Chapter 1

“Leo, come home,” George whined over the phone.

The grating sound his younger cousin had perfected at seven years old still made Leo’s Lion hiss in annoyance. His inner animal seriously did not care for George’s manners or attitude.

It’s not that he was blatantly disrespectful, but George was a bothersome prat. A pest. An annoyance. An irritation. But he was still his cousin—something Leo would very much like to forget.

His beast chuffed in response to the whining imbecile on the other end of his smart phone. If he were here, Leo would have already shifted and played a little game of cat and mouse with the much smaller male.

Grrr.

As it was, he had to count to three before replying. A little technique he’d learned in kindergarten to help him reassert his self-control. After all, it was unseemly for the future King of the Blue Valley Pride to lose his shit at a subordinate. Especially over the phone.