Melted By The Lion: A Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance by Amira Rain Page A

bag filled with dry cat food, and handed it to me. “We’ll just wait for a second. They’ll come. I’ve been feeding them right out of my hand whenever I come back here. Not that there’s ever enough for everyone.” She took another large plastic bag out of her shoulder bag. “This one’s the dog kibble.”
    No sooner had she spoken those words, a series of barks pierced the heavy, humid quiet of the forest, and a golden retriever puppy, maybe three or four months old, bounded out of a dense copse of shrubbery just ahead of us. It was love at first sight. For both of us, apparently, because the puppy made a beeline for me, racing full speed. Instinctively, as if he’d been my puppy his whole life, I knelt, arms wide to catch him, and he bounded right in, slobbering all over my face and making happy little yips, as if I was his owner just home from work.
    Bridget snorted. “Well, how do you like that? I’ve been feeding this little guy for weeks, and he runs right up to you !”
    I rubbed the puppy’s back, head, and ears, as he continued to love all over me, wagging his little golden tail. He was beautiful to me, even though he was really a complete mess, scrawny and malnourished, filthy, spots of fur missing, and burrs and brambles tangled in his fur.
    I fed him dog kibble from my hand, and he gobbled it up as if he hadn’t eaten all day, which he probably hadn’t. While he was eating, a scrawny mama cat and three tiny butterscotch-colored kittens joined the scene, and Bridget began feeding them alongside me and the puppy.
    Once everyone was full, the puppy wanted to play, jumping on me with such exuberance that I lost my balance while in a crouch and fell back on my rear. Laughing, and not caring in the least if I got dirty, I cradled the puppy to my chest and rolled to my back, making him yip with delight, licking my face. Within seconds, I felt something warm on my thigh, and Bridget informed me that one of the kittens thought the top of my leg might be a good place to curl up and take a nap.
    “Oh, and here comes one of the others to climb up on your other leg.”
    I laughed again, and the puppy nuzzled the spot between my neck and shoulder, making me laugh even harder because it tickled. And it was right then, right at that moment, when what had happened to me the day before happened again. A thousand images at once flooding my brain in the span of a second.
    Not laughing anymore, I gazed up at the patches of blue sky visible between the treetops above me while the puppy continued to lick my shoulder and face. “Bridget. This is what I did. This was my job. Back before the nuclear blast.”
    “Your job was to let animals crawl all over you?”
    “No. I ran an animal shelter. It was my life. It was my passion. How on earth could I have had amnesia about this? I actually lived in the shelter, in an apartment converted from a conference room. After a year of college, not really figuring out what I wanted to do, I started volunteering at the animal shelter in town, and within two years, I’d become the director. I organized tons of fundraisers, we eventually raised enough funds to make it a no-kill shelter. My proudest, happiest day. The proudest, happiest day of my life.” I felt sudden tears prickling my eyelids, and I sniffed, rubbing the puppy’s burr-covered back. “That’s what I was put on earth to do—save animals, and care for them until they could find their forever homes.”
    Standing beside me, Bridget looked down at me with her brown eyes twinkling. “We’re taking some of these animals back with us today, aren’t we?”
    “Of course. All of them. I’m going to feed them, and clean them, and find them good homes.”
    “Well, let’s get going then. Because I have a feeling more animals will be moseying on out for a meal soon, and we can only carry so many cats back to the mansion.”
    With the three kittens in Bridget’s big shoulder bag, the mama cat in my arms, and the puppy