His voice was calm, but Lexi clung onto whatever she could get her hands on. She also made the mistake of looking behind them and caught the flash of the monster crab flying through the sea after them.
“Rao!” she yelled.
“I know,” he replied.
They slammed through to the shore, crashing upon the glittering sands, and immediately leaped out of the submarine with urgency. Rao encouraged Lexi to run forward and suddenly began removing his scuba suit.
“What are you doing?” she pleaded.
“It’s only going to keep following us,” he said. “Go hide behind the car. I won’t be long.”
Lexi clung to his waist, hands shaking as she tried to pull him along with her. “No, Rao, we need to go!”
Before he could respond, something the size of a sailboat leapt out of the water. It cast a huge, round circle on the sand, then plunged toward them with a loud smacking sound that sent Lexi tumbling backward.
It was the crab, of course, clicking its pinchers at them in an amused melody.
Lexi couldn’t see anything but sand and water as she rolled backward, but she heard Rao’s rough voice scream out for her.
“Go, Lexi! Hide!”
Lexi was able to regain herself once she landed flat on her back in a rough smack. She sat up and watched the crab gazing down at her, unblinking, a mere few feet away.
But Rao had shifted into his lion form and was bent down in front of her, growling at that massive creature.
She slowly, and ironically, crab-walked backward towards the car while Rao edged forward. The crab refocused its doll-like stare onto the lion, clicking its pincers once again as if it was a warning.
Lexi managed to find her way around the side of the car, heaving her breath and trying to center herself. She looked around the corner of the vehicle and watched as Rao, without hesitation, launched at the crab, aiming for its squishy and vulnerable eyes.
His roar echoed through the calm waters, but the crab was easily able to dodge him. Despite its size, the crab was able to scuttle across the shoreline at a rapid pace, making Lexi’s breath catch in her throat.
Rao galloped toward it and grabbed hold of one of its thin legs with his teeth. It stopped the monster briefly, who reached out to pinch the lion. He managed to pierce through the first layer of Rao’s fur, eliciting an ear-splitting whimper from his deep voice.
Lexi felt the urge to find something, like a stick or a rock, that she could hurl at the creature. But she didn’t have a plan for when it would flutter around and take aim at her for its next meal. She stood, hands and limbs shaking like leaves, and that was when Rao made the final blow.
The distraction of her rising from behind the car shifted the crab’s attention, giving Rao time to protrude his sharp claws and scrape them across one of the crab’s exposed eyeballs.
The animal let out a strange sound that seemed alien to Lexi, then shot its body back into the ocean. It sunk away in shameful defeat, its eyes leaking something the texture and shade of oil as it descended out of sight.
Lexi fell back to the ground. She was glad it was over, but she was terrified.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
RAO
Rao paced along the walls by the balcony. The beauty of the city spread out across the beautiful countryside had no effect on him. He barely even glanced at it. The high mid-morning sun felt too bright, glaring at him as if its only purpose was to define harsh realities.
Is there any other kind?
Pacing appeased him slightly, but his lion was not satisfied. He could tell it wanted to get out and rend and tear, to hunt prey with its base instincts and forget these complicated human interactions altogether.
For the lion, everything was so very simple. Lexi was his mate. She was gorgeous, and she loved being with him. That should be enough.
Rao muttered under his breath as he spun on his heel and strutted across the room to make another pass by the doors. The sun sparkled on the pale stone of the balcony paving as if to beckon him outside to take notice of the day. He ignored it.
His entire body was tense, his shoulders and back completely locked up. Rao had never been so stressed in his entire life.
He wanted to be with Lexi so badly that his heart ached. When he thought about her, his hands tingled as if her skin was only inches away. He wanted to look into her pale green eyes and kiss her sweet, red lips over and over.