First Wrex insisted on lunch. My stomach rumbled in agreement. We sat outside, next to the river and shared an appetizer plate at Café Ole. He ordered us margaritas. The server looked twice at me but didn’t dare argue with the biker across from me. Hell, at this rate I’d be an alcoholic before I turned eighteen. Licking the salt from my lips, I asked him to explain, once and for all what was happening.
“Where do I start?”
“With everything, I need to know. My life is kind of up in the air right now. I don’t know if I should go home and be with my dad. Part of me wants to. And part of me can’t handle it. And, you say I can’t leave anyway. What are you planning to do to me if I just walk away?”
“Your mom was murdered. My prints are there at her house along with yours and others. I’m a member of the Dark Leopards MC. It’s not smart to let you go back right now.”
“No one will think I murdered my mom. They’ll think…” I stopped myself, not saying they would suspect him over me.
“You faked your own death?”
“No. I’ll just explain.”
“Romilly, that’s not how the world works. The police, they’ll want to know more. Before, I couldn’t let you leave because of your condition, yes, but now, the club would have my hide if I let you go and bring trouble raining down on them.”
“At some point I’m going to have to say goodbye to her and to Locus and my friends, too. Are you going to do anything about your sister? Have her a funeral?”
“A funeral? Who would go? Locus and I have no one. I’m new to the Dark Leopards, too. Only been here a little over a year.”
I thought about the other tattoo on his back. “What’s Lions of Legends, another Motorcycle Club?”
“No. They’re long gone. It doesn’t matter.”
“If I’m yours and have to stay with you until I turn into a freaking animal one night by the light of the god damned full moon, or you’ll have to get rid of me, I think I deserve to know something about you.”
“Lions of Legends was my family’s circus, for lack of a better word. Like I said, long gone, shuttered up ages ago. My pride made their living traveling the world, off the illusion of lions and lion tamers. My grandfather was the ringleader as was his father before him, because barbary lions are virtually extinct, they never showed themselves. They played the human role. We also had 100 elephants, actual elephants. PETA and the like put them out of business.” He continued eating his buffalo wings like the story was over.
I needed to know more. “What happened to them, your pride?”
“Without the business some in my family turned to crime. Then they turned on each other. My parents took Locus and I and went into hiding. We lived in a new city every year. We didn’t make connections. One day mom and dad left me to watch my little sister, went out for dinner or some shit and never came back. They vanished without a trace. Locus and I, well, I did my best. I kept moving us. Long story short, last year, there was reason enough to leave our last home and come to Texas, start over. Locus had graduated high school and got accepted into Baylor. I found the Dark Leopards MC, shifters like me who have the balls enough to take care of each other. Now, my sister is gone.” He gazed out at the water, over to the other side of the river to the smiling, happy people.
I felt his grief mingled with my own and wondered if we were more connected than he’d told me.
“Locus asked me to watch out for you. I’ve been with plenty of women, shifters of all kinds, but I’ve not wanted a mate.”
Ugh. How many women a guy’s been with was the last thing I wanted to hear. Especially with it clear I was attached to him. I’d never been one to think much about my future, but I never saw myself shacking up with a biker, either, no matter how attracted to him I felt at the moment. “Once I do change, can I leave, go back to college?” I asked but didn’t know if I wanted to be there without Locus.
Wrex frowned.
I’d obviously said the wrong thing.
“We need to head back. I’ve got some work to do.”
“I don’t want to go back there.” I spoke of the clubhouse. “Where do you live?”
Wrex took me to his apartment. Just like the row of bikes and cars at the club house, it was hella nice. He tried to give me the grand tour, but all I wanted to do was take a nap. I felt like all I was doing was eating and sleeping. I tried to explain as much.
“You’re grieving. Plus, your preparing for your first transformation.” Wrex smiled about that. “When I changed, I think I slept for a month.”
I dreamed of Locus on the beach. We were together, sunbathing and Wrex walked toward us. She looked happy for us. Then my dream took an erotic turn. I woke up in a sweat, my hand between my legs. Something was clearly happening to me since I was hornier than ever. Against my better judgement, I’d stayed with a man I’d hardly known when I could be resisting. He’d left
