"Yes."
"Jason."
"What?" He props himself up on one elbow to look at me, and his expression is completely serious. "You said it helped. I can help. That's what I do."
"That's what you do."
"Take care of people. Take care of you." He leans down and kisses me, soft and brief. "Let me."
A door I didn't know was sealed swings open somewhere inside me.
"Okay," I hear myself say. "Okay."
He settles back down against me, and I wrap my arm around him, pulling him closer. The room is quiet except for our breathing and the distant sound of wind outside.
"Your lion is beautiful," I say after a while.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Smaller than I expected, though."
He pinches my side, hard enough to sting. "I told you I was on the smaller side."
"You're still bigger than a German Shepherd. That's not small."
"Compared to Knox, I'm a kitten."
"Knox is a freak of nature."
"True." He yawns against my shoulder. "Go back to sleep. I'll be here."
"What if I have another nightmare?"
"Then you'll wake up under a lion again." He presses a kiss to my collarbone. "I've got you."
I've got you.
Three words. Simple. But no one's said them to me and meant it in a very long time. I've always been the one who's got everyone else. The protector. The provider. The one who handles things so other people don't have to.
And now there's a golden lion boy in my bed who shifts into a predator to calm me down and says I've got you like it's the easiest thing in the world.
"Jason."
"Mm?"
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not making it weird. For not asking questions. For just..." I don't know how to finish that sentence.
"For being here?"
"Yeah. For being here."
He squeezes my hand. "Nowhere else I'd rather be."
I shift, rolling him onto his back, and he goes easily, looking up at me with soft eyes and a question on his face.
