The Lion’s Mate

Chapter 4

As they dressed after round two, Mark couldn’t keep the smile off his face. Leah was perfect: perfectly beautiful, perfectly intelligent, and perfectly dirty. She interrupted his thoughts, asking if he’d like a coffee to go, and he nodded. She blew him a kiss as she walked out in a blue robe. He wondered briefly how many robes she owned, a smirk on his face.

Mark felt as if he’d found his match. It happened that way with shifters sometimes. They met someone and that was it; that person was his or her soul mate. No questions, no doubts in the mind of the shifter. If two shifters met, the feeling was usually mutual, but with a human it was different. Humans moved more slowly in everything they did. They were not impulsive, had to think everything through.

Mark could tell that Leah liked him, and like him a lot, but his feelings, in just a couple of days, were more than that. She was his soul mate, he was sure of it. But he couldn’t tell her that yet. She was human, for one, and for another, she made decisions with logic, not with emotion. I’ll have to take my time with her, woo her, Mark mused as he finished his bathroom business. He hurried downstairs in his swim trunks.

He found her in the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around her. “I’ve got to go, babe. I have a meeting with the dean and can’t really show up in my trunks and shirtless.”

“But it’s so sexy,” she murmured, forgetting the coffee and turning in his arms to wrap hers around his neck. “You’d win him over for sure.”

Mark chuckled and kissed her. “Thank you for making the coffee, but I have to shift to get back.”

Leah nodded. “Totally forgot that. No worries. I’ll certainly drink it after the exertion of last night.”

“Let me take you out tonight,” he asked.

“Like on a date?” she teased.

“Like on a date. Unless you intend to use me only for your s*xual needs,” he smirked. “Which, by the way, I am totally fine with.”

Leah laughed and pulled his mouth against hers. She broke the kiss before it could get too heated, though. “I’ll let you take me out, then I’ll use you for s*x. Fair?”

“Perfectly fair.” He kissed her again and turned to go. “Pick you up at 8?”

“Sounds good,” she called as he walked out the door. She watched as he shifted and played with Jenny for a moment, and she could feel the ridiculous smile on her face. Jenny followed him for a moment, then turned back and came to the door to be let in, a goofy dog smile. Leah shook her head as she let Jenny in. “I guess he makes us both giddy.”

*****

Mark hurried through his morning routine, choosing his gray suit, crisp, white shirt, and red tie for his meeting with the dean. The dean hadn’t exactly agreed to the meeting, but he hadn’t refused the appointment either. Mark’s family was well-known as supporters of education and often made large donations to schools. The dean may not want shifters at his school, but he wasn’t opposed to taking their money, a fact that irritated Mark more than just about anything else, other than discrimination.

Mark jumped into his Lexus ISC, a treat he’d bought himself after winning his first big case last year. The silver convertible was impractical, gorgeous, and his favorite possession. It was one of the few things he owned that revealed the amount of money he had. He drove with the top down; his hair might be a mess, but he needed the freedom of the wind whooshing past him.

The swift car got him to the university with twenty minutes to spare; rather than go straight to the dean’s office, he wandered around campus. It was only a little after nine, but the campus was crawling with students and professors headed to classes. Mark sat on a bench to people watch, smelling the air as people walked in front of him on the sidewalk. Not a single shifter walked by him in the fifteen minutes he sat there. Unusual at a school this size, he thought, his interest piqued. He rose and ambled toward the dean’s office, again sniffing the air when someone would walk by him. Nothing but the unmistakable aura of humans met his nostrils.

He walked up a set of stairs to the second floor, following signs pointing him in the direction of the dean’s office. A sign on the door proclaimed the dean’s name: Dean Charles Wormer. Mark lifted an eyebrow; the name was familiar to him, but he wasn’t sure why. As he entered, he was greeted by a lovely older woman when he entered the waiting area for the dean’s office, who asked for his name.

“Mark Anderson. I have an appointment to speak with Dean Wormer at 9:30.”

The woman checked her book, smiled, and looked up at him. “Of course. Dean Wormer is expecting you. I’ll show you in.” She rose from her desk, walked to the door of the office, and knocked softly. She did not wait for a response, but opened the door and announced Mark.

“Show him in, Greta.” She turned and gestured for him to go on in.

The voice was a tad bit nasally and slightly feminine to Mark’s ears, but the man behind the desk who rose to greet him was quite large, both tall and wide. The voice did not match the person. Mark stepped forward and shook his proffered hand. “Good morning, Dean Wormer. Mark Anderson.”

“Of course, Mr. Anderson. Please, have a seat.” Dean Wormer looked at Greta, an eyebrow raised in question.

“Would you like coffee for your meeting?” she asked.

Dean Wormer looked at Mark questioningly, and he shook his head. He returned his eyes to Greta. “No thank you, Greta.” Greta smiled and left, closing the door behind her. “So Mr. Anderson, how can I help you?”