Blake exhaled as he glanced up at the second story before meeting Luke’s eyes again. “The most damage was to the rooms next to yours. And yours… well, it was destroyed. The fire started there, Luke. And your door was barricaded from the outside. Whoever started it didn’t intend for you to make it out alive. The only thing that saved you was being in Tarun’s room.”
Ice flooded his veins as he stared at Blake. He glanced up at the scorched wall where his room was and then looked over at Tarun.
Fuuuuuck.
He wasn’t so worried about himself, but his mate… if they’d decided to go to his room instead of hers, she could have died. The realization sat like a fifty-pound lead weight in his stomach as he looked between her and his room.
And whoever started the fire could be watching them right now. He could be close, ready to strike.
His lion hissed and roared inside him, and Luke only had one thought. He could protect her so much better as his animal than he could as a human.
Without any real conscious thought from him, he felt himself hunch over, and the sound of his bones breaking and reforming echoed throughout the backyard, accompanied by a blinding flash of pain as the transformation completed.
It all happened within the blink of an eye, and then he was on all fours, his huge paws planted on the ground as he shook his mane out. Eyes locked on his mate, he stalked slowly toward her.
Tarun watched as the sky lightened, the sun slowly beginning to rise. Brow wrinkling with concern, she looked at Luke, still in lion form, pacing back in forth in front of her. He’d been like that for a couple hours now, but it was going to be daylight soon. He had to shift back before uninitiated humans saw him.
But she couldn’t get him to change back. Nothing she said worked.
The humans who’d seen it, like the police officers who’d shown up, knew about the existence of shifters. Whenever there was a large grouping, especially those who did the kind of work the Enforcers did, it was always a good idea to let some humans in key fields in on the secret. But soon, there would be investigators there who didn’t know. He had to shift back, before they showed up.
She glanced over at Georgie. Well, almost all of the humans had already known. Georgie apparently hadn’t, and she was a blubbering mess. Damara was trying to talk her down, but the waitress kept sending fear filled glances Luke’s way, and Tarun knew that as long as he was in animal form, Georgie wouldn’t relax.
He might scare her, but to Tarun, he was magnificent. His lion was huge, thickly muscled with paws the size of dinner plates. His tawny fur was shiny, even in the dark, and his mane was glorious. The fur surrounding his face was a golden color, a few shades darker than his eyes, and the rest of the mane was jet black. He was tall, his head coming almost up to her shoulder. She was short, so it wasn’t really a surprise, but she still thought he was on the bigger side for a lion.
He was breathtakingly beautiful. She could look at him in that form forever, she really could, but he needed to shift back.
Walking closer, she waited until he was next to her and then draped her arm around his powerful neck, making him stop his pacing. He huffed, sitting next to her, and she couldn’t resist leaning into his side.
“I’m okay, you know. And there’s n
o threat right now. Look around. If there was, do you think the Enforcers would be this casual?”
She reached over and ran a hand through his mane. He snorted as he looked around, and then leaned into her touch, not making a move to shift back.
“And look at poor Georgie. You’re really freaking her out.”
He glanced over to where Georgie was watching him, her nerves obvious, and then he huffed again as he turned back. Tarun could tell it was a sound of amusement and she smacked him on his big shoulder.
“Don’t be an ass. Imagine how scary it is for a human to find out about us. Especially when the human in question finds out because the man she likes turned into a gigantic lion in front of her, with no warning.”
Turning his massive head, he gave her a considering look, before glancing around. She thought she knew what he was looking for, so she picked up the sweat pants on the bench behind her.
“Here. Everything in your room is toast, but Noah fetched these for you earlier. He’s close to you in size, so they should fit.”
She held her breath as he stared at them, finally letting it out with relief when he hunched, the sound of his bones breaking echoing through the air. A moment later, he was standing on his human feet again, and he reached for the sweats, pulling them on quickly.
The moment they were on, he took her into his arms, holding her tightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even shift consciously. I was thinking I needed to protect you and it would be easier in animal form, and then the next thing I knew, I was a lion. I couldn’t make myself shift back. It would kill me if anything happened to you.”
She squeezed him tightly. “I know the feeling, but I think we’re okay for now. Besides, we’re surrounded by people and shifters. It’s okay.”
Blake called Luke’s name, and he hugged her tighter before pulling back to kiss her. “I better go see what he wants. Please don’t wander away. Stay with the group.”
“I will. Go on. I’ll be fine.”
She watched as he walked away, finally glancing around to see if there was anything she could do to help. She hated doing nothing when it felt like there was so much to do. Her eyes fell on Georgie and Damara, and she watched as Dmitri called for his sister. Damara looked torn, but Tarun caught her eye and nodded, beginning to walk toward them. She could sit with Georgie as well as anyone else could.
Her steps were slow and measured as she walked over. She wanted to be kind, but her experiences with Georgie hadn’t exactly been pleasant since she arrived. In fact, at that same time the morning before, she’d been jealous and resentful of the other woman, and she would have sworn she hated her.