Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Isabella

The smoke in the area is awful, and riding the bike makes it so that it's especially awful. I don't care, though. I have a horrible image of Vittorio lying wounded in the middle of a raging inferno. I kick the bike into a higher gear and speed around curves that make the bike shake and wobble.

I should be afraid. I should be worried and pacing. I shouldn't be zooming around on such a little bike, a bike that definitely is worth less than the money I gave Arielle for the rental of it. But I'm not so much afraid as determined to find my man and save him from this disaster.

I'm laser focused on this one goal. Get Vittorio.

I come to a bend in the road and I only realize how sharp the turn is when it's already too late to adjust. The bike skids on some gravel at a very high speed and I lose control briefly.

Well, that's all the time it needs to go absolutely crazy. The bike shudders and then, I'm on my side with the bike and heading over the edge of the roadway towards the tree line. I start to scream and then, the bike veers and jumps. It manages to miraculously stay upright and not hit a tree, but eventually it skitters and I fall to the side as it slips from my hands and plows right into a tree stump.

I sit on the ground and try to stay calm. I can tell something is wrong with my right ankle because when I try to stand on it, it buckles and I fall again. The smoke in the air is getting denser and I curse my fucking luck. I don't want to be stuck here when my man needs someone to rescue him.

I try to stand again and yell so loud it echoes. I sit back down and start to cry. It's more out of frustration than anything else, but I know that I am not ready to give up. Even if the flames are getting closer, and I know they are because the smoke in the air is becoming thicker and darker, and I hear crackling noises,

I'm just about to try to stand again when I see a massive lion come striding through the trees and heading my way.

Now, I'm going to say that again.

I see a lion, bigger than any I've ever seen in any zoo, come trotting towards me.

A fucking lion!

I feel panic well up within me, but I can't do anything. I'm stuck both physically and mentally.

The lion gets close enough to me that I can see that its mane is fairly dark. I focus on that and not the gaping mouth that comes at me.

And picks me up.

When the beast's mouth closes over me, I think I'm going to die but it carries me almost gently, and I guess that's when I realize this is all a nightmare and not real. Still, even if it isn't real, it's terrifying. I think in that moment I faint because I remember very little about being carried by the giant beast. I only begin to come back to consciousness as he sets me back down near a ridge that seems free from the overwhelming presence of the fire.

I sit and wait to be eaten. I don't have any logical ability to take in the fact that an insanely large lion is pacing in front of me. Is there a circus nearby? Did the animals got spooked by the fire? Is there an organization freaking out looking for the world record hugest lion on Earth?

No. Nobody and nothing could contain this creature. This lion is just too large to have handled being chained in some zoo.

Then the lion gets really close and my heart stops. I can see its eyes! I can actually see itsdamned eyes, and I know that I'm going…

I'm going…

I'm…

They look familiar.

How could that be? How could anything about this beast seem familiar?

I think this and then, almost instantly it clicks for me. "Vittorio…"

The lion shakes its mane and lets out a very controlled roar before stepping away a few paces. "Don't you dare act like it's not you!" I say. "I saw your eyes! It's you!" The view around the lion gets blurry and distorted for so short a time, it almost seems like imagination. And then, "Vittorio!"

My man is standing where the lion stood. He's naked and a covered with ash and soot but he looks just fine. I want to cry with the relief of it, but Vittorio starts walking my way and I can tell that he's furious.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here, Izzy? I told you to stay home until I sent for you!"

He's yelling at me, but I just can't get past the fact that is staring at me right in the face in the form of a naked and very angry human. "You're a shifter? I didn't… I know they're supposed to exist but I didn't really believe it." You'll see them on television news reports and such but I've gone my whole life without seeing one live and in the flesh.

Vittorio shrugs my question away. "Yes, I'm a shifter, but right now, we need to get the hell out of here. We have to get you to a hospital."

I shake my head in wonder. "I never believed you were real. I mean, I'd heard about shifters, but I just never saw anything to suggest it wasn't just a fairy tale. I never believed it and…"

Vittorio walks closer and leans down and picks me up. I lean my head against his chest. "I told you to stay put." He says this in a quieter tone filled with deflated worry. "I won't have you chasing me into every fire because you're worried about me."

I put a hand on his chest. "I'm fine, Vittorio. Please forgive me."

He grumbles but then, he kisses the top of my head.

And so, I know that Vittorio is willing to forgive and forget.

But then he flips me over and lands a few spanks on my rear end, so I know that Vittorio is and always will be the son of the mob boss, too.

"Are we going to have babies or kittens?" I ask in a faraway voice.

He responds by landing more spanks, and even though pain rockets over my rear end, I fight back giggles.