Living a Lion: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Sleeping Lions - Shifters Prime Book 1) (7 page)

“Papers, sir,” the border guard asked.

“Here,” Kane said, taking them from his pocket and handing them over to the guard.

As the guard leafed through them, looking at the picture and then at Kane, studying his face intently, Kane looked at the gates that lay ahead of them. They were big wooden gates, ornate, but he guessed they were reinforced, built to keep shifters on the other side, in Shifters Prime.

“And why are you travelling across the border?” the guard asked.

“Business.” Short one-word answers didn’t get you in trouble. At least that was what he hoped.

“What kind of business?”

“None of yours,” Kane answered.

“It is when you are travelling with a contract,” The guard looked at Amara, with dislike.

Kane thought his uncle had said this was an easy border to cross. He hoped Darius had it right, because any moment now he expected to be taken to an interrogation room.

“Her contract is paid, and she has agreed to be my guide. Some idiot on
that
side has been screwing up orders. Countless telephone calls have failed to get the problem sorted out, so I have no other option than to go there myself.” Kane sighed deeply. “Believe me, it’s the last thing I want to do. But you know what these creatures are like.” He inclined his head towards Amara, hoping she would forgive him for the way he spoke about her.

“Bloody bunch of animals. That’s what they are, how can you expect them to behave intelligently when they have small brains?” the guard said.

Kane clenched his fist and then relaxed. So this was what it was like to be one of them, a shifter, disliked by the pure humans. But he forced himself to relax. He had to get through the gate and across into Shifters Prime.

“Right. We just need to take this one’s blood so we can cross-match it with the contract. Don’t want to let the wrong one go free.” The guard moved over to Amara. “Sleeve.”

Amara placed one of the suitcases down on the ground and rolled her sleeve up. The guard took a thing that looked like a gun and placed it against her skin. She flinched as it made a popping sound, but the guard took no notice or offered no apology for the pain. He simply looked at the small gun and then, when it beeped, cross-checked it with the contract.

“OK. You are clear to go. The DNA matches.” He stood back and they walked forward, Amara struggling with the cases, but Kane didn’t stop and offer to help. He simply looked in front, as if he had done this a thousand times and he didn’t have a voice in his head telling him to turn around and run as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

The huge gate opened and they went through. Into an empty courtyard.

“What’s this? There’s nothing here,” he said.

“This is no man’s land. Don’t turn around, but there are two big guns trained on us; it’s to stop anyone from the other side making a run for it. What they don’t know is that no one in their right mind would choose to come through these gates. There are other ways those in the Prime can come and go unseen.”

The gates shut behind them, a hiss as they were sealed, shutting off his old life, while in front of them, a small door stood ajar. He stopped, waiting for someone to come through and check their papers, but no one came.

“Just go through,” Amara said.

He ducked under the doorway and entered a small compound.

“OK, stop there,” a voice said, and a man appeared, a gun hitched over his shoulder.

“I am Kane Reinier, I have been sent…”

“I know who you are. And I still need to see your papers.” The guard, if that’s what he was, because he wasn’t wearing a uniform—unless jeans and a black T-shirt were it—took his papers.

“I think everything is in order. My uncle said there would be someone here to help us,” Kane said.

“There certainly is. But first I have to test your DNA. I want to be sure you are one of us.”

“I thought you were told not to,” Kane said, getting increasingly worried.

“Don’t worry, this is an informal check. I know what’s at stake, but I also know how many times they have tried to infiltrate us,” the guard said.

“Infiltrate you?” Kane asked.

“Yep. You know, this whole border thing works both ways. We don’t want them walking all over our land and spying on us, just as much as they don’t want us. So we check.” He pressed the gun against Kane’s neck.

“Ouch,” Kane said. It was as if he had been stung by the mother of all mosquitoes.

“Well, I don’t have anything to match it to, but you are one of us.” The guard put the gun back in a side holster. “I am pleased to welcome you to Shifters Prime.”

“Can we move away from the gates?” Amara asked nervously. “I keep thinking they will pull me back.”

“Not without trespassing on Shifters Prime soil. And anyway, they are too frightened of us.” He took the suitcases from Amara. “I am Frasier, and my job is to take you somewhere safe. So let’s go.”

Still dazed at being on the wrong side of the border, Kane followed Frasier. His new life was here now, but he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t prefer to run back and tell them he had made a mistake. Yet the scent of Amara, and the look of happiness on her face at being in her homeland, was enough to keep him here.

Frasier ushered them into a beaten-up old truck. “Sorry it isn’t anything better, but humans do like to keep us in the dark ages. The only vehicles over here are those that were left behind when the border went up. We’ve started to manufacture our own, but no new vehicles have made it this far south yet,” he told them.

“Really? You mean no vehicles at all come through to Shifters Prime?” Kane asked.

“No, big deliveries are done by freight train. There are stations along the border where goods are dealt with. It’s not so bad; you have to remember, for traveling, we can all shift into our animal and move that way. Unless you’re a mouse of course, then it gets mighty tiresome. Little guys hitchhiking, you should see them,” Frasier said.

“He’s joking,” Amara said, watching the expression on Kane’s face. “He’s a bear, bears have this weird sense of humour.”

“Only those who work the frontier,” Frasier said. “Goodness knows you need a sense of humour to cope with what we see.”

“Where are we headed?” Amara asked as he started the truck and they began to bump along a road that didn’t look as if it had been resurfaced for years.

“Don’t worry, road gets easier up ahead. We like to keep this looking bad, means none of those pure-breds think it’ll be a fun place to vacation, but we still get some trying to come through. It’s why I wanted to check your DNA.”

“People think Shifters Prime is a vacation destination?” Amara asked. “I live out on the plains. This is the nearest I’ve ever got to the frontier, except when my contract was sold.”

“You want to take that damn collar off now?” Frasier asked, eyeing her up and down in a flattering kind of way.

“Not yet,” she said.

“Up to you, but I would have thought the sooner you’re rid of it, the better,” Frasier said, steering the truck along the quiet road.

“She gave you her answer,” Kane butted in.

Frasier looked at Kane, and she felt him bristle, he heard the claim in Kane’s voice. “She your mate?” Frasier asked.

Amara placed her hand on Frasier’s arm. “This is all new to Kane, that’s why you are being paid to take us somewhere quiet.”

“What do you mean
all new
?” Frasier’s eyes examined Kane in minute detail. “You’ve never experienced the change, is that what she means?”

“No. I haven’t,” Kane admitted.

“Oh boy, this I want to see. A grown lion, never had the chance to run free. Or to scent his mate.” Frasier indicated Amara’s collar. “That thing mute all your senses?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Then why not take yours off? We’re far enough away from the border.” Frasier said.

Amara touched the collar that still hung around her neck. “I’ll wait.”

“For what?” Frasier asked.

“I just want to take it off in private.” In truth, she was scared. Like Frasier said, she had no idea how she was going to feel once all those senses and emotions that it had shut off came flooding back to her. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself, not in front of strangers, and both Frasier and Kane were strangers to her.

“Suit yourself,” Frasier said, but she could tell he was trying to work out what this strange couple were really up to.

They drove in silence; Kane was transfixed by the view outside the truck window. They had driven past a couple of people walking along the road, they had been talking to each other, just like everyday people, and then suddenly they changed, their bodies shifting in one fluid movement into a couple of dogs, like the domestic kind that he had probably seen every day of his life and taken no notice of.

He hadn't said a word, just stared at them as they ran. Then his fingers had gone to the bracelet on his wrist and he had begun to nervously twist it round and round. Amara had wanted to comfort him, but she didn’t know what to say and couldn’t bring herself to touch him in case the shock of skin against skin proved too much for her lioness, who was now so close in her mind, she could feel her pacing up and down waiting to be freed.

“Much further?” she asked after they had been driving for an hour or more.

“Another ten minutes, maybe. We turn off here and head for the foothills of the mountain; it’s a good place for you guys to get some privacy,” Frasier said and then winked. “My guess that once you too strip that damn metal off, you might want a whole heap of privacy.”

Amara blushed, and Kane just looked from Frasier to Amara, knowing there was an inside shifter joke there somewhere, but not wanting to ask.

She slumped down in her seat. This was going to be harder than she imagined. Once his bracelet was off, anything could happen. She couldn’t tell what was going to be the strongest pull on him, or her for that matter: the need to become a lion, or the need to mate.

His hand on hers made her nearly jump through the roof. “Are you OK?” he asked. “You look pale.”

“I was just thinking how hard this might be. We need to go over a few things before we take the bracelet off,” she said.

“Damn right,” Frasier said. “Listen, I know I've been teasing you, but just remember, I am here to help. If things go wrong, come find me. I’m used to clearing up the mess us shifters leave behind.”

“There won’t be any mess,” Amara said confidently. “Kane will be just fine.”

The truck came to a stop outside a small group of cabins. “Just make sure he knows how to change back.”

“Is it hard?” Kane asked.

“Not when you are taught it from when you are a kid. But for a grown man? Well, we’re all about to find out, because you will be the first. That I know of, anyways.”

“Great. I’m glad I’ll be providing the entertainment,” Kane said sarcastically.

“No, you won’t. We’re going to do this together, alone. You trust me, don’t you, Kane?” Amara asked.

“More than anyone in my whole life. Which, seems as how we’ve only just met, seems strange,” Kane said.

Frasier laughed. “Come on, let’s go get you two settled. My guess is you won't be getting much sleep tonight. The lion in him isn’t the only thing that is about to be uncaged.”

“What the hell does he mean by that?” Kane asked.

Amara hid her face again; her cheeks were flaming red at the thought of their first mating being here in the middle of this small settlement.

Maybe they should find a nice dry cave instead.

“Amara, why won’t you just tell me what’s bothering you? Is it because you think I might lose control when I change?” Kane asked.

“A little,” she said. “But maybe not in the way you think.”

“Then in what way?” Kane asked, they were alone, Frasier had gone to fetch the key to their cabin, and they were waiting by the truck with their luggage.

“OK. Part of being a shifter is this thing where we know who our mate is.”

“Your mate. You mean like a husband or a wife?” he asked.

“Yes, but it’s maybe a little stronger than just fancying someone. It’s more like you are connected on some deeper level.”

“Like love at first sight. I think I understand, because when I saw you under the moonlight, I had this feeling. I can’t explain it, but I felt a connection between us.”

“Right, but however you felt then, once your bracelet is off, once my collar is removed, well—it will be ten thousand times stronger.”

“Love at first sight, times a thousand. Wow, humans don’t know what they are missing.”

“What I’m not sure of, is how much control we are going to have.”

“You mean over our feelings?”

“I mean over our bodies.” She looked at him nervously. “Your body in particular.”

“You mean you're scared I’m going to force you … into sex.”

That word, on his lips, was like an aphrodisiac. Her body awoke, tendrils of desire threading through her veins.

“No, she means she’s not sure if you're going to throw her to the floor and fuck her in front of everyone here,” Frasier said coming back with the key. “Sorry, my bear can hear very well.”

“Is that it?” Kane asked. “That is what you are frightened of?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t lose control,” Kane said confidently.

“Kane, you have worn that bracelet all of your life, you have no idea just how strong the urge will be,” Amara said.

“Whatever happens, I won’t hurt you, Amara.” He touched her cheek, stroking it lightly, this time the electric current passing between them ignited a flame of desire deep inside her, that kindled and then flared into life.

“I know,” she said, her body reacting to his words in a very sensual way.

“This has got to be the weirdest, messed-up world ever,” Kane said.

Frasier slapped him on the back with his huge hand, spoiling the moment. “Yeah, but it’s also the only place in the world you’ll ever feel at home in once you change. Isn’t that right Amara?”

Amara lifted her head and took a breath of air, wanting to be free to run as her lion. “Yes, it is. Shall we get started?”