The Lion Within (Ghost Cat Shifters #1) Read online

  After she filled both of their mugs, she glanced back at Vivi who had finished one braid and was working on the other. “So, what happened with the Hayes?”

  Vivi looked through the archway from the kitchen into the living room at Julianna. Julianna was entirely focused on Scooby Doo. She had a fascination with the old school cartoons, in particular Scooby Doo. Vivi turned back, her blue eyes sober. “Don’t you remember? Their son David was the little boy who shifted at a playground and ended up getting shot. The Hayes moved away and no one heard from them again.”

  Sophia set her fork down. “Oh my God. I remember hearing about that. No one talks about it, but it’s the saddest thing. I can’t imagine what that must have been like for them. Did they ever find out who killed him?”

  Vivi nodded. “Yeah, it was a hunter. I’m sure we can look up the old news reports because Lord knows no one likes to talk about it. It’s every shifter parent’s nightmare. The guy said he turned around and saw a mountain lion in the middle of the playground, so he shot it. What brought them up?” Vivi finished braiding her hair and started to nibble on her eggs.

  “Their other son, Daniel Hayes, showed up at the coffee shop today. He said he was moving here for the summer because he wanted to see the town his mother said was so beautiful.”

  Vivi’s hand flew to her mouth with a gasp. “Oh wow. Really? Do you think he knows what happened?”

  Sophia shrugged. “I have no idea. I only talked to him for a few minutes. He said he was born here, but they moved away when he was three. Both of his parents died in the last few years.” She set her fork down. “Wow. If he knows what happened, I can’t believe he’d want to come here.”

  Vivi nodded and took a sip of coffee. “I know, right? But he’s here. Damn, once word gets around town, this is going to spin some heads. If he doesn’t know what happened, I’d hate for him to find out through town gossip.”

  Sophia’s own head was spinning and her heart hurt for Daniel and his family. Born and raised a shifter in one of the oldest shifter families in Painter, Sophia was steeped in the mindset of how important it was for shifters to maintain their secrecy. She hadn’t recalled the names of Daniel’s parents, but the memory of why they left was a bitter legend in Painter. The story held power as a warning among shifters, so she’d heard it time and again. She looked over at Vivi. “I hope he doesn’t find out like that. I mean, that would be horrible. It’s hard to imagine he’d be here if he knew though.”

  Julianna came wandering into the kitchen at that moment, leaning against her mother’s hip. “Can I have some eggs?” she asked in her lilting voice.

  Vivi brushed Julianna’s dark hair off her forehead. “Aunt Sophia put red peppers in them. Think you can handle veggies in your eggs?”

  Julianna’s brown eyes bounced between Vivi and Sophia. “Uh huh,” she said with an emphatic nod.

  Sophia stood up and spooned some eggs into a small bowl for Julianna. “Here you go. I think you might like veggies this way.”

  Julianna set the bowl down on the table and took a small bite. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Sophia. “They’re good!” she offered with a wondering smile.

  Vivi chuckled and sipped her coffee. Sophia joined them at the table again. “You going to eat with us or Scooby?”

  “Scooby!”

  Vivi snagged a napkin from the center of the table and tucked it in Julianna’s jeans pocket. “Make sure to put your bowl down when you’re done.”

  Julianna held her bowl in both hands as she returned to the living room. Once she was out of earshot, Vivi turned back to Sophia. “So what was Daniel Hayes like?”

  Sophia recalled Daniel’s almost black hair, blue eyes and body to die for. Her cheeks felt hot.

  “Well, well. I’d say you thought Daniel was some kind of something,” Vivi offered with a grin between bites.

  Sophia’s cheeks only got hotter. “You’ll see him around soon enough. He’s, uh, pretty damn handsome.” Just talking about him flustered her. She didn’t know why he had such a strong effect on her.

  “Handsome or not, you don’t usually go around blushing about guys. In fact, you hardly ever notice them.”

  Sophia shrugged. “So what? It’s not like I have time for relationships. I’m busy running the coffee shop and with everything going on with Heath, I’ve had other things on my mind.”

  Vivi’s eyes narrowed. “I care about Heath as much as you do. This year’s been rough ever since he was in the accident. The last few months are just icing on a shitty cake. Heath is going to have to walk out of the mess he walked into. You can’t do it for him. In the meantime, you could use a distraction. Just saying.” Vivi’s mouth curled into a wry grin.

  Sophia’s chest tightened. She was so weary of worrying about her brother. A year ago, his car had skidded on an icy road in the mountains and tumbled down a hill. He’d come out of the accident alive, but with multiple injuries, including a fractured femur in his thigh. It was that fracture that required multiple surgeries and caused him so much pain. The damn pain led to his painkiller addiction, and unbeknownst to anyone close to him, his subsequent search for heroin to replace the painkillers.

  “Stop it,” Vivi said sharply.

  Sophia’s eyes swung up to Vivi’s. The warm concern in her gaze belied her stern tone of voice. Sophie sighed. “I know. I need to stop obsessing about Heath. I’m working on it.”

  “I get it, but all you can do is be there. A distraction like Daniel might be just the thing for you.”

  “You make it sound easy. Daniel showing up here is going to send gossip running wild. Not so sure he’ll hang around.”

  Vivi took the last bite of her eggs and set her fork down. “Maybe so, but don’t go making excuses before anything even happens.”

  ***

  Daniel leaned back in his desk chair and stretched his arms above his head. He’d been hard at work all morning. He was a computer coder and worked wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. For the most part, it was great. The downside was he tended to get caught up in what he was doing and lose all track of time. His father had taught him computer coding when he was a little boy, so he’d had a head start before the rapid rise of technology jobs. He’d been working on his own doing contract work for companies all over the world since before he graduated from college. He loved the work and enjoyed the flexibility, but it didn’t make for easy opportunities to meet people.

  Now that he was in Painter, he wanted a chance to learn more about his family, which meant he needed to get out and meet people. His mind spun back to yesterday and Sophia. The last few years hadn’t left much room for relationships. Between helping his mother care for his father in the year leading up to his eventual death from complications from heart surgery, grieving his father’s death while supporting his mother and then grieving his mother’s death within another year, it was fair to say he simply hadn’t had the emotional energy to consider any relationships. He could barely remember the last time he went on a date.

  Sophia had an effect on him unlike any he’d ever experienced. The fall of her dark hair, her deep green eyes and her generous curves were mesmerizing, but it wasn’t that. It was something about her—he wanted to know her. He might not know her well, but he knew she’d been born and raised in Painter. He couldn’t help but wonder if she knew his parents and might know more about what happened to his older brother whose death had led to his parents’ abrupt departure from Painter so many years ago.

  His mind spun back to the conversation he’d had with his mother when she was in the hospital.

  “Daniel, I have to tell you something,” his mother said. She’d been resting in her bed, her soft gold hair faded and threaded with silver. Her blue eyes had been weary. She hadn’t been awake much for more than a few hours at a time, and talking was difficult at times due to the occasional bouts of coughing from pneumonia. He’d been standing by the window and turned to sit in the chair beside her bed.

&
nbsp; When he met her eyes, he saw a sadness he only saw when she spoke of David who’d died when Daniel was only three. He barely remembered David. His gut tightened at the look in his mother’s eyes. “What is it, Mom?”

  She reached for his hand, curling his around it and squeezing. “I should have told you the truth long ago.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “About how David died.”

  His gut churning, Daniel had been uncertain if he should let his mother speak or discourage her. He didn’t know what was better, or worse. She’d continued. “You know how you had those episodes when you’re hiking?”

  She was referring to times when he’d gone hiking and experienced what could only be described as frightening. His skin prickled to the point of pain, he wanted to lash out and scream, and an otherworldly sense of power raced through him. Each time, he’d raced out of the woods and returned home. When he’d asked his mother to take him to a doctor, she’d avoided it, insisting it was nothing and would pass. The only thing he’d discovered was as long as he stayed out of the wilderness, the episodes didn’t recur. After leaving Painter, his parents had moved to Denver. Though Denver was a bustling city, the mountains were right there and the city was filled with outdoor enthusiasts. Daniel had to curb his natural inclination to spend time hiking the many trails in the area. At his mother’s question, he finally nodded.

  Her eyes teared up. “I know exactly what was happening. I don’t know how else to explain this, other than to just say it. It’s going to sound crazy, but trust me, it’s completely true. I didn’t tell you before because I wanted to protect you the way I didn’t manage to protect your brother.”

  He took a breath and nodded.

  “You know those rumors you hear every so often about mountain lions that are also people?”

  He could barely breathe, but he managed another nod. Whispers of mountain lion shifters were frequent in the area. Colorado, along with most of the West, was home to a healthy population of mountain lions. Rumor had it shifters lived amongst them, shifting from human to lion and back again at will. Daniel, along with most people, dismissed them as wild legends from times gone by.

  His mother’s eyes filled with tears again. He snagged a tissue from the box on the table by her bed and handed it to her. After she wiped her eyes, she took a labored breath. “Everyone in my family is a shifter. I’m one and so are you.”

  He felt like he was falling from a great height. Stunned, he simply stared at her.

  “Those times you felt so strange were when your lion wanted to come out. But you have to be ready and accept it for a full shift to happen. I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything sooner, but I promised your father I wouldn’t. The day before he died, he gave me permission to tell you when I thought the time was right. David died because he shifted at a playground. He had learned how to shift, but he didn’t know how to control it yet. The man who shot him only saw a mountain lion in the middle of a bunch of children. Normally, I wouldn’t have taken him to a park like that, but it was a school day trip. It was a horrible accident. Your father knew I was a shifter, his whole family knew. They were safe, and they’d protected the secret of shifters for years. After David died, I promised your father I wouldn’t tell you. He didn’t want you to die the same way.”

  Daniel sat there and tried to wrap his brain around what his mother was telling him. Somehow he stumbled through the rest of the conversation. She’d insisted he come back to talk more. In the intervening weeks before his mother died, she shared as much information as she could about her side of the family. Sadly, David’s death had not only pushed their mother to disavow the shifter side of herself, but it had threatened the safety of the rest of her family. Shifters had lived in secret for centuries. David’s unintentional shift had led to his own tragic death and heightened fear about shifters among those who were uncertain of their existence.

  Daniel thought back to the day he’d hiked deep into the mountains and shifted. The visceral sensations that had so frightened him before whipped fluidly through him. He hadn’t known what to expect. Doubt and disbelief dissolved in the face of reality as he stood there, fur rippling over his skin, power coursing through every step he took. In his lion form, he felt like he’d found a part of himself. He’d bounded free through the woods. It was as if his lion had been desperate for this day. It was past sunset with darkness thick in the trees when he shifted back into human form where he’d started.

  Until that afternoon, he hadn’t quite believed his mother. He hadn’t thought she was lying, it was simply what she told him was so hard to believe. His mother had explained he would have been able to shift many years sooner, but it wasn’t until adolescence the powers gained strength and became hard to resist. David’s shadow had hung over his family for years, and now he knew why. He’d had a happy childhood despite the grief of his brother’s death within the family.

  Daniel shook his head, nudging his brain back to the present. He’d come to Painter to try to find all that had been lost for his family. He hoped to reconnect with any remaining family members left in Painter. He glanced at his watch and pushed away from his desk. He meant to get outside today, and he still had several hours of daylight left.

  Chapter 3

  Sophia wiped down the back counters in the coffee shop and started the industrial dishwasher. The evening was winding down with closing time on its way. She glanced around the back, quickly noting that Tommy had already taken care of most everything in preparation for closing. He’d even prepped pastries for tomorrow morning. She washed her hands and walked back out front. The early evening crowd was comprised mostly of college students studying with a few tables chatting quietly.

  She stepped to the counter to Tommy’s side. “You can head out whenever you’re ready,” she said.

  Tommy glanced to her, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners with his grin. “You sure?”

  Tommy Dawson came from another local shifter family. He was a few years younger than her, but she’d known him all of her life since their families were close. She’d hired him when her mother nudged her to do so. She hadn’t regretted it since. Tommy was reliable and a hard worker. He was also friendly, warm and engaging. At her nod, he ran a hand through his blondish-brown hair and untied the red apron with the Mile High Grounds logo on it. “I’m on first thing tomorrow, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “That you will. Now go do something other than work!”

  Tommy grabbed his jacket and headed out. Sophia tended the counter, which at this hour was a fairly quiet activity. She prepped herself a coffee and sipped on it while she flipped through today’s paper. At the sound of her name, she looked up, straight into Daniel Hayes’ eyes. Once again, he managed to rob her of her breath and her pulse took off.

  When she didn’t say anything right away, Daniel spoke. “How’s it going? Hope it’s not too late to order a coffee.”

  She mentally grabbed at her scattered thoughts and nodded, finally willing herself to speak. “Oh, of course it’s not too late.” She gestured to the small neon sign blinking in the window. “We’re still open. What can I get for you?”

  “What did I have yesterday?” he said, his mouth curling into a smile.

  While she wasn’t thinking too clearly, she remembered his order without a doubt because she’d replayed every word of their conversation too many times. She felt so silly, but Daniel called to her. She felt like she was back in high school experiencing her first crush. A passing encounter with him yesterday, and she could hardly stop thinking about him. Nothing but silly, girlish fantasies—she needed to get a grip and fast. “A double shot Americano. Would you like another?”

  “Absolutely. Best coffee I’ve ever had,” he said with a slow smile that sent flutters swirling through her belly.

  “Coming right up.” She stepped to the espresso machine and prepped his coffee, grateful for the busy work for a few minutes. All he had to do was smile, and she
started to melt.

  She slid his coffee across the counter. His fingers brushed against hers when he took it. Electricity zapped from her fingertips and spun through the rest of her body. Her breath hitched, and slivers of heat slid through her veins. Daniel immediately took a swallow of coffee, closing his eyes with a sigh. “As good as I remembered.” His blue eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled again. He tugged his wallet out, his t-shirt riding up at the waist, revealing a flash of his rock-hard abs.

  Somehow, she fumbled through ringing him up. He didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere and leaned his hip against the counter. “Since you grew up here, I figured maybe you could tell me all the places I should check out around Painter.”

  Sophia tried to quell her skittering pulse, but she seemed to have little control over it, so she simply took a deep breath. Day in and day out, she chatted with customers, plenty of them handsome guys. Though on the small side, Painter was home to a state university and renowned for its skiing and hiking. As such, the town was filled to the brim with rugged, outdoorsy men. A healthy shifter population only added fuel to that fire. Male shifters were pure masculinity, strong and sexy with an alpha edge that couldn’t be denied. Yet, she’d never been affected by any shifter the way Daniel affected her. He seemed to have a straight line to her body, the chemistry flickering hot and fast.

  She glanced to Daniel and wondered what he knew of his heritage. She’d done a little sleuthing about his family since Vivi reminded her who they were. Sarah Hayes came from a family of shifters in Painter. His father attended college in Painter, which is how he met Daniel’s mother. Sophia had no way of knowing if Daniel’s father knew much about shifters, if he even knew she was a shifter. She’d sought out her mother for the story because she didn’t want to end up being the source for the rumor mill that would most definitely start spinning once word got around that Daniel was here. Whether he knew it or not, the legend his family left behind was bitter and sad for the shifter community. Her mother would hold her silence. Lila Ashworth knew everything there was to know about anyone in Painter. She’d quickly repeated the story about Daniel’s brother, David, and then shared the history of Sarah’s family.