Page 23 of Her Lion Lover

Leo just couldn't seem to sit still. Normally, on his days off, he'd shift and run around the estate in his beast form, but he couldn't do that with Lily here. It was enough to make him want to go into the office and work.

If he had a cottage at Hea Sanctuary, he'd be able to take off and run around there instead, but it would be a long time before that was a reality.

Maybe he could persuade his mother to send Lily out on some errands in town. Picking up the dry cleaning, or buying a new dress for the next charity ball he'd no doubt been invited to, which meant she'd have to come, too.

He hurried downstairs to his mother's morning room, where she always sat to have her first cup of tea of the day. He found her sorting the mail, a half-full teacup at her elbow.

"Is there anything interesting?" he asked. "Any invitations to events Lily will need a new dress for?"

Mother glanced up over the top of her reading glasses. "No. Apparently, she's not even going to her own graduation. She had her degree posted here instead. Did you know our housekeeper is also a licensed engineer?"

An engineer? Why was she working as a housekeeper? Engineers could earn way more money, or at least the ones Pride Holdings contracted did.

Even more reason to send her away, so she wouldn't see anything that would reveal his secret.

"Could you ask her to go and pick up my drycleaning?" he asked. "Or take my suits out for drycleaning, then pick them up?" Whatever got her off the property.

"It's the poor girl's day off. If it's so important to you, take your own drycleaning into the village. You might even see her there. She's gone out, she said, and she won't be back until dark."

"She's gone?" he blurted out.

Mother returned to sorting the mail. "That's what she said. So if you're getting the zoomies like some common house cat, I suggest you shift sooner rather than later, so you can get it out of your system before the poor girl comes home."

"Yes, Mum."

Leo didn't wait. He was out the door and headed for the woods within moments, running as fast as his legs would carry him. Once he reached the shelter of the trees, he shed his clothes and shifted to paws. He'd come back for the Felix 5000, once he'd had a proper run through the forest. Maybe even a successful hunt...there were way too many deer about. One less couldn't be a bad thing.

He leaned forward to snuffle at the leaf litter, to see if he could scent some suitable prey. A deer would do, if he couldn't find a boar. Even a rabbit or a badger, but they weren't as much of a challenge as a big buck or a boar with some fight in them.

Only...it wasn't prey he smelled.

MATE! His senses went into overdrive, no longer hungering for the taste of some animal. His mate had been in these woods, and recently, too. Perhaps she was still here.

He forgot about Lily, his uncle and Pride Holdings, even Hea Sanctuary. No, his thoughts were consumed entirely with the hunt, and what his mate would taste like when he caught her.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Apparently, the only place to dance in the village was at the pub, and the music was from an old jukebox that had been old when Alicia had first moved to Moray Castle. Yet Lily had dutifully trooped upstairs to change into a dress suitable for dancing with her newly minted Bachelor of Engineering in the envelope tucked under her arm.

Alicia had even graciously offered her the use of the castle's collection of cars, so she wouldn't have to walk to the village. Lily had seen all the fancy cars lined up in the old stables, but she wasn't game to drive any of them. Plus the village pub was probably home to a bunch of drunk old men, the sort she didn't want staring at her as she danced. Or worse, joining her. It was like the masquerade ball all over again – she wanted to dance, but she wanted to do it outside, alone, where there was space to move and no one to judge. Somewhere like Moray Castle's ballroom, if the place hadn't been shrouded in dust sheets.

So when she headed out the front door, instead of taking the drive to the garage or the gate, she headed for the woods. All she needed was a small clearing, where she could dance her heart out with no one watching.

As if in answer to her unspoken prayer, a path led from the garden gate, through the trees, to a clearing almost as big as the ballroom in the house. The sort of place where she imagined the castle's medieval residents might have celebrated bonfire night, or some pagan ritual.

She'd brought a tiny portable speaker, but there was no way that would work for such a large space, so Lily slipped on a pair of earbuds instead, cranking up the volume just enough before tucking her phone into her pocket. She wanted to get lost in the music, and with no one around, it would be perfectly safe to not pay any attention to her surroundings. Any sensible wild animal would sense her clumsy stomping a mile away, and head in the opposite direction.

Right. She had the perfect song at the start of her favourite dancing playlist. It was time to celebrate.

"This one's for you, Dad," she whispered as she began to dance.

TWENTY-NINE

At the edge of the clearing, Leo stopped. In the exact spot where he'd normally place the Felix 5000 stood the prey every shifter dreamed of, but few found.

His fated mate.

Only she wasn't standing still, she was dancing. Just as irresistibly as she had at the masquerade ball.

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