I woke up with what felt like another hangover pounding behind my eyes. I squinted as I sat, tangled up in blankets, and searched for a clue to what happened. I was definitely naked. And Atticus snored softly next to me. Inside the cage in the library.
I put a hand to my forehead and bit back a groan. Pounding whiskey and then shifting apparently equaled a bitch of a headache and miles of regret. Atticus muttered in his sleep and rolled over, taking most of the blanket with him, and I clutched the remaining fabric to my chest.
And since the door to the cage remained open...
Untangling myself took less effort than I feared, since Atticus remained deeply asleep, and I managed to slide out of the cage before I looked up and saw the watchful brother seated behind the desk. He raised his eyebrows and pointed at the chair in front of the desk.
Irritated, I secured my blanket toga and shuffled over to sit. I wanted to hate him but when he smiled, he looked like Atticus.
He offered a bottle of water and a granola bar and kept his voice down when he spoke. "They'll send up breakfast in a moment, but this will tide you over until then. Shifting takes a lot of energy."
I maneuvered to take both, though I wouldn't admit how starved I felt. "I'm not — that."
He gave me a stern look, made more imposing by the close-cropped sandy hair and a series of scars on his left cheek. "Sophia, be reasonable."
"None of this is reasonable," I said. I glanced back as Atticus grumbled, but he only flopped to his side and continued snoring. The toga slipped as I sat forward, and I flushed as the other man's gaze drifted a little too far south. "Look, dude, this isn't —"
"My name is Edgar." His hands steepled in front of his chin as he studied me. "I'm in charge of security around here. So you and I have a great deal to discuss."
"I'll be out of your hair as soon as I get some clothes." I drained half the bottle of water and used the blanket to pat my chin dry as it dribbled. "I don't want to be here any more than you want me here. Believe me."
"Why would you think I don't want you here?"
My eyebrows climbed toward my hairline as I wolfed down the granola bar. "Come on."
A smile played across his face and he looked at the cage behind me. "I admit my life would be simpler if you were not in it. But that does not mean it would be any better, and in fact, I think we would lose a great deal for not having known you."
I sat back, too stunned to form words. That was the first time I could remember someone sort of saying they were glad they knew me. My eyes prickled and I cleared my throat. "Be that as it may, I'd really rather not hang around."
"You can't leave." Edgar sounded regretful. He leaned back in the chair. "If only because there is a part of yourself that you've never acknowledged. It exists, Sophia, whether you admit it or not. You're a shifter, a leopard. You are not human."
My vision blurred as I stared at a series of scratches in the wooden desk. I choked on a crumb of granola stuck in my throat and finished off the water, not trusting myself to speak.
He took a deep breath. "Surely you felt you were different, Sophia? Surely this can't be such a surprise?"
The mantra repeated in my head, over and over, as I struggled for calm. For composure. Admitting that he was right took more courage than I had at my fingertips. "I was always different. Seizures, birthmarks." I raised my arm so he could see the blotches on my skin. "So I never fit in. Doesn't really matter the reason, does it?"
"It should." Edgar fiddled a coin across the backs of his fingers, the flashing silver distracting me as he put his feet up on the desk. "Because this particular difference means you're no longer alone. Ever."
I looked up, not daring to hope. "I don't understand."
"Sophia, there are many different types of shifters. The wolves stick together the closest, because they tend to follow pack rules all together, but the felines also stick together. Most of us live in prides or at least loose social circles. Leopards tend to be solitary animals but you can join our pride, Sophia. You are most welcome."
The tears collected in a knot in my throat, but the mantra kept my face dry. The memory of the tears I'd shed against Atticus's chest made my cheeks flush and my heart trip. I cleared my throat. "You don't even know me."
"True enough." He nodded, the coin flying across his fingers. "But I know one very important thing about you. Well, perhaps two."
I waited. He smiled with only half his mouth as he glanced at me. "That night when you fought Atticus, Logan and I were as close to an uncontrolled shift as I can remember. Most shifters would have peed themselves in the corner rather than interrupt a lion alpha and his second. You, however." The smile twitched, spread a little, and he waved the coin at me. "You skipped past us, told Atticus he had to pay us because you wouldn't, and then you winked at me on your way out. Without breaking a sweat."
The mantra faltered. It took me a moment to regain my equilibrium, but when I felt centered, I looked at him closely. "So?"
"You're ballsy enough to live with lions," he said. "Very few people are. Very few women are."
I shook my head and concentrated on pulling my hair back in a neater ponytail. "Fake it 'til you make it, Edgar."
Another smile. There was too much kindness in his eyes for someone who headed security. I expected cruelty; I braced for withering condemnation. Instead, he reminded me of a former shifu, one of my first kung fu masters. Like a walking Taoist meditation.
Before my heart warmed and my defenses utterly fell apart, I sat up in the chair and rearranged my blanket toga. "And the second thing you know about me, Eddie?"
"Don't poke the bear," he said, eyebrow raised. "Or the lion, young lady. My name is Edgar. And the second thing I know about you is less clear-cut." He nodded at the cage behind me. "The only reason I'm in here this early is because Atticus never sleeps more than about three or four hours at a time. I figured he'd be up already, with a plan and a schedule and a couple of workouts already behind him."
I glanced back, and my heart calmed when I saw Atticus's still-dozing form. A beam of sunlight illuminated the rippled muscles across his shoulders and back. Curling up next to him once more occurred to me as the best idea I would have all day. I forced myself to look back at Edgar and froze; he watched me, not his brother. I cleared my throat. "He didn't leave. I think he's been snoring all night."
Edgar nodded, dark eyes unfathomable. "I know. I double-checked the security cameras. He's been asleep at least ten hours, Sophia. The only thing different about this night is you."
The breath caught in my throat. "I don't understand. I didn't fuck him."
A slight grimace was the only indication he didn't like salty language. Edgar went back to flipping the coin. "That wasn't my point. The point is, Sophia, he's calmer when you're near. That's a good thing. He's my baby brother and I love him. I like that he slept all night, that he's still sleeping. It's good for him."
"Great." I gathered up the toga and debated whether they'd ever let me go to the bathroom by myself again. "If you don't mind —"
"One more thing." His expression hardened and his words gained an edge. "Because he is my brother and I love him, Sophia, I take threats to his wellbeing very seriously. Do not hurt him. Don't even try."
"I wouldn't hurt him."
"See that you don't." Edgar took a breath as he stood, attention on something else. "Now —"
"Sophia?" Atticus sat up in a violent flurry of blankets and pillows and limbs, almost banging his head on the bars, and wrenched the door open as he burst into the open part of the library. "Sophia, where — Oh. Edgar."
His expression closed as he looked at his brother, then me in my sad little blanket toga. Atticus scrubbed his face and the raspy stubble on his jaw, fighting back a yawn. "What the hell time is it, Edgar?"
The older man nodded to me as he passed, slapping Atticus's back before heading for the door. "Ten in the morning, brother. You're turning into a regular housecat, sleeping the day away. Feed the girl and find her some clothes, then get to work. Pete and the guys are available if you need someone with a dart gun nearby."
Atticus waved him away. "We won't need it." Then he looked at me, his eyes still bleary with sleep. "Did you get some rest? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine." I cleared my throat as I eased to my feet. "But I'd really like to take a shower and brush my teeth and get some real clothes."
He yawned again. "Sure. I'll see if Eloise can help you out." He shuffled to the phone on the desk and made a call, talking in a low voice, as I looked at the door ajar behind him.
Edgar's words remained at the front of my thoughts as a dark-haired woman with strange gray eyes led me to a nearby suite with bedroom and bathroom. The shower steam hid my reflection in the mirror but not my fears. A leopard. Lions. And Atticus, who could only sleep when I lay nearby.