“Beast,” she whispered, her face crumpling. She’d been in a bad spot when her lion had been taken from her, but never had she wanted her life to end.
“If I can just keep separate from the D-Team, I can go through with it, but they keep making me feel shit. They keep trying to open me up, and it fucking hurts. I got so good at not feeling, and now I watch them, happy with each other, always trying to include me, touching me, making me want connections I have no business wanting. With every day that passes, I hurt more, but my survival instinct is growing. I don’t know why. But I know my window to have Kane put me down is closing, and sometimes I get scared I’m going to be stuck in this hell forever. Alone.”
Those words sang to her heart. Alone. She knew all about that—being stuck between the shifter world and the human one.
“What a pair we make,” she said thickly, hugging his bicep again and following his gaze into the dark woods.
He let off a soft, single laugh. “Yeah. Pair of misfits.”
She smiled and nuzzled his strong arm. Being a misfit didn’t seem so bad when he was lumping them together. Mmm, Beast smelled good. Familiar already. “Do you want to show me the RV?”
He jerked a frown at her. “Really?”
“Yeah, but swear not to tell Kane. Tricky asshole dragon doesn’t need to be thinking my decisions are based on him.”
“What are they based on?”
“Tonight?”
Beast nodded once, hope pooling in his gold eyes.
Kiera offered him a slow smile and whispered, “You.”
Chapter Eight
She should tell him about the pregnancy. It didn’t feel right that he’d told her so much, and she had this huge secret. He couldn’t father cubs? Kiera was heartbroken for him. She couldn’t imagine what that did to an alpha lion like Beast. In lion culture, everything depended on the next generation. The prides revolved around the cubs.
And here she was carrying one she hadn’t even tried for. It was this huge white elephant in the room that Beast was unaware of and cast a wave of consuming guilt over Kiera’s shoulders.
But tonight had been perfect, and she didn’t know Beast well enough to guess his reaction. What if he bolted? What if he didn’t want another lion’s offspring in the territory and chased her away? Shit. Maybe she should’ve been more upfront with all of this in the first place, but she’d wanted to make sure this was an option she wanted to explore before she told anyone about the baby. Until she trusted them fully, she couldn’t risk her whereabouts getting back to Justin. He would bring hell to earth to get his cub back. Not because he had good paternal instincts. Quite the opposite, in fact. The second Justin had scented she was with child, he’d promised he would separate her from the baby and give it to one of the lionesses in his own pride to raise if she didn’t pledge fealty to him. He was an awful father, completely absent other than the thirty seconds he spent making the cubs.
She’d just wanted a claiming mark from him to fix her broken lion, but everything had gone sideways.
Kiera followed behind Beast to the silver, metal Airstream trailer, while subtly cradling her belly. She wanted so much better for this baby. For her baby. Maybe she wanted these mountains.
Beast pulled open the door and stood to the side, his expression unreadable. Kiera smiled timidly and stepped past him up the two creaking stairs and into the little home on wheels.
There was a light switch that actually worked when she flipped it on.
“Kane must’ve parked it near the gazebo so he could run electricity to it for you,” Beast murmured.
“Oh. Smart.” And convenient. She hadn’t expected it to have electricity.
Kane hadn’t been lying when he’d said he got the deluxe suite. It had polished wooden floors, and the interior walls were the same polished silver that matched the exterior. On one end of the home, there was a sitting area and table. A counter and small kitchen ran along the opposite wall, miniature fridge, sink, and four-burner stove included. A small flat screen television was mounted on the wall, and on the opposite end, a comfortable looking bed took up almost a third of the living space. The wooden cabinets, floors, and table in the home were a glossed rich walnut color, and the appliances were stainless steel, like the walls. It was rustic meets modern. It was perfect.
“I like that smile,” Beast said low from where he’d perched in the open doorway. “You don’t smile much, but when you do, it’s beautiful.”
She loved his compliment, but it also made her a little sad. It was the first time anyone had pointed out how little she smiled, and funny enough, she’d noticed how much her face had transformed into a grin since she’d come here. Her cheeks were sore. Beast would really think she was pitiful if he’d known her before she came to the Smokies.
She ripped her gaze away from him so he wouldn’t see how stung she felt at that realization. She made her way through the RV, opening cupboards, trying out the television, running her fingertips along the edge of the plush comforter on the bed. She didn’t mind small spaces. In fact, she preferred them.
“I don’t really feel safe when I sleep,” she admitted, giving him something in place of the pregnancy announcement. That she wasn’t ready for, but she could gift him this.
The trailer rocked as Beast climbed inside and let the door swing shut behind him. He settled onto the seat cushions by the table and asked, “Why not?”
“Since my lioness got taken, I feel different.”