The Woods ✔

Dining With Lions

Ajax and Robin's mother called them in a few minutes later and Caden stepped after Robin through the door. Ajax was directly behind him and a shiver went down his spine at the close proximity. He just broke nature's first rule of survival: Never turn your back on a predator.

He imagined feeling Ajax' body heat and his breathing picked up. Although they weren't alone he wasn't sure if Ajax would refrain from attacking him if he pissed him off. The fear made him go rigid.

Suddenly there was a hand at the small of his back and his breath caught in his throat. All kinds of scenarios played out in his mind; Ajax sinking his fangs in his neck, Ajax breaking his neck, Ajax raking his claws through his flesh, and his muscles tensed in preparation for his escape.

"Relax or do you want to lure out any lion in this room with the sweet scent of your fear, cub?" Ajax' hot breath fanned over the exposed skin of his neck and sent Caden's mind in a frenzy. He knew when to back off and leave the treasures to a bigger enemy and now was definitely the right time to get the hell out of here.

However Ajax pushed him unyieldingly forward and to an empty chair on the left side of the table. Stiffly he sat down and stared at the candle in front of him when Ajax plopped down on the chair next to his.

Nicolas sat at the head of the table, his wife to his left, Ajax to his right and Kaliska and Robin occupied the seats next to Jade. Caden was glad about the spare seat beside him because Ajax would surely be enough of a challenge on his own.

"Am I late?"

Caden jumped in surprise and looked over at the doorway where the voice had come from.

A blonde woman was standing there, her face flushed and a bright smile on her lips. There was no other word to describe her than beautiful. Though she wasn't as tarted up as Kaliska she was stunning.

"Of course not! Come on, take a seat!" Jade invited her and Caden realized horrified that this perfect creature would sit next to him.

Unfortunately, she was also a lioness.

Caden didn't get much of what was said during dinner, hell he wasn't even sure what he had eaten or how it had tasted. He was too caught up in staying glued to his chair and breathing. His instincts urged him to flee because this was obviously a battle he couldn't win, and he had problems to hold the fork due to his trembling hands.

Ajax talked with the lioness who laughed once in a while and made Caden flinch every time. How was Kaliska able to stand all of this? Didn't she feel the danger, a pungent odor in the air he could almost taste on the tip of his tongue?

Shakily he placed his fork on his plate when everyone else seemed to have finished and clamped his hands between his thighs to hide the trembling. He looked over at Kaliska and Robin to get them to save him but they were engrossed in a conversation with Robin's parents. Swallowing thickly he peeked over at Ajax who messed around with the candle while the lioness talked a mile a minute.

The telltale signs of the shift prickled through his whole body and he bit his lip to force it back. No way was he shifting in the middle of this family dinner in this foreign house.

His eyes flickered over the table, searching for something - anything! - to distract him. But everytime he would stare at the lions and realize all over again in which dreadful situation he was stuck. It made his heart beat even faster.

"Would you please join me outside on the patio, Caden?"

Nicolas' calm voice jerked him out of his panicked state and he nodded before pushing back his chair and following the older lion on legs that felt like jelly.

Once outside he nearly collapsed in relief when the cool night air filled his lungs and washed away the overwhelming scent of so many lions. He clutched the banister tightly and shut his eyes.

A big, calloused hand gripped his neck and after the initial shock he relaxed further in a matter of seconds. Slowly the urge to shift subsided and he could think clearly again.

"Thank you," he croaked out after he had regained his composure.

"No problem," Nicolas replied with a friendly smile and retracted his hand. "I have to admit you did really good. Robin once brought home a deer shifter who shifted after about twenty minutes and bolted out of the door. We had to fish her out of the pond."

Caden couldn't contain the chuckle and although it sounded off some of the stress disappeared.

"I don't like water so it wasn't really an option," he attempted to joke and Nicolas laughed amused.

"Cats and water will never be friends," he remarked. "My wife's going to kill me if I don't help with the dishes so I'll head inside. You're welcome to stay out here a little longer if you'd like."

"Okay, thank you very much," Caden said shyly and Nicolas affectionately ruffled his hair before going inside to escape his wife's future wrath.

Caden sat down on the steps that led down to the garden and simply enjoyed being outside. Whatever reason Kaliska had to keep him inside the house like a prisoner was insignificant to him. If she thought she could lock him up again she would be faced with a surprise. Only now did he realize how much he had really missed nature. The sounds, the scents and the feeling! Everything just made sense when he was outside.

Content he rested his chin on his knees and closed his eyes. Some of the last brave crickets were chirring and the soft music of the water gently lapping at the rocks which surrounded it, broke the silence.

He wondered if the lioness in the house was the same who had helped Kaliska and Robin to find him. At this time he had been more focused on saving his butt than memorizing her scent so he wasn't exactly sure. It could be her or it had been another lioness from the pride.

Robin had told him that there were about thirty lions in this pride along with some human partners. Most of those families were already living for a long time here and their ancestors could be traced back to the founding of Willow Creek sometime in the eighteenth century.

Caden didn't feel jealous but he had to admit that he wanted to have a past, too. The only thing he knew was that he had scratched at Michael's front door during a stormy night. There hadn't been a findable trace of his mother and his father likely didn't know of his existence up to this day. It wasn't even completely certain if both of his parents had been shifters.

He was an empty page with so much blank space and he wasn't sure he could fill it during one lifetime. He was afraid that he simply wasn't enough.