Jezebel's Lion (12 page)

Brandon clenched his fists and took deep calming
breaths as he found Jess sitting next to Travis and Zeck stroking their hair.
Travis was deathly white, and Zeck didn’t look much better. “Will they live?”

Kneeling next to her he pulled her into his hold. He
didn’t care about his nudity. He just wanted to be close to her.
 
Brandon could have lost her. Boogiemen may
not be able to mind control her or suck the life out of her, but they could
have done other things. He told himself not to think of the possibility and
just hold her. “Yes. They’ll live once they have a shifter blood transfusion.”

Jess looked at him then. “You turn into a lion.”

Brandon nodded and tried to gauge for a reaction.
Jezebel seemed dazed. “Yes, I did. I was going to tell you today. It was what I
had to tell and show you.”

“Oh, I didn’t think it would be that.” She sounded
so calm, but he could feel her body trembling.
 

“Jezebel, I think we should leave. Zeck and Travis
are safe now. More can get done without hovering over them.”

She blinked a couple of times, glanced at her
friends, leaned over and kissed each one on the cheek, then stood. “Okay. I’m
ready to go.”

He didn’t bother finding the pants he had been
wearing. He walked with Jezebel in front of him ushering her out. Out the front
he saw the cleanup crew had arrived. Britney was standing by his parents’ car
arguing with Carter, who was trying to get the keys out of her hand.

Walking towards his sister and Cater, Brandon
snatched the keys out of Britney’s hand and growled, “Either you both get in
the car, or I’m taking the car back to my place without you.”

They must have seen he’d had enough because as he
walked around and put a stoic Jezebel in the passenger seat and walked around
to the driver’s side Carter and Britney got in the back seat without argument.

Brandon got in, put the keys in the ignition,
started the car, and whizzed out. The yelling in the back started up, and
Brandon ignored it. A phone jingled to say it got a message, and Brandon glanced
down swearing as he remembered he’d left his phone in Savron’s car.

“Britney, message Savron to drop my phone by my
house. I left it in his car.”

“That was him messaging me. If you want I can bring
it over later today. I want to go see Sasha today anyway, so I’ll get it off
Savron.”
 

“No, I have reports to do. I don’t have time to
drive you around,” Carter snarled.

“That’s good because I didn’t ask you to. This has
nothing to do with you anyway. I can drive where I want. Savron is family.”

“They are not looking after you. Savron was the one
who called you to go into a dangerous situation. Britney, you’re not going
anywhere without an escort anymore.”

“What?
No way.”

Brandon tuned out the arguing and glanced at Jezebel.
She hadn’t moved an inch from when he put her in the car. Jezebel sat staring
in a daze out the window.

 
The forty
minute drive home felt like a lifetime. He pulled into his driveway, left the
keys in the ignition, and got out. He thanked God he lived in a shifter
neighborhood and didn’t have to worry about his nudity. Brandon went around the
back and got his spare key from under the table. Walking back around he opened
his front door and came back for Jezebel, who still hadn’t moved. He lifted her
and took her into the house and shut the door with his foot.

Brandon didn’t worry about Britney and Carter. They could
sort themselves out. Brandon had a mate to worry over.

He set Jezebel on the bed in his room and started
the shower before coming and lifting her into his arms and taking her to the
shower. Brandon gently placed her on the floor before the shower and stripped
her of her torn and bloody clothes, and her boots. When she was naked he lifted
her into the shower and put her under the warm water. Jezebel finally came out
of her stoic state sputtering and wrapping her arms around him and holding on
tight. Her body shuddered against him, and then sobs shook her.

Brandon let her get it all out. She cried into his
chest, and he rubbed her back. When the water turned cold he turned the taps
off and opened his bathroom cabinets, got a towel, and wrapped it around
Jezebel, not bothering with his own. Picking her up so she was cradled in his
arms he walked back to his bed and sat.

Brandon didn’t know how long he sat and waited for
Jezebel to calm herself and be ready to talk. It felt like hours.

“You’re a lion.”

They had already established this, but he knew she
was traumatized.

“Yes. But I’m a good lion. We are protectors of the
human race.”

 
“Wolves are
too, big ones. I saw Mac Fierce naked. He turned into a wolf.”

Brandon let her talk, unsure of what to say.

“His body isn’t as good as yours. You turned into a
big lion.” Jezebel repeated herself like she was asking him to confirm she
wasn’t crazy.

“Yes. I’m a big lion. No more watching when we
change. You can watch me but no one else.”

Jezebel nodded.
 
“You’re huge, bigger than I thought a lion would be. But so were the
wolves.” Jezebel closed her eyes and held her stomach. “What were those things
that attacked me and my friends?” She opened her eyes and stared blankly at
him. “I knew they were wrong. I didn’t like them, but they put like a spell on
my friends. Why didn’t they do that to me?”

“They can’t. I mated you. It gave you some of my
magic. Being mated to a shifter means that creatures can’t control you, and
usually if they smell you they will turn tail and run. But the creatures you
found tonight are called boogiemen and women. They are cunning, violent
creatures. The other creatures we shifters protect humans from are scared of us
and know we bring death to them. Boogiemen, though, they work together with the
other creatures. They want all shifters dead, because we are immune to their
powers and games. We are strong enough to kill them. No other being is. They
are one of the reasons we never go anywhere alone. They are pack creatures. You
very rarely find them with fewer than six.”

Brandon tilted Jezebel’s face up to see if she was
following everything. She was chewing on her bottom lip. “You killed two and
made it look very easy.”

He stroked her head. “I’m stronger now I’m mated and
even stronger with the threat close to you. I can kill two or three, but if six
came at me it would be too much. They are stronger than vampires, giants, and
any creature you can think of. Once their arms wrap around you it is hard to
survive.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you mean vampires and
giants?”

“Let’s get comfortable. I have a lot to tell you.”
Brandon moved them back on the bed so he was against the bed headboard. He got
comfortable and fixed Jezebel so she straddled him. Leaning down he kissed her
lips. “Are you sure you want to know? It would be telling you everything. It’s
a lot to take in.”

Again, Jezebel nibbled on her bottom lip for a
moment before she sighed. “Yes. I want to know everything.”

“Okay. But you have to promise you won’t interrupt
until I’m finished.”

“I promise.”

Tucking her into him he breathed in her jasmine
scent. “Well, I’ve told you a little about boogiemen, but there are a lot of
creatures out there. Las Vegas isn’t really called Sin City for the reason you
think. It called that because it is the biggest doorway in the world. There are
a lot of other smaller ones, but Las Vegas has the biggest, and it lets in
swarms of creatures that are from your worst nightmares. We close the doorway
or stop the creatures from coming through. We don’t know where the doorway to
the other worlds might be, or even if there is more than one. The creatures
don’t even remember where they are.” Brandon ran his fingers through his hair.
“Now the creatures we deal with the most are leprechauns. No, they are not
little Irish beings with pots of gold. They are greedy and will grant you one
wish, but don’t be fooled. It comes with consequences. To be granted the wishes
you owe them your life. They have glamour, but mated mates can see through it.
They are small, wrinkled pus-covered creatures with a mean bite and sharp
nails. Trolls are much like the myth. They feel a bridge or a busy gateway is
theirs, and if you don’t get their riddles or pay their toll you die. Giants
are destructive creatures. Not only are they huge, but they have a—I guess you
would call it a sonic boom that topples buildings and structures. Vampires,
they suck the life out of you. It’s how they stay alive. When they take your
blood they absorb years of your life, and, yes, they hate the sun. It will kill
them.
 
Now back to the boogiemen.” He
shuddered against her. “As you saw tonight they are breathtakingly beautiful.
It is how they entrance you first. If you ever see one again back away slowly,
try not to draw any attention to yourself, and get far away them. Boogiemen or
women, I think are the worst. They can control your mind and get you to do
terrible things. They can’t do it to
you
,
but tonight they could have turned your friends on you. They also have the same
powers as vampires in taking your life, but unlike vampires they can keep you
alive for years and are not killed by or scared of the sun. They’re conniving
things and can even get the other creatures to work together and trap and kill
shifters. Some humans call them demons, but they are not. I have met demons.
They are quite decent, and I wouldn’t insult them like that by comparing them.”

“Demons, there are demons?”

Brandon tilted her head and brushed his lips over
hers. “Yes, there are demons. And I feel they are misjudged. I would call a
demon a sin-eater. They take away your sins. They also have mates like us. They
even come to our aid.” He rubbed his hands up and down her back.

“You keep saying I’m protected because I’m a mate.
What is this mate thing?”

“It is this.” He took possession of her lips,
pulling her closer to his hard naked body. Jezebel didn’t resist. She moaned
and melted into him. Jezebel’s arms came around his neck, and she held him to
her. Feeling he’d made his point and knowing if he continued he’d never finish
telling her everything, he broke his mouth from hers.

“That, what just happened, is the mate bond. Mates
are irresistible to each other. They are the other half of their souls. They
make shifters stronger. Mates are the one person whom the animal and human can
love.
That they can have children with.
The only person who can tame the savage beast.
Who can make
both the human and animal
happy.
 
The one person in the whole
universe who is made for them and the shifter for the mate.
They are
special.” Brandon cupped Jezebel’s face. “Jezebel, you are my mate. I knew from
the moment I laid eyes on you.” He took a deep breath in. “You smell divine.
Like a jasmine.” Brandon trailed his fingers down to rest over his mate mark.
“I should have waited and wooed you, but I couldn’t hold back. When I made love
to you I bit you, mate-marking you.” Brandon stroked her neck, and she shivered
at his soft touch on his mark. “You were—are—so beautiful. I didn’t want to be
pushy like Savron is with Sasha, but when I’m around you all my possessive
instincts come out, and jealousy flares. You are mine. You will always be mine.
The mate bond is more than marriage. There is no such thing as divorce. You are
stuck with me. In the shifter world you are now Jezebel Pride.” Brandon licked
her lips and nibbled on her lip.

Jezebel gasped and pushed at his chest. “What do you
mean you mated me? That I am Jezebel Pride?” She touched her neck. “Will I
become a shifter now? Oh God, what have you done to me?” She scrambled off his
lap.

Fuck, this wasn’t going how he imagined, not that
anything since meeting Jezebel had. “I mated you. It makes you in shifter eyes …
you would call it a wife.”
 

Jezebel’s mouth opened then closed and opened again.
Jezebel stared at him for a moment like he’d sprouted another head. Then all of
a sudden she started laughing. “Oh this is so funny. Here I have been telling
myself to get everything I can from you because not only are you a gorgeous
Pride, but you’re way out of my league. I thought you’d get sick of me and I’d
be nursing a broken heart in a couple of weeks, but it would all be worth it
because I’d have been with a Pride man. I messaged you to tell you I was going
to spend the whole weekend with my friends because I was already getting way too
attached to you.” She giggled. “Do you know how many woman wish they were in
the position I’m in right now? I bet it is a lot. My God, I have dreamed of
being with one of you since I started being a teenager.” Jezebel’s shoulders
slumped. “What am I going to do now? I haven’t even finished school? What about
college? I was only going to go to the local one, but do I still go? Or do I
stay at home and be this mate you say I am? I always thought I would get married
one day. You know, have the white dress and the whole big charade. I won’t have
that now. I won’t even get to know if you like me just because of the mate
thing. I would like to have been on dates and known that someone could fall in
love with me, for me. I wanted it all.”