Lion Conquers All by Krystal Shannan

2

CONNIE

Connie paused her CPR instructions to the gymnasium full of parents and teachers and took a sip of the cold and delicious drink in her hand. Coffee was the essence of life—well, at least her life.

Rain or snow or shine, that beautiful Reylean man left her a caramel macchiato from Lily’s on her porch railing every morning. If the weather was bad, he put it right beside her door jamb.

It didn’t matter though. She still wasn’t interested in a relationship, beautiful man or not.

And she had reminded him of that on multiple occasions. She refused to be a girl that led on a man, but he refused to listen. He wasn’t rude about it. Or pushy. He would smile and nod and tell her he understood.

Understood what?

How could he understand anything? He didn’t know anything about her…except what her favorite drink was. And then there were all the other things. Little things, but noticeable things.

Food. Small gifts here and there for no apparent reason.

Her woodpile next to the house never ran out.

Her lawn was mowed every week during the summer.

And somehow he knew when anything broke or needed to be fixed in her house. She was quite convinced that he had somehow paid off Henrietta down at the local grocer/hardware store to inform on her. Traitor.

The bear was in cahoots with him too.

Aarav wouldn’t show up to fix anything inside her house, but Owen would. Big heavy knock on her door. Tara was always with him. They would chat and Owen would fix—whatever it was. At least Owen never came by himself. She trusted him, but it would be so uncomfortable. She really did hate being alone with men, even men who weren’t interested in her.

“Connie, is it five breaths and then twelve compressions?”

Oh, dear Lord have mercy.

She took another swig of heaven in a cup and walked toward Gaven Hardisty—an English teacher at the local Mystery high school and single dad to a teenage girl that could give most survivalists a run for their money.

She gave him the instructions again, readjusted his dummy on the floor so the chin was up, then strolled through the room helping others for a few minutes before circling back to Gavin’s side. His dummy’s chin was down again and the man looked flustered.

“You okay, Gavin?”

He looked up, meeting her gaze. “Oh, yes. Thanks.” He pushed up his black-framed glasses. “I thought I was going to get to spend some time with Gretchen over this last week before school goes back. She texted and said she wasn’t coming back in from the blind where she camped out yesterday and not to worry. Which is good. I appreciate her keeping me updated. It just…”

“Sorry.” Connie couldn’t think of anything else to say. He was a good dad. He tried. His daughter was dealing with grief and that wasn’t an easy task.

He looked back down at his dummy. “It’s fine. She’s been hard to connect with since her mom—my wife—died last year. They did all the outdoor stuff together. And now it seems like that’s all Gretchen wants to do. It’s her way of coping. I get that. I just miss her. I miss them both.”

Connie stifled the urge to put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. Touching a man invited him to touch back. And that was something she didn’t want.

“I’m sure it will get better.” Connie stepped back. “You know there’s a great family counseling group here at the MCC that Katherine set up. Maybe that would be something good for you and Gretchen to attend together? Maybe it would help?”

“Maybe. Thanks. I need to talk to Katherine and get some more information about it. I forgot it was here.” He gave her a reassuring smile. A smile that let her know it was safe to move on with class. A smile that said he was okay. For now.

She walked down the row, complimenting and correcting form.

“What are your boys up to, Helen?” Connie took another sip of her coffee. Helen Tragher had five teenage boys and they were constantly in Connie’s office for one gash or another. The last injury had been a slice to one of their thighs because they were experimenting with making spears and throwing them. “How’s Darren’s leg?”

“You wouldn’t even know he had an injury.” Helen snorted out a laugh and looked up from the CPR dummy. “When they got out of school two Friday’s ago, they made an archery range behind the barn. I’m quite convinced they were pretending to be Legolas from Lord of the Rings along with a half dozen other boys. There were capes, Connie. I saw capes and then I closed the blinds and prayed. I’ve had boys camping out in my barn since summer school got out. I keep the fridge stocked with soda and meat. Then throw a bag of chips at them every so often.”

Connie laughed hard. The scene playing in her head with a pile of teenage boys running around with capes, bows, and arrows was hilarious. She hoped they were only shooting at designated targets. Helen’s boys were smart, but they were daredevils and very good at getting others to follow along. “Oh, to be a fly on that wall.”

Helen shook her head. “You don’t want to know how bad they smelled. I told Oscar not to let anyone further than the bathroom behind the kitchen without telling them they had to shower. But mostly they stay outside. We have a fully functioning bathroom in the barn. That saves our house all the time. Especially when they come in from the woods and smell like something that died a week ago.”

Connie laughed again, knowing exactly what smell Helen was referring to. Nothing smelled quite the same as over-ripened-boy. “Alright, guys. Let’s rotate the dummies. If you have an infant, move up to the child-size, if you have a child, move up to the adult. And if you started with the adult, you get the infants. Turn to the correct tab in your booklets and begin practicing breaths first. Then we’ll talk about compressions again.”

The large gymnasium fluttered with movement, shoes squeaked on the well-oiled floor, footsteps echoed, and all the teachers and random parents that had signed up for the class swapped the dummies around to the different tables and got right to work.

At this pace, she would easily have them moving into the First-Aid portion of the certification before lunch. She was pleased with that progress. The more people she could educate in town, the better Mystery would fare since she was the only medical personnel in town currently. The town committee really needed to prioritize recruiting a family physician.

“Connie, will you offer this class again soon? My daughter wanted to take it too, but had a conflict for today.”

“Oh, yes. I can probably schedule another one for a couple months down the road. It’s August, so maybe late in October?”

“Oh, good. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

The door at the back of the gym swung open and Katherine walked in from the kitchen. Knox was right next to her and so was Penny. Knox had two of Penny’s babies in his arms and each woman was carrying another one. Penny had delivered quadruplets right before Halloween last year—two girls and two boys.

It’d been touch and go there for the last baby, but Penny was a fighter and so was that last little girl. They both looked energetic and full of life now. All of them did. They were beautiful and growing so fast. They would all be a year old in a couple more months.

Connie walked down the center of the gym between the tables toward the approaching Tribe members. Penny was human, but everyone else was Reylean, or at least had a Reylean beast inside them. Katherine had been human, but was now a wolf.

Connie wasn’t exactly sure how all that worked, but it was scary to think about. Katherine wasn’t the only woman the Tribe had changed.

Outside of Katherine’s stand-in-father—Harrison—she was the only unmated human that knew what a Reylean was.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Connie reached for Mia, taking her from Knox’s arms and snuggling the baby close, peppering her head with kisses.

The other babies clamored for the same affection and she made her way to each, trading one out of her arms and another one into her arms until she had snuggled and kissed all over all four of them.

She took every opportunity to love on other people’s babies whenever possible. A small part of her hurt every time she saw one, but another part of her wanted to share in the new parent’s joy. Just a little. Just to have a hint of what it would’ve felt like to have a child.

“They love you so much.” Penny brushed a lock of curly blonde hair from Erik’s face.

Connie grinned, devilish thoughts of mischief blossomed in her mind like a child left alone in a candy shop. “They know their auntie Connie will spoil them.” She had to take pleasure in the blessings of those around her.

“They aren’t even one. You can’t spoil them that much yet.”

“Oh, but they know it’s coming.”

Penny’s mouth turned up into a grin that said she knew exactly how badly Connie planned to spoil her children and she was fine with it. “We wanted to ask you over for Sunday night dinner. It’s the whole group this week. We will be at Col and Naomi’s.”

“Oh, I—” The whole group meant the other men would be there. The new lions. Aarav would be there.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I will see you guys next week at your place…if that’s okay?”

“You know he won’t mind if you come. I can’t believe the control he’s shown. It’s been almost eight months, Connie. If he was going to be pushy, he would’ve already been.”

“I don’t feel comfortable being around him. It’s not fair. I know what the you-know-what does to you guys.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I can’t be what he wants me to be. Ever.”

“That’s not true, Connie. But we all respect your choice, Aarav most of all. Please don’t cut yourself off from us. We consider you family.” Katherine put a hand on Connie’s shoulder and looked her straight in the eye. “Please come.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good.” Penny chirped out the word like an excited songbird.

“Why did you come all the way out here to ask me this? You could’ve texted.” Connie patted her leg. Her cell was safely tucked in the big cargo pocket on the side of her pants.

“And you would’ve said no, as soon as you heard it was everyone.”

True.I still want to say no. I still should say no.

“Bring your amazing caramel pie. It’s not a family BBQ without it.” This time it was Knox who spoke up. He didn’t try to reach for her or touch her. She didn’t like men touching her and it always amazed her that the guys in the Tribe never did. Never tried, either. To them, it was the most normal thing in the world.

Of course it helped that in their world, men didn’t touch any woman that wasn’t their mate.

Connie had to give extra points to the alien warriors for having excellent personal boundary laws. It made her life so much easier when she did spend time with the Tribe. Earth men could really learn a thing or two from them.