Celia Kyle by He Ain't Lion Page A

me. Like, really.” She knew she hadn’t just woken up this morning, and decided, “Hey, let’s be a cannibal today. Yay!”
    “I know.” Her friend kept a comforting arm around her shoulders, a tight grip on her other hand. “Let’s go and see Andrew, okay?”
    With Carly leading the way, they approached a slim man with fluffy hair, wearing wire-rimmed glasses that graced his oval-shaped face. He was adorable in a twitchy, I’d-rather-not-be-your-next-dinner, kind of way.
    “Hey, Andrew.” The guy jerked and took a step away from them, but Carly held out a hand to halt his backward progress. “We’ve got a situation.”
    The guy then eyed Maya, and she had the sudden urge to growl and hiss at him. The guy was staring, damn it. She’d show him his place.
    “W-What kind of a situation?”
    Carly stroked her, released her long enough to run a hand down her hair, and Maya leaned in to her friend’s soothing touch.
    “It looks like we’ve got a Carni 3S. Can you give me a day’s worth of meat at the local price? I’ll pull around back.”
    “ 3S? ” She practically purred, her friend’s touch still calming her.
    “Um… That stands for Sudden Something Situation. Get it?”
    She only half listened, because Andrew swallowed, and just like that, she was filled with the desire to snack on him. The guy wouldn’t miss a chunk or two, right? She licked her lips and took a step forward, only to be halted by her friend, and she snarled in response, jerked against Carly. Just a little nibble?
    “Maya, no. Bad doggie.”
    Dog? She wasn’t a dog! She snarled again, snapped her teeth and hissed. A split-second after the sound had left her mouth, she covered her lips and gasped. “Oh, god. Carly, what’s wrong with me?” She whimpered.
    “What’d you do last night, M? Hm?” The other woman stroked her head and she leaned in to the caress. The mean, hungry thing in her head calmed a bit, still aching for meat, but satisfied for the moment by the gentle touch.
    “I went out.” She nuzzled the small hand. “Genesis had this…this thing last night.” She seriously wasn’t telling her friend, especially in front of a complete stranger, that she’d gone to a shifter orgy. No fucking way. “Spent some time with the owner. No biggie.”
    Carly froze, and Maya growled until the brushing motion picked up again. “Okay. Okay, we can deal with this. Andrew? Meat. Now.” Through heavy-lidded eyes she watched the man scamper away, and the bitch inside her wanted to pounce on him. She jerked, ready to chase, but Carly held her firm. “No. Let’s go get in the car, and we’ll go over to Ian’s. You remember Ian, right?”
    She nodded. Okay, yeah…why not? Ian was a hottie, she could certainly go over there… As long as she had meat to eat.
    “Good girl.” Carly kept petting her as they walked, as they shuffled toward the front of the building and into her friend’s car. “We’ll deal with your car later.”
    Good girl? Hm… Maya was a good little freak of nature. Mostly. She only tried to eat, like five people, right? But she didn’t.
    Maybe she’d turned into a zombie.
    A very hungry, cranky, and tired zombie.
    To top it off…she missed Alex.
    Damn it. What in the world was happening to her?
     
    * * *
     
     
    Grayson and Gina hadn’t had to look very far to find Maya. One phone call to his second, from Carly’s brother Ian, was all it took for Gina to come off of his shit list. For now.
    Alex needed to remember that he shouldn’t kill the man standing before him. Ian, the lead buck of Thompson Warren was a good man, a good rabbit, and had helped his mate in her time of need.
    But he’d also put his hands on Maya.
    For good reason, he reminded himself. Ian understood the necessity, of Maya being in the middle of her transition, of needing a strong, steel cage to hold her captive, until Alex arrived.
    Still, his lion wanted to eat the rabbit for dinner. A loud, snarling roar echoed up the stairs,