Mated to the Warrior Beast
Chapter 259 259: NEXT GEN: What the Hell?

~ ZANE ~

Lia rolled her eyes, but plopped into the seat and pulled her legs in. I caught myself watching her move and shook my head.

What. The. Fuck.

Agitated and nervous and fucking pissed, I stormed around the car and got into the driver's seat, throwing it into gear and pulling smoothly but quickly away from the sidewalk.

"What the hell, Lia," I snarled, eyes on the road because I couldn't look at her because looking at her was doing something strange to my insides—and making my jeans too tight. Which was just wrong, wrong, wrong on every kind of level—

"What?"

I snapped my head to glare at her, forcing myself to keep my eyes on hers and not look anywhere else. "What? What?! What the hell are you doing in the human world? What the hell are you doing in high heels? What the hell are you doing shifting into your lion and walking through the city?!"

She folded her arms which only pressed her breasts higher and made me growl so I gritted my teeth and turned back to the road, shaking my head.

"It's not like I stroll casually up the center of the street," she bit back. "And I'm guessing I'm doing the same thing here that you are," she said sullenly.

I fucking hoped not.

No pun intended.

But no way was I asking.

"I doubt it," was what I snapped.

She snorted. "You're probably right. I've been doing my best to blend in, rather than… whatever that was you were doing back there," she spluttered with laughter, but it felt forced.

"Doing? You've been here before?"

"Of course."

Fear, chill and urgent, tightened bands around my chest. "Alone?!"

She turned her head to look at me, a strange expression on her face. "They're humans, Zan. You saw how easy it was to put that big guy down. Their reflexes are… pathetic."

"Most of them," I agreed. "But Lia, it's still not safe. We aren't even supposed to be crossing!"

"Yeah, let's just remember that's a "we", Zan. We aren't supposed to be crossing. Yet here we are. But don't worry. No one's going to notice me in my beast. I'm really careful." She patted my arm like she was soothing a child.

I bristled. I opened my mouth to retort, but she sighed, shaking her head. "I just… it's fun here. No one… expects anything from me."

Resonance, empathy, understanding, echoed in my chest. But I pushed it away. Even if I knew exactly what she meant, that wasn't the point. She wasn't supposed to be here!

And yet… images of Lia in her lioness flickered in my head—bold and strong, crouched on a rooftop in the city, silhouetted by the moon. For a moment I wanted to see that. Until the image was marred by an imagined crack through the night and her lion groaned and fell, sliding to the ground, bleeding.

I couldn't breathe. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and shook my head. "You can't do this again. Ever. If the humans see your lion they'll shoot you and it won't matter how dull their senses are when you're dead!"

She blinked and looked down at her hands.

I made myself soften my tone. "I won't tell on you, Lia, but you can't do this again."

Her expression went from uncertain to very skeptical. "Oh, that's so generous of you Zan…" she drawled. Then she shook her head and muttered, "Of course you won't tell on me. Your parents would flip worse than mine if they found out you'd been coming here all this time. Good luck explaining how you knew I was here without, you know, outing yourself."

"That's not the point—"

"Of course it is! You're saying that it's fine for you to be here, and not me. What a hypocrite!"

"No," I growled. "I'm saying it's not safe for you. As a female—"

She made a little, offended noise. "Will you be coming back?"

"That's none of your business."

Her brows pinched over her nose and she kept staring at the side of my face. "So… let me get this straight… You're saying it's not safe for me to be here as a female. So you're taking me home. But you're just… going to keep coming? Wow. Did we time-travel?

Have we returned to the medieval times when I didn't realize? Are you standing for my honor? Or is it prehistoric… wait, Zan, are you dragging me back to your cave?!" Then she pretended to flutter.

I had to stifle a laugh, but couldn't let her see it. There was a warm moment, but I blinked. I needed a second to get my head straight. When she leaned into me like that I was washed in her scent and there was something different about it. Something rich that I'd never noticed before. Something… compelling.

I swallowed. "Lia…"

She lost the vapid smile and her voice went flat. "Don't patronize me, Zan."

"I'm not. I'm… it's really not safe."

"Then why are you here?"

The flippant answer was right there on my tongue. The bullshit answer. But she had stopped pretending and was just staring at me—I could see her from the corner of my eye, her fierce gaze fixed, her jaw tight.

I took a deep breath. "I come here because… this is where I'm strong." I said, then wished I could shovel the words back down my throat when she went still.

I risked a look at her and wished I hadn't. Her brows pinched together in sympathy which made me want to growl.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what? Like I care?"

"Like you pity me."

She made a strangled little noise. "Pity you?! Get your head out of your ass, Zan."

"Oh, thank you. That's helpful."

"Please, I'm not pitying you. You're pitying yourself."

"That is just so much bullsh—"

"You want to come here and be strong because it doesn't matter that you can't shift—even though in human form you're as strong and fast and… whatever it is that you do, than any other male I know. I swear, what is it that guys have with the shifting? No one's penis is being measured by their lion's… or their wolf's," she said, cutting me a glance from the side of her eyes.

"The Equines wish they were," I quipped. I couldn't resist it.

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