Chapter 12

Makayla

With my arms around him, it feels to me like everything is right in the world. The sound of his heartbeat is familiar, as is the feel of his body. The smell of him is… Well, how did I never notice that I can tell the difference between how he smells and how other people do? Or is that me just coming into my… Hell, I don't know. My lion abilities, I guess. Maybe I'm going to be discovering a lot of those sorts of things.

Who cares now?

Right now, he's back and that's all that matters to me.

Wait a minute. It sure as hell isn't all that matters! I pull back and ask, "Now what?"

"You're safe."

"No. Uh uh. No two-word reassurances. I want to know a real update."

He looks at me and I can see the indecision in his eyes. He makes the decision, though. He says, "Sixteen are dead. I killed all but two of them as lions. I led them away from your house before it happened, the six that were there. The two killed as humans are here in the country from Angola and they were clearly killed by a lion. When the authorities get involved, they will assume these men were smuggling lions illegally and this carnage was the result."

Okay, that was candor I didn't expect. I don't know, actually, how happy I am about demanding it.

"Your garage door is already replaced. Your window is replaced as well. The lion who tried to take you, his body anyway, is gone. There is no evidence that anything happened today. You're safe for now."

"For now," I say, "why did they want me?"

"Because you are royal. Kidnapping you gives them leverage. In addition, you can produce lions of royal blood. That is a powerful asset as well, from a political standpoint. They might have forced marriage and an heir, giving them a seat at the table with the kind or even setting the stage for a coup."

"That's why I'm only safe for now," I say quietly, "and I won't be fully safe until when, when I'm infertile?"

He says, "I won't allow any harm to come to you," and then sees that I'm in no mood for reassurance like that. He quickly adds, "Until you're past bearing young or until you have a legitimate mate."

"A legitimate mate?" I ask. Then I wave off his attempt to reply. "I get it," I say, "the whole point of kidnapping me or breeding me… Is that the right word? Hell, is as good as any. The whole point of kidnapping me and breeding me is to give legitimacy to their claims against the throne. If I'm already legitimately mate to someone, there's no advantage. Is that right?"

He seems surprised until Kaitlyn says, "She's ahead of schedule, Your Highness."

"She told me that before, too," I say, "because I was able to accept all this so quickly and… what the fuck? What the actual fuck? This is the second time she's called you that. Your Highness? Are you the king?"

"She calls me Your Majesty," he says. "She calls my father the other way."

"A prince…" I say. "So, I'm going to be a princess."

He starts to nod and then stops and looks at me in disbelief. I say, "You're sworn to protect me. The only way to do that is to get a ring on my finger and to start putting babies in my belly. Seems to me if you're going to live up to your oath, we have a wedding in our future."

I hear Kaitlyn laughing softly. "That's not the way it works," Daniel says. I take a step back, put my fists on my hips, and stare at him.

"Actually, Your Highness," Aunt Kaitlyn says, "I believe that's exactly how it works."

Daneil groans and says, "And now I'm outnumbered."

"Do you have a better prospect in mind, Your Highness?" Aunt Kaitlyn asks.

"Well, no," Daniel says, "of course not. There's no better prospect possible than Kaitlyn but that's not the point here. The point…"

He's cut off by my scream and by the way I leap into his arms and wrap my legs around him. "That is the point!" I squeal. "It is! It is!" All the while I'm kissing all over his face. He seems paralyzed, completely stunned. I giggle plenty about that and finally say, "How about you stop being what you think you're supposed to be and start being what you are?"

He looks at me and says, "Are you going to be using my own words against me from now on?"

"Count on it."

And that's when he kisses me and I can feel something in his body release. It's like a tenseness I didn't notice before has gone away. I know what it is. It's simply his reluctance. It's all of the bullshit ideas he has about what's right and wrong about me wanting him and him wanting me.

And now he's really and truly mine.