A Lion’s Mate by Eve Langlais
Chapter Fourteen
She was kissing him, and he kissed her back. Her body was on fire, craving something carnal, only to be interrupted as the door got slammed open. It hit the wall, and someone filled the empty space.
Danger.
Fluffy rose with a snarl, ready to eat the face of whoever had interrupted her. She seriously simmered.
Inside the doorframe, a very tall woman stood, staring at her. About her age and build, but with curly, blond hair, green eyes, and wearing a plaid shirt that seemed familiar.
Before she could blink, Zach blocked her from view. “Who the fuck are you? Get out of my room.”
“Get away from her, creep!” the woman warned. “We won’t let you hurt her.”
“I would never hurt her.”
“We heard her cry out.”
Fluffy peeked around him to say, “In pleasure.”
For some reason, this caused the woman to gape. And the more Fluffy stared at her, the more she felt as if they’d met.
It hit her suddenly. “I saw you this morning. You tried to follow me. It took me hours to lose you.”
Of course, Zach focused on the wrong part. “You left the room? I told you to behave.”
“Excuse me? You can’t order my cousin around, creep,” the blonde declared.
“Your cousin?” Zach exclaimed. “You know Fluffy?”
“What the fuck kind of name is Fluffy? It’s Arleen, asshole.” To which the woman turned to her and said, “Arleen, are you okay? We’ve been worried sick about you. You’ve been gone so long.”
The name acted as a trigger, a bolt of lightning that exploded her brain with memories.
It started with one that was familiar.
The dream where she and her mom went to the cave with the box. They’d followed some stupid pretend map in a book and ended up there. Laughing and loving the adventure together. Until the bear appeared.
But then the memory expanded, and she saw past her time living as little more than a savage, almost dying so many times.
The box had found a better guardian. A new bear, the cub of the one who’d died. It set her free.
She was found wandering into town one day, without her mother.
No real memory of what’d happened. Her family was so grateful to have her back. More memories unraveled, spinning and showing her finishing school and graduating, going to college. Getting a job. A life that followed the normal path but never fully satisfied her. She felt pulled elsewhere. Ten years after her return, she decided to go back to the cave as an adult, and was just as easily captured the second time, a puppet to the box. It turned her into a mindless slave. Someone who hunted and ate meat fresh from the kill.
An animal.
She gagged.
