The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

Meena had seen a lot of things, but she had never seen anything quite like this.  So many men!  There were so many men with so many guns and they were all running.  Meena had a feeling she knew what they were running from, too.  She had seen something that could make grown men flee in that way.  She had seen the change, knew what kind of fear it could inspire.  They were coming and then they were there, the most massive big cats she had ever seen. 

Probably the most massive big cats most people had ever seen, actually.  They were magnificent.  They were so formidable that these assholes didn’t seem to realize they were the ones with the guns in their hands.  Meena felt a surge of love so strong it took her breath away and she started towards them, the sudden and urgent tugging of Kyra on her arm the only thing that stopped her.

“Meena!  What the fu*k are you doing?  Those monsters will eat you alive.  We’ve got to run.  This may be our only shot, while they’re distracted.  Come on.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?  Did you develop some kind of a death wish these last few months and just forgot to tell me?”

“No,” Meena said gently, trying her best to make Kyra understand, “they aren’t going to hurt me.  They won’t hurt you, either.  Those are the men who ordered us.”

“But those aren’t men!”

“They are, and they aren’t.  They’re shifters.  So I guess they’re both.”

“Shifters?  What do you mean, like werewolves?”

“I guess so.  Except they’re lions, not wolves.  And they don’t change with full moons.  They can change whenever they want to.  And they have a lot more control over themselves than the kind of shifters you see in the movies.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Nothing ever does,” Meena said urgently, pulling Kyra back and away from the potential line of fire, “but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

Meena pulled at Kyra, dragging her backwards and out of the way just as several men ran by them with shouts and guns drawn.  Caleb and Tyler charged towards them with massive teeth drawn out like swords.  Their muscles rippled beneath their beautiful pelts as they tore towards their prey, almost nothing at all human about them now.  Except for the eyes.  When Caleb’s eyes landed on her, a brief but significant look, she saw the man she loved. 

Maybe she would get to tell him, after all.  If they could just get the fu*k out of here.  She watched with horrified fascination as her beautiful lions drove these would be assailants back, further and further until it seemed inevitable that they would all flee and the four of them would be free to walk out of this hellhole together.

Except for one man, either braver or stupider than the rest.  The shift in his demeanor was almost imperceptible but Meena caught it, right at the last moment.  She wanted to cry out, to usher a warning but she couldn’t get the words out fast enough.  Her mouth opened and his gun fired, the bullet driving straight into Tyler’s lean, strong body as he leaped through the air. 

Meena screamed and Kyra gasped, both of them somehow shocked to see the great beast felled.  He fell, dropped to the ground with a sickening thud.  Meena wanted to go to him but she knew it was still too dangerous.  There was no way she was going to be able to help if she went and got herself shot, too. 

Besides, it looked like Caleb had it under control.  He threw back his head and let out a sound so deafening it shook all of the windows in the building, some of the panes of glass actually falling to the ground and shattering where they landed.  When he was silent, however, that was when he began to be truly terrifying, his bright, inhuman eyes locked on his prey, unwavering.  He charged forward, moving faster than any living thing Meena had ever seen. 

He seemed more like something mechanical than something made of flesh and bone and all of the men except for the one who had dared to fire the shot scrambled out of the way.  They must have realized that this was a battle they would never win and now was their chance to get out relatively unharmed.  Too bad about their comrade, she supposed.  So much for loyalty.  Not that them staying would have made much of a difference.  Meena didn’t think anything would have made a difference at this point.  Someone was going to pay.

“No! Sh*t, please!  I was only doing my job!”

The only answer the bas*ard got was another roar and he fell to the ground, backing up on all fours now.  He was literally crawling away from his enemy, gun still in hand.  Meena saw him pull that gun in closer to his body as he flipped over to meet Caleb as he pounced and she let out a scream of warning.  It wasn’t necessary, though.  Even poised to shoot again, the guy was fu*ked.  Caleb landed directly on top of the man, his weight alone most likely crushing several bones in the man’s body.  He opened his mouth and let loose the beginning of a horrified scream, but the beginning was all he managed.

Caleb was vicious, relentless.  Someone was going to pay for all that had happened in the past forty-eight hours and it was going to be this sorry son of a bi*ch.  Caleb’s head dipped down in a fluid motion that somehow managed to be as elegant as it was menacing, his massive jaw closing around the man’s neck.  That cut the man’s cry off quickly, alright, the formerly strong scream changing into a strangled gurgling sound that made Meena’s stomach wrench violently, threatening to send her into a fit of dry heaves. 

It didn’t last for long, thank god, Caleb had more mercy than that.  He shook his head vigorously and Meena heard a hollow snap before the man went limp.  His neck was both snapped and almost completely ripped open, all of the dark, sticky vitality leaking out of him and onto the dirty concrete floor.  It was over.  Caleb shifted back into his human form, looking slightly stunned, and Meena let out a sob as she sprinted forward, jumping straight into his arms and kissing him desperately.