Seduced By The Lion Alpha Read Online Free PDF Page B

My throat felt parched and sore. I wasn’t sure if it was still sore from screaming earlier, or if it was parched because I kept swallowing to keep myself from saying something stupid. “He was always sketching, I absolutely loved it. Watching him create entire worlds with a single pencil…” I sighed, putting my cheek in one hand. “It was always one of my favorite things about my childhood.” I smiled. “I remember asking him how he learned to draw, and he told me it was my grandfather. So I asked him and the rest…” I shrugged. “History.”
     
    “I can only imagine. It was much the same for me and my mother,” said Leon. I wondered if Leon had any siblings, but it didn’t seem terribly important to ask. He and his mother seemed very close. That sounded nice. It had never been that way for me and my own mother. We only spoke on holidays now that I had moved out. She didn’t approve of my art. She’d turned my brother off it very efficiently when he was only fourteen, but she’d never broken me. I remembered listening to long, angry arguments between her and her father – my grandfather – about my love of art. She’d hated it, wanted me to do something useful. He’d loved it and claimed I had a gift.
     
    I shook off the memories and turned my attention back to Leon. “Do you still talk to your mother?” I asked, undoing the cap on the bottle.
     
    “Not often,” said Leon. “She lives up north – far, far up north. What about you and your brother?”
     
    “He’s military, so I haven’t talked to him for a while,” I sighed. “Except for the telephone, but that’s not much fun.” For a little while, we were both quiet. We drank our water and stared at the paintings that marked the walls. I thought back to the last time I saw my brother. It had been almost a year ago, before he was last sent out. We had stayed up the entire night on the roof of my grandmother’s house, staring at the stars. I had never met anyone who could name as many stars and constellations as my brother. These days, the closest I got to seeing him was looking up at the sky at night and knowing he was looking at the same stars. He’d come home someday, but until then, I was alone.
     
    “We should get going,” said Leon. “I doubt you planned to spend the night in the forest, and the sun will be going down in about four hours.” Four hours? That meant I’d been asleep for at least one. Maybe more. It was the right season for the sun to go down late, but I didn’t know exactly when sunset was. I sighed and nodded to Leon.
     
    “Right,” I said. Then I realized he hadn’t simply stated that I should leave. There’d been something else in the statement that drew my attention. “Um, we?”
     
    “That tiger shifter could still be around.” Leon picked up a jacket and slung it around his shoulders. “I’ll walk with you to make sure he doesn’t attack you again.” The tiger shifter. Of course, I’d forgotten about him. I wondered if there were more like him running around the forest. Leon said they had been in the middle of a turf war, so I there were, but I wasn’t quite sure. Were there other shifters running around as well? The image of lions and tigers morphing into men and women as they ran through the cities and forests flooded my mind. I wondered if there were bird shifters. I wondered if they could fly.
     
    Then I remembered that I was supposedly in danger. Would the shifter really come back? “Thank you, but is that really necessary?” I asked. I frowned thoughtfully.
     
    Leon gave me a flat look. His eyes narrowed and his lips drew together in a tight line. “That tiger wasn’t supposed to be here. If he’s here, there’s a reason.” He scrubbed his hands through his shaggy hair. “That means he’ll still be around.” A reason, I thought to myself. A turf war with a reason. I scowled to myself. Leon wasn’t telling me everything that was going on. I was fine with that, mostly, but