Lion Conquers All by Krystal Shannan
35
CONNIE
“The smells are a lot.” Connie took Aarav’s hand and he helped her out of the truck. All the trees and the dirt and then there were the people. She could smell all the people, individually.
“It gets easier. Once you label them and just know what they are, it becomes like…” He paused, thinking. “Like what you call background noise.”
“Oh. Well, that makes sense.”
The smoke from the grills filled her lungs.
Food. The scent of meat made her mouth water and her inner lioness rumble.
The smell of all the people made her body antsy, but the scent she liked most of all was Aarav. She leaned against him, put her face against the soft flannel shirt he was wearing and breathed deep.
He bent and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.
A couple of exclamations of excitement rang out. People’s heads turned. Ava was one of the first to head their direction.
Connie let go of her mate to hug her friend. Ava smelled like pine and fur, but not like cat fur. The bear scent was very different.
“He warned us that the bite changed you, but it’s still strange to smell cat on you now.” Ava chuckled. “You have your own fangs to bare, now, huh?”
Connie laughed at the reference to their first meeting. “I’ll have to be sure I don’t just randomly do that around town when I’m annoyed, won’t I?”
“Mmmmhmmm.” Ava nodded. “It takes some practice.” She looked over at Aarav. “I’m glad you guys decided to come out tonight. Everyone is excited to see you both.” Ava’s gaze returned to Connie. “It’s been a stressful week waiting for you to wake up.”
The Tribe was standing around, waiting. Owen and Tara. Liam was here with his cousin. Wow.Guess he’s in the club now for real. Then she saw the Hardisty’s and the Roberts. Son of a two-headed fish. How was that a thing?
“Everything is okay with the…town?” Connie’s chest clenched just a little. “I see, ummmm, some people.”
Another laugh, this one a little strained. “Yeah. Well, that has been a difficult change for the Tribe, but the humans seem to be taking it in stride. The kids knew something was up and kept asking questions. Sam apparently was a math geek enough to know that only something as big as commercial-sized excavator would’ve been able to budge those rocks.”
“Naomi is beside herself but doing the best she can not to completely flip the fuck out. Liam’s cousin is also a recent addition to the inner circle of the Tribe. He’s kinda nice after you get to know him.”
“So, they all know? Everything?” Aarav asked, his tone low and gravelly in his chest.
Ava nodded and leaned against Ryder who had walked over to join them. No one else was approaching. Which was nice. Connie took a deep breath. It would’ve been so much harder if everyone had crowded her at once. Even though she knew them all. And she liked them. And she trusted them.
People in general were a lot.
“Yeah. Everyone here right now knows all the things.” Ryder put an arm around his mate and squeezed her against his side. “Connie. It’s good to see you up and around again.”
“You smell like a dog, kind of.” Connie slapped a hand over her mouth. Her face burned hot. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just—”
Ryder grinned wide, clearly not bothered by her outburst. “It’s okay, the others that went through the change had some of the same revelations. Don’t worry about it. Honestly, I never understood how you humans functioned barely being able to smell anything.”
The pressure released and the heat faded slowly from her cheeks. “You don’t miss what you never had.”
“True.”
“Food’s about ready? You hungry?” Ava gestured to the picnic tables that had been set up next to Col and Naomi’s cabin. The tablecloths were red and white checked. There were camp chairs spread around. And then the fire pit had also been lit. Several people were chilling there, including three young men Connie didn’t really recognize. Gretchen and Sam were standing next to them.
Hungry. Please eat.
“Who are they?” Connie asked, ignoring her beast again.
“The three younger wolves from Knox’s pack. They’ve decided to move toward being human more of the time than wolf.”
“Oh. They really are pretty young, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, about eighteen or nineteen, maybe twenty. We’re not really sure. That wasn’t something the pack tracked carefully.” Ryder took Ava’s hand and she and Aarav followed them back into the picnic area away from the cars.
Multiple people called her name and waved.
She waved back.
No-one rushed her.
They weren’t all asking her questions.
It was nice and the tenseness in her shoulders started to loosen just a little.
“See. They’re just happy to see you up and healthy.” Aarav leaned over and whispered into her ear.
“You told them not to crowd me, didn’t you?” She glanced up and met Aarav’s gaze.
His eyes glittered with a little gold. “It’s my job to take care of you, shuarra.”
Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision just a little. A few people stopped what they were doing and looked toward them.
Naomi and Col approached. Ava and Ryder moved away.
“We’re so glad you came tonight, Connie. We’ve missed you desperately. We want you to know that this is your home. We are your home. Anything you ever need, even if it’s just to talk or laugh with people who get it.” Naomi held out her arms, offering a hug— a hug Connie did want. Which surprised her.
She closed the gap between herself and the smaller woman, who smelled very strongly of fire. That really was the best way to describe it. Col did too. And she knew they were both dragons. But the smelling thing was new. And they were another new scent.
Naomi’s arms closed around her shoulders, and she hugged her tight. “Welcome to the family, sweetheart. You already were. You know that, right? Now it’s just super official.”
A tear rolled down Connie’s cheek.
“Thanks. I know you guys tolerated me cause I knew things, but—”
“We care very much about you Connie.” Col’s rumbly deep voice caught Connie off-guard. “Naomi is correct. You were already family. The difference now is that you recognize it and want it.”
Connie released Naomi and stepped back into Aarav’s side. “Thank you. I really appreciate you saying it. I do. You don’t know how much it means to me. I don’t really have anyone else. I just had this town and I tried to take care of everyone.”
Naomi smiled. “And you did. The town loves you, Connie. But now we get to take care of you. Aarav gets to take care of you. Which he is quite pleased about, I might add.”
Connie coughed out a laugh. Heat warmed her face again.
Aarav squeezed her into a side hug.
“It’s good to be home. Unless…the town…is…”
Naomi shook her head. “Except for our newly sworn-to-secrecy humans. Everything is fine. The Roberts smoothed everything out, explained everything away. We’re not going anywhere. The Hardisty’s are surprisingly very chill. They don’t really have any family either, so I think us taking them into the group really meant a lot to the two of them. And…”
Naomi’s smile grew even larger. “Aarav is the new sheriff. The Roberts pulled some strings and Sarah got her brother removed and sent off to a rehab down in Washington somewhere. And there’s a new Reylean in town from the Seattle Tribe who’s stepping into the deputy position.”
“What?” Connie turned and looked up at Aarav’s face. He had a huge grin splitting his face. “Why didn’t you tell me. And what guy? The Seattle tribe was all a bunch of dragons.”
Everyone was silent.
A dragon.
Another dragon in Mystery. Cause two weren’t enough?
Connie breathed deeply. It was fine, right. If the tribe wasn’t worried, she shouldn’t be either.
“It was a surprise for tonight. My promotion and him joining the department and the town.”
“Right. Well. I’m surprised out for now. Can we eat? Seriously, my inside-my-head-friend is about to gnaw off someone’s leg.” Avoidance would work for now. Everything was fine. Everything was amazing, actually.
“Right this way!” Naomi said, grabbing Connie’s hand and pulling her away from Aarav. And she was good with it. In fact, she felt great as long as she shoved all her worrying about the tribe and the town to the side.
She really did need to loosen up a little.
She had all the things she never thought she’d have.
Family. Friends. Love.
That was what really mattered.
That was what really had healed her broken heart and mind.
Love.
Love from Aarav.
Love from the tribe.
Love and acceptance of the journey she was on with herself.
Each day was a new one and for the first time in a really long time, she was excited to meet them and see where they led her.
The End
Sign up for Krystal’s VIP mailing list for access to lots of exclusive not-for-sale-anywhere stories, free books and more.
www.