then a thought struck me. How much time had passed since we’d collected Kaden? “Shit, the passports!” I glanced at my watch, alarmed to find it was nearing eleventhirty. Half an hour to get back to Ladroke Grove and the shop in Kensal Road. “We need to get a move on.” I crept out of the bush before an irate homeowner came out and caught us. I peered down the street. The ambulance had gone, so I gave Levi the thumbs up and the three of us walked down the street, past the site where the lion-guy had fallen, sand now covering where the blood had been on the path. I put my head down, paranoid some do-gooder would come out and

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point the finger at me, even though my rescuer had assured me otherwise. I breathed easier once we were on the bus heading toward our next destination, and when we alighted and made our way to the small grocers the jitters had almost gone completely. They reappeared again in the form of a nervous stomach as we entered the small shop and saw the student-type guy sitting behind the counter. Great. The last thing I needed now was a mad dash to the toilet. He glanced up from a text book he was reading and, without saying a damn word of greeting, the rude bastard, he went and locked the shop and led us into the back room containing the photography equipment. Photos of Levi and Kaden taken, we hung around while Harold made the passports. We sat in silence, our thoughts probably all centered on what had happened so far this morning, all except Harold, of course, whose bent head and narrowed eyes showed his concentration on his task. My face and body ached. I’d taken more hits than I would have liked, and thoughts of boxers

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filled my head. They were mental, no getting away from it, to want to be punched then feel this way after a bout. If I had more boxing matches ahead of me, I could only hope my lion-ness would grow further. I had no strength in me to even lift my arm. About an hour later, Harold stood and stretched, his bones clicking. He picked up the passports and gave them the once-over with an eyeglass before handing them to Levi. “Now it’s time for the next phase. Don’t forget, only one more night at the hotel, otherwise they’ll discover where you are.” Levi nodded, and the trio that we were trudged out of the shop—but not before I’d nicked a packet of wet wipes to get rid of the dried blood on my face that had pulled my skin taut. Once clean, I dumped the bloodied wipes in a bin and hailed a taxi. No way was I walking back to our hotel, not with my bollocks still aching and my nose on fire. Back at the hotel, I booked Kaden into his own room and gave him some of my clothes to wear. Levi told him to run a bath, to relax a bit,

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and then we’d go downstairs and eat. It didn’t work out like that, though. Levi went to collect Kaden and found him asleep on the bed, the covers pulled right up to his chin, and didn’t have the heart to wake him. “Reckon we ought to leave him a note so we can go and eat?” I asked, my guts protesting that I was starving my body. “That is a good idea,” Levi said, nodding as though my suggestion was the best thing he’d ever heard. Would I ever get used to this adoration, the way he seemed to think everything I did or said was so bloody marvelous? Levi scrawled a set of symbols on a page of a notebook—I didn’t even want to ask what the hell that language was—and left the note on the bedside in Kaden’s room. We went downstairs and filled our bellies with enough food to make up for the lack of breakfast and lunch, then sipped a pint of lager each in the quiet bar. We didn’t fit in here, that much was clear, what with the other guests clearly having shitloads of money, enough to burn by the look of it, but I was past giving a

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crap. Our board was paid for, and I was too tired to worry about the impression we were giving to other people. I’d been in tussles with three lionmen, had been a party to getting false passports, and wasn’t in the mood to smile nicely at my fellow drinkers and pretend I really did belong there. Not when it was only three o’clock in the damn afternoon and already it felt like it should be nearer to nine at night. After we’d downed our beers, I ordered us another. “We can sleep it off before dinner,” I said, sliding Levi’s glass closer to him and swiveling my barstool around so I faced him. He did the same, and our knees touched. A shiver of arousal swept through me, and Levi chuckled, the sound a deep bass that flipped my stomach over and made me want to kiss him here and now. That wouldn’t go down too well. I didn’t imagine the other patrons would appreciate two men snogging in their straight-laced world. “So you have to hide who you are here?” Levi asked. “In here, yeah. Other parts of London, no.”

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“Perhaps we should have booked into a room in the other parts. I am finding it difficult not being able to touch you and show you affection, my Dom Hurley.” “Yeah, well, it’s only for now. Don’t you have that kind of shit going on where you come from?” I sipped my lager, the coppery taste similar to the blood that had dribbled on my lips earlier. “No. We are as we are there.” “Maybe being there isn’t so bad after all,” I said, meaning it sincerely. If I could live somewhere I didn’t need to hide… Yeah, that’d suit me down to the ground. I went inside my mind for a bit, sorting through how I really felt about London. Yeah, it was my home, but what did I really have keeping me here except my flat, Rick, and Chris at the corner bloody shop? “Nothing,” Levi said. I nodded. He was right. I had just been scared of moving on, that’s all, leaving the familiar behind, but the alternative of living freely with Levi and, let’s face it, people of my kind, because I was going to turn into a bloody lion at some

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point in the not-too-distant future, appeared more appealing by the minute. Finishing my pint, I said, “Come on. Let’s go and have a nap or whatever.” I winked then went on, “Then we’ll get Kaden up for some dinner, have another few beers before bed, and tomorrow…” “Tomorrow we must go to this Heathrow and catch a plane.” I sighed. Yes, tomorrow we’d be catching a plane. We’d? Did I say we’d? “My passport,” I said. “Is back at my flat.” “Is it?” Levi cocked his head and smiled. “Well, it was last time I looked.” “It is not. I put it in your bag yesterday. In the small compartment on the front.” “Ah, so you were sure what was written would come true then.” “Yes. Yes, I was.”

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Eight

H

eathrow Airport day. Bright sun, no rain in

sight. Was that a portent? A sign that sunny times were ahead? That not only was I leaving the sometimes dreary, rain-slicked streets of London behind, but the dreary shit my life pre-Levi had been too? I hoped so. I’d woken, all bruises and scuff marks healed, all aches and pains gone. Having lion qualities seriously had its advantages. It felt weird to look at my face in the bathroom mirror, expecting to see black eyes, a broken nose, and a bulging cheekbone, only to find I looked the same as I had before my bouts. I took a moment

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to savor the awe this healing shit inspired, then got my ass into gear and went downstairs. I stood at the reception desk in our hotel, waiting for someone to get back to me on whether there was a laptop with internet access available. I needed to book three flights, hopefully as cheap as chips, then log on to my online banking and clear that damn credit card. If I was going off to live in the ass-end of nowhere, I wanted my affairs here sorted—just in case things didn’t work out in South Africa. I still didn’t know exactly how the pride made money. Did they work like everyone else? Would I need to find a job once I got there? And, if I had to return, the last thing I wanted was a messed up credit rating and scores of bailiffs on my back. A staid-looking older woman approached me, complete with gray bun on top of her head and a high-necked, buttoned-up blouse, her pencil skirt doing nothing to hide the paunch of old age. I thought of me being immortal and whether my body would stay as it was now. Would I ever get to look old like her?

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She handed me a laptop and told me I could sit right there in reception on the plush leather seating—yes, she really said that—while I “browsed the ‘net”. Whether she was trying to make me think she was hip in knowing people “browsed”, or whether she had a secret tendency to browse herself I didn’t know, but me even thinking that at a time like this struck me as totally odd. Maybe I was allowing my mind to wander, to think of inane things because the enormity of what I was about to do was really a bit too much for me to handle. I was leaving London with a man I had only just met, never to return. Crazy bastard you are, Dominic Hurley. Crazy I might be, but it felt right, and besides, if I was going to turn into a lion at some point, I really didn’t need to be in London while I did it. The lush plains of South Africa was the perfect spot to morph from human to furry bastard without fear of someone seeing me. I sat on the plush leather sofa—for fuck’s sake!—and let myself think for a minute. It was all very well telling myself I could change into a

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lion on lush plains and in safety, but I wasn’t going to be safe, was I? That lion bloke who wanted to take over wouldn’t be pleased at my arrival in his domain. What if he wanted to fight me, paws and claws flying, tails flicking? What if he resented my intrusion to the point that he wanted to get rid of me? Was that why Levi hadn’t been allowed to read on? To find out more of the future? It stood to reason that was the case. He’d been promised his mate for life, been swept up with the lure of that, and came to London to find me. What if our future was going to be one of constantly butting heads with the lion who wanted to control us all? What if it was my bloody job to see he didn’t win? Jesus. And I was willingly walking in to that? I shook off the bad thoughts—I’d just have to deal with things as they came along. Online, I managed to book three tickets to South Africa—thank God; they were the only three available today—plane departing at four this afternoon. I did my banking, then emailed my landlord, telling him I’d paid my rent for the next six months because I was going

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backpacking. I doubted he’d believe that, I wasn’t the backpacking type, but so long as he had his rent, I didn’t think he’d give much of a shit. I cleared my credit card then emailed Rick. That was hard. I mean, we’d been friends for a long time, and saying goodbye via email wasn’t my idea of what a good friend would do. I had time to go and find him, give him a man hug and tell him he could use my flat whenever he wanted, but I didn’t think I had the balls to do it. He’d try and talk me out of it, wouldn’t understand that this was just something I knew I had to do. I didn’t want any obstacles—other than those that had been written—getting in my way, and if I was honest, I didn’t want those either. So, the virtual goodbye was the way to go, and as Rick had a spare key to my flat anyway, everything was set. The only person I hadn’t said goodbye to was Chris, but come on, what person makes a special goodbye to the local shop owner just because you saw them most days? Job done, I returned the laptop to the old woman now sitting behind the reception desk, who nodded in a knowing way, as if she thought

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I’d “browsed” a bit of porn or something. I smiled back in the same knowing way, letting her take from that what she liked. It’d give her something to gossip about, at least. We needed to be at Heathrow three hours before take-off, so I made my way back to our room to get the ball rolling. I was apprehensive, because if the lion blokes tailing us knew what had been written, they’d know we’d be heading for the airport today. It meant we’d have to be on high alert, and I worried that if we cast dark glances around while waiting for our flight, we’d possibly be seen as dodgy and gain the attention of the security staff. Rather than worry about scenarios that hadn’t yet happened, I helped Levi pack our small bag, my stomach bunching with the excitement of leaving London and starting a new life with him, and the anxiety of what was to come before we even got on the damn plane. “Are you sure you can’t let me in on what’s going to happen?” I asked Levi, who stared out the window now, hands in pockets, reminding me of the last time he did that.

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“I cannot. I am nervous but have every faith you will pull this off.” “Of course I’ll pull it off. That book you read said so. I’m just worried about being smacked in the bollocks again, punched in the nose, or even worse, stabbed or shot.” “They will not risk using weapons in an airport.” So Levi had told me something without actually telling me. The other lions wouldn’t bother us until the airport. I let out a breath of relief. I hadn’t much fancied being shot or stabbed, and to know nothing like that was going to happen, well, it made things a little easier to take. I still had the risk of being assaulted, but if I healed overnight, I could deal with that. “What are you thinking?” I asked, joining him at the window. He didn’t speak, just stared ahead at the sun beaming down on London, and gave me his answer via my mind. It startled me at first, his voice in my head, but I closed my eyes and listened, imagined he spoke beside me instead.

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I am worried about our return to South Africa, I will not deny that. I know we get there safely, know that we live for a long time once we are there, but I have no knowledge of what is to come in between. I am allowed to read more of the book when we go back, but I am not sure I want to. “How d’you mean?” I said. It has been difficult, this time in London, to know when you are to do things and who will come along to try and kill you, me, and Kaden, and I am wondering if it is better to live without that knowledge. I thought about that for a minute or two. He had a point. Knowing shit was about to go down was good in one way—we could be prepared— but in another it gave me too much to think about, to worry over, and if I was destined to fret all my life about the future, I’d end up a nervous wreck. A dodgy stomach and nails bitten to the quick wasn’t my idea of good living. “Exactly my point,” Levi said. “But think about it, mate, either way we’re going to worry.”

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“We are.” He sighed. “Perhaps we should make that decision once we are home.” Home. “Yeah.” I nodded, wondering if it would feel like home when I got there. Like London did. Then again, wherever Levi was would be home, no matter where we were. “That is wonderful to hear, my Dom Hurley.” I opened my eyes and looked at him, found him studying me, that sad smile in place again. I told myself to think of it more as a wistful smile, because sad meant he was unhappy, and I never wanted him to be that. “That is also good to hear, Mate.” He reached out a hand and cupped my cheek. His touch brought on a shiver that shimmied up my spine to the roots of my hair. Fuck, but he sent my legs to jelly every time. It was love, wasn’t it? This was what love felt like. Levi brought me close in a bone-crushing hug, one hand in my hair, the other splayed across my back. I clung on for dear life, the enormity of his love for me seeping inside, as though it filtered through my skin at our contact. I closed my eyes, face pressed against

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his massive chest, and allowed the infusion to fill me. His love spread throughout my body, and it hurt. My God it fucking hurt. He adored me, that much was plain. Could I handle so much love? I lifted my head to stare up at him. He’d closed his eyes and looked as though he was experiencing something I had yet to understand. His love for me outshone mine for him, but in the second it took for me to think that, I vowed to love him the same way someday. It would come, wouldn’t it? That fierce love which eclipsed everything else? I dearly hoped so. He deserved the same kind of love he felt for me. I hugged him tighter, put my cheek back to his chest, and concentrated to transfer my feelings to him. I sent him my love, my admiration, and the desolate, awful feeling I had that if he was taken from me one day, I would be a broken man. His chest lifted sharply, as if he held back a sob, and he clutched me closer until I thought he’d break my ribs. “I can’t breathe,” I said.

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Immediately, he released me, holding my upper arms in his massive hands. “I am sorry. I just… I just…love you so much it hurts.” “I see that. Feel it. I’m starting to feel the same way about you.” “I know, and this has made my love grow even more.” He stroked my cheek with the backs of his fingers, sending another spiraling shiver up my back. “When we go home, I pledge to you now that if someone hurts you, I will kill them.” I smiled, feeling all kinds of special. “Yeah, well, you’ll be killing a lot then, because even without knowing what’s in that book I know there’ll be a few battles ahead where I’ll get hurt.” “Then so be it. Those three men who hurt you in this London… They will die when we get home because they will follow us, of that I am certain. I shall see to their deaths with my own hands, my own teeth.” I shivered in awe, imagining Levi as the lion I’d first seen him as, fighting with another beast

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and winning. “I think I love you, mate,” I whispered, pleased I didn’t feel a dickhead for saying it. Before, with others, it had seemed…stupid. Now? It felt right in every damn way. “I know you do, Mate, and it has yet to grow more. I cannot wait to feel the depth of it when it does.” He bent his head, giving me a soul-searing kiss that hardened my cock and sent my senses spiraling out of control. I rubbed his back, the broadness of it spiking my desire, and lost myself in his probing tongue and the feelings of love he sent my way. Suddenly eager to switch roles and have my cock inside him, I broke free of his mouth and embrace, rushing over to our bag to get out a condom and lube. He looked at the condom wrapper in my hand as I approached and lifted one eyebrow, his silent words telling me protection was no longer necessary—if it had even been so in the first place. I tossed the condom to the floor and walked up to him, my excitement levels soaring higher knowing I’d be riding him bareback. I put the

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lube on the windowsill and stripped him, gaze locked with his as each piece of clothing left his body. Finished, I stared at him, took every part of him in before lingering on his cock. It could stay its natural size this time, and I was impatient to fist him, to feel that impressive size and weight in my hand. He watched as I undressed, my clothes frustratingly difficult to remove in my eagerness, and once I stood before him, my frame small compared to his, I lost no time in letting him know I was in charge. “Lean your hands on the windowsill,” I commanded, steering him to it. He bent at the waist, meaty hands in place on the slim sill, his ass jutting out just begging to be taken. I snatched up the lube, fumbled with the lid, and slathered my cock. Dropping the tube, I stepped up behind my mate and nudged his legs further open with a tap of my knee. Levi groaned, sucked in a quick breath, and it thrilled me to know he wanted this as much as me. With no urge to play it sensual, I parted his ass cheeks and slipped one digit inside his hole.

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His rim clenched around my finger, and I worked his entrance, priming it for my next intrusion. Unable to mess around much longer, I withdrew my finger and touched the end of my cock to his pucker. Fuck, I wanted to come already, so eased my tip inside. The tightness of his rim squeezing made my balls throb almost painfully, and I nudged in a little deeper. Levi widened his legs some more, and slowly, even though I wanted to thrust inside, I filled him. Then all hell broke loose inside me. I pumped him, fast, furious, clasping his shoulder with one hand and his cock with my other, pushing myself toward completion without thinking of anything else but handfucking his cock and making Levi come too. The weight of him, heavy, so damn heavy in my palm, ratcheted up my desire to a level I’d never experienced before. I fisted him, frenzied tugs that brought groans and grunts from Levi, and he reached back to clasp my ass cheeks. It drove me deeper inside him, the skin of my cock stretching back on the thrust in, and shit, I was going to come.

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I jerked his cock and rammed into him, looking down at my length pummeling his ass. Sexy and erotic as hell. I leaned sideways to catch a look at his big cock and his whiteknuckled fingers gripping the windowsill, and that was it for me. Cum exploded, making my passage easier, slicker, and I clenched my teeth to ride out the ripples of sensation spreading through me. Levi roared, flung his head back, his hair swaying with our movements. I watched his cum speed out of him and hit the wall below the sill, another two shots swiftly following. My knees buckled, and it took all my energy to keep pumping inside him and fisting his dick. I groaned, one that held a hint of lion rumble, and slowed, because shit, I was spent and couldn’t keep going. Panting, I covered his back with my chest, releasing his cock and smoothing my hands over his chest. We remained like that for a long time, my semihardness still inside him, us catching our breath, Levi hanging his head between his open arms. Reluctantly, I pulled out of him, turning him to face me so I could nestle into his chest.

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This was where I wanted to be, where I always wanted to be, but time had other ideas. We had to break the spell, get out of our special little world, and out there to fight our way to South Africa and the troubles that awaited us there.

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Nine

H

eathrow bustled with holidaymakers and

other folks intent on getting home from their travels or leaving the country to start them. It all looked so normal that I couldn’t imagine the lion men bursting in and upsetting the balance. But they would, I reckoned, so remained alert as we sat in the terminal on uncomfortable plastic chairs that did nothing but give me tailbone ache. I was bored with waiting. “Shall we go and get our bag checked in then go to the departure lounge?” I asked, looking first at Levi and then a silent Kaden. “I need a change of scenery. Doesn’t look like anything’s going to happen here.”

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Famous last words. Kaden shot out of his seat and lunged forward in a run, his upper body getting to his destination before his damn feet. Levi sprung out of his seat and went to follow, then stopped abruptly. I stood and walked to Levi’s side, my heart hammering like a demented carpenter. Adrenaline sped through me, my legs jellified yet again and that rush of nausea taking over me. Would I ever get used to feeling this kind of shit? “What the fuck’s going on?” I asked, staring ahead at Kaden, who had reached a dark-haired woman and looked like he was kissing the bloody life out of her. “That is Kaden’s mate. She should not be here.” Levi clenched his jaw. “The book made no mention of this happening. Her being here will upset the balance.” “Shit, just what we sodding well need.” I lifted one hand and dropped it again, my hand slapping my thigh. “We need to go and see what she’s playing at.” “Playing at? I do not understand this term. Lydiana rarely plays at anything. She is a serious woman.”

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“Matches Kaden perfectly then, because he doesn’t seem like a bundle of fun either.” “No, he is a serious man indeed.” Levi sighed, the whoosh of air accompanied by a low growl. “Yes, we must go and see why she is here. I really did not want to have to deal with this.” I huffed out some air. “I didn’t think it would be you dealing with anything. You’re not allowed.” Levi took my elbow and led me toward the still-kissing couple. “No, I am not, but this time I think it is justified.” “No. I’ll handle this.” We reached Kaden and Lydiana, and Levi cleared his throat. It was touching that these two were brought back together now, but shit, they’d have to wait until later to get their rocks off because I’d be damned if their antics would place Levi in danger. “Excuse me,” I said, breaking them apart. “What are you doing here?” Lydiana eyed me, her poker face telling me she never took any shit and disliked the fact I’d prized her away from her mate.

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“I came to warn you, Dominic Hurley, that when you check in your bags, trouble will find you.” “Tell me something we didn’t know,” I said, a little rougher than I’d intended. I stared at her, this woman who had got herself a passport and made it all the way to London just to repeat information we were already aware of, undoubtedly putting us in more danger. And shit, that meant I had a third person to look after on the journey home instead of two. When she continued to study me with no response, I glared at the ceiling and thought: Just dump an extra bag of shit on me, why don’t you? “Listen,” I said, looking back at her. “I realize you wanted to see Kaden sooner, I really do, but your presence here may have put him in further trouble.” “No, it has not.” She narrowed her eyes and reached out blindly for Kaden’s hand. “I will get Kaden on the plane safely, leaving you two to get along with whatever you need to do.” I laughed, a chuckle filled with barely suppressed anger. “I doubt that, love. I mean,

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those blokes know they’re looking for three men. They know who we are because they’ve seen us already. D’you think they’ll settle for just me and Levi? Think about it. They made sure Kaden was put in London Zoo. You really think they’re going to let him get on a plane with you, no questions asked, when it was him they caged in the first place?” “Yes, I do,” she said, setting her jaw rigid. Clearly, she just didn’t get what I’d said. Fucking woman. “So you have a return ticket, yeah?” I nodded at her bag. “Yes.” “Then let me see it.” She widened her eyes and clutched at her bag. “No. I do not see why I have to show it to you.” “Just humor me, all right? Show me your ticket.” I held out my hand. She gritted her teeth and opened her bag, producing the stub of a return ticket. I took it from her and soaked up the information on it. “Okay. I just needed to know you intended to return with us.”

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“Why would I not?” she asked, her eyes spiteful. She really didn’t like me. That was fine, because I didn’t like her either. “So, you’ve checked in and handed over your passport already? For the four o’clock flight?” “Yes. What of it?” “I’m just curious as to how you knew our flight was four o’clock. I mean, the flight time wasn’t written, just that we would fly today.” I prayed my hunch was correct in that the time wasn’t in the book. “All the other flights for today to South Africa have already gone,” she said, apparently unfazed. “It stood to reason you would take the last flight.” “But you booked this return flight at the same time you booked the flight in.” She let her mouth drop open a little before snapping it shut. “Something isn’t right about you, lady, but right now I don’t give a fuck. My main concern is getting Levi and Kaden on that flight, and if you’re here to put a spanner in the works, just know

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that whether you’re a woman or not, I will take you out.” “I am disgusted that you are accusing me of being underhand.” She looked at the trance-like Kaden, who smiled at her as though under a goddamn spell. “I want the same thing as you.” “Look.” I glanced around in case we were being watched. “You get on with your little fantasy scenario, where you’re the heroine who saves the day, and I’ll just have to make sure you do get on that plane with your mate, all right? It’s fine, really. I always wanted to sort out other people’s fuck-ups for them.” She stared at me as though she wanted to rip out my throat, and had she been a lioness right then, I reckoned she might well have done. I sighed and shook my head. Wonderful. I’d made my first enemy of someone in my new family. “Come on. We need to get my bag checked in.” I moved to stride away, but Lydiana grabbed my wrist. I didn’t like her touch on my arm, felt there was far more to her than met the eye, so projected my thoughts to Levi.

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I have felt the same for a very long time, Levi thought back. That she is working for the other side. Brilliant. Fucking-bloody-brilliant. How do we sort this mess out? I thought. Let us just see what happens, my Dom. Lydiana said, “Myself and Kaden will go to the departure lounge now. We have no bags. You two may follow shortly.” I quickly glanced at her handbag. “No.” I wasn’t prepared to let her and Kaden out of my sight. “You’ll come with us while we check in my bag. And you do have a bag. We stick together.” Her lip curled, the expression making me all too aware that she didn’t like being told what to do. Well, tough shit. It was written that I had to do this, and if she insisted on interfering, I’d have to continue to make sure she knew who was boss. My reputation was at stake here. Everything I did now would be taken into consideration once we got to South Africa. I couldn’t risk some up-herown-ass woman stopping me from being accepted into the pride.

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Unless she does not want you in the pride. Levi’s voice held a touch of anger. I thought the same, mate. Listen, I led the way to the check-in area, if she’s up to something, and it’s obvious she is, it’ll become clear pretty soon. Let’s just be on our guard, all right? Yes. On our guard. We stood at the end of a long line, and I studied Kaden for a minute. He was so obviously a submissive. That was all fine and dandy, but surely he could see what a control freak his missus was? Didn’t he see that her being here had probably fucked the whole operation? I do not think he is aware, Levi thought. He was captured and taken away when he was still very much in love with her. And, of course, he has no idea of how she has been acting in South Africa while he has been gone. He remembers her as she was. She became secretive after he was captured, leaving the pride to stalk the plains at night. Alone. Rogue males prowled the outer edges of our compound and only ever went away once she had taken a “solitary” walk. Yes, I see it

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all now. She is working for the other side, of that I have no doubt. I stifled a sigh. Why the fuck didn’t things just go to plan? Why did everything in my life have to be so damn difficult? It always had been. I’d fought for my place in the world, struggled to make myself be something worth being, and at every turn bad luck found me. Okay, Levi arriving wasn’t exactly bad luck if I thought about the fact I’d found someone who loved me unconditionally, but even that had its price. Remember what I said to you before, my Dom? Some things are worth fighting for. I risked glancing at him but had to turn away at seeing the devotion displayed on his face like that. I couldn’t get all mushy and sentimental now. Not when I had a devious bitch to deal with and a half-comatose Kaden to watch out for. The line grew shorter, and eventually it was our turn. I worried over who should walk through the check-in first. If I went through, it meant giving Lydiana a chance to do what I suspected she intended to do—her sole aim to

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get Kaden away from us and back in that zoo. I was sure of that, felt it deep in my bones, so quickly said, “Levi. You go through first with my bag. Lydiana and Kaden can go through next. I’ll follow.” She scowled at me, and I suppressed the urge to lick my finger and chalk one up to me. I doubted she’d know what the hell I was doing if I did that anyway. “Go on,” I said, nodding at her and smiling. Alert to something about to happen, because we all knew it would, I watched Levi pass through the metal detector and proceed to wait for my bag to be scanned. Several bleeps sounded. Here we go… “Please stand over here, sir,” a skinny, spotty security guard said to Levi, grasping his elbow and leading him to stand against the wall. My guts rolled over, and I wondered why he had to stand by the wall. In every film and TV series I’d seen, if your bag was dodgy, you were led to a room. Kaden and Lydiana sailed through with no bleeps and no mention of waiting behind. She

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glanced back at me, a smug smile on her nasty face, and I clamped my jaw shut to stop myself from calling her a spiteful little bitch. She led Kaden off through a set of double doors, and I knew that she’d planned this, that this was how the balance had been upset. Fuck. I walked through the detector, and of course it fucking well bleeped, just like I knew it would. The security guy standing beside Levi stepped forward and took my arm, leading us both through an inconspicuous door to the right and down a short corridor. “And we’re being led away because?” I asked, yanking his hand off my arm. That is a silly question, Dom. We know why we’re being led away. I narrowed my eyes at Levi. Just let me deal with this. “In here, and someone will be with you shortly,” the guard said, shoving us in the back and into a room containing a table and two chairs. Before he could lock us inside, I took the risk that he was working for the other side and

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punched him in the face. He staggered backward, his head smacking against the corridor wall with a sickening thud, and I lunged forward, taking his handcuffs from his belt at the same time as grappling him inside the room. He stared at me, absolutely stunned that I had hit him, no doubt, and I wondered, if he was a lion, why he wasn’t rushing at me and hitting me back. Man,” I said, handcuffing him then relieving him of a bunch of keys. “Sorry about this, but we seriously need to be on that plane. It leaves in…” I glanced at my watch. “Half an hour, and we need to get on it now. But tell me…” I pressed him into a seat. “Why did you bring us here? Who are you working for?” His mouth opened and closed, and blood from his split lip trickled over his chin. “I…I work for Dakka Airlines. I was just told to bring you in here.” “Who by?” I demanded. “A call over my radio. Someone in the offices, I think.” “So it wasn’t a lion bloke?”

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“What?” He widened his eyes, looking at me as though I was all kinds of mental and then some. “The lions,” I repeated. “Are you one of them?” “Lions?” He looked from me to Levi. “I don’t know what you’re on about. I was just following orders. I just—” “All right, all right,” I said, believing his sorry, scrawny little ass. “I’m going to lock you in here, okay?” I swung his keys in front of him. “I’m also going to use your other set of cuffs to attach you to the radiator so you can’t get to the door to bang on it. And I’m also,” I held out my hand to take my bag from Levi, “going to stuff a pair of my boxer shorts in your mouth to stop you making a noise. I’m sorry about that, swear to God I am, but there’s some big shit going on here, and if you make a noise and someone finds you before we have a chance to leave…” A wicked thought came to mind. If he thought the lions were a gang… “The Lions will root you out and kill you.” Oh God, I felt a complete and utter bastard for saying that, but inside me a burning need to pull

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this quest off successfully just wouldn’t allow for any more fuck-ups. “Do you get what I’m saying?” I said menacingly, taking a pair of boxers out of my bag. Levi’s chuckle in my mind didn’t help matters, because it made me want to laugh too. Pack it in, I thought. I need to stay serious. “Yes,” the guard whimpered. “Yes, I understand.” “You have a wife?” I stared at the wedding ring on his finger. “Kids?” “Yes,” he whispered. “Then know that when I get to where I’m going, I’ll tell The Lions who you are.” I prodded his name badge. “They’ll be watching you. And if you alert anyone about us, anyone at all, when you’re at work, when you think everything’s safe, The Lions’ll get your family.” Oh, that poor motherfucker. He started sobbing, snot dribbling from his nose, and I knew I had him where I wanted him. “Right, so we understand one another, yeah?” I stared at him for a beat before dragging him over to the radiator and securing him there.

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“Yes.” He opened his mouth readily, and I stuffed my underwear inside, really sorry they were dirty but needs must. I picked up my bag, jerked my head at Levi, and we left the room. After locking the guard inside, we walked back down the corridor and into the check-in area. I nodded at the security guard who stood beside the bag scanner and walked nonchalantly through the double doors that led to the departure lounge. Levi strolled beside me, and I chanted in my head: Don’t let him follow. Let us have just a bit of damn luck. No one followed, and it seemed we were free to board the plane, but other passengers still sat around, and I wondered, if our flight was taking off so soon, why they hadn’t boarded. Were they lions, or were they waiting for a completely different flight? And had Kaden and Lydiana already got on? A scuffling noise drew my attention, a mere breath of sound that I was sure I would never have heard had I not had my lion senses. I whirled to face a blue door to our right. It

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seemed as though someone was rubbing their head against the door, producing a whispery effect of hair on wood. Something told me to open that door and see what the fuck was going on. I did and found Kaden inside a cleaning cupboard, hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth. It made me think of the security guard, but I dashed the images of him away. “What the hell is going on here?” I said quietly, drawing Kaden out of the cupboard. Behind the privacy of the open door shielding us from other travelers, I untied Kaden and freed his mouth. Tears streamed down his face—great, a sobbing lion bloke was not something I fancied dealing with at the moment—and he babbled something about his mate putting him in the cupboard for his safety. “What, fucking tied up and gagged?” I said, sighing with anger and frustration that he’d believed that nasty little bitch. I glanced at Levi. “We really have to go. We must get on that plane.” Levi nodded. “Come, Kaden, we have to leave.”

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“No,” Kaden said—so he did speak English after all—shaking his head. “I must wait for Lydiana.” “Not fucking likely,” I whispered harshly. “You knew the deal, knew that we’d all be getting on that plane no matter what happened. That your missus came along is just unfortunate. She’s up to something, Levi will tell you all about it on the plane, and much as what he has to say is going to rip your guts out, I can’t stand here discussing the ins and outs of the cat’s asshole with you. If we don’t get on that plane fifteen minutes before take-off, we’re well and truly fucked. All right? D’you get it? We must be on that plane in order to meet with whatever’s been written.” I looked at Levi again. “And because my life with Levi depends on it. And you, Kaden, and your freakyas-hell woman, are not going to stand in my way. Understand?” Jesus. Where the hell did that come from? I stared back at Kaden. He nodded, defeat in his eyes, accepting that I had told him the truth. The poor bastard shuffled along beside us as we walked through the tunnel to board the plane,

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and I allowed myself to feel sorry for him. I mean, he’d been captured, placed in a zoo, held there for years, only to be rescued and find his lady love didn’t give two shits about him other than putting him back in that zoo. That knowledge had to sting. We found our seats, buckled up, and I was all kinds of relieved to see the doors closing. No one else would be getting on board, so if there were other lions here now, they were all we’d have to deal with. I looked about at the other passengers. Lydiana wasn’t on board. “Where did your wife go?” I asked Kaden. “I do not know. She said she would come back for me. She had to make a telephone call.” “Right.” I turned to Levi sitting on my other side. “You reckon she told the three lion blokes from yesterday to back off, that she’d be dealing with us today?” “Undoubtedly, otherwise we would have been accosted by them before now.” “That’s what I thought, but what if they’re on the plane? In disguise?” “I do not think so. I do not sense danger here.”

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I leaned my head against the seat and closed my eyes. Concentrated. No, there was no danger here. I wanted to smile that we had succeeded in our quest, but a part of me worried that it might not be over yet. I felt the pull of the plane moving and opened my eyes. Lydiana had missed the flight for sure, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t contact the bad lions in South Africa and let them know we’d be arriving soon. Fuck. This quest just gets better and better every day. But at least we are together, my Dom Hurley. Yeah, there is that. I reached out and grasped his hand, squeezed it tight. There is that.

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Ten Two Weeks Later

W

e arrived in South Africa and made it home

without incident. That bugged me. Everything prior to us getting on that plane had been a pain in my delightfully well-used ass, so for us to just swan through customs, get in a taxi, and arrive at the pride compound without anyone or anything getting in our way just didn’t sit right. Where was Lydiana, and why the hell hadn’t any bastard lions tried to prevent our return when we got off the plane? Did they have something else in mind for us? Lulling us into a false sense

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of security before springing something new on us? I lay in the crook of Levi’s arm on our bed in his house, well fucked and content. Staring at the ceiling while Levi napped, I thought about how easily I had fitted into pride life this past fortnight. How I hadn’t missed London at all. I’d been accepted without question, heralded, bizarrely, as the new leader, and I needed to wrap my head around that. I was a human turned into a lion, didn’t deserve leader status over someone who had been born into the pride. I risked people being pissed off at me usurping them, but the grizzled old lion who had told me I was destined to lead the pride when he stepped down insisted everything would be fine. Me lead the pride? He had to be fucking joking, right? I was all for helping out here and there, but taking control of something I knew bugger all about and going head-to-head with that asshole lion who wanted to take over… No thanks. And who was he anyway? I had yet to set eyes on him. “But it is written that you are our leader,” Levi mumbled.

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Hmm, he’d been listening to my thoughts as he’d dozed, then. I didn’t mind, but sometimes having a good old think to myself was in order, and worrying whether Levi listened in might make me become secretive in future. I didn’t want that. “If you have nothing to hide, why would you wish to keep your thoughts secret?” he asked. I turned on my side and snuggled into him. “It isn’t that I want to keep anything from you, and I’d tell you my thoughts afterwards anyway, but this mind shit, well, a man likes to have something private for himself, know what I mean?” “I do.” “You don’t see me prowling through your head whenever the fancy grabs me, do you?” “No.” “I respect your privacy.” “Yes. I am sorry. I had not thought of it that way.” “No, well, now you know. You shouldn’t be in my head when it doesn’t relate directly to you anyway.” I fiddled with his nipple, circling it with

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a fingertip. “And if this leadership crap is true, I need to read that book.” The decision had been taken out of my hands now as to whether I knew the future or not. If I was to lead this pride, I had a duty to know everything that was coming our way. “Besides, there’s something about all this that isn’t right. How can a human—okay, a human that’s been turned into a lion through mating, even though I haven’t become a lion yet—just take over like that? Isn’t there someone else here who is next in line after the old duffer gives up the throne or whatever the hell you want to call it?” “Nefra is old, very old.” Levi sighed. “We only begin ageing after many centuries, and he has lived for several. It is time that he passed the responsibility to someone else. The book has deemed you are that person.” I sat up, the sheet bowed between my legs, and picked at a hangnail. “Look, what I don’t get is…shit, how did the book know centuries ago, when whoever wrote what they wrote, that I, some Londoner, needed to be the leader when Nefra gave it up?”

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I couldn’t get across exactly what I meant, but I felt it inside. I had a strong feeling I had never been “just human” but I couldn’t think how that would be so. I’d been brought up by Mum and Dad until I was fifteen and they’d been… Christ, I never let myself think about that these days, but I reckoned I’d have to now. They’d just goddamn disappeared, abducted the police reckoned, and for the past few days I’d known something was off about that. My aunt, Dad’s sister, had readily taken on my care until she, too, disappeared when I was eighteen. What were the odds of that? Three family members just vanishing? I’d just assumed, after thinking about it all one night after getting pissed out of my head, they’d got bored with looking after me and fucked off, but now? With all this lion disappearing crap going on? And me being a leader? “I see you have worked it out,” Levi said. I snapped my head around to face him. “You knew? And you didn’t tell me?” He frowned then raised his eyebrows in shock, realizing what I thought. “No! No, I did not

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know, but I see that your thoughts make sense.” I sagged with relief that Levi hadn’t kept this kind of information from me. If he had, I dreaded to think how that would have affected us. Trust would have gone out the window, I knew that much. “I think you need to read the book. And not just about what is to come, either.” Levi stroked my leg. “I only saw my own past and my own future. I had no inkling that you may have been a lion all along. I knew that by mating with you, your lion qualities would come to the fore, but I assumed that was what happened when a lion took a human mate. I had no idea…” I shook my head. “But I’ve never felt lion-ish in my whole fucking life.” I stopped picking at the hangnail. It was getting sore. “I mean, I’ve never felt strong and all roary and shit. I’ve felt weedy, a geek, someone with no strength.” “You do not have to be king of the jungle in all respects to be a lion. We have other qualities. You are strong, you proved that with the quest, and you are loyal. Your physical strength will peak when you shift, I suspect.”

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“And when will that be? Since we got here, I’ve only had a couple of dizzy spells. I’d have thought they’d have become more frequent the closer to shifting I got.” Levi frowned. “Yes, you would think that would be so.” He rose and got out of bed. “Come. I think it is time we visited Nefra and you saw the book.” I was lost on that bed by myself, sitting in the middle of the wide space, vulnerable and out of my damn depth. It was a lot to take in at once, if what I suspected about my parents and aunt was true. Where were they? In some zoo or killed? And if they had been captured, I knew without question I’d get on a damn plane and rescue them, however hard it would be. Quickly, I scuttled off the bed, not liking the feeling being on it by myself gave me. I wanted to be closer to Levi, to have his hand in mine or his arms around me. Pathetic, right? A leader needing the protection and comfort of his partner. Didn’t leaders need to be the type of people who could go it alone? “I did not mean to listen in to your thoughts then, my Dom, but I am worried about you. All

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the greatest leaders have a partner by their side, sharing the responsibility. I am fully prepared to do that for you. We will face the future together. Needing me for comfort is not a sin, nor does it show that you are weak. It just shows that you are human.” I laughed, reaching his side and holding him close. “I’m hardly bloody human, am I?” “You know full well what I meant. Come, let us shower and visit with Nefra.” **** The old lion sat in human form on a wooden throne in a room that resembled one I’d seen in a book once about Buckingham Palace. Nefra didn’t live in a castle or palace, more of a small stately home on the outskirts of the compound, but the ambience and lush furnishings gave the impression he was royalty. In a way, I supposed he was. In his lap sat a book, a surprisingly unblemished tome of burgundy leather, unworn, and I frowned. If it was centuries old, surely it would have a battered appearance.

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“The book is kept in a safe place, only taken out when it is really needed. We see what is necessary then replace it, hence its good condition,” Nefra said. Oh, so he can read my mind too? Great. Will any of my thoughts be bloody sacred? He chuckled. “Once you shift, you will also be able to read every lion’s mind whenever you feel it is necessary, because you are different to normal lions. Those who have elevated status can read everyone’s minds. It will be a bind at first, learning to tune them out, learning when to listen, but in time you will master it.” The question about my parents and aunt burned, and before I had a chance to voice my suspicions, Nefra spoke. “Yes, that is so. Your parents and aunt left this compound years ago when we last had…troubles. When your mother was pregnant with you. They feared that you would be in danger here, despite having read that you would return here to your rightful place. Perhaps they did not have total faith in the book. Perhaps their love for you before you were even born was so

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strong they did not wish to leave anything to chance.” Tears stung my eyes. Shit. Guilt over me thinking my parents and aunt had just fucked off gripped me. At the time, when they’d gone missing, I hadn’t. I’d believed they’d been taken from me for whatever messed up reason an abductor had, but as time wore on and the police hadn’t found them, I’d told myself they hadn’t been abducted at all, that they just hadn’t wanted the responsibility of me and left the Big Smoke. And why the hell had I thought that anyway? They’d been nothing but devoted to me throughout my childhood, my aunt too. God, I’d been a total prick in thinking what I had. “It was natural that you thought those things,” Nefra said. “Any one of us would, I believe. But now you know the truth.” He held up one hand. “Before you ask, they did not tell you of your legacy, of what you are because it was safer that way. The least you knew the better. And then they were all taken, captured…” I took a deep breath before asking what I really needed to know. “Are they alive?”

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“I have no idea. I am sorry I cannot tell you that they are. But it is written that you will search for them once you become leader.” I pointed at the book. “So open that and find out! Surely you should have looked at that already, checked whether they’ve been killed. You knew where Kaden was, so why not my family?” Nefra nodded slowly, as though he’d been having an internal conversation with himself and agreed with whatever he’d said. “The book may be written, but we cannot see the future of everyone. Only the person the future is meant for can be seen by the person it involves. Kaden’s mother was able to see her son’s future, where he had been taken. The truth appeared for her but not for others. Your parents, your aunt…there is no one here but you they are related to, so for many years we have been unable to unravel the mystery of their disappearances.” I nodded too. It made sense in a nonsensical way. “So I can look now and it will tell me where they are? Whether they’re…dead?”

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Did I really want to know if they were? “Yes, it will let you know if they are alive. Are you ready for what you might find out?” Nefra placed one hand on the book and rubbed the cover absently. “No, but I don’t really have much choice, do I?” “No.” Nefra lifted the book. “Good luck, Dominic Hurley.” He rose, handed the book to me, and moved toward the door. “I will return when you have finished reading. Then I must replace the book where it is safe.” I waited until he’d left the room before I looked at Levi. His face showed his concern, and his voice entered my mind. Would you prefer to be alone? Yes, no…I don’t know. Then I will sit here, and if you wish for me to leave, you only have to say. I nodded and walked over to the throne, staring at it a while before I sat down. It felt right to be sitting there somehow, but at the same time wrong. The Dominic Hurley I was now felt the same as the one who had been born and

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bred in London. Some nerd who had never amounted to much. Now I was expected to learn the ways of a pride and accept the fact that I would shift into a lion at some point and be a great principal. Could I do that? Fuck knows, but I’d give it a damn good try. Taking a deep breath, I opened the book, expecting to see words in that weird script Levi had written when penning that note to Kaden. Instead, I saw images, myself and Levi as we were in this room now, a movie on the goddamn pages. It startled the shit out of me. What was this, some kind of hi-tech book? No way had this volume been around for centuries. I snapped it shut and inspected it, looking for batteries or a place to insert an electrical cord. It is amazing, is it not? Levi asked. I looked over at him. “When you said it had been written, I thought…” I shook my head. “I thought I had been written.” Yes. I can see how you would have thought that.

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I turned away from him and opened the book again. I saw my parents, my aunt, their beloved faces filling the pages. They were smiling, and there I was in the background, a young kid with gaps in his teeth and hair that looked like it’d been cut using a mixing bowl as a template. The images shifted, faded into new ones, of three lions stretched out on scrubland, the grass corncolored as though a blazing sun had zapped out all the green. Did that mean they were alive? The images disappeared, and I flipped the pages in a frantic effort to see more of the same. They were all blank. You saw them, my Dom? Yes. As lions? Yes. Then they are alive. “Are you sure?” I asked, my voice a croak, my eyes burning. “Yes. Come here.” I rushed over to him, hurled myself into his arms, and hoped the shakes that rattled my bones would fuck off sooner rather than later.

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“Why didn’t it show me where they were? How come I only got a snippet? I wanted to look at them for longer. I wanted…” “I know. I understand. It was the same for me when I was shown I had a mate but not who you were.” He pressed his cheek to the top of my head and stroked my back. “The book only shows you what you can cope with. What it feels you need to know at this moment. Be honest; if you knew exactly where they were, you would leave here right now and go in search of them.” I nodded. “But you may well need to be a full lion before you can gain access to them. Before you are able to free them from wherever they are. You might only be able to get close to them by being a lion yourself. Do you understand?” I did, but it didn’t mean I had to fucking well like it. I pushed away from Levi gently and paced the room, wondering when the hell I’d actually shift. The sooner I did, the sooner I could go out on a new mission. A male cleared his throat, and I spun around to see Nefra standing in the doorway.

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“Are they…?” He eyed me nervously. “Alive, yes.” I smiled, my lips trembling. “Oh, that is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. You will shift soon, I feel. Have you accepted who and what you are? Fully?” “I think so.” “Then yes, you will shift soon.” He held out his hand for the book. I handed it over reluctantly. “You will know deep inside when to return to look inside the book again. It will call to you.” I smiled again and thanked him, then made a hasty exit. If I didn’t get out of there I’d turn into an emotional wreck in front of an old lion who didn’t need to see it. Not when he was handing me the reins of his kingdom in due course. Levi followed, his strides quick as he caught up with me. Outside, he took me around the side of the house and pressed me up against the wall. He stared at me, his penetrating gaze spearing right through me, seeking out whether I was all right or if I needed support. Fuck, I loved him. Really fucking loved him.

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“You’ll come with me?” I asked, knowing the answer but needing to hear it all the same. “Of course. I will be here when you shift, here to see you through it, and after you become leader you will consult the book again and we will go out and search.” “Together.” “Yes, together,” he said, covering my mouth with his. I gave in to him, allowed myself to relax in his arms and return the bone-melting kiss that once again had my legs like rubber. We’d find my people and bring them home if it was the last thing I ever did. Levi broke the kiss. “It will not be the last thing, my Dom Hurley. Remember, I have seen parts of our future.” “Yeah, and I’ve just seen a part of yours. If you don’t get the hell out of my head when you’re not meant to be there, Mate, I spy you doubled over after my knee meets with your groin.” He lifted his eyebrows and widened his eyes. “Surely you do not mean that. You would strike me?”

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I laughed, feeling good for letting some tension out. “Nah, I don’t mean it, but you catch my drift, yeah?” “Catch your drift? I do not understand this term.” I rolled my eyes and laughed harder. Fuck me, I had a lot to teach my mate.

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About The Author http://sarahmasters-charleyoweson.webs.com Sarah writes in many genres. Her love of fantasy and historicals often features in her work, and she leans toward the highly erotic. She lives in England with her adorable husband and children.

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