Kiss Your Lion Mouth: Chosen Book 17 Read online

  Copyright © 2018 J.D. Light

  Prologue

  I swallowed, my nerves nearly vibrating me right off the roof I was sharing with my best friend.

  Witt and I had met in the little boy's home about six years ago. By that time, I'd already lived in four foster homes and two other boys' homes. I'd thought this one would be just like the others with me getting picked on until I snapped and beat the hell out of someone and then got moved.

  But as soon as I'd walked into that building, I'd found the soft, silver-green eyes of a dark-headed boy not much older than me and I'd felt a peace I'd never felt in all my eleven years, and I'd spent the next six searching out those green eyes every time I needed that peace.

  It didn't hurt that at thirteen, Witt had been a pretty big kid and not even the older teenagers messed with him.

  "What's wrong, graham cracker?" Witt asked, leaning into me and bumping my shoulder with his.

  He didn't technically live here anymore. Had been moved out since about a week after he graduated high school last year, but Miss Jan, the lady that ran the house with her husband Mitch, always let him come hang out still, so he would drop by almost every night and come to our spot on the roof, just so we could hang out like always.

  "You look like you did the day you wrecked Miss Jan's car," he said on a chuckle when I hesitated.

  "Me?" I said indignantly, glaring over at him. "You were the one driving!"

  "Yeah, but you were the one that screamed don't hit that cat when that tabby wasn't even in the road, so I swerved for nothing." He turned those gorgeous green eyes on me, and I nearly forgot what we were talking about.

  Fortunately, I had plenty of experience ignoring the fluttery feeling inside my stomach when my best friend looked at me like I was the only person in the room. I knew he didn't mean it the way I wanted him to, and I'd had to practice swallowing down this overly hormonal need to press my mouth to his.

  "Uh," I said, raising my eyebrows and a finger in the air. "You'd been driving on the sidewalk right before that, because you were gawking at that girl. It was completely understandable that I'd think you'd do it again."

  "I was not gawking at a girl," he said indignantly, making me snicker. "I was gawking at the little red sports car."

  "Well," I said, shrugging. "My decision to save that cat's life is still a sound one. I have no regrets."

  He laughed, rolling his eyes. "Okay, you've almost successfully distracted me. Now spit it out. What's bothering you?"

  Just like that, I went from warmly reminiscing about a simpler time in our lives to my stomach dropping out. I bit my lip, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. "I have something really important to tell you and I'm afraid you're going to hate me."

  "Whoa," he said softly, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me close. "You know I could never hate you, Graham." He dropped his head down on mine, giving my shoulder a jostling squeeze. "You've been my best friend for four years. There is nothing you could tell me that would change that."

  "I'm gay," I blurted, ready to get it out, so I wouldn't sit there for the rest of the night chickening out."

  Witt froze, but he didn't drop his arm as he pulled his head back so he could look at me. "You're… what?"

  "Gay," I whispered, watching the eyes I knew were a pretty, light green, but they looked deceptively dark in the dim light of dusk.

  "Oh." He blinked, his head tilting to the side as he rolled that information around in his in there. "How long have you known?"

  I gave a nervous laugh, taking the fact that he still had his arm securely around my shoulders as a sign that he wasn't too bothered. "About three years. But I've just accepted recently that it isn't going to change."

  "What made you decide it wasn't going to change?" he asked, frowning. He swallowed hard. "Do you have a boyfriend or something?"

  I watched his face closely as he looked off into the distance. I wished I knew what he was thinking in that moment. He almost looked pained and my stomach flipped with nerves. "No," I said hesitantly, licking my lips. "I just know I'm definitely attracted to guys. Not girls."

  I didn't miss his sigh of relief and I frowned, wondering if the idea of me actually being with a guy would maybe be too much for him. Not that he'd have to worry about that anytime soon.

  First of all, I wasn't at all ready for anyone besides him to know and second, the only man I was in to was completely off limits, because I was a moron and was crazy about my straight best friend.

  I sighed, shaking my head. That would happen to me.

  "Have you told anyone else?" he asked after a moment, turning his head to look at my face, a small smile curling the corner of his mouth and making me relax again.

  I shook my head, watching his gorgeous face and wishing I could kiss him. "No." I looked away, doing what I always did when temptation grabbed ahold of me and biting the shit out of my lip. "And I probably won't. Not until I'm able to take care of myself like you do."

  "Hey, Graham?" Witt asked, drawing my attention back to his smiling face.

  "Yeah?"

  "Everything is going to be okay."

  "You think so?"

  He gave me another one of those jostling squeezes and let go, standing. "I do."

  "Are you leaving already?" I asked, standing too.

  He pulled me into a hug, and I could have sworn he took a long, lingering sniff of my hair, but maybe he liked my shampoo. "Yeah," he answered, pulling back to look into my eyes. "There is something I need to figure out. I might be gone for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back, okay?"

  "Okay," I whispered weakly. I hated it when we weren't together. It always felt like half of me was missing when I even went a day without seeing him. How was I supposed to last two whole weeks? "Where are you going?"

  "I found out about some other shifters up north," he said, reaching up to run a finger down the side of my cheek. "I'd really like to understand myself a little more, you know? I'm going to go see if they would be willing to talk to me."

  Witt and I found out he was a shifter at exactly the same time. It had been less than a month after I'd moved into the house and we'd been out in the woods climbing trees.

  It was so sudden. We'd just climbed out of one, Witt catching me when I nearly fell on my face because I'd pushed off the branch too hard when I'd jumped that last part.

  His head had shot up, his nostrils flaring as he put me back on my feet. He'd spun quickly, growling low and long. I'd frowned, not sure what to make of his strange behavior… And then he'd just shifted.

  I'd rushed forward as his body started to contort, grabbing him, worried he was in pain. Fur had sprouted beneath my fingers and his clothes ripped. Before I knew it, I had my hands on the shoulders of an adolescent lion, his mane only partially grown and his body long and thin.

  I'd jerked my hands back, gasping, and he'd turned his big frightened lion eyes on me, making a noise that sounded a bit like a groan and a roar, and then he'd shifted back.

  We'd both sat there, staring at each other for long minutes before we both burst out in shocked, nervous laughter.

  He'd shifted a few more times, getting faster and faster each one, letting me pet him, laughing when I found his happy spot at the crook of his jaw where his main grew.

  I'd run back to the house, sneaking in and getting him some more clothes and we'd kept our mouths shut about it, slinking off to the woods once or twice a week, so he could shift and we could play.

  As hard as it was to be away from him for what felt like was going to be forever, I knew he needed to learn about himself.

  "Two weeks," he whispered, looking down into my face with sad eyes. "We can do this, right?"

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and answered honestly. "I don't know."

  He swallowed too and I wondered if he felt as lost as I did. "We can do this," he said, not at all sounding sure. "Two weeks is nothing." He sighed, letting me go and walking to the edge of the roof. "Happy birthday, graham cracker. Maybe you'll grow into those ears this year."

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Be careful, Wittney. Don't get eaten by big, bad shifters."

  He chuckled, giving me one last sad look before he jumped off the roof, landing easily on his feet and running off into the woods.

  Two weeks seemed like forever.

  Chapter One

  I didn't look up. I knew he was there. The same way I'd always known when he entered a room. The air changed. It charged. I could feel a silken cord attached to my heart trying to drag me in his direction.

  That was how it had always been, and six months ago when he'd showed back up in Sedona, Arizona a year and a half late, that hadn't changed. I swear I felt the moment he stepped back into town.

  I'd woken up that morning somehow knowing I was going to see him that day.

  "You know this is stalking, right?" I said in Purdy, Nebraska as I rang up one of my tables' tickets.

  I saw him shrug out of the corner of my eye. "I'm okay with that. My stalking kept you alive last week, so I'll just go ahead and follow your cute little tush around."

  My fingers fumbled on the touchscreen for a moment and I made a face at the forty hash browns I'd just managed to put in. Sighing, I deleted the entry and sent him small frown.

  Why the hell would he say something about my ass? Did he think by pretending to flirt with me that I'd forget the fact that he fled the city when I told him I was gay?

  Two weeks my ass. Two week
s had actually been a year and a half with only occasional proof of life in the form of a Facebook message from a page that almost never got used, as far as I could tell from all the time I'd spent watching it.

  And I'd spent the last six months trying to keep hating him. Even when every cell in my body was screaming at me to forgive him and bring him back into my life.

  I cleared my throat, more than a little frustrated at the lump that had formed as I looked up, meeting his silver-green eyes. "How long are you going to hold that over my head?"

  I loved his eyes. They always seemed to ground me. When I felt anxious or worried, his eyes were the calming escape I sought out. Too bad they had been absent when I'd needed them most.

  "I almost got shot," he said, batting his eyes and pretending to be nervous. "In the head."

  My stomach dropped just thinking about the moment I'd heard that loud crack and Witt had ducked. There had been a split second where I thought he had been shot.

  "I'm still pissed off about that," I grumbled, rubbing my hand against my chest and taking a deep breath. "Your showboating nearly got you killed."

  His head snapped back, and his mouth opened as he blinked at me like he couldn't believe what I'd just said. "I wasn't showboating! I just walked into the barn."

  I pursed my lips, rolling my eyes. "Everything you do is showboating."

  Snatching the printed receipt off of the register, I placed it in the little pink folder and moved out from behind the computer station, marching with purpose in the direction of my table.

  I'd taken long enough to get this fucking order out with Witt standing there getting under my skin. Like a fucking tic.

  When I smiled sweetly at the mom, handing her the folder scrunching my nose and crossing my eyes at the cute little girl who I'd been trading goofy faces with the entire time I'd been waiting their table, I turned and nearly broke my face on the wall that was Witt's chest.

  I gasped, bracing my hands on his ribs, and leaning my head back to look up at him.

  He growled softly before putting his hands on my hips and smiling down into my face. "You were worried about me."

  Damn! How did he do this to me? My resistance to him was waning more and more every day. But I had to fight it. Even if I managed to forgive him for leaving me to rot in Sedona alone, that wouldn't change the fact that we were friends. Just friends.

  He was straight.

  He looked at my mouth, licking his lips and I blinked, wondering if hallucinating was a symptom of sleep deprivation.

  "Hey guys!" A voice said, next to us, making us both jump and move apart. "Witt you remember my mate Boston," Pierce said, gesturing to the big guy he often referred to as Grimm. Then he pointed one by one to the other two men and the little boy. "That's Davis, Ward and this is my little brother Harper."

  Davis and Ward were an obvious couple with the way Ward's arm was wrapped around the cute little chubby man and the way he leaned down, to nuzzle the guy's ear with his nose, making Davis squirm and giggle.

  When I looked down at Harper, he was smiling, and I couldn't keep from returning it. "Aw!" I said, taking in the brown shaggy hair and the adorable features. "He's a mini you!"

  That seemed to make Harper stand a little taller, like he was proud to look like his brother. "I'm going to be a big brother-uncle."

  "A what now?" Witt asked, from beside me, glancing around for clarity.

  I didn't miss the way Davis cringed.

  "Big brother-uncle," Harper reiterated, giving Witt a slight frown like he was worried about his English-speaking abilities.

  "That's my fault." Davis raised his hand, definitely cringing. "I didn't know what you were going to call the baby in reference to Harper when I started talking, and then no matter how many times I tried to fix it, it just got worse. But I didn't say anything about dicks, so… Oops!" His eyes widened and his hand flew to his mouth while Pierce sucked his lips between his teeth to keep from laughing.

  "Do you often talk about––" Witt's eyes moved from Davis to Harper and back before he cleared his throat. "Uh, those?"

  Davis dropped his hand, sighing. "Probably more often than not," he grumbled. He started wringing his hands. "It never starts out that way. Usually it starts out as a normal conversation with absolutely no reason to believe it might veer off into the indecent, and then suddenly, there I am, right in the middle of genitalia." That last word rang out like a shot in the middle of the diner and several heads turned in our direction. "That was really loud," he whisper-yelled, looking horrified. "Why do I get so passionate about private parts?"

  I heard Witt snort beside me and tried desperately not to look at him.

  That had always been our thing. One of us would start laughing and the other would join and pretty soon we'd be laughing so hard, our stomachs were burning and tears were running down our faces, and we wouldn't even be able to remember what sparked the first laugh.

  Church had been rough sometimes. Especially when our adorable, little old preacher would get too excited during the singing portion of worship and dance across the stage. I swear, one day he shimmied his little old man boobies so hard, I thought his wife was going to start throwing money at him.

  "Wow," I said, clearing the giggles out of my throat. "So, are you guys adopting?"

  "Uh. No," Pierce's voice went high at the end and he glanced around the room before leaning close to whisper. "I'm actually pregnant."

  "You're what now?" Witt asked at the same time I said, "excuse me?" We both leaned closer, glancing at each other and then back at Pierce.

  Boston frowned, tilting his head to the side. "Do you know what chosen are?"

  As if choreographed, Witt and I shook our heads slowly, keeping our eyes on the couple.

  "Your pride never taught you about chosen?" Boston asked, his attention completely on Witt. When my best friend again shook his head, the unsmiling man shrugged. "Well, I guess that isn't too unheard of. This leap didn't know much about them when Flynn first found Ridley. It's been a while since there were any and suddenly, they're popping up out of the woodwork."

  I swallowed, licking my lips. "So, chosen are men who can have babies?" I whispered, glancing down at Pierce's flat stomach and wondering how far along he was, and how long he had until he had a baby in his arms that looked like both him and Boston.

  "With a shifter and under certain circumstances, yeah," Ward said, the corner of his mouth tipping up.

  He was probably laughing internally at the two morons that were standing there staring stupidly a Pierce's stomach like we were waiting for something to pop out of his belly button.

  "Why don't you guys come to dinner at the leap house tonight?" Pierce said sweetly, before lowering his voice and leaning in again. "Not everyone will be there, but it'll be easier to talk when there aren't unexposed humans around. And if you're going to live in this town, you're going to have to become familiar with the leap anyway."

  That last part was directed at Witt and I shook my head. "He's not staying."

  Witt's head snapped around in my direction and he raised his eyebrows. "Are you?"

  "Yes."

  He shrugged, smiling brightly. "Then I am too."

  Huffing, I rolled my eyes. "You are the most stubborn person I know."

  He blew a disbelieving laugh between his lips. "I am?" He put a hand to his chest, blinking. "You won't even sit down and have a rational conversation with me."

  I opened my mouth to tell him to eat shit when the sweet little voice of Harper interrupted me.

  "What is genitalia?"

  We all cringed, and Davis sighed, slapping a hand to his face and moaning.

  ***

  "Fuck!" I yelled, running out of my room, and skidding into my living room, looking at the entry to my hallway with wide eyes as I waited for movement.

  I was so focused on that, I didn't notice the very large presence just inside my closed front door.

  "What are you doing?" Witt croaked out, his voice sounding strained.

  I jumped, turning to look at him and quickly throwing my hands over my crotch as his shocked, green eyes took in the spectacle that was me, standing in my living room butt-ass naked with lube all over my hands… and other parts.

  The buzzing warned me that the little asshole I'd been trying to escape when I bare-balled it to the living room was back, and I squealed, running around the coffee table and then toward Witt.