“We’ll take care of you,” Emerald whispered. And then she eased her toward Ronin.
The Alpha stood stoically, chin lifted high, gold-green eyes on Katy. She couldn’t hold his gaze. Her lioness wouldn’t allow it. He was king here.
But that king drew her in for a tight hug and promised, “Things will be different, but everything will be okay.”
And she’d needed to hear that so bad.
She realized something as the males in the Pride all hugged her and told her their names.
She hadn’t just gotten Kannon in this tragedy.
She’d found friends. A Pride. A make-shift family. And, oh, it would be dysfunctional, but it was hers.
Kannon’s proud smile lit up the whole clearing. No one cared that she was sobbing as she hugged them. They were kind about her tears, and it softened her heart until it was just a puddle in her chest.
Sora had done an awful thing, and when Katy searched the faces in the crowd for her maker, she wasn’t there. Maybe she’d left like Ronin had said, or was hiding in shame for what she’d done, Katy didn’t know. The consequence of Sora’s action had been the loss of Katy’s humanity, her steady future, her old life. But was that such a bad thing? A part of her wanted to tell Sora it was okay.
Kannon approached her last, and as he rubbed his face on one side, then the other, Katy though perhaps Sora had known what she was doing the whole time.
Kannon gently kissed her on the lips and then turned to the others. “New Tarian Pride, this is Katy, and I am hers. And she’s mine.” He slid his strong hand around hers and lifted his chin as he said, “She’s ours.”
Katy wasn’t an outcast at all. Not anymore. She belonged.
She wasn’t Human Katy anymore.
She was Katy of the Tarian Pride, new lioness and mate of Kannon.
And she was damn proud of her new life.
Of her new home.
And of her new self.