Lion's Love And Honor: The Pride of Sierra Leandra (Paranormal Romance) by Meg Ripley Page A

his tone. “We have to do something,” he said fiercely. “We have to save our pride. “
    “How?” Susanna asked, her voice taking on a hysterical edge. “How? And who’s going to help us?”
    “I will,” came a voice behind them. They turned to see Leslie standing in the doorway, wearing a bashful expression. Apparently she’d come back after everyone cleared out. Thomas was disturbed by how quietly she’d come back in.
    “Remember the accident in front of my house?” she asked. “Those cars that crashed…one of them was trying to hit me, but I moved too fast for him, and I could never prove it. But I always felt like something was off about that day, and about the other incidents.” She paused, and took a deep breath. “I also noticed the scent of a human around each scene I came across. The same human.”
    Susanna let out a noise of fright. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why did you wait?”
    “The same reason you waited,” Leslie said, as though it were obvious. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me, but now I have more reason to believe that something odd is going on.”
    She hurried over to the couch and sat in the spot Natalie had just vacated. “If this is a human doing these things, it has to be happening for a reason,” she continued.
    “Whoa!” Thomas said suddenly. “You really think a human is doing this? Targeting us, making problems…trying to kill us?”
    “What else could explain finding the same scent at each scene?” Leslie countered.
    Thomas fell silent, because he really couldn’t think of anything else. Their noses were incredibly sensitive, so he had to trust that she knew an individual scent signature when she smelled one. 
    “Plus,” Susanna said slowly, “Why would the council reopen the investigation? I don’t buy that it’s just because they’re worried about the humans. Have you ever known them to reopen a closed case that took them less than a day to pass a verdict on? Or less than a week, even?”
    Thomas thought over her words, turning them around in his mind as Susanna started to warm up to her own words.
    “Maybe they’re coming because they don’t think the attacks are over either,” she pressed. “Maybe they see the pattern of attacks that the crazy lioness left, and they’re finally going to address it.” She turned her eyes to Thomas, but he was shaking his head, the dread in his stomach still growing weightier by the second.
    “What is it?” she asked tersely.
    He paused, unsure if he should voice his thoughts, but both women were looking at him with such intensity that he couldn’t avoid speaking any longer. “I don’t think the council is coming at all.”
    The women spoke in unison. “ What?”
    “Hear me out,” he said, removing his glasses as he began. “Why else hadn’t we heard about it? We all have shifter friends in other places, and if there really was a visit, we would have heard about it. Everyone knows what a big deal a council visit is.” He paused for effect. “ Everyone.”
    Susanna’s eyes widened in understanding, but Leslie looked lost. “What? What are you saying?”
    “A council visit is such a big deal that it would pull our matriarch’s attention away from real emergencies,” Susanna whispered as settled over her features. “And everyone would know that. Even humans.”
    Leslie’s expression slowly morphed into one of quiet horror. “A human faked a council letter? How? Why? They’d need the seal, our official mailing address…” she gasped and slapped one hand over her mouth. “They’ve been trying to scare us, and then kill us when scaring us didn’t work. Even that tree, it was on the other side of Natalie’s house.”
    “It fell the wrong way,” Thomas realized. “And they tried to hit you when they realized you were catching their scent.” He turned to Susanna, his heart thundering in his chest. “We need to figure out where they’re trying to burn us. Does the wall have any