“I’m like a human in many ways, Tatum.” He turned and looked at her. “But I’m also an animal. I have this force inside me, this wild entity that is always with me, giving me strength and power, but also making me very dangerous.”
“Were you bitten or something, like in the movies?” She had seen enough werewolf movies to last a lifetime, but a part of her knew this was not like a movie in any sense.
“It doesn’t work like that, baby. I was born this way. My mother and father are lion shifters, as are my two brothers and sister.” He smiled and cupped her cheek. “I moved to Vegas when I was twenty-two. My father wanted me to run the pride after he stepped down as Alpha, but I never wanted that. I never saw myself as the leader.”
It’s hard to believe he wouldn’t want to do something like that, especially when she had seen exactly how domineering and assertive he could be. He was a born leader, even if he didn’t realize it.
“So, I started at the bottom in Vegas and worked my way up. It took a lot of blood and sweat to be where I’m at today, but it was worth it.” The way he looked at her in the moment was so deep it stole her breath. “Especially now that I’ve found you, Tatum. My mate.”
Mate? That word sounded strange as it rolled around in her head, but for some unknown reason, it felt so right.
“Everything about you calls out to me and my animal. The way you smell, so sweet and delicious, makes my mouth water. Your luscious curves have my lion purring in need, baby.” The air started coming in and out of her in faster intervals. He moved closer to her so their lips were mere centimeters apart. “You are the only woman I will ever want for the rest of my life.” She blinked from the seriousness of his words. “Tatum.”
She focused her eyes until his magnificent face came back into view. “Y-Yes?” Never had a man said such things to her.
“You own me. Body, soul, and animal.” He slanted his lips on hers, taking her mouth with a fierceness that rivaled her own.
Yes, this was what it felt like to be wanted wholly. Breaking the kiss—which was so much harder than she imagined—Tatum placed an unsteady hand on his chest. Things needed to be said from her side, things that she needed to reveal about herself.
“I want to tell you about me, Leo.”
The lust in his eyes dimmed when he heard her words. He nodded and leaned back but kept a hand on her hip. Digging deep inside her, she pulled up every ounce of strength she could muster.
Kiki was the only one who really knew about what she had gone through, and she found it frightening as hell to be about to tell another person.18Tatum lay beside Leo on his massive bed. His arms wrapped snugly around her, a reassuring presence. They had been lying like this for a long time, neither of them saying anything. She knew Leo was giving her time to tell him, and she found it a lot harder to say the words than she could ever have imagined.
“My first memory is watching my mother stumble into the house. I was only four years old, but even then, I knew what I saw wasn’t right. She had a man hanging all over her. She always had a man hanging all over her. I could smell alcohol on her, although at that time I didn’t know that’s what it was. It was a scent I associated with her, because that’s what she always smelled like.” Tatum took a deep breath and continued.
“She always had different men coming and going. Most of the time, they ignored me or didn’t even know I was there, but other times….” His arms tightened around her, and a growl left him. A smile curved her lips at the sound. Strange to think she actually felt comforted by the animalistic noises.
“Nothing ever happened, not in the way you think, but that’s only because I became smart and started hiding when I heard her come home. After one of them tried to get me to go with him to his truck, I knew those men were bad.”
“Christ, Tatum. You were just a baby.” He kissed the top of her head, and she snuggled deeper into the hardness of his chest.
“I learned at a very young age that I could only rely on myself. There were times when it seemed my mother had her sober moments and tried to acknowledge my presence. I was still so desperate for her love that I absorbed anything she gave me.” She stared at a patch of hard, tan flesh on his abdomen and drew lazy circles around his skin. She got lost in the past as she retold it.