LIAM (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 2) by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online Page A

the deeply rooted instinct in me take the lead. I followed my nose past enclosures of various kinds, some heavy with bars, others barely chicken wire, depending on the type of animal behind them. I barely saw the animals, though I could have named them by their scents. Zebra, chimpanzee, peacock, bear, and cougar. We passed the giraffes, and they blinked at us from well above our heads, their eyes following us.
    Levi kept close. “What are we doing here?”
    I answered him truthfully. “I don’t know.”
    “Great.”
    I wasn’t bothered that we were in the zoo, other than the time it was taking away from my search. But I’d learned with Rylee that there was a reason things happened, and while we were on a time crunch, something had brought us this way. The why of it was yet to be answered, but whatever it was calling to me hadn’t let up yet. I felt it like a pull through my soul, and my wolf wasn’t about to be denied. The tension grew, like elastic being pulled taut, ready to snap at any second.
    I didn’t have to wait long to see where we were being led.
    We followed the curving paved path around a sloping corner and came face to face with a large cat enclosure. There were wide flat stones in the middle of it, sand, a few scrub bushes, all made up to look like an African savannah. A slow rolling man-made river flowed around the edge of the structure, and I wondered if there was a crocodile or two floating about. For authenticity, of course.
    I drew in a deep breath, tasting for the first time a scent that was all fire, as if the sun suddenly had a scent all its own.
    Lions.
    My wolf all but nodded. I approached the enclosure, taking it in. There was a small fence hip height to keep the public at a reasonable distance. A green space of maybe ten feet, and then there was a second, taller fence easily fifteen feet high of solid steel mesh. Beyond that was the actual enclosure itself with a third fence even higher and the makeshift moat six feet across.
    It seemed overkill to me, and I wondered about the lions, why the enclosure would be set up this way.
    I slipped off my coat and handed it and the bag of weapons to Levi. “Don’t lose this. If someone comes, hide.”
    He raised an eyebrow as he took the bag, a flash of personality finally coming through the abuse. “This seems a bad time to commune with nature, if you ask me.”
    My lips twitched. “Thanks, I’ll take it into consideration.”
    Although, I asked myself the same question. What the hell was I doing? I was here in Seattle and my first task was to find a female ogre, not go to the zoo to check out the lions.
    But that pull was still there, and my wolf all but shoved me forward. Whatever was going on, I needed to get in that lions’ pen.
    Stupid, a part of my head warned me. Very stupid.
    I ignored it, and hopped over the first fence. I strode across the green space, noting there were tiny depressions in the ground. Sensors of some sort? I bent and brushed a finger over one. It was a sensor with a red light that went out when I touched it. So I could short-circuit whatever it was. Was that good or not?
    I stood and headed to the second fence. The steel mesh was an easy climb, but I took note of certain things that made me think perhaps my wolf didn’t know as much as he thought he did.
    Like the thin wiring that wrapped around the mesh that looked suspiciously like electric shock wires.
    A cold sweat broke out along my spine as I climbed. The electricity could come on at any second, and while there was a chance I would short circuit it just being supernatural, there was a chance the current was strong enough it could still work on me. Which brought the scene from Jurassic Park, where the kid gets blasted off the fence, to mind rather suddenly.
    I hurried my climb.
    At the top, I swung a leg over and dropped on the other side into a crouch. I held still, feeling the air thicken, not unlike the ozone in the clouds right before the lightning struck. I