A Lion’s Mate by Eve Langlais

Chapter Six

What happened was, Fluffy caught Zach when he fell asleep at the worst possible time. Who napped during an attack?

She’d slung him over her shoulders with no idea where to go or what to do. She did something she was good at. She ran. The problem being, she couldn’t camouflage with him on her back.

They drew attention, and try as she might, too many eyes watched. She couldn’t hide. Oh, how she wanted to. The city was a terrifying place, and a bit of relief filled her when the attackers caught up and shot her with a whole bunch of the sleepytime things. She enjoyed a good nap, really wished she could sleep some more since she’d woken bound hand and foot on pavement. She went a little nuts and bellowed to wake the dead.

Or, in this case, Zach, who emerged from his stupor with a roar, his eyes bloodshot, and his expression crazy. He snapped his bonds when he shifted into his beautiful cat. Despite his earlier admonition about not eating people, he apparently had no problem ignoring that rule.

Which led to more of the humans shooting them full of some more sleepy stuff.

The next time she woke, she was with Zach in a cage. The more they fed her the drug, the less it affected her. He appeared to have recovered faster, too.

He quickly shook off his sleepiness. “Help me out here. Who caught us?”

“Humans.”

“They put us in this cage?”

She shrugged. “Sleeping. Didn’t see.” But their scent was all over it.

“Did those humans say anything to you that you remember?”

She shook her head.

“Was this about the artifact?”

She lifted her shoulders. She had no idea what they wanted.

Zach moved so he could balance on his haunches. He reached out to touch the bars. “No electricity, which is good. Bad news is that this is some heavy-duty shit.” He felt the metal and tested its strength.

She could have told him not to bother, but she was going through a bit of a shock. For one, since she’d woken, she’d discovered more and more of her memories had come back.

She knew things. Knew they were in the storage hold of a plane. Knew she was a woman. He was a man. That they were in a cage with a lock.

But she still had no memory of her name or anything else. When it came to life, everything started in that cave. Only she couldn’t have said at what age. Sometimes, she remembered herself as a child—scared, and at the same time, endlessly courageous. Then she’d flip from that very young age to now with nothing in between. As if she’d grown overnight.

Who am I? She had a sense of self with nothing to fill it.

Zach had finished his circuit of the cage. It wasn’t a long tour.

He crouched in front of her. “We need to get out of this before we land, and they put us back to sleep.”

She made a noise.

“Yes, I know that’s an obvious plan, but it’s something to work with.”

“No key.” She pointed out the obvious.

“I just need something sharp to pick the lock.” But search as he might, he didn’t find anything. The only way they’d exit this cage was if someone opened it.

She settled in to wait. It took him a while before he admitted defeat and joined her.

“We’ll have to find a way to get someone to open the door. Maybe you can distract them while I take them out.”

She snorted.

“What? You want me to distract them while you take them out?” He lifted a brow. “Is this because I’m the naked one, ‘cause I will remind you, that’s my shirt you’re wearing.”

Her turn to lift an eyebrow.

“Keep it and save the stripping in case my distraction doesn’t work.”

“Where are we going?” she asked.

The complete sentence took him by surprise. “You got your tongue back.”

“Remembering pieces,” she admitted.

“Do you remember how you got in that cave?”

“My mother took me so I could see it.” The only clear memory she had. Kind of. She couldn’t see her mother’s face.

“How long ago did she take you?”

She shrugged.

“What happened to your mother?” He clearly assumed tragedy.

He was right. “Bear.”

“Oh. Fuck.” A sincere thing to say. “Why were you in the cave with the artifact?”

“Box.”

He nodded.

“Protect.”

“You’re its guardian?”

She nodded. “Find it.” The box needed her.

“Find it and do what?” he asked.

She paused because she didn’t actually know the answer. It emerged hesitantly. “I guess it would need another hiding spot.” But did she want to devote her life to guarding it? No.

She tried to feel sorry about that and couldn’t. Even with being caught, she’d already experienced so much. Was starting to remember, too. She didn’t have to live in a cave all alone, eating whatever raw meat she hunted. The box was gone. She was free.

Or would be if she wasn’t in a cage.

Zach was right. They needed a way out.

The cadence of the plane’s engines changed.

“We’re starting our descent. Which shape do the kidnappers know you in? Woman or yeti? Because that’s the one you should be wearing when they come to get us.”

“Both.”

“Oh.” He rubbed his chin. “All right, then. We’ll need to deal with anyone who’s seen both your shapes. Once we get free, I’ll call it in to the Pride, and someone will send a cleaning crew. Pretty sure the protocol on yetis being outed is the same as lions.”

She remembered his feline. “Your coloring is unique.” Dark compared to the usual tawny golden.

“I get it from my mother’s side.”

He still hadn’t clued in. “The attackers saw your lion,” she pointed out.

“Er…what?”

“The first time you woke, you freaked and roared. It was very loud, and you were furry. You have a big mane.”

“Fuck.” A word he used quite a bit, despite it being bad. “Guess it doesn’t matter now then which they see. They all have to die.”

“All of them?”

“Anyone who’s seen or heard of us shifting.”

She blinked. “That’s a lot of people. And isn’t killing wrong?

“Depends on how you look at it. Their deaths could save thousands.”

“Even if you could, how?” They were stuck.

“I have a plan, but I need your help.” He leaned forward as if afraid he might be overheard. “So, listen, that camouflage thing you do? Can you do it on demand? Say, hide well enough that the people offloading us think you’re out of the cage?”

Hide in the open? “Maybe. I don’t know.” All she knew was that he kept calling her a yeti, but that didn’t feel right. I am… It eluded her.

She didn’t know what or who she was. Yet. But she did know that she trusted Zach, and at least he had a plan.

Only once they heard the machinery for the cargo area did he give her a nod.

Time to hide. She crouched to make herself smaller and then hid. Waited, as did Zach, sitting with his legs crossed, hands on his knees, eyes closed. Appearing nonchalant, even when the machine grabbed hold of the cage and started yanking it. The movement made it hard to hide. Thankfully, nobody came to peek at them until they had been loaded onto a luggage cart.

Since it was night, there were plenty of shadows. But someone still noticed. A very deep voice said, “Where the fuck is the girl?”

Zach lifted his head, smiled, and then said, “I ate her.” Then he lunged with a human roar.

The guy shot his dart gun, never realizing that he missed because Zach slumped over and lay still.

The attackers opened the cage so the guy could climb inside for a peek. That was the one Zach tackled as she dove out the door and took care of his partner.

She pounced on him, and they hit the ground hard.

Well, he did anyway. She was on top, adrenalized. And after that long flight, in need of a snack.

Would she get in trouble with Zach if she had a quick bite? The attacker’s neck looked succulent.

“No,” Zach snapped as he stepped out of the cage, still nude and looking very nice.

“What are you?” blubbered the fellow in English.

Her grumble conveyed hunger.

“No time. Let’s go before someone notices.”

Zach grabbed her hand, and they ran, with her fur receding until she pounded the ground barefoot, his shirt fluttering around her frame.

As they bolted, a voice spoke up, shrill with alarm. “They’re getting away.”

“What idiot opened the cage?”

Bang.

The idiot was probably gone.

They ducked around the corner of a building but kept running. They didn’t stop until they were in a massive parking lot. A good thing she had a memory of seeing one before, or she might have been a little more awed. Within the ranks, they crouch-ran, him leading the way. She didn’t know what he was looking for until he stopped at an older car. The kind with a long back end. He popped the trunk and rummaged, pulling out a bag stuffed with different clothes.

At her questioning look, he said, “Shifters always keep spares in their trunk. This belongs to a wolf, but it will do.”

The wolf was built on the smaller side than them both. On her, the clothes were short and tight. On him?

She snickered. The fabric for the top and bottom molded him oddly. The pinkness emphasizing the bold lettering. Cutie. Printed on both the ass and the chest.

“Don’t you dare laugh,” he threatened as they kept moving.

“I think you look great.” Better than great, and not just because he was the first person she’d truly connected with in a long while.

He was handsome. And she couldn’t help but be aware of him. He didn’t know that while he lay in her lap, she’d stroked his hair. Learned his features by touch—another person.

Her skin tingled where they were connected. She loved the feel of his hand laced with hers.

As they threaded through the cars, he stated, “I know where we are.”

“How?”

He pointed. “License plates put us in Jersey. Jersey airport, to be exact. Meaning, they smuggled us internationally. The Pride will want to know about this. This kind of live poaching needs to be stopped.”

The word poaching brought a shiver. “People hunt us.” It sounded wrong to say it aloud. She was supposed to be tracking and trapping her prey.

“People have always hunted animals for food or sport. Getting caught by them is our fault because we know hunting season. We know how to stay safe. The ones we’ve got to really watch for are those interested in us because we can swap into fur.”

“Because we frighten.”

“Partially. But there’s also a fear that the humans might see us as something they can use.”

“So, we hide.”

“Yes, we hide. And, lucky for you, I know just the place.”