Minute of Love

Chapter 2

*A new face*

"Stop it!" I screamed as laughter erupted from my chest."leave me alone!" I could barely choke out in between violent coughs and giggles that were forced out of me, much against my own wishes.

He continued to pin me down searching my body with tickles to see which area would affect me the most. I was caught flat beneath him, my body made immobile by his legs that were secured on either side of me and the weight that he used to hold me down, it was beyond irritating.

"Move Brat" I hissed as he continued to tickle me, searching my neck,behind my ears,under my arms and then he decided to go for my stomach. He began fiercely tickling my stomach but when it wasn't as effective as he had wished he decided he would try another position for a better angle.

He placed his arms down to reposition his legs, and as he did his arms brushed the sides of my waist and i jerked away from his arm instinctively. Damn it. Damn. it. all.

His childlike eyes flew to mine and the most annoying grin spread over his entire face. I glared so hard at him i felt a headache begin to probe behind my eyes. I stared intensely , warning the child not to dare, and I began moving my leg in hope to maybe be able to get him off of me since he had my arms secured above my head.

He moved quickly, of course since he was a cat, though not faster than me, he was fast enough.

He immediately used his leg to kick mine down and repositioned his hold on me. I had never been so stupidly irritated over such an immature thing like this,but the fact that this little 13 year old boy could pin me down as my 17 year old self , i didn't care if they say if it is because he is going through "puberty"and he has a lot of stored "testosterone" this was beyond embarrassing regardless!

His hand flew to my waist and he began tickling me with all of his might. Cries of laughter tore from me. I was surprised that i could laugh while being so irritated. that true laughing was beyond my nature, something that couldn't be held in. I tossed and flailed and writhed beneath him and i hated it, I was older, i'm on top.

After a few more uncontrollable laughs he began laughing too, deep laughs sprung to life. He couldn't even help himself. He laughed so hard that my anger seemed to instantly be lifted. but I still wanted him off of me.

Since his guard was down I used my legs to push myself off the ground and i made him unstable. He flailed and tried to catch himself and let go of my hands. And when he did. I pushed him off of me so that he was now to my side and i used this opportunity to kick him, but just as i was getting ready to the door swung open and Ellie and Vic, our caretakers stepped in.

"What the Hell is going on up here?" Vic asked as he looked at the scene in front of him

Of course. Of course! They had to step in while I'm laying here with my leg in the perfect position to drill him in the gut and here his is sprawled on the ground looking like the young innocent victim.

"Zalara.. im pretty sure we asked you to take care of him when we took him in, not beat him up behind closed doors" Vic scolded

I sighed and glared down at the boy who looked up at me with baby eyes and a devilish grin. I wanted to curse him out.I always get in trouble whenever he is around.

He had been attached to me since the day we rescued him 5 years ago it was roughly a year after i was rescued by a group of lions, ironic right, after months of being alone struggling in search for my sister… i still don't know where she is.

They are an anti-chase group, they go against the "Lion Code", though not actually an enforced code, it is something lions follow and live out as being the head of the "elite" cat society. They send shifters over to areas where other cats reside, specifically young, unclaimed shifters like myself. Ones they know are on the list to be hunt down in "The Chase". To bring you back and have you live among them, to hide your identity from the rest of the lion society in order to protect you.

When Vic came and rescued me I was on the verge of death.

I had already been skinny since the beginning, i had no other choice for the lifestyle i lived. But when he saw me…. I was the image of death for a shifter. I was skin and bones and i was too weak to contain my inner cat so my claws,ears,and tail showed, but i was too inexperienced to fully shift.

I slept most of the time. sometimes for multiple days and i woke up still tired, most of the time I woke up and didn't know where i was because it had been a day or two since i was awake. It came as no surprise when i woke up surrounded by lions. I think I felt relief, happiness in death, that I no longer had to endure the struggle of life, surely they would deem me unprofitable and let me die off.

I was grieved when i woke up plugged in, with needles covering my entire body, foreign fluids invading my system, bringing back life where i thought there was none. Everything felt like a haze for weeks and weeks, where I went through the motions .

Ellie would come and check on me everyday and talk to me,but I hated her, so much that i can't even comprehend it. I didn't need nor did i want her sympathy. Did she think i was happy? Did she think that because she was a lioness that saved the poor ol' dying jaguar pest that i would be grateful?

I didnt choose to be abandoned, I didnt choose to be betrayed, I didnt choose to be hunted, that was all determined by outside factors my only wish was to live happily with Raina, to show her that i wasn't just a burden, to show her that I could support her as family,but now I would never get the chance. For all i knew she could be in captivity.

Even after i was fully recovered and healthy, I was bitter and angry. so angry. I refused to even speak for months and months that I forgot what my voice sounded like. I ate, and slept and minded my own business.

Over time Ellie grew on me, her never ending patience with me,made me feel guilty for always ignoring her. I was grateful for her. though in my mind she was still a stranger even after 9 months, I respected her and over the next few years learned to love her.

About a year and 2ish months after they rescued me I was about 12 and they told me there was another like me spotted and they wanted to reach him before the "other" lions did. Vic was gone for what was around 3 months gathering information about the cat and other vital things they needed and when he came back there was a little boy with him.

The boy,a jaguar, just around the age of 8,reeked of puke and crap. I couldn't stand it.

I refused to look at him for weeks and surprisingly we never crossed paths during this time even though we were in the same house. He was all they ever talked about. It was like he was the new shiny item that everyone wanted and i was last seasons gem that was now completely out of style.

I envied him. How come they could find him and not Raina? How come when Vic was in the jungle for 3 whole months he didn't pass Raina, but he managed to drag in this brat.

I had never felt jealousy until he came along, i was so captured in it that just the thought of us being under the same roof made my hair stand up and my claws appear.

It wasn't until one day in the middle of the night that he walked into my room, he smelled like piss and he stalked to my bed. Just before he pounced i flew out of bed hissing and jumped to the floor.

The young cat thought it was a game and decided to try to pounce but, i found nothing funny about him being in my room with piss soaked through his pants, jumping all over MY things.

I was done with this game before it even began. I pinned him down and hissed "what is your name?". Fear showed in his eyes as i held his legs down in the most painful manner I could muster at 12 and my claws beginning to dig into his arms.

He whimpered and I looked him in his eyes and i was instantly filled with rage. He was too similar to me, just like me , abandoned, alone, lost with no one, pathetic. Pissing himself for crying out loud. Just like me, afraid, clinging to anything, but i wasnt the one,i had nothing to give him.

It made me sick to look at him, it was like looking into my own eyes.

"I'll give you five seconds" I glared digging my claws into his skin, why the hell was he so happy to be here?!

"I don't know.." the boy whispered.. tears began to well up in his eyes

"4.. 3.." I taunted glaring at him, I felt so much hate for him, he could have been the very crap beneath my feet, thats how little I thought of him, because he was a reflection of myself.

"I dont know!" he cried tears streaming down his little face.

what's even worse is i could smell the truth from him literally filling the room, but it wasn't good enough, my anger was too real, my loneliness too real,my sadness too real. I dug my claws into his arms and he screamed

" I promise! I dont know! i really dont know!" the boy weeped with true regret on his face for ever entering my room and then the door swung open and the lights flashed on

"ZALARA!" Vic yelled, ripping me off of the child and discarding me across the room. The boys blood streamed down his arms from his wounds and I looked at Vic pleadingly, wishing he could read my mind and see it from my perspective but no, he had no sympathy for me. He glared down at me with disgust. In his eyes i was a pathetic monster.

Tears began to fill my childish eyes and I felt so torn,it was then that i realized how attached I had gotten to Vic and Ellie. How their image of me truly mattered . And how much their ridicule hurt. I ran out of the room with the boys blood all over my hands out without turning back.

It was extremely dangerous for me to be outside because they still hadn't fully secured my identity in the lion society so if i were to be found that would be my ass. I wandered around too ashamed to head back.

Tears flooded my eyes and all sorts of pent up emotions that I had had from the past few years escaped to the surface. I was genuinely sobbing. Hiccuping with snot running down my nose and into my mouth I was so pathetic. I just wanted to curl up and disappear.

My tears were endless and for some reason this moment for me was too much, I began running away running so fast it felt like i was teleported back in time to when i was chasing Raina. Not just running, sprinting, my tears couldn't even keep up, the agony rose and i headed towards the nearest woods and the memories flooded in.

I missed my sister. I missed our memories before that night. I missed laughing and running my hands through her fur when she shifted, her hair was soft and fluffy and warm. Her spots were brilliant and she was absolutely beautiful. I lived for her. I would have done anything for my sister. I wept for the loss of her. I wept for the betrayal. I wept for the regret and the aching feeling in my chest and i cried out of strait self pity.

The branches cut my face and my body and the wounds were almost too much for my 12 year old mind to handle.

I hated myself.

I sped up my speed when i heard both Vic and Ellie running behind me catching up. I didn't want them to see me like this. definitely not like this. To them I had been an emotionless child for over a year now and for them to see me like this…. who knows what they would think.

It was horrifying. I could feel them both getting closer and closer and then they were so close I could hear them calling me.

"Zalara!" Vic was yelling but I was too afraid to face him,Over this past year i guess i placed him as a father figure even though i never even knew what a father figure would be like and I didn't want to see him right now and to face his ridicule. I hated being scolded by him it hurt the most, because his discipline was always appropriate, always just, always when i was in the wrong.

I realized that i wanted him to find me precious and to see me as a daughter and to be the princess but now he thought of me as some violent cruel being.

And Ellie was screaming, clearly more panicked than Vic. after me.

Hearing her voice made me cry harder than i was before, because I knew for a fact she loved me like a mother loves a daughter, though i don't know what that is like, she loved me unconditionally, even when i treated her like true crap. I felt so stupid.

But personally what surprised me the most was the arms that reached me first. The boy was in the trees above me hopping from one to the next stealthily. He leaped and landed in front of me causing me to halt before i nearly ran into him.

Before I could comprehend he leaped into my arms crying, apologizing and blaming everything on himself.

His sentences weren't even legible starting with " I peed…" then continued with "Went into your room without your permission" and ended with "And touched your stuff and made you sad" he wept. and i felt so bad for making him think that when i knew in my heart I lashed on him because of my own problems.

He clung to me and buried his face in my neck and wept like how i cried to Rania. and instantly I began to comfort him, rubbing his back in soothing circles like Raina did for me and I began to cry too at my own selfishness.

I looked at the bandages that were on his arms and I hated myself.

Moments later Ellie crashed into my back wrapping her arms around me sobbing, cradling me, crushing me in her words unintelligible, with unending stutters and relief written all over her face. But she was so warm and comforting that I released the boy being the child i was and clung to her.

I had not changed. I was just as lonely as i thought i was and i was just as pathetic as i had always been. So pathetic that I couldn't even accept the very people that loved me while I clung to the memory of one who claimed she didnt.

My tears had died down until I felt a big warm hand on my shoulder and when I looked over Vic was kneeling down and he asked me "Are you alright" in the most caring tone. He wasn't angry, he wasn't mad. He could see the regret on my face. And just like a snot nosed brat all of my walls broke down and I cried harder than I ever had. Vic carried me on his back and Ellie carried the boy. I was grateful that he couldn't see my face.

I owed that much to him.

When everything had settled down 2 things became very evident, one, the boy had no known name and even with all of the research they had they couldn't find any attachments to him, therefore he was going to need to receive one. he couldn't go nameless forever. And two no matter what i said or did to him, he wouldn't leave me alone, he became my never disappearing shadow.

Weeks and weeks went by as Ellie and Vic struggled to think of a name. They fought over names denied eachothers choice, even didn't talk to one another for around 2 days which was extremely awkward for me because when they didn't talk there was no real conversation in the house.

This cycle continued for a few weeks until finally they settled on a decision. They would ask him who he wanted to name him and based off of that he would get one of the 2 names they decided on.

I technically didn't have to be down there when they made this decision on what his name was going to be but in all honesty I felt slightly left out with all of this commotion going on without me.

When I went downstairs I sat down on the recliner that was clearly built for one, but the boy ran over and squeezed in right next to me. In my mind i still hadn't deemed whether he was an annoyance or a comfort yet but either way he had a way of always making me feel relevant. and i loved that about him.

He played with my hand until I got annoyed and flared my claws but that only made him more interested and he showed me his as if it was contest.

Ellie called us all to attention and asked the boy to stand up, and when he did she asked him "who do you want to name you, Vic or Ellie?" she said clearly talking more sweet in hopes that he would choose her.

He looked between the 2 of them for a long time and Ellie said it again "How about it? Me or Vic?" pressing the topic now as she became more anxious over the subject that had put the house in turmoil for the past several weeks.

"No" Is all he said and he walked back to the chair that i was sitting in and squeezed himself into the remaining space like he was before.

Ellie tensed and Vic sighed, clearly exhausted from this entire situation. Vic walked over to the us and squatted down looking him strait in the eye " I promise its a quick decision and you and Zalara can go and play, so whats it going to be Me or Ellie" he pushed.

The boy snuggled up to me and waited for a while…. Then he said "Not Ellie… and not Vic"

Theres no way you dont want either of us "Ellie said in a light tone in hopes to change the mood, she really wanted this to be a fun time where he gets a name and everyone is happy but the boy was making this really difficult.

He repeated " Not Ellie…. and not Vic".

I could smell that he was being honest, he didn't want either of them to name him.

Seeing their distress I asked him "Then who will name you?"

He turned and pointed to me with the simple word that followed his actions "you"

"You want me to name you?" I said cautiously as i watched the disappointment spread in Ellie's face.

He nodded his head "mhmn" and sat back down once again next to me.

Vic seemed overall pretty pleased with the outcome. It meant him and Ellie could move on from the issue and the boy would be happy with whatever name i had decided to give him.

Ellie was a little more hesitant but if that was what he wanted, she wanted him to be happy. So by the end of the night Vic promptly said "I hope that you'll be able to come up with a name by the end of the week, we don't want to wait forever" and with a smile he headed for bed.

That meant I had 4 days to come up with a name for a real life human being, not a story character a human being, and surprisingly it was just as stressful as i thought it would be.I spent all of everyday thinking about it, and to my astonishment I wanted his name to be special, something that reflects his character to me…. annoying? no. shadow? no. Pee face? now i was just being rude, but i wanted to know what did he mean to me, what did i feel when he didn't hate me after i wounded him, that he forgave me without an explanation, That he accepts me without a care. That no matter what I do or say he doesn't leave me, what does his name mean to me?

On the morning or the last day, after staying up all night thinking about it I decided that I wanted his name to be just who he was.

I wanted his name to be Neil, for champion.

After I told him his name It was his favorite thing to say everyday thats all he talked about, taking pride in his name and i can't lie it made me feel special.

Not too long after that Vic told me that since he really likes me It would be awesome if i could look out for him when he grows up and be there for him, and since he was so young and cute and he grew on me I said yes.

But i regret it now, cause he is a twerp and he gets on my last nerve and he is always getting me in trouble, but without a doubt I love him.

Not too long after I got in trouble for nearly winding Neil, I decided that I wanted to go for a walk. Now that I was secured in the Lion society and to them my identity was trusted I could go wherever I wanted.

I was sad that this was the world that I lost my sister to. The world that she dreamed of that I didn't even know if she was living in. I looked around at the fresh litters of Lion pups that were born to the kings sons by all of the many women that bore them.

I shuttered at the thought that they would be ok with the man that is the father of their children after sleeping with them moves on to the next one even though they are a shifter.

Lion shifters did not have to follow the same rules as just regular lions, shifters could marry one person and have kids by that one person, but being the assholes they are they rather stick to an alternative culture and be with multiple women and feel no shame about it, being ok with impregnating them and leaving them.

What makes me even more mad is the way the rest of society shuns the female if she even dare show a sign of disapproval and sadness by the fact that he actually didn't care for her and he only wanted her for s*x.

Yes a lions way of seducing is amazing, and all of the kings sons carried charm that could take your breath away all of their bodies sculpted by s*x, in a craft that made you think of it when you saw them. I always thought that they must be cursed.

To further hide my identity I never showed them my form as a cat I wouldn't even be able to pass as a lioness. Though I still had not shifted yet we could tell from my tail and my hair that i am a black jaguar. I was anxious to see my form, I was 17 and still have not shifted yet while, on nearly a weekly basis Neil shifts in the house just to show off.

Today I was wearing my hair down, my hair was long and sleek, and my skin is very tanned, my eyes are green but when i'm using my senses they are almost glowing they are such a bright shade of green.

I was wearing a dress Ellie picked out for me that Vic wasn't such a huge fan of since it was on the shorter end. coming about mid thigh. and especially with mating season coming up i really shouldn't be playing games like running around with short dresses on. Especially when I don't plan on being with any of them. Ellie said that's whats called being a tease.

I have to admit that i did walk through groups of guys while wearing dresses just before mating season, because it was too dangerous to do it during. And plus they are always honest before the mating season because they always want to flatter in hopes to get in your panties when the season starts.

Its fun to hear them say things like "Your dress looks beautiful on you" or " You look gorgeous today" but now that I have heard it so many times to girls and seen guys leave them right after the mating season, those words are weightless to me among shifters.

I decided I wanted to explore a little bit since this was the safari not the jungle and i never felt like I could connect to this place like I did back "home". The air here was harsher and the sun hotter. No wonder the men were so tired all they did was eat and get fat. there was no way they could make it out here.

I ended up wandering around for a few hours losing track of time, and by now it was getting pretty dark but for some reason there was still a lot of people outside. Specifically gathered around a certain area.

As i got closer the volume increased and I realized that it was almost like a celebration. For the girls?

All of them squealing and giggling with their best outfits on clearly there to impress. And me being the nosey creature I am didn't want to be left out and I wanted to see what the commotion was all about.

I walked into the midst of the crowd to try to see who they were crowded around and little to my surprise it was the 4 golden haired princes the kings sons. Who knew that girls can get excited over the same 4 men so many time.

But then I looked closer and there wasn't just 4 of them there was 5, on with deeper toned hair, his shoulders broad, his whole body defined, I caught myself staring at him. marvelled by his looks. He looked like pure s*x. His hands his legs his chest his arms his shoulders his back everything about him made my skin tingle. And then I looked up and my eyes locked with his his blazing blue ones boring into my glowing green ones. I instantly broke away from his gaze a distanced myself.

Who the hell was that i thought as i quickly made my way home

but when I reached the door my face was on fire and my skin felt sticky, i must have been in the sun for too long I ran into the bathroom and striped to take a shower.

I peeled my clothes off of my body. Every layer feeling like chains being removed. I tossed my dress to the floor . Then I unclipped my bra and removed my panties and set the water to cool.

It was a shock to my body and i recoiled at first but then it felt nice, the contrast was calming and it helped me clear my head.

my body was chilled when I got out of the shower, but I finally felt normal again. As I headed to bed I walked passed Ellie and Vic's room and heard them talking about the noise outside from all of the squealing girls. I lingered too long and heard them talking about the kings sons. Then i heard Vic say "Yea but can you imagine the noise there will be this season because of his nephew?"

The kings nephew? I froze. Recalling all of his features and how attracted I was to him. I instantly felt foolish in thinking that. He was the Kings Nephew! Like how stupid can I be! Of course he was attracted,

But even after thinking that I knew I wouldn't be able to get any rest for the remainder of the night. Not with every feature of his body etched in my brain.