Page 11 of Her Lion Lover

He emerged inside a bare passageway, the sort that was meant to be used only by servants and not the lord of the castle. The clatter of utensils on metal and the smell of something overcooked told him the kitchen was in that direction, so the ballroom must be the other way. The sound of voices spurred him on, before the words became clearer, and he stopped dead.

"You look like shit." That was definitely Uncle Jeremy's voice.

"Well, so would you if you'd just gone several rounds with a dragon. How did he even get on the property? I'm going to have to fire my whole security team after this. If I wasn't a shifter, he would have killed me," Tremotino slurred, almost like he was drunk.

Tremotino wasn't a shifter. He was human, or as least he had been the last time Leo saw him. Unless someone had bitten him and he'd become one. In that case, Tremotino was lucky to have survived the bite and subsequent transformation. Most humans didn't, and many of the ones who did went mad, or failed to transform back into human form afterward. The exceptions were those who had shifter ancestry, but not enough shifter genes to complete the transformation themselves. That's why all supernatural births, matings, and successful transformations were recorded by a team of lore keepers, who both maintained the records and made them available to the supernatural community, as required. Leo had never had any contact with the lore keepers, but he supposed he would now he'd found his mate.

"Well, you know you owe me for that. I hope you're still holding up your end of our bargain," Uncle Jeremy said.

"For how much longer? You said it would only be a couple of weeks, and it's been more than three months. I'm losing money on this deal, I hope you realise. It better not be much longer."

"Relax. Your party tonight should be the last nail in my nephew's coffin. Not only is he theTimesBachelor of the Year, but he's a gay playboy who's been hiding his true sexual proclivities from everyone. The papers will eat it up with a spoon, and the board will kick him out so fast, he might actually need a parachute." Uncle Jeremy laughed. "Once he's gone, we'll both sign the paperwork, and we can look forward to a profitable future working together. This silly sanctuary will never happen, and all the shifters who see it fail will fall all over themselves to buy into your shifter-only community instead. By the time they realise they'll be in the middle of a huge housing development instead of virgin forest, filled with ordinary humans, it'll be too late for them to back out, and we'll already have all their money. We can't lose."

No. Pride Holdings prided itself on its reputation for delivering high quality projects that were exactly as advertised, not pulling a bait and switch on its customers. Pride Holdings would never work with Tremotino and his dodgy dealings. Not now, not ever. It would ruin the company's reputation, and send them broke in a year. Two, at most. Not to mention Hea Sanctuary had been his dad's dream, and Leo would deliver on this project if it killed him. For his dad. Damn Uncle Jeremy for shitting on Dad's legacy. How dare he?

Leo clenched his fists, willing himself not to shift, because he knew if he did, he'd maul both Tremotino and Uncle Jeremy. They might both be shifters, but not even a shifter would survive his claws. He'd make sure of it. But that was the problem, wasn't it? Uncle Jeremy was dad's brother, a shifter who couldn't shift, and Tremotino was...a bitten shifter, even weaker than his uncle.

Only a small step up from ordinary humans, really – the sort of people Mum and Dad had always told him to protect. That was the duty of supernatural people like himself – to protect the world from the supernatural who would prey on them, preserving the secret of their existence. It would be like killing a puppy – something Leo just couldn't do.

His claws retracted and his shoulders slumped. What was he doing here, anyway? He should go back to the motel room, get a good night's sleep, and go find his mate in the morning. With her at his side, everything would come clear and he'd see his way through untangling this plot between Tremotino and Uncle Jeremy.

No worries.

FOURTEEN

Lily woke up early, put the finishing touches on her final project and submitted it, before changing into her work uniform and heading down to the cafeteria. She wasn't surprised to find it practically empty – most of the students had been at the ball last night, and they probably wouldn't emerge until lunchtime.

"Do you want me to fill the soft serve machine before I bring out more plates for the lunch service?" Lily asked Brenda, the head cook.

Brenda shook her head. "Haven't you heard? The school's closing early. All the students have to leave before noon. Even the staff are supposed to be out of here by the end of the business day. If you want a ride in one of the student coaches, you should go and pack your things now. Don't worry about work. We're only packing things into the deep freeze, or dividing up what won't keep to take home with us. Thank the heavens no one had mixed up any of the soft serve mix this morning before the announcement came."

Lily nodded slowly. "Probably for the best. We wouldn't want anyone getting mauled by the lion."

"Lion? What lion? The school's closing because a girl disappeared from the ball last night. I've heard plenty of wild stories, up to and including some hysterical girls saying Rapunzel got kidnapped by a dragon who flew off with her, but if you ask me, some of them probably had a few too many cocktails or inhaled some fairy dust, if you know what I mean."

Dragons. Lions. Now kidnapping? Lily wasn't sure what to make of any of this. "Do you know the name of the girl who went missing?" Eden had been talking about Diana going missing at the last ball, but that wasn't last night. Unless the police had decided that Diana really had gone missing, and they'd just started to investigate now...

"It was one of the scholarship girls. Someone with no family to send her things to. One of the maids was grumbling about it earlier. Some sort of garden name...Eden, I think."

First Diana, now Eden? That was definitely suspicious. Especially as Eden had been asking questions about Diana's disappearance. Maybe she'd been right, and Diana hadn't eloped after all.

Lily wasn't sure what was worse – being mauled by a lion, or kidnapped by heaven knew who. Eden wasn't the type to elope. Her big dream was to run an animal sanctuary, as Lily well knew. She wouldn't give that up for some guy she'd only met last night.

"Go pack. See you when school comes back next term," Brenda said.

Lily nodded obediently and headed out. It wasn't until she was well past the student rooms and on her way up the stairs to her own that she remembered she wouldn't be coming back. Assuming her final project received a high enough grade, she'd be graduating this year. Oh well, if she packed quickly, she could stop by the kitchen and say goodbye to Brenda and the others before she climbed onto the coach.

She wondered if she'd see the lion in daylight, or whether he'd hunted overnight, and was now sleeping off his meal in the woods somewhere. A deer or a rabbit, she hoped, and not someone as nice as Eden. Candace or Anna or Elsa, maybe, but not Eden.

Lily sighed. No, probably not even them. Just because they were mercenary people who cared more about money than anything else didn't mean they deserved to be mauled to death by a wild animal.

Besides, those girls wouldn't be her problem any more. She'd get to go home, and all she had to do was wait for confirmation that she'd graduate, before restarting her parents' business. Her days of mopping up milk were over.

With a smile lifting her lips, Lily made quick work of her packing, and made it to the coach without having to run. Completely the opposite to last night. Things were definitely looking up.

FIFTEEN

So much for no worries. Leo's head was full of them by the time he reached the motel.

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