Dressed in one of my old, worn pairs of sweats, I helped my mother finish dinner while Sebastian entertained the rest of my family. Instead of saffron, my mother had gone for the throat, using cinnamon, chili, and curry to create a tongue-incinerating dish I’d need several weeks to recover from. Fortunately, she understood she made a hellish concoction, as she’d recruited Uncle Henry to buy out the local stores of milk, yogurt, and anything else that might cut the heat to tolerable standards.
Sebastian loved it, and long after the rest of us had waved the white flag of surrender, he devoured the leftovers.
My mother regarded Sebastian in disapproval. “You were supposed to breathe fire so we could laugh at you.”
The lion chuckled, and while I wanted to flop across the dining room table, he snagged me around the waist and pulled me to him before I could indulge. “My father loves spicy food. Our strain of lycanthropy is from the northern part of Africa, and most of us develop a love for a lot of spice. My mother claims it’s a genetic fault, as she doesn’t like spicy food that much. Not even the virus can conquer her tongue, apparently. But all of us children of hers? Obsessed with all things spicy. The hotter, the better.”
“What species of lion are you?” Uncle Henry asked, and as one of the older adults, he’d gotten to eat at the table rather than wherever a spot could be found. “I’ve seen your lion form before, but I wasn’t sure what kind you are. You don’t look like a regular lion. You’re, well, bigger. Even for a lycanthrope.”
Damn. Uncle Henry had seen Sebastian in his lion form? How rude. I stared up at my mate with a scowl. “What were you doing shifting for Uncle Henry?”
“Fighting him, of course.”
Of course. Right. Because it was natural for a lion and a lynx to fight each other. “At work?”
“Yes. We were training, and the CDC likes watching different species brawl. It’s good for us to work out our tempers. Single male lycanthropes can be surly, and sanctioned fighting helps keep us a little more sociable. For the record, I always win.”
My uncle sighed. “Well, yes. You’re huge. Thank you for not beating my family within an inch of their lives, because I know full well you can.”
My entire family eyed Sebastian with interest.
“I don’t mind a mock fight after we come back from our trip,” the lion replied. “It’s good exercise and practice. But to answer your question, we’re Barbary lions. Some call us Atlas lions. Outside of the lycanthropes, we’re extinct except in zoos, and it’s unlikely the population will recover, although conservatory breeders are trying to help the species. They actually monitor our general behavior to see how they can improve conditions for the lions and if there are any breeding pairs that might be able to survive in the wild. They’re not at that point yet, but the goal is to release twenty breeding pairs into the wild in the future. Unfortunately, there’s not that many lions left, so it’ll be a while. And genetic diversity is an issue.”
“I seem to have caught an endangered species. Nice.” I debated taking a nap on Sebastian. “Are you full yet? I want to take my new car out for a spin, and we have to head off to the next spa. And I have presents to unwrap tonight in our room.”
“Presents implies you’ll unwrap more than one. You are not good at unwrapping more than one.”
“I’m going to try for two, but I’m expecting to be rewarded for stepping outside of my comfort zone.”
“You are such a cat,” Sebastian informed me before dislodging me from his person and getting to his feet. “Tell your family goodbye while I load the car?”
“Sounds like a plan. Goodbye, family! I am running away now.” I got up, grabbed my lion by his suit jacket, and held on in case the mob of brothers swarmed me and tried to make me stay longer. “I love you, please do not check in with me for at least a week, and I’ll let you know when I’m moving on to the next spa, where I’ll spend an entire week whining I have to send my lion back to work. Also, I’m quitting my job and finding one that won’t drive me to homicide. I’m relying on the lion to feed me until I find a new job. You can help me move for Christmas. That is a present. Helping me move is like twenty presents, at least.” I tugged on Sebastian. “You could give them your house keys and address, and they could move all of my stuff into your house. Then I can call my landlord and move out. I’m month-to-month. Then they can make sure my place is okay, too. I’m a defenseless woman, I’m not sure I can handle such horrible tasks.”
Sebastian twisted around, stared at me, and raised a brow. “You just hate moving.”
“Passionately.”
Shaking his head and grinning, Sebastian pulled out his keys, pulled off two fobs, a car key, and a house key, and he handed them to my uncle. “The dark blue fob controls the alarm system, the other one will get you into the garage, and that key will get you into the house through the garage. My piece of shit is so old it doesn’t have an alarm system. However, it’s mostly sound, so if one of the kittens learning to drive wants to work on fixing it up, they can have it, just send me insurance information on the kid so I can add them until I can transfer it. It would make the Corvette faint from shock and horror.”
Uncle Henry took the keys. “I’ll make sure everything gets moved safe and sound, Harri. Have a good time, and if you indulge in any behavior that might result in a litter of kittens, try not to kill your lion. We’re not sure if he’s lynx tough yet.”
Sebastian chuckled. “She hasn’t won an arm wrestling match against me yet, so there’s some hope for my survival.”
“Never underestimate a lynx during mating season,” my uncle warned.
“I’ll try not to do that.” Sebastian slipped out of his jacket and left me to my family, who converged before I could escape. “I’ll get the car ready while you tell your family goodbye properly.”
“You are a very bad man, Sebastian Sumners!”
Thirteen
I fail to see how this is revenge.
The Corvette drove like a dream. The engine growled, purred, and did everything I expected a sporty car to do, and when I hit the gas—or the brakes—the car meant serious business. I almost pitied Sebastian, who handled my exploratory driving with grace, punctuated with alarmed although infrequent hisses.
Everything we needed for the week fit into the trunk, including my prized box of cheese and other goodies. A few extra presents from my family had also found their way into the vehicle.
“Are you hissing at me because I’m learning this car doesn’t need me to apply my full bodyweight to the brake in order to get the damned thing to stop? Because honestly, I had to, and it was getting pretty unsafe to drive. It didn’t understand how to go well, either. I’ll get used to it, I promise. By the time we get to Chicago, I will be a master of every road I see, zipping along in my pretty red Corvette.”
“I’m hissing because I gave your family the keys to my house, and my bedroom has a shameful number of your pictures just about everywhere. Fortunately, none of the pictures implicate you in bounty hunting, but there is one where you were wearing some fuckwit’s blood, and I forget about it. And I don’t have my spare keys with me. I have to go back to work to get them out of my office.”