Sasha's Lion (5 page)

Sasha turned to stare out the front of the car and
sat with her arms crossed over her chest. She was sick of the weird behavior
and never getting answers. Brandon got in the backseat as the driver’s side
opened and Savron got in. He started the car not saying anything as he drove
out of the school.

Hating the silence, and pissed at everyone for not
telling her what was going on, Sasha turned the radio on flicking through channels
until she found what she wanted. She ignored the people in car and sang out of
tune to the songs. She knew she couldn’t sing. Sasha thought it was fitting
torture for the occupants of the car.

The guys in the car didn’t say a thing. It was
Britney who broke the silence on a long drawn-out suffering groan. “Shut it,
Sasha. I can’t take the torture anymore. I know you know you can’t sing, but
what you’re doing now is worse than nails on a chalkboard.”

Sasha winked at Britney, sighed, and stopped the
torture. She looked around her to see how far they were from her house. “You
went past my turn off.” She glared at Savron.

“You want answers? Then you need to come back to my
parents’ house. I can’t hold back or stay away any longer.”

Sasha nodded and hoped she wasn’t going to learn
she’d become friends with the mob, or they were a part of some weird cult and
wanted her to join.
 
Her mind conjured up
all sort of scenarios. They were a family of spies. They were undercover agents
for the school watching for drugs and other unsavory things.

Savron pulled into the driveway of the house, and
they all got out. He undid the front door, and Sasha followed him to the lounge
room. He sat on the three seat sofa, and she sat next to him eager to hear what
they had to tell. Britney and Brandon sat on the two seat sofa across from them

“What’s that saying? Do it like a Band-Aid, quick
and to the point,” Savron grumbled.

Sasha watched as he straightened his shoulders and
reached out to her hands and held them in his.

“I’m a lion shifter, and you’re my mate.”

Sasha studied the crazy man in front of her. His
eyes focused on her. He didn’t look to be on drugs. His face was straight, no
sign he was joking.
 

Sasha glanced around the room to see if Brandon and
Britney were laughing.
 
No. They had
serious faces as they watched her.

She tried to pull her hands from Savron, but he
wouldn’t let them go. “You’re joking right? You’re really secret agents or the
mob and don’t want me to find it out.”

Savron groaned. Britney giggled, and Brandon
chuckled.

“I think we’re going to have to show her. Brandon,
change into your lion,” Savron ordered his brother.

Brandon stood and took his shirt off. Sasha felt the
heat creep up her face. He went to yank his pants down, and she bit her lip
telling herself she shouldn’t stare or buy into this craziness, but Brandon
stopped when her hands became free and Savron stood in front of her.

“I’ll do it, Brandon. The only man I want her seeing
naked is me.
Britney, go sit with her so she doesn’t run.”

Savron took his clothes off, and Sasha was so
enraptured with Savron’s naked body she hardly noticed Britney coming to sit
beside her. Once he was naked, she shut her eyes for a moment.

Don’t
look down. Don’t look down
.

 
But it didn’t
work. She couldn’t miss this even if the naked man was a loon. She opened her
eyes and gasped. Wow, she hadn’t seen many penises, well, beside the porn she’d
watched just to see what it was all about, and her last boyfriend whom she’d
attempted to give a blow job to, but he hadn’t been anything extraordinary. Savron
though… She bit her lip and reminded herself he was crazy. She sighed.
What a waste
.

A colorful light swirled around him, and his image
blurred and stretched. Too scared to even blink, Sasha watched as Savron’s
image changed and morphed until in his place stood a majestic male lion.

Sasha opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came
out. She sat still on the sofa unbelieving what she was seeing. She blinked
several times telling herself her mind was playing tricks.

The golden lion with his bright yellow eyes stared
at her. She gulped as he stalked her, coming closer and rubbing himself against
her legs, nuzzling himself almost onto her lap. Sasha knew she needed to move,
scream, do something, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. She glanced to Britney
for help, but she sat there smiling at her.
 

“I knew you’d do well. I told him not to stress over
you not accepting us. I’m glad you didn’t run either because I really didn’t
want to have to wrestle my brother as a lion to have to stop him. Now if I was
in my lioness form then I’d kick his butt, but he wanted to show you.”

All Sasha could do was nod as her mind felt ready to
explode. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing and seeing.

“You can pat him, you know. He’d like that.”

Without thought Sasha slowly reached out and touched
the lion’s head. His golden fur was soft and rough all at the same time. She
stroked his mane, and a purring rumble came from him. Sasha slowly started to
relax.

“You know, I don’t really like cats. I’m more of a
dog person, but you’re nice.”
 
She took a
sharp intake of air as she realized what an idiotic thing she’d just said in
her nervousness.

Britney and Brandon laughed so hard they wiped their
eyes.
 

Sasha looked down into the eyes of the lion. “Oh
God, I’ve gone crazy.”

Britney patted her on the back. “You’re not insane,
just overwhelmed. What can I say to help put your mind at ease?”

“How about this is only some weird dream, or you
drugged me and I’m tripping?”

“You want me to tell you I drugged you?”

“Well no, but what I’m seeing is unreal. Are there
many of you? Does the government know about you? What else is there? Do you get
any enhancements? Can you turn me into a shifter? How do you hide what you are?
”

“It’s called Sin City not for the reasons most
think, but because it’s the biggest doorway in the world. There are a lot of
smaller ones scattered throughout the world.”

What the hell did she mean about doorways?
“Doorways?”

“Just listen. I’ll explain,” said Britney. “Shifters
are protectors; we always have been. We protect the human race. There are
creatures out there that are not so nice. We shifters hunt them down and kill
them. Yes, the government knows about us as everyone in power is a shifter
mostly. There are quite a lot of us, and we are all different, werewolves,
bears, eagles, all the predators of the animal kingdom. Yes, we have
enhancements. We’re stronger than humans. We heal faster, and we grow old
slower, and we never get sick or have diseases. We don’t really hide what we
are as humans never ask, and if they see something they think they have gone
crazy like you, or pretend they didn’t see it. And lastly, no, you cannot be
turned into a shifter. You have to be born a shifter.” Britney sagged back into
the sofa. “I hope I don’t have to do that again for a long time.” She winked at
Sasha. “I didn’t leave anything out?”

Sasha shook her head, too stunned to answer with the
information overload. She sat quiet for a while thinking over everything she’d
been told as she stroked her lion. Her hand stilled as what she said rebounded around
in her head. She eased away from the lion and stopped patting him. Then she
slowly stood.

“Thanks for answering my questions. Can someone take
me home, please, now?”

Savron changed back into a naked man. “I’ll take you
home.”

Moving away from him she pasted what she hoped looked
like a smile on her face as she said, “No. I think it’d be best if Brandon
takes me home right now, thanks.” She turned and walked to door not waiting for
an answer or to see if anyone followed.

Sasha walked out the house and waited by the car
door, her emotions and mind in turmoil.
 
Brandon came out of the house, and she sighed in relief. Right now she
felt like he was the only one who hadn’t betrayed her.

The ride home was uncomfortable. Brandon tried to
talk to her, but she was too distracted to follow most of what he said. She got
out of the car at her house, waved, and went inside and straight to her room
only stopping to say hi to her little sister and mother.

She shed her school uniform leaving them on the
floor and grabbed some tacky sweats and a singlet. Then she lay in bed
wallowing in her chaotic thoughts. She didn’t know how long she lay on her bed.
It wasn’t until her mum came in to tell her she was late for a dance lesson
that she got up, pulled her
Ugg
boots on, grabbed her
dance shoes and drove to class. Sasha hoped that dancing and doing her favorite
thing would give her mind a rest.

She called in sick to school the next day. She needed
time to gather herself and decide what she was going to do. Sasha felt like
Britney had betrayed her by not telling her who and what she really was. She had
also made her feel like a fool for not guessing something was up before this.
Sasha had wondered all night
who
else was a shifter
and what the creatures were that they fought. She also wondered how it would
affect her world and most of all her family.

By the end of the day Sasha had dodged phone calls
from the Pride family and two visits from Britney. Sasha wasn’t ready to face
her or any of them. She needed time.

****

Sasha had missed two days of school at first. Then she
went back and sat with different friends, ones she hadn’t spent much time with
since Britney had made her one of her
besties
. Sasha
was starting to feel guilty. It had been almost two weeks since Savron had
turned into a lion, Britney had told her about
shifters,
and that there were other nasty things.

Her heart felt like it was breaking. She longed for
Savron, which was just weird, because she hadn’t spent that much time with him.
Sasha was scared. She didn’t like how she felt, and she didn’t know if she
wanted to fall in love with a man who could turn into an animal.

Tonight though, her dancing girlfriends had begged
her to come out clubbing with them. She told them she’d see how she felt.

A knock on her bedroom door startled her out of her
brooding. She looked up to see her mum. Sasha smiled and waved her in.

“What’s wrong, honey? The last couple of weeks
you’ve been in your room sulking.”

“I’m fine, Mum. I went to dancing.”

“I know you went to dancing.
 
You love dancing. I think you could be dying
and on your last leg and you’d still go to dancing. What I want to know is what
else is going on?”

“I don’t know where to start.” She didn’t. Sasha was
unsure of what she was allowed to say, and if she told her mum without proof
like she’d been shown her mum would think she was crazy like Sasha had thought until
she’d been shown.
  

“Why don’t you start at the start?” Her mother sat
up against the wall on her bed and patted her lap. Moving down, Sasha lay on
her mum’s lap.

“I guess reality has come crashing down finally. I
learnt the world is different. It’s been a big move to America, and I’m happy
for you, Mum. Steve is a really nice guy. You’re perfect for each other. But
the move for me has made me realize how different everything is. If we still
lived in Australia I would be over halfway through year twelve. Here they start
their new year in June, not like the start of the year.”

“I’m sorry, Sasha.”

“No, Mum, don’t apologize. I loved the couple of
months I had off. It was fun exploring, and I had some fun with Melody.”
Great,
Sasha thought. She was stuffing
this up. She didn’t want to make her mum feel guiltier than she knew she
already felt. She needed to get what she wanted out even if it didn’t make
sense.

“What if I was to tell you I learnt that some people
I was coming to love had lied to me and weren’t the people I thought them to
be. They aren’t bad. They are good, and they protect the world.” Sasha left out
that they were shifters and they fought bad mythical creatures.

“That’s a tough one, honey. What was the reason they
lied to you in the first place? Was it to protect you? Where they afraid of how
you would react and treat them after? Did they feel you knowing would put you
in danger? Or was this all just to keep you ignorant and in the dark? Ask
yourself what would you have done in their shoes?”

Wow, when her mum put it like that it made her feel
that maybe she’d overreacted. So, shifters existed. Sasha thought of the
selfish way she’d acted the last couple of days, weeks even, and knew they were
right to keep what they’d told and shown her a secret. The Pride family had
been nothing but nice to her, and she’d been self-absorbed. Sasha knew she had
to call and apologize. She also needed to find out what being a mate as Savron
had said entailed. Because she knew she’d only been told the basics