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I gazed into her eyes and for the first time I was terrified when I looked into them. Then there was a flash that struck her like lightning. She tossed back her head and laughed. Her hair was a dark, rippling wave and when she laughed, she accentuated all the curves of her bodies. They glistened with desire and with yearning, and I was beginning to feel something else stirring within me.
“Of course, I am joking!” she said, throwing an alluring look my way again. “I would never betray the will of Axanar. You are so easy to tease,” she murmured as she drew in closer to me. Her arm twisted around my head, stroking my hair, while her breath warmed my lips. I caught her scent, a scent that always played havoc with my mind. She pressed her body against me and whispered in my ear, her voice hot and heavy and low. “Let’s go to our secret place.”
I did not need her to suggest this idea twice.
*
We crept away to a secret grotto that we had found a long time ago. We walked hand in hand, scurrying along the ground, the grass soft under out feet. We came to our small cave. It had been adorned with little trinkets we had gathered over the years. There was a small area of bedding near the rear of the cave, and I was eager to throw myself upon it. However, as I burst into the cave, I realized that we were not alone. There was a stranger standing there, a tall man with a solemn face and long fingers that looked like a spider web when they were latticed together.
“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize anyone else would be here,” I said, looking askance at this man.
“I was waiting for you,” he said. When he looked at me, I saw his eyes were like pitted coals. His voice was smooth, and he seemed unfazed.
“What do you mean you were waiting for me?”
“It is time. You are clearly not able to fulfil your destiny, so I must fulfil it instead. I want what is inside you, child. This gift you possess could bring glory to Orestes again, and instead you waste it by taking your silly little trips to your silly little worlds. You should be leading great armies across the cosmos and spreading our might. You and your father are poor leaders. You have turned the minds of the pride away from their destiny, and I have waited too long to see us rise again.”
I couldn’t believe he was speaking to me like this. I snarled and glared towards him. “I don’t know who you are or what you want from me, but you’re not getting it. If you want to try and take it, then come and get it,” I said, and began to embrace the lion inside me. My human flesh turned a shade of gold, and a thick mane protruded from my neck. The growl grew deeper and more menacing, and to my surprise the man before me did not move a muscle or try and shift himself. Instead, he stayed there with a smug smile, as though he was in complete control of the situation. Well, if he believed that then he was even more deluded than I first thought because there were two of us and only one of him. In fact, I could feel Char shifting behind me. I’d have to take him back to Dad and try and work out who he was. He shouldn’t have been able to come here and spout these things. Where did he get off?
I was about to teach him a lesson, but then I realized why he had that knowing smile.
I felt pain. I looked down and realized that Char had stabbed me in the side. Dark blood gushed out of me. I turned to look at her, and I saw the thing that had terrified me before. I should have listened to my instincts. I should have heeded the warning. She bellowed as she lashed out at me, cutting me across my chest. She took me by such surprise that I fell back, and then the man was towering above me. He had some powder in his fingers that he sprinkled over me.
“Time to sleep now sweet child. When you wake everything is going to be different,” he whispered. My heart raged with fury and I lashed out towards him, but my limbs were heavy and my muscles were weak. My thoughts became sluggish and I could not even roar for help. I simply groaned and collapsed in my own mind, succumbing to the darkness. What a fool I had been. What a fool…
Chapter Eight
Emilia
I kept getting the feeling that Naaro wanted to say something. He looked towards me, but every time I went to return his gaze he looked away. My mind was so filled with thoughts that I did not know what to say. I had seen a man transform into a lion before my eyes. I could not deny it. The truth was stark, yet how was I supposed to comprehend it? How was I supposed to live with it?
I was going to have to go home with the knowledge that somewhere out in the world there were a group of people who could turn into lions and traverse different worlds… I had no idea how I was going to be able to accomplish that. Somehow the thought of being trafficked was more comforting. At least that was grounded in the real world.
The most surprising thing to me had been that I hadn’t been scared when I saw him transform. Yes, he was a giant lion standing in front of me with all the power of the equivalent creatures that inhabited the plains of Africa, but I did not feel threatened as I assumed I would have been when faced with one of his wild, savage cousins. The fact that he still possessed an intelligent mind gave me comfort, and when I had looked into the deep soulful eyes, I had been reminded that there was a man within. He was more than a man, more than an animal, and I couldn’t help but be struck by the profound nature of this concept. I could barely imagine what it was like for a whole body to change. Going through puberty had been bad enough, and these people went through the equivalent of that whenever they wanted. But what they got in return… the sheer size and strength and majesty of him… perhaps it was a worthwhile trade to make.
When I touched Naaro something had sparked within me. The feeling of my hand against his hide had filled me with a deep sense of curiosity and longing. The touch had only been brief, but in that short time I felt as though I had glimpsed a new stage of life, that I had found some essence of understanding that I had never possessed before, and perhaps would not possess again. I was already wondering how I was going to be able to return to my normal life and restart everything assuming that it was business as usual. How was I going to be able to go back to Peter and tell him about all of this? He would surely think that I was crazy.
That was when I realized that I was going to have to keep this all to myself. I had never wanted to keep secrets from Peter, especially not if we were going to be married, for I had always been afraid that I would end up like my father. However, there was something else on my mind as well. I hadn’t really thought about Peter all that much since I had been here. Obviously, there were reasons for that, but if I was going to spend the rest of my life with him then surely, I should have been eager to return to his side? Instead, my eyes had been captured by two gorgeous men, and even now I felt tension in the air with Naaro. He stood with his chest exposed, all the slender muscles of his powerful body on display, anything unnecessary had been cut away and all that was left were the vital components that gave him his strength and his power. In many ways his human form was as impressive as his lion one, but I was yet to touch that. I could imagine the fire flaring over my palm, and I forced the thought away from my mind, guilty that Peter did not inspire such feelings within me.
The uneasy silence was interrupted when Kara came bursting into the room. Unlike before she looked panicked and shocked.
“Naaro, when was the last time you saw your brother?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“The last I knew he was downstairs,” Naaro replied. “He has not been up here.”
She pursed her lips and the lines on her forehead were furrowed. “I can’t find him anywhere. I wanted to speak to him so that we could get Emilia home. He must have gone off with Char again. That boy really does need to get his priorities straight. I’m sure I told him that he needed to stay close to the tower and make himself available.”
“Divad has always done what Divad wants to do,” Naaro replied.
I sensed the resentment in his voice. Kara sighed and shook her head. “I’ll go and find him.” She left us alone again.
*
“What’s it like having a brother?” I asked.
Naaro arched an eyebrow, acting surprised that I had initiated the conversation. “It is… challenging.”
I laughed. “I wouldn’t know. I’m an only child. My parents broke up before they had a chance to have another kid. What’s the deal with you two anyway? You don’t look alike. Are you just brothers in the sense that you’re from the same pride?”
