understand, but I’m sure you’ll learn with time.”
“This is like being humble or displaying humility, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“If I were meant to fly, I would have wings, Wells. Do I look like I have wings to you?”
Shaking my head, I headed for the porch, and as expected, a herd of my brothers stampeded through the front door. I set my bags and my precious cheese box down on the porch swing. “Don’t mess up his mane or his suit. I’m keeping that lion, and he needs to be in good condition. He’s taking me to Chicago for a week. I’m taking more time off. It’s his turn to spoil me at a spa.”
My brothers eyed Sebastian, who followed me onto the porch and armed himself with his best smile.
My poor brothers. Within ten minutes, Sebastian would have them questioning their sexuality. They’d be jealous of me, who would keep the lion. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. “I have noticed there is a car-shaped package parked in the best spot. Is that the offering so I can give Daddy his truck back?”
My twin brothers shoved through the gathering of tall, generally handsome lynxes, and I braced for an onslaught of affection. They delivered, and I got a double dose of brotherly nuzzling before they joined the rest of my brothers in glaring at Sebastian.
The lion chuckled. “I’m not going to stop her from visiting at her whim, and you might even get me to bring her over at my whim instead of hers. I’m a lion, which means I enjoy large, boisterous family affairs, so we would be frequent visitors. Just don’t mess up this suit. Your sister took away my other clothes so I’d wear it for her.”
“It’s true, I did. Lions are fairly lazy in the mornings, so I can make the clothes I don’t like disappear. I picked the suit today. He made it himself. Is the present shaped like a car in the prime parking spot for me? If it is, I need to go mark it as my territory before the lion does. Establishing territory is important to lions.”
Then, because I had more than one reason to be happy, I bounced on my toes and began with my softest purr, the one I used when in a state of anticipation, a rare enough occurrence my brothers focused on me instead of on my lion.
One of my brothers turned and shouted, “Dad, Harri’s purring because she’s hoping that car is hers. Can she unwrap it now? If she can’t unwrap it, the purrs will become whines.”
Only Hugh got so upset when I whined, he tried to prevent the whining before I started. Harvey waited for the whining to begin before getting upset.
I kept bouncing and purring, waiting for my parents to show up. Within a few minutes, they did, and my father tossed me a gift box wrapped in blue paper. “You haven’t even seen it yet, and you’re already out here purring like a little idiot?”
My daddy sounded rather pleased I was purring like a little idiot, and I wasted no time spinning around and diving off the porch to play with my new car. I made it three steps before Sebastian caught me by the waist and hauled me in. To keep me from struggling too much, he lifted me off my feet and tucked me against his side while I dangled off his arm. “Open the box in your hands first, Harri. Then, if there’s an alarm system, disable the alarm. Then, and only then, begin tearing the paper off. You might get overly excited in your effort to mark the vehicle as yours and set the alarm off.”
I should have stopped purring, but I tore into the box, tossed the paper aside, and found a jewelry gift box. I cracked it open to find two car fobs and matching key rings decorated with a gemstone-encrusted lynx and a lion. “Lion!” I twisted around and contorted in my effort to show Sebastian the lion charm. “We each got one.” I checked again, and the second set was enamel instead of covered with stones. “A more masculine one for you, one covered in bling for me.”
Sebastian chuckled, took the fob with the enamel charms, and pressed the unlock button on the fob twice. The wrapped car beeped. He released me. “Now that you won’t accidentally set off the alarm, go play with your present.”
I almost dropped the keys, which