Her eyes widened at that.“Lion?”
He nodded.“That’s my other half.”
El gulped.Was that what she’d seen?What he’d turned into…?A half-Lion kind of hybrid?
A thought came to her.“Pride in Love?”
He tensed.
“That can’t be a coincidence?”
“No.It’s not.”
“Is everyone a Shifter on there?”
“No.Not everyone.It’s mainly Shifters looking for mates like you.”
‘Like you’.Those two words ricocheted around her brain, making a soup out of her little gray cells.
He meant this.He really meant it.
And had she needed more confirmation than the weird gold lines interconnecting him with other people in the restaurant, then the bizarre shift when he’d fucking sliced her guard’s throat…?
She closed her eyes and pressed harder into him.He tightened his hold on her, apparently sensing she needed comfort, but also seeming to understand that she was giving comfort back.What had he said?That his Lion was feeling raw?
The notion unsettled her.
Deeply.
Buried in his embrace, she let him and Shawn take pointe on this.In a matter of minutes, he was guiding her guard through the subdivision, and when they pulled up outside the ‘compound’ as he’d so charmingly phrased it, she didn’t want to get out.
In fact, it was the last thing she wanted.
“I have a few guys on the LAPD and they’ll have been informed by now of the situation,” Ryan was saying, and she assumed Shawn was soaking up the info.“Calling it in to dispatch seems like a no no.They’ll at least understand the animal attack.”
“You mean there are humans who know about supernatural people like you?”
Ryan cleared his throat.“Supernatural people, huh?”
She flushed as she pulled away from him.“What am I supposed to call you?”she asked sulkily.“Lionman?”
He grinned.“Just paranormals, El.That’s all.”He winked at her pout.“And yes, certain people know about us.There are too many times when paranormal crime crosses over into human society.It’s on a need to know basis, as far as I’m aware.”
Shawn frowned.“You’re hot shit in this world, aren’t you?”
Ryan frowned back at him.“What makes you say that?”
“You’re totally unphased by everything that’s happened tonight.If anything, I’d say you were at ease with it.What are you?A local leader or something?”
Ryan’s jaw worked for a second, then he murmured, “I’m the head of the Californian Pride.”
“You’re like the Lion governor?”El asked, breaking into the manly man conversation with little regard for a pissing contest.
He snorted.“You’re just coming up with great titles for me tonight, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
“Well, are you?”
“Yeah.I guess I could be considered that.For the Pride, though.That’s it.”
