COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (20 page)

“I leave this for you Kiryla. It is a poor tale, my life, but you have filled it with light.” My voice chokes back on the words, and I pause, then continue. My hands, holding the book, are shaking. “Care for it, will you? It is all of me there is. My life is good as ended, knowing I am without you.” I place the book beside her, gather my things, turn to leave.

I am about to leave the clearing, when her voice rings out behind me. It is light as spring air.

“Aurelius! Wait! You have not heard my words.” And she is laughing.
Laughing.

I am afraid my words have touched her sanity. I turn back, gentle.

“Kiryla, dear...”

“Aurelius!” She is laughing, still. And sobbing. “Aurelius. Listen to me.”

“I know what you will say.” I shy away from her reaching thoughts. “Even when I am not with you, I am always with you now.” If my words appeared cryptic, her smile did not reveal so. “Kiryla, I know you think we can stay together.”

“But I can stay with you. Forever.” Her eyes shine as she steps forward. “If you already know my account, you know that truly I am always with you. Listen, Aurelius. Feel my heart.”

I think about what she has said and what she has thought. As water from a stream, I allow in her account, unhampered in its flow. It sounds almost too wonderful, too fantastic for belief. But I am dubious.

              “That sounds very... dangerous, Kiryla,” I caution.

“No, it's not!” Her eyes flash, voice sharp. “And even if it was, I would do it. What is my life without you?”

“And mine?” I ask. “I would not see you harmed. I would rather never see you again, than see you perish for my sake.”

“Perish.” She is smiling. “My dear, I love you. But I have never before heard you sound ridiculously dramatic.”

“I'm not dramatic.” I say, wounded. “I love you, too.”

We smile. We have never said it before. Then we laugh.

“I love you!” I say it louder. It feels so wonderful to say that. My arms are around her, and my lips on hers.

We spend hours in the woods, together. Our love is as it ever was, and deeper.  For now we can be truly free to love.

***

It is the first day of Winter. We are in my cave.

I am about to change form. I know the feeling now:  it feels as if my skin were transparent, the other form a hand's breadth from me. It heralds my transformation.

The sun slants through the cave-entrance while we make our preparations. It is a pale, ghostly light, threaded with mist off the water of the neighboring stream.             

We are ready now and the day is drawing to a close.

All the things Kiryla needs for ritual are laid out on the floor. In the center is the book I gave to her. The love with which I made that makes it a bridge between worlds, she says. It is a powerful object, imbued with care. She says it forms what she needs to complete the magic.

It is garlanded with flowers. Other things mark out a circle on the floor. A feather, clear water in a carved stone bowl, a bright, reflective stone.

Then she is ready. She stands in the circle, before the entrance of the cave. The last light, blue-edged, slants through the opening behind her.

She starts to sing.

Near the end of her song, she raises her arms.  I feel the air change around her, grow cold. She is a picture of impossible loveliness. She glows. Bright light fills the cave.

In the midst of that burning halo, I see a face. It is her face, yet not her face. This image is truly her, the beloved my heart has known down all the ages.

My soul knows her. I see in her eyes the moment when that soul sees mine. She smiles.

Then, she changes. There is a blinding glow of light. It pulses, stronger and stronger. It fills the cave with its radiance, explodes into a splendor so fierce I almost recoil from it, as if the interior of a star had touched the earth burns us away with its brightness.

Then she is gone. But she is everywhere. The air is her sweetness, the river is her voice. The tree below the waterfall has golden flowers.

Goodbye, Aurelius. I hear her voice, the faintest echo. I will see you next year.

And with that, and the faint scent of honeysuckle—her scent—I find myself drifting into sleep.

***

Springtime. I feel the light lancing into the cave. My head aches.

I close my eyes again and listen. Outside, I can hear the singing of the water as it cascades free of ice down the rocks.

With the song comes memory.  My heart sinks.
Where is she?

I need not have asked. With the song of the river comes also the sound of her voice.

Aurelius
? It thrums from the air around me, as soft as a moth's flight, permeating the air of the cave.

It is not in my memory, but present now. It is truly her voice.

Kiryla.

My eyes open.

There is a haze in the air, a soft diffuseness, like light reflecting off the mist. Except there is no mist inside the cave. This glowing light is something else, not of this world.

It shimmers and hovers. It gathers. And then, suddenly, just as I am expecting that nothing else will happen, it condenses.

“Aurelius!”

It is her. At least, it is her form. It pulses and glows, as insubstantial as the mist. I strain to reach it. My heart aches.

Then, the sparks of light pull together and are gone, and the warm, soft form of a girl stands before me, as natural as if she had just walked in through the door.

“Aurelius? My love?”

“Kiryla!” My heart feels as if it will burst.

My arms find her waist and wrap around it. Her body is against mine. And, suddenly, the flesh knows its urgency and its desire.

I am still so weak.  I find myself laughing, if a little hysterically, as my wasted body teeters backward, far too weak for anything at all.

I notice suddenly in that moment that my form has changed. I am in human form again. No wonder I feel so weak! I have never shifted so soon. Have never had the motivation, I suppose. I have it now.

“Shall we go outside?” She smiles at me. “The sunshine will help us to get stronger.”

I nod, fervently agreeing.

“Come, then.”

We walk out of the cave together, into the light of the spring morning.

We spend each day together, and each night we sleep, sated, in each other’s arms.

Each winter and each spring we change and transform back. And with all you know, we may be here forever. Life is cyclic, after all. And hearts eternal.

THE END

A Lion Shifter Romance

The Alpha Lion that Loves me

Chapter One

Northern California

Cassie

              “Did you hear the news?” Jessica asked, her eyes bright in the dark laboratory, much like the bioluminescent cells Cassie was studying. “They’ve brought in a white lion.”

              Normally, Cassie Judd paid little attention to what Jessica considered news – usually unpleasant gossip from around the zoo where they both worked as research scientists – but this time, Jessica earned her full attention. In shock, Cassie stepped away from the lab table.

              “What do you mean they’ve brought in a white lion? You can’t just bring in a creature like that out of nowhere. There’s paperwork and preparations that have to be made–”

              “I don’t know,” Jessica said, cutting her off. “The deal was done last night. It’s a surprise to everyone. They’re loading him into his den now.”

              Intrigued, Cassie hurried out of the lab, giving Jessica her freedom to continue spreading the word. As she rounded the familiar paths, bypassing the aquarium and the gorilla enclosure, she removed her lab coat from her curvy frame and pulled loose her pony tail, allowing her glossy mahogany hair to pour down her voluptuous back. She wanted to appear more casual. If she called attention to herself as a scientist, she’d be inundated with questions about the animals at the zoo. Right now, her only focus was the white lion. She had read about the rare genetic mutation that made a small number of African lions so pale, and the superstitions surrounding them, but she had never seen a white lion up close.

          That changed as soon as she turned into the lion’s den, a sheltered area behind the public enclosure. Behind the gate was a magnificent creature with strong, bulky muscles, a mane thicker than most male lions, and alarming grey-green eyes that stood out against his snowy coat. His eyes captivated her, much more than the novelty of his color. As he paced in his cage, those eyes spoke of a sadness. Cassie believed animals capable of emotion, but the depth of his sadness unnerved her. It was unnatural. And heartbreaking.

              Briefly, the lion stopped pacing and looked at her. Something within her, something primal, told her it was not out of curiosity, but with intent, as if he were trying to communicate something to her.

              “Where did he come from?” she asked the zookeeper handling the lion’s arrival – an older man who had worked at the zoo for most his life. At twenty-four and only starting her career, she had a lot of respect for the man.

              “Don’t know,” the man answered, rubbing the sweat from his forehead. In the dead heat of the summer, the lion’s den was sweltering. “Got a call from the director this morning to say a new lion was on its way. Something about an emergency transfer. I was to move the other lions outside and prepare the den for this one. Never imagined he’d be a white lion. He seems like a pretty tamed fella, but there’s something about him that seems... odd.”

              Cassie nodded her head. She couldn’t agree more. Tenderly, she put her hands against the metal gate that separated her from the beast. “What have they done to you?” she asked.

***

In the aquarium, Cassie tried to focus on the bioluminescent jellyfish, which looked like an infestation of tiny parachutes floating in the giant floor-to-ceiling tank, but her mind kept wandering back to the new lion.

Out of fear he wouldn’t interact well with the other lions, he’d been given his own enclosure. The public was delighted, fawning over him like bees to honey. The gift shop sold out of white lion plush toys his first day out of his den. He was the star of the zoo. But to Cassie, his newfound celebrity made his situation all the sadder.

              “Another late night?” Doug, the security guard, asked as he passed through the aquarium.

              “Night time is the best time for a researcher,” Cassie replied with a smile. “I’ll check in with you before I leave.”

              “So sunset, then?” he surmised, familiar with her routine. “I’ll have the coffee waiting.”

              “Thanks,” she called as he left, leaving her alone to observe the behavior of the hundreds of glowing turritopsisdohrnii.

              “Another time,” she said to the jellyfish and went to see the lion.

              With the zoo closed, he was back in his den behind the enclosure, lying in a corner with his head tucked in his paws, defeated, but as soon as she drew near, he stood and moved closer to her.

              This was not the first time she’d visited him. It was one of many nightly visits. She felt drawn to the lion, as if he had some meaning to her life. It was her hope that if she spoke with him nightly, if they became friends, the sadness in him would recede. But it didn’t. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse.

              “You’re not happy here, are you?” she asked, sitting on the ground with her side against the gate. He edged closer to her, the bulk of his body twice the size of a human’s, but he didn’t come too close. She got the sense he didn’t want to scare her off.

              “You know, white lions have a place in mythology,” she told him, strumming her fingers along the gate. “They are believed to be children of the Sun God. You’re a gift to Earth. I’ve done a lot of reading since you’ve arrived. A lot. You’ve been a distraction,” she teased. Then she sighed. “But no books can tell me why you look so haunted. None of the scientific ones, anyway.”

              Suddenly feeling tired, she closed her eyes and began drifting into sleep, staying awake long enough to feel his fur stick between the gate as he laid beside her.

***

The following night, after the zoo closed and a majority of the staff went home, Cassie ignored her research on the jellyfish completely and went straight to the lion’s den. She’d spent the day reading a book – a very strange mythological book – that may have had the answers she was looking for regarding the beautiful oddity that was the white lion, but to know for sure, she had to see him.

              Except that he wasn’t in his den. Nor was he in his enclosure.

              Panicked, Cassie stared at the empty enclosure, her breath heavy beneath the warm moonlight, and thought hard on where the lion might be. Perhaps the zoo director had loaned him out. Or perhaps he was sick and being looked after at the in-house veterinary clinic.

              The vet. That seemed the most plausible. And the most worrisome.

              She moved towards the direction of the clinic, but a loud clanging noise, like metal hitting the ground, caught her attention, forcing her back. It came from the loading dock where heavy equipment was transported in and out of the zoo. Trusting her instincts, she went to the dock.

              And she found the white lion.

              Mesmerized, she watched from behind a forklift as he paced nervously while two humans – a stunning blonde woman, not much older than her, and a dark-haired man – unlocked the back of a black utility van.

              Oh my God, they’re stealing him! Cassie grasped.

              She couldn’t let it happen. He had enough sadness in him as it was. Who knew what the couple’s intentions were. They could be urban poachers after the white lion for his hide.

              “Don’t!” she screamed, revealing herself. “We have you on camera–” She stopped, realizing with a quick glance that the security camera overlooking the dock had been destroyed. Where was security? She prayed Doug was making his rounds and would soon find her. “Please, leave,” she insisted.

              “That’s what we intend to do,” the dark-haired man sniped, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

              Before Cassie had a chance to respond, the man flew into the air, his clothes ripping off him as his body writhed in impossible but flawless contortions.

              When he landed, only inches from her, he was no longer human.

              He was a lion.

              And he was ready to strike.

***