“That is most interesting. I’ve not seen a shifter like you. What are you?”
Thadd’s lion had a very impressive roar at all times, especially when he was angry. His short roar growl was similar to a lion in the wild with a loud shout or bark that was combined with a huffing and snorting sound in conjunction with his roar, showing just how agitated he was. The more angry or agitated, the louder he became. Right at that moment, he was shaking the leaves in the trees with his vocals.
“I am a lion, female. What are you?” he growled.
“But that’s not all you are. Or at least not like a normal...one.”
“I am Zelda. I am usually the shifter whisperer, but I don’t think I’ll be whispering to you.” Her fingers wiggled, sparks flying from them.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned her.
“Why, kitty, what will you do to me?” Zelda asked in an almost bored tone.
Torrance flashed in front of Zelda; panther claws extended. “His mate will not be pleased if you hurt him.”
“Looks like you got your hands full, Zelda. Need some help?”
Torrance wiggled her fingers, sparks flying from them. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sassy Bermangoggleshitz, bestie to Zelda,” a gorgeous blonde said.
Thadd moved closer, keeping his eyes on both women, unsure who was more dangerous. The redhead whose power he could feel rolling off of, or the blonde with the fucked-up name. “Bermawhatshit?” he asked, thinking a question would distract them.
“Bermangoggleshitz is a fine name, sir. What is yours?” She huffed as if she was offended.
“My birth name was Thabiti, which means a true man in Swahili. My mother’s husband denounced me on my fifteenth birthday. It was the day he had our village rip her limb from limb while he sent me out on my first hunt. I was supposed to prove I could lead, like the future king I was born to be.” He looked away. Pain he’d been sure had all but been forgotten, resurfaced with a vengeance.
“On that day, a day that was to be the greatest of my life, I killed the leaders of his Pride. All except for him. After I shifted back to human, I looked around at the carnage and felt...nothing except empty. I chose a different name when I left.”
He figured he should get that shit out in the open right then and there for his mate to hear as well. Besides that, the redheaded female kinda resembled his mate in a less gorgeous way. No female came close to being as remarkable as she was.
An image flashed into his mind, the same one he’d dreamt of over and over again of her lying lifeless on the pavement. That glorious mane of red hair fanned out with her lifeblood spilling beneath her. “Over my dead fucking body,” he roared.
“Oh, good goddess. Did you just do a conversation in your head?” Zelda asked, pointing a finger at him.
“He got bigger too.” Sassy nodding at him.
“Do not speak at him,” Torrance warned.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” he growled.
Zelda tossed her hands in the air, tiny sparkles floating around them.
Sassy dove to the side, which happened to be into the kennel with a goat. The poor little guy barely avoided being squished beneath her, bleating and shocking them all as he spoke. However, Mr. Bixley’s words were drowned out by a roaring in Thadd’s ears as something fell over him. It was like a blanket, a heavy, magnetic blanket that was almost suffocating, yet he could breathe. He thought of Torrance unprotected. His beast and the leash he’d kept on it for the past ten years snapped like a twig beneath his huge paws.
He roared, the lion he only had a memory of, a thing of nightmares broke free from the tethers he’d bound it with.
“Oh crap, Zelda, I think we better run.”
“I am Zelda, the third badass witch next to Baba Yaga and Cookie. I can handle....Oh shit, yep we better run. Or no, not run. Don’t cats like to chase? Should we get in the fetal position?” Zelda tugged Torrance in front of her.
TORRANCE HAD NEVER seen a lion as large as the one standing in front of her. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. She wasn’t sure if she’d said the words out loud or if they’d been inside her head. No matter, the huge beast stood taller on four legs than she did on two, with a fiery red mane that was truly glorious. If a pissed off lion could be called beautiful and glorious, well Thadd was all that and then some.
“Hi, big guy. Remember me? You said you’d never hurt me not even as a lion, remember?” She raised a shaky hand toward him.
“Oh my goddess. Get your hand back here. He’s gonna go chomp, and you’ll pull back a bloody stump.”
Torrance didn’t bother looking back at the blonde with huge tits to tell her to shut her piehole. From the sound of a grunt, Zelda had obviously taken care of that for her. In all truth, she didn’t want to take her eyes off of Thadd in his monster lion form. Not that she thought he was a monster, exactly. Fuck, he was definitely not your average lion. Hell, he was bigger than the biggest bear shifter she’d ever seen, and they were huge.
Thadd pawed the ground, bringing her focus to his paws. Nope, not like a normal cat there either. Where a cat would have huge black claws, which would measure anywhere from two to maybe six inches long, his were some sort of metal. Holy mother effing shit, they were metal. Was he like a science experiment gone rogue, like Hugh Jackman in the X-Men, only not a wolverine, a lion? The thought was terrifying to say the least.
“I am not a science experiment gone wrong, upendo.”
It took her
