Brian opened the door to his home and Haley walked cautiously into the room after dropping off Katie at the hotel. Haley had never seen the front of the house. It was a beautiful water front mansion setting back from the lake with a large back yard surrounded by trees. A virtual forest and secluded.
The small cabin she and Katie had stayed in over night belonged to the lion shifter. It was to give them the false impression that they had escaped. From the vast isolated area, she had just ran in a circle like a small animal on a wheel.
“You can sunbath if you’d like,” she turned to gaze at the Lion shifter with narrow eyes not understanding how he could think their relationship could be ordinary like a woman and man on holiday.
“No one will see you if you want to go naked. At night we can skinny dip.” He shot her a smile. She couldn’t help thinking about his beautiful smile with a full mouth of white perfect teeth.
“I know you humans don’t like to do that sort of thing in front of strangers, but I will be your mate soon. Make yourself free around me and you will find it easier to accept me.”
He wasn’t hard to accept. He wasn’t hard to understand, or fall in love with. He had all the trappings to make any woman love him. Handsome, rich, matured, and easy to talk to. His voice calm and soothing. His statue tall and his body muscular and hard.
It wasn’t that Haley didn’t want to accept him. She didn’t love him. She was already in love and she would never love anyone but Hunter.
“There are clothes you can change into.” He pointed to a bedroom in the back to the right of the foyer. “I promise you I won’t intrude if you don’t want me to. If you want to stay in your room, I won’t demand that you come and sit with me. But I do enjoy company by the fire. Especially at night. I’ll build a fire in the fireplace. You can shower and change, and sleep in the master bedroom. I won’t ask to sleep with you unless you want me to. ”
The lion shifter showed Haley the room where she would stay for a short time. He couldn’t stay long. There was a matter of business he had to take care of. A week was all it would take to convince Haley that no one would come for her and he needed her.
The lion shifter went about his business of throwing logs in the stone fireplace. The fireplace with boulders branching up to the high ceiling meeting the redwood beams.
He had ordered his son to cut wood. He expected the stay with the girls to last longer than it did. His plans had been interrupted when they ran away. A call from his son and he left everything to head out to his isolated mansion to secure Haley.
On his knees he ignited the fire. It glowed like a large campfire reminding him of the time his adopted parents had taken him camping. It was then he discovered that he enjoyed the night. He stole away from his parents in the middle of the night to go for a walk. On that walk, he came into contact with all kinds of animals, who despite him being young, and a child, they were fearful of him and he didn’t understand why at the time.
Therefore, he would spend all his time wandering at night.
When his parents thought he was lost and a search party was sent out, he came back to the campsite as if nothing had happened. He had found the land that his home sets on with that trek into the woods as a child, and he knew that was where he would build a home and live someday. The land encompassed a large part of the area near Lake Tahoe. Almost impossible to reach by car or truck.
Before he met Haley, he didn’t think he would have to do away with the road. But now he wanted to make it impossible for anyone to reach him.
Hearing Haley’s faint footsteps, Brian turned quickly. She had taken a shower and her hair lay wet and limp down her back. She wore the same sheer pink silk dress with a white lining she found in the closet in the small cabin. And flip flops.
She shrugged, “I couldn’t find anything else.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll buy you whatever you need.” In the sunlight you could see the freckles on her rosy cheeks.
His golden eyes softened. “You look different,” he observed. “So much younger than I thought.”
“Why do you want me?” Haley’s voice is soft.
“It’s not so much as I want you, but I need you.” He stood and met her half way. “Come, sit down.” He took her to a chair by the fire and she sat. Haley interested in this person or thing before her, wanted to know more about him. Did he have emotions like the werewolves?
When he sat across from her he said, “I need a human female for my pride.”
“But you have many wives. You know that I will not fit in with them. They will try to harm me if you take me back there.” Haley tried to reason with the lion shifter.
“No one will harm you. They don’t dare.” He crossed his leg and leaned back in his chair as if it was a throne.
“Then they might harm my cubs if I were to get pregnant.” Brian’s eyes glowed at the thought of Haley becoming pregnant for him. His mouth broke from the hard line.
“I will see that you never come into contact with them. We will go far away.”
“I can’t leave this area this is all I know. I want to go to college. I haven’t gone to college yet. Will you deny me the pleasure of being a young woman? How can you expect me to care for you if you can’t give me what I want most and let me be free?”
“That’s why I brought you here. So you can see that I’m like you. I’m more human than a shifter and I’m richer and stronger than that young shifter you think you’re in love with,” Brian said proud of his great looks and his strong body. “Give me time and I’ll show you how happy you can be with me. And I will see that you get whatever your heart desires. You can even go to college.”
Haley’s heart desired Hunter and only Hunter, and no man or werewolf would allow her to do anything. She would do what she wants, she thought.
Brian knew what he was telling Haley wasn’t all true. He didn’t know how he could explain to the females of his pride and his many sons that he had taken in a new mate. They all would feel threatened and probably out of jealousy kill her when he wasn’t around. And he couldn’t guard her all the time. His business dictated that he travel.
He had placed himself in a catch twenty-two and he didn’t know a way around it. “Are you hungry?” he said thinking of something that might make Haley happy.
“Yes. I’d like a hamburger.” He glanced at her. He didn’t expect her to ask for something he couldn’t give her.
“I don’t have hamburgers, and I doubt that you can find one around here.”
She stood. “Well you’ll never know unless we look.”
The shifter stood smiling. “You’re probably right.”
“Let’s go.” Haley walked to Brian and held out her hand. He took it and they walked outside and climbed into his SUV.
Brian drove and drove. Hours had passed and the sun was setting. Fall was coming and the leaves were turning colors. “Look. There’s a small restaurant,” Haley said as she clapped her hands. I think I’ll have a hamburger and a malt.”
Brian drove up to the gravel parking lot and parked alongside three trucks. He jumped out and rushed around to open the door for Haley. Haley walked in front of him and he rushed to open the door. He wanted to show her that he could treat her like a man would treat his wife or girlfriend. She glanced up at him with a closed smile and his heart skipped a beat. Never had he felt this attraction before. Never had he been so enamored with any human or shifter.
It was the attraction he had hoped for his whole life. It was as if something was missing inside of him. With Haley, he felt like a man. With the others he felt like an animal. Loved and fucked like an animal. Now was his chance to be what he thought he was and wanted to be—a man.
Haley caused him to want to do things for her. Bring her flowers, bring her gifts, take her for a ride and buy her a hamburger even if he couldn’t eat it.
When the bell rang when he opened the door to the small restaurant, they sauntered through the doorway. A young man came from behind the counter. “Can I help you?” His eyes immediately fell on Haley.
“We would like two hamburgers with French fries, and two malts.” Brian shook his head.
“Only one hamburger and one malt.”
“Normally we’re closed and cleaning up, but you’re so pretty,” he said his eyes never leaving Haley. “I’ll make an exception for your daughter.” The young man with short curly hair said as he ignored Brian.
Brian’s eyes narrowed and flashed to the young man. Haley placed her hand on his hand and he calmed.
“Thank you. That would be nice of you.” She smiled at him and he smiled and walked to the counter. They sat at a table away from the counter. The young man placed the order with the cook before resuming wiping down the counter. The cook gave him a dirty look and mumbled something. He waved him off and didn’t pay the cook any attention.
When he came back he stood near the table waiting to ask Haley something. She looked up at him. “Do you live around here?” he said with his hands shoved in his pockets a little nervous. “There’s a dance at the local club and I would be happy to take you. That is if your father doesn’t mind.”
“I do mind, now do your cleaning. We came for a burger and nothing else.” His voice low his eyes glaring with a threatening narrow look. The young man backed off.
“He didn’t know. You can’t get angry at something like that. You will have to confront that all the time. I am after all still technically a teenager. Nineteen you know.”
It wasn’t long before the young man served Haley and she ate and was back in the truck and headed back to the lake house. It was dark now.
Brian reached for Haley’s hand in the dark of the car and she didn’t flinch. She was no longer afraid of him and he knew it. He fantasized about a life with her as they pulled out to the highway and headed back to the forest and to his home.