Maybe the lion wasn't as close to the surface as she'd thought. Or maybe that primal beast wanted to hear the words, too, because even the tremor in his muscles paused.
Into the stillness she breathed, "I love you."
He didn't say it back, but she was okay with that-imagined it was nigh impossible to get words around the length of fang that suddenly filled his mouth. Clutching a clumsy fistful of her hair, he forced her head back, bent his, and there.
Right there.
That was the first sweetest pain.
What felt like a lifetime later, Lily came back to herself with a lazy, cat-like stretch that went on forever, and a smile for the length of naked, golden, muscular body beneath hers. Jude had been stroking her for a while. She didn't have many memories of the transformation or everything that came after-just impressions of the wild lust only a creature of instinct could truly know-but at some point between the moon's passing and sun's coming, something had snapped into place. Her awareness of him was absolute, and he had been touching her.
Now he hauled her up his long frame and buried his hands in her wrecked hair. Contentment lit his eyes and rumbled in his chest, a purr that defied the mechanics of their human bodies.
"Sneakiness is a good trait in a cat," he said, drawing her close for a kiss, which ended with a nip at her chin. "It's something I never did manage to learn, so I'm not even going to try to slip it past you while you're distracted. I love you. And what I was going to say before you rushed in to defend yourself was this-if you walk away from me again, you'd better make sure I don't have legs to follow you on, because I will turn your ass so red, you won't be able to look directly at it without sunglasses."
She was laughing before he finished. With a growl, Jude rolled her onto her back. No pain from whatever he'd done to get the spider's venom out of her-just skin sensitized from the newness of having fur and then leaving it behind somewhere. She stretched her arms overhead, was writhing atop a bed of lush greenery when a thought struck her.
"You know," she drawled, "lions aren't actually jungle animals."
It was … the wrong thing to say, in many ways. The blurred lines of mating aftermath faded from Jude's face, replaced by a tense edge as reality intruded. "This is shelter for people who straddle the line between beast and man. A safe place to feed the animal appetite without turning it loose on humans. We'd rather they fuck than kill, and nobody wants sand in their ass cracks."
"I think whatever … " She swallowed. "The spiders. They're trying to get back here, aren't they?" At his nod, she asked, "What's going to happen to the club? If you use fire again, there won't be anything left."
"I'm sorry about your store."
He looked so damn miserable. She smoothed her palm down his bristly jaw. "It's okay, Jude. I don't think I could have set foot in there again anyway, after … well, let's just say it's a wonder I didn't have a complete fucking breakdown. I am not the trap-and-release sort when it comes to creepy crawlies."
As though he could will the phantom sensations from her skin, Jude hauled them both up and sat against a rock. He ran his hands down her arms and up her back, then settled her deeper on his lap, so close, she could feel his penis against her inner thigh.
"You're a damn miracle, every part of you. As for the Jungle, Cavin didn't build this idea only to throw it away. We'll stand and defend it."
"How?"
"I have some ideas." Regret passed behind his eyes. "Which we need to outline, organize and start acting on tonight. Under ideal circumstances, you'd have more time to be new before being thrown into the middle of Pride business. If you need to rest-"
"I don't. Besides, what's a king without a queen? But, maybe a little longer before we go?" With a slow smile, Lily reached between their bodies and wrapped her hand around him. Royal executive decision-the business of reality could wait a few more minutes.
Epilogue
This time, the walk through the club wasn't punctuated by pain. Quite the opposite. There weren't many people left this time of night but their energy remained. Lily soaked it up like a brand new sponge and it was … glorious.
It felt like everything she'd spent her adult life searching for, the elusive goal she'd never quite fully reached, no matter how many sexual edges she'd ridden. As the power pulsed through her, she understood how this entire business with Katt and his creator was even possible. This was the kind of energy that could spontaneously stimulate evolution.
Inside Cavin's office, Lily looked around, gaze lingering on the two figures who weren't Pride. One was a woman she'd never seen before. The other, a man, looked familiar but she couldn't place him until Jude leaned in and told her the stranger was the dragon shifter who had dealt with her shop. She gave him a wide berth on her way to a chair.