Page 4 of A Lion's Heart
CHAPTER 1
20 Years Later
Oasis
“She’s young,” First Female Kalina Reynolds told her husband, Assembly Leader Roman Reynolds.
“She’s smart,” he replied.
Kalina nodded. “She’s tenacious.”
Rome agreed before adding, “And stubborn.”
“Intelligent,” Kalina said as she moved across the room.
“Beautiful.” Rome followed her. “She is the best of both of us and the best Topétenia guard of this generation.”
Then the composure that she was known for possessing, the cool and always in control leader that the Assembly had come to expect whenever their First Female was around, slipped.
“I don’t care about that, Rome. She’s our baby and we’re letting her go into unchartered territory with a lion. We’re campaigning for first place in the bad parenting department.”
Rome knew it was coming and had been waiting patiently while she took her time admitting what was obvious. He resisted the urge to smile and stepped closer to hiscompanheiro’sside, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. After all this time with her he still couldn’t believe she was standing by his side. So much had happened in the years since he first met Kalina in his office at the law firm. Some good things and some bad, but everything—from that very first day—impacted them together. One unit. One joining. With one daughter. The love of their lives.
“We’re doing what is necessary,” he said. “You were the one who came to me advising that she was restless.”
“Well, we should have found her a hobby. Not send her off to another part of the world, to do who knows what. The very unstable world that we now live in, I might add.”
Her hands had been clasped in front of her. Now they moved as she folded her arms across her chest and then dropped them again only seconds later. Before he could speak her hands were moving once more, this time to link at the back of her neck as she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.
“I do not regret coming to you after seeing how unhappy she was,” Kalina said finally, rotating her head and then letting her arms fall heavily to her sides. “But I did not expect this. You very wisely waited until the last minute to tell me about a new assignment.”
Rome leaned in to kiss her at the temple. He inhaled the sweet floral scent that was distinctly Kalina’s and shook his head.
“None of us expected things to turn out like this,” he said quietly.
“Magdalena’s prediction came too late,” she replied, turning slightly to look up to him.
“Yes, Baxter delivering the news from the Seer was ill-timed. Her prediction of death and destruction. The complete end of the race or a catastrophic change in who and what we were. All of that should have been known to us sooner. However, I don’t know what we might have done differently,” he said.
“I might not have wanted a child as much as I did,” she commented quietly.
They both looked through the soundproof glass shield that served as a window stretching the length of the main hall of Assembly Headquarters, where their daughter stood. Oasis was where they had been living for the last twenty years since the shifters had been unveiled to the world. The underground haven had begun as a series of tunnels to carry the shifters quickly from one place to another secretly. The night that all hell—or rather all the shadow tribes—had broken loose, those plans changed and for the last twenty years Commanding Officer Nick Delgado, as head of security for the Assembly, had worked alongside the other Faction Leaders to turn the tunnels into the shifters’ underground world.
Nobody knew they were here, no humans and no shifter that wasn’t in agreement with them and their desire to keep a low profile during the continued unrest above ground in the human world.
“We both wanted her and we’re both proud of her,” Rome stated solemnly.
Their daughter was a beautiful twenty year-old with her whole life ahead of her. She was packing the back of a black Tracer which was one of the Shadows’ vehicles that were specially re-designed for them and their new way of life underground. Among the many shifters in Oasis, a Bosinian couple who at one time had worked for a large automotive company above ground, had technologically enhanced the SUVs the Shadow guards and enforcers drove. They created the Tracer, Wrangler and Attacker vehicles for them to use on the mostly matted clay roads throughout the tunnels. Guard teams mostly drove the Tracer. Enforcers and upper level command used the Attacker, while the Wrangler was designed solely for personal use.
Nisa Reynolds was scheduled to drive her Tracer from Assembly Headquarters in the eastern zone to Central Headquarters located just beneath the state of Texas where Jace, the Pacific Zone Faction Leader and acting Central Zone Faction Leader, was waiting to meet her. Jace and Rome had worked together for going on thirty-five years now. He was a friend and Rome trusted him with his life. Now, Rome thought heavily, he was trusting him with his daughter’s life.
“She can do this,” Rome said. “I trust that she can get the job done.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Kalina replied. “You’ve taught her everything there is to know about being a good leader. What I’m more concerned about is how well she’s going to adapt to taking instructions from someone other than you and Eli. And what’s going to happen to the person who has to teach her that lesson.”
That person was Decan Canter.
A Serfin, white lion shifter.
