Chapter 5

I've spent more time crying in the past forty-eight hour than I've spent crying the last three years. Memories of my father telling us stories that seemed like fairytales, about magic bridges that weren't magic but science, that linked dimensions through tears in the fabric of reality and time.

It sounds like utter bullshit, even now.

But I'm somewhere that is definitely not New Mexico, in the arms of a stranger, who keeps saying ‘mate?' in the most hopeful tone I've ever heard.

The wild thing is, I nearly wanted to do it. Okay, my body definitely wanted to, but the realization I was somewhere other than good ole Earth? It kinda dimmed the ole lust-o-meter.

It looks like Earth. I sniff the air. It smells like Earth. I can breathe the air, and I don't feel a change in gravity. There are desert plants dotting the landscape: scrubby trees and cacti. Still, they're not quite right. The flowers are different, the shapes alien somehow. And we sure as heck don't have lion shifters back home. As far as I know, anyway.

I'm thirsty, my throat is parched. I'm sweating in his arms, dirt and dust caking on as he continues to jog, refusing to let me down, his massive muscles bunching in all kinds of interesting ways.

At first, I tried bargaining with him, telling him that I could, in fact, walk.

It didn't work out in my favor. I sigh, faintly annoyed, but mostly? Mostly I'm totally perplexed. In shock, even. A rattling noise comes to my attention, and I look around, before realizing it's my teeth. Not because I'm cold, either.

Nope, Mr. Muscles, the lion dude who barely speaks, is keeping me quite warm. I dare a look up at him, and that low rumble in his chest starts up again.

It took me a moment, after he hauled me to his chest and set off at an Olympic pace, to realize I'm not afraid of him. Despite his size, the fact that he sometimes looks like a lion and is definitely down to fuck, he's been nothing but gentle with me. I think of the way he wiped the tears off my cheek and tried to speak.

He's been… sweet. Weird, yes, but not dangerous. If he wanted to hurt me… he would have. When I grabbed him and kissed him as soon as we met, he could have taken complete advantage of me. But he stopped when I wanted to stop, and even though that seems like a bar so low anyone would trip over it, I know from living with Brad that it very much is not.

My bar might be in hell at this point. Ugh.

I relax a little, taking a hiccupping breath as I rest my cheek against his chest. His deep golden hair curls over my hands, skimming the tops of his shoulder blades. I study him. His eyes are mostly blue now, a muscle in his jaw working as he runs.

"I can get down and walk," I offer.

He only snuggles me closer, inhaling the top of my head. I hope it smells good. I haven't showered since I left Brad's, two days ago. Or one?

The thought catches me off-guard. Why do I care if I smell good to him? I mean, other than the fact the lion-man is my only hope at figuring out where my sisters are and how we can get home, it shouldn't matter if he thinks I smell good. Maybe because my safety depends on him. Yeah. That's it.

I squirm, and he presses my body to his chest. A really nice chest, too, all hard muscle and abs for days. Honestly, if he weren't sometimes a cat and I weren't currently experiencing a mental break from interdimensional travel and PTSD from my ex, I might be into it.

I'm not ready for sex, or intimacy, or whatever else this guy thinks I am to him. Yeah, I kissed him, but that was when I thought I was dreaming. It didn't mean anything. Sure, my body thinks it would be fantastic to get down with Mr. Sometimes-A-Lion, but that is a capital B Bad Idea. He sniffs my hair again, picking up the pace as his chest rumbles. I guess this is already pretty intimate.

My cheeks burn as I remember the feel of his fingers on my stomach, the way I nearly came apart as soon as he touched me, like he knew where I wanted him. Now I have to live with the fact I nearly let him get to third base within minutes of meeting him. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's definitely not how I go around saying hello. I'm not a cat, sniffing butts to say hi.

A high-pitched laugh erupts out of me.

"So," I say, trying for normal and falling way short, "where are you taking me?" It comes out choked, but normal seems a fairly relative term, given I've slipped through a wormhole or into another dimension or some other fantastical explanation that my dad used to theorize about in lieu of bedtime stories. I mean, maybe it's a magical land full of rainbows and fairies, but I don't remember riding a unicorn here. Another hysterical giggle starts to bubble up.

"Lana. Lana safe," he rasps, nuzzling his cheek against my head without breaking his stride.

"Got it. Lana safe."

He nods and grins at me, as though me speaking in third person is exactly the best thing he's ever heard. A wave of warmth washes over me, even though I am still boggled at the ridiculousness of everything. My teeth are still chattering, and I take a deep breath, trying to do the impossible and relax. Though lately? Seems like the impossible is pretty damn possible.

I can't contain the next manic laugh that bursts out of me, and Ras shoots me another grin.

He likes my hyena laugh. He likes whatever I say. He's trying to keep me safe.

It's so different from my ex that my chest constricts for a moment as it sinks in. It shouldn't make me so deliriously happy that someone, (er, something?) is doing the bare minimum to take care of me and listen, but here I am, somewhere between pleased and bemused and very much in shock. Maybe not deliriously happy, but probably just plain delirious.

I'm god-knows-where with some naked dude sporting a massive erection who changes into a lion at will. My sisters have disappeared. I need to pull myself together.

"Ras."

"Lana."

I pat his shoulder, even though the name game is getting old fast. Steeling myself, I clamp my mouth shut, inhaling through my nose.

Ras smells really good.

"No," I mutter. "Focus."

He shoots me a quizzical look, his blue eyes narrowing.

"My sisters," I start, fumbling for words. "Are they safe?"

"Lana safe." His chest rumbles, and I narrow my eyes. How is he purring when he's a human? Maybe he's an alien. Is he an alien if we're not in outer space?

Make it make sense.

My jaw clenches in exasperation. "Lana's sisters. The other women that were with me, can you smell them? Track them?" I pause, wracking my brains, wishing I'd watched more HBO shows on werewolves and vampires, as though they're how-to guides and not prestige paranormal series. I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to focus.

"Are they safe? Can you take me to them?"

His grip tightens on me. "I…" A muscle twitches in his temple, and he shakes his head.

My eyes are wide. The man-lion is trying to talk more. I nod vigorously, as though the motion might shake something loose in his head.

He makes a noise in frustration.

"Ras," I pet his shoulder where my arm is looped around his neck. He begins to rumble. Oh geez. I didn't mean to turn him on. Or make him purr. God, this whole thing is so weird. "Ras," I continue, "take me to my sisters."

"No."

I bite back a sudden scream of frustration. "Why not?"

"Not safe."

"If it's not safe, then we need to rescue them!" I insist, my voice ratcheting up. I smack his shoulder, and he looks down at me, eyes wide with surprise. He's really very handsome. It definitely makes the whole damsel in distress in another dimension thing more bearable.

"Not safe for you." A pleased smile sketches across his face, and the rumble intensifies. I hold myself still as he rubs a cheek across my scalp. Weird, but okay.

"Why?"

"Mates. With mates." The look of frustration returns.

"Will their mates hurt them?" My voice is small. For some reason, saying their mates makes my situation seem more real. It makes it feel like I've accepted that Ras is my mate. I swallow thickly. What the hell does that even mean? Ras seems like an alright guy-who's-sometimes-a-lion, but who knows about the whoever else took my sisters?

I sure as hell don't.

A low growl rises in his throat. "No." For a moment, I'm mollified. Until white flashes against the soft curve of his lip, the tips of fangs pressing against flesh. I squint at them. Are they bigger?

"We would never hurt our mates." His wide eyes meet mine. My mouth is open in surprise, matching the look on his face.

"You said a whole sentence!" The shock of it nearly outweighs the importance of what he's said. Slowly, so carefully, he sets me down. His lips are turned down, and he steps away from me. A shiver runs down my spine, the wind whipping through my shredded tee and over my bare legs, cooling the sweat. The rapid temperature change is bizarre, the heat replaced by a chill mist that curls around my ankles.

I've been so preoccupied with, well, everything, that I've barely looked around. The desert gives way to the beginnings of a forest, the same dark firs and sprawling trees I saw earlier. I bite my lip. I don't think forests and deserts work like that, one cropping up at the edge of the other. I'm no geography expert, but that doesn't seem right. I'm not a biologist either, though, and I definitely saw a lion turn into a man. Seems legit.

I heave a sigh.

Okayyyy, so another clue that this place doesn't work just like Earth. Toto, we are so fucking far from home that I don't think any pair of shoes, no matter how awesome, can save us. I stare at the expanse of trees, endless and green and altogether otherworldly. Menacing, even. Definitely the kind of place you might expect a single girl in a red cloak to get eaten right up.

We're under a canopy of evergreens claw the sky, the thick press of their trunks all around us. Some kind of green plant covers the ground here, and it looks vaguely reminiscent of clover. Bees buzz from small gold flower to small gold flower. I stare, then realize the difference. The bees are pink and green.

I drag a hand across my face before looking back to Ras.

He crosses his arms over his chest, his shoulders slightly hunched.

Oh. Oh, shit. I upset him. Because he thinks I'm his mate, and I assumed the worst about, well, whatever took my sisters, and by extension, him. Mate. The word sticks in my brain, the whole concept beyond comprehension and truly something I don't want to think about at the moment. Or ever. Never would be good. A pink and green bee buzzes around my head, and I swallow thickly.

Even if he is a delicious looking man. Man-lion.

Ugh. He's the only person I can count on right now because lord knows I have all the survival skills of a cream-cheese frosted strawberry cupcake. I need him. I never wanted to need a man again, last night, but desperate interdimensional travel calls for desperate measures.

I have to make this better.

"I didn't know." I wave my arm around, not taking my eyes off him. "I don't know anything. I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here, I don't know where my sisters are or if they're safe, and to be honest with you, Ras, I am about five seconds away from completely freaking out." It comes out on a sob, and the Lisa Frank bee bustles away from me. Ras has enfolded me in his arms, his big hands tangling in my hair, then tracing something on my back.

"I know where you are." He whispers this against my neck, inhaling deeply. His voice is deep and sure, thickly accented, unlike anything I've ever heard. My body stills, and I go quiet. His faculties for language certainly seem to be improving quickly. And his hands… calloused, warm, they stroke small lines between my shoulder blades. He seems fascinated by this part of me, more so than the rest, which is saying something.

"You're home." With that, he turns me to face a ruined, white-walled castle. A freakin' castle. It looms out of the trees and mist, ghostlike against the backdrop of dark green trees and even darker trunks. Emerald vines choke each other out, competing for space, lurid purple flowers blooming across the surface. The place must have been beautiful… a hundred or more years ago. Between the shock and trying to get answers out of this feral cat-man, and yes, maybe a bit of light ogling, I failed to notice the fact that there was a castle right behind me.

"Home?" It comes out faint. I might faint. He takes my hand, straightening to his full height. "You want me to live there?"

"I feel…" He pauses, scrunching his nose as if tasting the air. "I remember. You are why I remember, Lana Kit." His gaze is possessive, and I find myself warming beneath it.

And then I freeze, a bitter taste climbing out of my throat. Brad was possessive. I don't want to be possessed. I'm my own person. I need to find my sisters. No matter how magnetic Ras is, how perfectly sculpted, he is not the answer to my issues. He wouldn't even let me walk, for crying out loud.

And I've never needed to stand on my own two feet so badly.

"No, that doesn't make sense." I shake my head, and then his hands cup my jaw. I'm torn between fear he'll close the distance between us, and press his mouth to mine, and desperately wanting it to happen. I'm all kinds of messed up, apparently.

"You are my mate."

"I can't be. I don't know how I got here. I don't even know what you are."

He laughs at that, and my heart nearly stops. If he was handsome before, now he's overwhelmingly sexy. The relief at his sudden ability to speak overwhelms me.

"I am no different than you." He stalks toward me, and I back up a step.

"Listen, I'm glad you're talking, but nothing you're saying is making sense. I am not a cat, for instance." Am I seriously having this conversation?

"Lion."

"Lion," I agree, an apologetic smile on my face. The last thing I want is to piss him off. "And you certainly are talking up a storm all the sudden." I can't decide if it's an improvement from simply repeating my name over and over again or infinitely worse, considering how his low baritone does funny things to my insides.

"Come," he holds a hand out. "I will answer your questions, and I did not lie when I said you are the reason why." His voice is mellifluous, liquid gold, his eyes a mesmerizing blue.

"Fine. But then you'll take me to my sisters."

"If that is what you desire." Ras grins, and it reminds me of the Cheshire cat.

I gulp at the way he says desire, the word full of a heat that my body responds to. Stupid, traitorous body.

I take his hand. It's not like I have anywhere else to be.