Her Lion Guard - The Complete Series Box Set (BBW Shifter Romance) (5 page)

     “You knew,” she said and waited for denial, for confusion, for any other reaction but the quiet acceptance with which they faced her. Mary-Lou felt betrayed, felt stupid and scared and bereft as she stared at the people she had known all her life just to wake up one day and find them strangers.

     “What else is there?” she rasped, numb. When her parents remained silent she shook her head, a sad smile twisting her lips. “Don’t lie to me,” Mary-Lou pleaded, “Not anymore. Not after this.”

     Her mother looks pained, her father stiff and sullen beside her. Mary-Lou felt anger burn her throat, felt ready to beg, to scream – to do whatever it took to break the painful silence.

     “It was not their secret to tell.”

     Mary-Lou let out a whine of surprise, eyes too-wide as she stared into a pair of striking blue eyes. Jonas smiled at her, a bit pained, and moved further into the room.

     “What the hell—” Mary-Lou’s voice hitched, eyes darting from Jonas’ sheepish figure to her parents. “How do you know him?” A terrible thought struck her and she gasped, “We aren’t related, are we?”

     “What?” Jonas exclaimed, voice tinged by a mixture of horror and disgust, “No! Why would you even think that?”

     “How am I to know?” Mary-Lou grumbled, “An awkward crush on what turns out to be my brother would fit perfectly into the paranormal soap opera this whole thing is becoming.”

     Jonas was silent for a moment, then cautiously asked, “You have a crush on me?”

     “Children!” Emma exclaimed, successfully preventing an angry outburst by a very flustered Mary-Lou, “There is something important that we must discuss.” She looked at Mary-Lou, expression pained, “It will not be easy to accept, but it is the truth and it must be said.”

     “You should have had this conversation a long time ago,” Jonas rumbled. He quieted quickly, if grudgingly, when Ronald leveled him with a stern glare.

     “Mary-Lou, sit by me,” Emma beckoned. Mary-Lou moved to sit between her parents, heart fluttering anxiously in her chest. She let her mother envelop her in her arms, sighing out a defeated, “Tell me.”

     Emma cleared her throat, hands unsteady as they moved to stroke her daughter’s hair. “It is about your birth parents,” she began, not too surprised when Mary-Lou immediately moved to pull away.

     “You said—” Mary-Lou stopped herself, all too aware of how foolish she seemed. Her parents had not told her about the existence of fucking
shape-shifters
; was it truly surprising that they had lied to her about knowing her birth parents, as well?

     It did not make the deceit any less painful.

     “Tell me,” Mary-Lou repeated, posture stiff and face unhappy. She would listen to them. She would listen, and then she would decide what she is to do about it all.

     “Your birth parents,” Emma tried again, words stilted and unsure. She would rather keep this from her still, Mary-Lou saw – keep lying to her. What twisted kindness. Mary-Lou forced herself to stay and listen even as everything in her longed to escape. “They were – are,” Emma corrected herself, “like Jonas.”

     “What?” Mary-Lou startled, eyes darting to Jonas’ still figure. Blue eyes captured hers for a moment, narrowed in consideration. “You mean they are—”

     “Shape-shifters,” Jonas offered, “Yes, they are. Irma is a tiger-shifter, and Jonathon – a coyote. I have had the honor of changing alongside them for many years now.”

     A dull, deaf darkness seemed to descend upon the room with each uttered word. Mary-Lou felt faint.

     “Irma and Jonathon?” she mumbled, “Those are their names?”

     “Irma and Jonathon Stevens,” Emma confirmed. Fear flickered in her eyes but Mary-Lou did not care to comfort her, could not think well enough to comfort herself. “We were classmates, all four of us, and friends for many years. It was not until much later – after you were born, dear – that they confided in us. Someone had been threatening them, threatening
you
. In the end, when it became truly awful, they were forced to ask for our help.

     Your parents loved you very much,” the older woman finished, almost pleading.

     “So much they left me with you,” Mary-Lou laughed, the sound hysterical and high. “Am I going crazy?” she wondered, “Is this a dream?”

     “Mary-Lou,” her father grasped her arm, voice sharp and urgent, “Snap out of it. You are fine.”

     “Am I?” Mary-Lou twisted out of his grip and rose, stumbling back and away from the couch, “How exactly am I fine? You have just told me that my parents are not only alive, they can turn into fucking
animals
—”

     “Mary!” Emma exclaimed.  Eyes wet, Mary-Lou ignored her, nervous energy urging her into stilted motion.

     “Why can’t I shift, then?” she demanded, eyes downcast as she paced along the length of the room, “What, am I defective? Is that why you got stuck with me? Sorry, doc, normal human babies just aren’t
in
right now—”

     Mary-Lou stumbled on her next step, body bouncing off Jonas’ muscular chest. The man threw an arm around her to keep her steady, hooded blue eyes sparkling angrily beneath a fringe of gold hair.

     “Stop,” he rumbled and Mary-Lou froze, jaw clicking shut. Her hands trembled where they lay against his chest; he covered them with his, gentle even as his voice remained firm and angry. “Never speak like that again – not about them, and not about yourself.”

     Mary-Lou nodded, more out of surprise than agreement. “Why, then?” she asked Jonas, voice plaintive.

     “To protect you,” he told her, “To hide you from those who would have done you harm.”

     “But I can’t shift,” Mary-Lou mumbled, “Or was it because of that? Am I a weak link some purist group wants gone?”

     “Quite the opposite,” Jonas sighed and released her, hands lingering large and warm on her upper arms before dropping to his sides. “While you cannot become an animal, you
are
a Shifter. You simply take… a different form than most.”

     Mary-Lou’s nose wrinkled, “It’s something horrifyingly ugly, isn’t it.”

     Jonas rolled his eyes, a smile finally lifting the uneasy frown marring his face, “No. Nothing ugly, I promise.”

     “You are special, Mary-Lou,” Emma called out, voice unsteady. She had obviously been crying; Mary-Lou swallowed in shame, reminding herself that she had been justified in her anger. She whispered a quiet “I am sorry” nonetheless.

     Her mother shook her head, “No time for that now. You must listen. You are special – important, in a way that is both wonderful and incredibly dangerous. Your parents almost died trying to protect you—” Emma gulped down a sob, “
You
almost died, Mary-Lou, they tried to
kill
you and you were but an innocent child –” Ronald enveloped his wife into his arms, trying to calm her with soft words of comfort.

    “I don’t understand,” Mary-Lou glanced from her parents to Jonas, eyes wide, “Someone wants to kill me, has been after me for
years
?”

     “It is not one particular person,” Jonas corrected her. “A lot of Shifters would feel better with you gone. Your existence heralds the coming of a revolution.” Jonas’ lip quirked up in a mockery of a smile, “Our kind is ironically uncomfortable with major lifestyle changes.”

     “I can’t be
that
important,” Mary-Lou protested. “What am I, the messiah?”

     Jonas said nothing. Curled up in Ronald’s side, Emma, too, fell silent. Mary-Lou glanced around the room in open disbelief.

     “I am not the messiah,” she told them.

     “Near enough,” Jonas mumbled and that was it, she was done.

     “Where are you going?” her father demanded after her, his voice lost beneath her mother’s worried, “Mary-Lou!” Jonas let out what sounded like a protesting growl and moved to grab her, almost succeeding in halting her mad dash for the door.

     Almost.

     Mary-Lou stumbled out of the front door in a daze and hit the pavement, running.

***

Mary-Lou ran, without a direction or a purpose.

     Houses and people blurred at the edges of her vision, melted together in a single colorful mass. She ran past a grocery store, a club, over a bridge and into the older part of town, all without a single spark of awareness. Her legs were going numb, her lungs heaving, yet she could not stop – could not even begin to think to do so, her mind an anguished mess.

     Her parents were alive. Mary-Lou focused on the thought, latched onto the happiness that its meaning inspired within her even as the rest of the story threatened to drown her in despair.
:
Her parents were alive, and they were Shifters, and so was she – a rare,
special
breed that others wanted extinct.

     Mary-Lou ducked through a rusty green gate, stifling a hysterical giggle.

     Eventually, she had to slow down, to stop – her body was too weak from repeated shock and physical exertion to allow for a lengthy run. The fact that she had sprinted half across the city did not help matters. Mary-Lou sighed at her own stupidity, only now feeling the burn in her lungs and legs. Her throat was parched, and she wondered if there was a store nearby, or a kind person she could ask for water.

     Mary-Lou looked about, surprised to find herself in what appeared to be someone’s backyard. Crumbling stone walls surrounded the well-sized plot of land on three sides, the fourth occupied by the side of a red-bricked house. Mary-Lou stepped out of what she now recognized to be a flower path, throwing a guilty look toward the single window that faced the quiet garden. It remained dark and the house was similarly silent and devoid of life.

     “Sorry to disturb you!” Mary-Lou called out, just in case. She knew the city like the back of her hand, yet this house was new to her – garden and stone walls and all. It was disconcerting.

     Mary-Lou shook her head and turned away from the house, ready to head home and hear the rest of the strange, impossible story that was now somehow her life. She walked forward and toward the rusted gate, eyes on the soft ground as she tried to avoid stepping on any more innocent plants.

     “I didn’t think it would be this easy.”

     Mary-Lou’s head snapped up just as a clawed hand tangled in her hair and
pulled
, forcing her neck into an uncomfortable arch. She gasped in surprise, her next words scraping painfully against her throat.

     “Who are you?”

     “Does it matter?” the large, dark man rumbled and she was reminded of Jonas, painful and sudden. “Knowing won’t help you any.”

     “You are a Shifter,” Mary-Lou said and the man gripped her tighter, pressed her closer against what was a frighteningly muscular chest. She shook in disgust and fright.

     “Smart girl,” the man hissed. Mary-Lou felt strands of her hair tear as he pulled away, bit her lip to stifle a terrified whimper at the sight of his clawed hand. The man grinned, twilight shadows dancing over the prominent jut of his nose, his stubble-dusted jaw, the blackness of his eyes – grinned, and raised his hand.

     “Don’t worry,” he breathed, “I will make it quick.”

     “Wiley!”

     The man –
Wiley
, she thought frantically, that was his name – cocked his head in the direction of the new voice, momentarily distracted. Mary-Lou used the opportunity to slam her elbow into the soft alcove between his shoulder and throat, successfully weakening her attacker’s grip and slipping away. Wiley let out an infuriated growl and grabbed for her even as Mary-Lou stumbled backwards, claws tearing bloody trails down her exposed arms. She gasped and the sharp, metallic scent of her blood hit the air.