Loman by Kathi S. Barton

Chapter 2

Loman didn’t like using a cane, but his brother told him that he needed to be stronger before he could shift and be back to his normal self. Locking himself in his dark room, he began working on the photos that he had taken before being brought home. He was really proud of his work on this one and decided that even though it was bloody as hell, he was going to include the calf being killed by the lion pride. If the magazine that he was working for didn’t want them, he was going to put them with the other pictures that he’d taken and put them in another book.

So far, Loman had nineteen books—called tabletop books—to his name right now. Not his real name. He only put L.F. on them. But each of the pictures was signed by his small signature of a paw. He wondered if anyone had ever figured out that it was the paw print of a kitten he’d found when he’d been first on the job. Smiling at the thought, he was surprised when someone rang the doorbell on his dark room.

“I can’t open the door right now.” It was Andi. She wanted to know if she could stay for dinner. “Of course, you can. You can live here too, and that would make me happy. I’m in the process of developing some of the photos that I took while out. I’ll be ready to open the door in about an hour. Then we’ll have a nice dinner. Lindsley is at the gallery. So it’ll just be the two of us.”

“Great. If you’re serious about me moving in here, I’d be thrilled. I have a home, but I’ve just come to the realization that it’s not really a home but a house. It’s not very fulfilling. Not like I get when I’m around your entire clan.” He told her that they were a pride. “Yes, I knew that I think. All right. Which room can I take over?”

“Anyone you want. I’ve not been around up there very much since I’ve been home. So you’ll have to figure it out on your own.” Andi said she could do that. “Oh, I almost forgot. There are several messages for you that came into the house. I don’t know what they’re about, but they’re on my desk.”

After thanking him, she said she’d get to them. As he began to develop the rest of the pictures, he was saddened by what he was seeing. But as Parker told him, it was the way that things worked. While he was waiting on the bath to do its job, he thought of the first time he’d taken pictures.

He’d been eight years old. His family had been at a wedding, and someone had left a camera on one of the tables. Loman hadn’t tried to steal it, though the man later accused him of it. He had watched the camera just sit there for several hours. Then when no one had picked it up, he did so and started taking pictures with it. Thinking at the time that someone should have been taking pictures all along with it.

The wedding was for a human couple—not that it mattered. They’d been friends of his mother’s, that had invited them all to celebrate their day with them. Glad to have something to do, Loman had gone around the room, snapping pictures. Even going as far as directing some of the shots that he wanted and had even taken the bride and groom outside so that he could get some lovely shots of them in the colorful fall trees.

Loman knew that they were humoring him about the pictures. He was all right with that too. It had been something to do at first, but once he started taking them, it felt like something he’d been called to do. Something that he enjoyed. However, when they realized the photographer they hired had been drinking and was in a stupor in a corner, they were very upset with him. It wasn’t until they developed the film and saw the pictures that they came to see him and his mother.

“Have you seen these?” Lily, the bride, had laid them, all ninety pictures that had been taken that day in front of his mother. “These were supposed to be memories of our special day. Something that we can’t do again and just look at them.”

Mom picked them up and handed them, one at a time to him. He knew that he was going to be in deep trouble. The shots were blurry. Some of them were of the ground. There were pictures of the cake off-center a bit and looking like it was falling over. There were several pictures of the ceremony itself, too, ones that he knew for certain that he’d not taken. But he didn’t open his mouth. The woman and her husband were pissed off enough.

When the pictures his mother handed him suddenly looked clear, he knew they were the ones he’d taken. Even then, he kept his mouth closed while thinking that he’d not done such a terrible job. The one of the bride and groom out in the woods was beautiful. The sun streaming down through the trees hit them perfectly in the face, just as he had wanted. No one said a word as they went through all the shots of the day. As the last photo was handed to him, he laid it carefully on the pile and looked at his mom.

“You’ve no idea how sorry I am that this happened, Lily.” She nodded, staring at him as if she wanted a hole in his head. “We’ll pay you back for the photos. I’m not sure what we can do to replace your pictures, but Loman and I, we’ll repay you for what has happened here.”

“The ones on the top are the ones that were taken by the photographer that we hired, Carmilla. The man that we paid good money to take our wedding pictures.” Mom glanced at him and then asked Lily what she’d said. “Loman took the ones that are of good quality. The ones were…I have no words to say how spectacular his photos are. Nor do I know how to thank him for…without Loman picking up the camera and taking those shots for us, we wouldn’t have had any kinds of memories of the day. Not a one. These are better than we could have had if the man we did hire hadn’t been drunk on his butt. Loman saved the day for us, Carmilla. And we want to thank you both from the bottom of our hearts.”

“I didn’t steal the camera, Ms. Lily.” She said that the other man, Mark Henson, was blaming Loman for being a thief and for taking credit for his work. “He’s seen these?”

“Oh yes. When we got the pictures back yesterday, imagine our surprise when he only gave us the ones I knew you’d taken. Of course, I didn’t know when you were taking them that you actually had film in the camera. But I did remember the ones you’d taken outside.” Her new husband, Paul, cleared his throat before speaking.

“You waited on the sun to set just right before you let us move. I thought that you were having fun with us, watching us hold onto one another for a bit too long. But I enjoyed holding my new wife, or I might—you waited on the sun to be in the perfect place before you snapped it, didn’t you, young man?” Loman had nodded, telling him that it wasn’t as bright because he wanted it to come through the trees before touching their faces. “When I saw that picture, I knew with a certainty that you took it. And that you, with the right encouragement, would continue to get better and better at taking pictures the older you got.”

The wrapped gift was put on the table. He didn’t touch it even though the couple had said it was for him but waited until his mom said it was all right to open. Once he got the camera, a very nice camera, out of the box, he told Mr. Paul that he couldn’t accept it. It was much too expensive for a gift. It was Ms. Lily that got down on her knees in front of him to tell him what he should do.

“Without you, Loman, we’d have nothing. As it is right now, we have the most amazing memories of any wedding ever taken. You captured moments in the day, not people just milling about. There are pictures of my parents there that caught them in the perfect light—they’re smiling at one another, and I can almost touch their love. Photos of the children having fun out in the yard with the leaves. No one would have gotten those for us. You didn’t pose us but the one time to get shots of us. As I said, you captured memories for us, not just pictures.” To this day, he still feels his face heat up when he thinks of the kiss she’d given his cheek. “We want you to have this camera to make a name for yourself. Get out there and continue doing what you have a gift for. Please. For us. Someday we want to be able to look in a magazine and say, ‘Hey, we know that man. He took our wedding pictures when he was just a little boy.’”

He’d done just what they wanted him to do. With the encouragement of his parents, then his grandparent after his father had passed away, Loman had gone out and made not just a name for himself, but he’d made a good deal of money. Taken photos of animals and things that no one else would dare do. And now, here he was, living in a nice home with a mate and her family, doing what, as he’d been told, he meant to do.

After the last picture was hung up to dry, he made his way to the other baths and began cleaning up. When he was finished up, leaving things as clean as they were when he came in, he moved to the door and unlocked it. He was surprised to find not just Andi there but her mom as well. He asked what had happened.

“Nothing. We just wanted to give you an update on—why do men always think that there is something wrong? I mean, there sometimes is, but this time there isn’t. Why jump to that conclusion?” He said that he’d been ill, and that was mostly it. “Okay, I guess I can see that. We’re here to take you over to the gallery for some input. There are some of the pieces that we found that my father had stashed away that we’re going to be putting out to sell. However, we haven’t any idea how to price them. We’re, mom and I, were hoping that you could help us with that.”

“Why not ask the artist?” Andi looked at her mother before telling him that the man who had done the work had committed suicide a few weeks after her father had nearly destroyed him by not paying him the money due to him. They wanted to sell it to give to his widow and children. “So you want to sell it and give it to his estate, then. I like that idea. However, I’m not sure that I’d be the one to ask. You might want to talk to someone that has more experience in that sort of thing. I can recommend a couple of people that are trustworthy. But as for pricing it, that wouldn’t be anything I’d be comfortable doing.”

“Great.” He gave them the names of the two people he’d met over the years. “We’ll call them as soon as we get the gallery underway.”

He was exhausted by the time he finished looking over the gallery. True to their word, they did a complete overhaul of the entire place. It was more open, and the walls that were up were only there to divide the room into sections that flowed nicely. Even the panels that divided up the areas were going to be used for more art. Loman was thrilled with what they’d accomplished in so little time. He couldn’t wait for them to open so that he could come and see what his art looked like in the setting.

Loman was also very nervous about the showing. It would be his first one. He took pictures to sell to magazines, not to show off in this sort of setting. When Lindsley joined them after a meeting, he kissed her on the mouth and told her he loved what had been done.

“To be honest with you, this was more Andi and any of us.” Andi immediately said that it was a team effort. That was something that he loved about his new family, how they were quick to give credit where it was deserved. “She decided that whatever father had had here, we’d do the opposite. The white walls and panels had been taken out by father some years ago. Since I’d not been spending as much time here, I didn’t notice it until it was done. He’d had the walls in bright prints that would clash badly with the art. And he would have sculptures put on the floor. Like that would show them off in any kind of a good way.”

They talked about what else they were planning as they made their way to the office. Lunch had been brought in for them, and he was glad for it. While in the darkroom, he’d forgotten to eat. It was like that all the time for him. He’d get involved in things and forget to fill his belly.

“How do you get your photos? I mean, I’ve seen some of your work. It’s amazing. My favorite is the ones of the elephants. You must have been at the right place at the right time for those.” He said he’d been there waiting for something to show up for hours. “Really? I had, well, I guess I figured you might have to wait for the next shot but not for hours.”

“The last shot that I took was of some giraffes. A tower of them—it’s what a group of them is called. They were having a treat of a tree that had only just come into some leaves. Also, there was a newborn calf with them.” He didn’t know if he should tell him the entire shot, so he told them about how he’d set up. “As it’s been pointed out to me recently, I don’t take a shower for days beforehand. I don’t want to have them smelling me when I’m lying in waiting for them. So when they showed up, I had been there for about three hours. I was actually waiting on a group of zebra to come and enjoy some lunch. But they moved on before I could get them to come any closer. When the giraffes wandered over, they’re magnificent creatures that I love to watch. It was the perfect opportunity to get a good shot of them.”

“Anything ever come after you while you’re waiting?” He told Andi he was a lion. “Oh, I guess you’d only have to shift, and they’d run away. I never thought of that.”

“I won’t shift unless I have to. Like I’m in danger or something. Mostly I just let a little of myself go, and that way, they can smell that I’m something bigger than they want to tangle with. If I were to shift, then smell like a lion, even shifting back, and nothing would come near me.”

They talked about anything and everything while they sat there. Loman enjoyed himself immensely, and once they were headed home, he held Lindsley’s hand as she drove them back to the house. It was a good day for him, and he was excited to start the next chapter of his life with his family.

~*~

When he came downstairs, Ronan was surprised to find Billy, Quinlan’s daughter, in his kitchen. He loved the young girl and was happy for the help she gave everyone with her gift. She could talk to all animals and understood when they spoke back to her.

“Uncle Ronan, I need you to help me with something important. It’s about a lion in captivity at a zoo.” He asked her if she had eaten, and he smiled at her when she told him this was important. “He’s dying, and he asked me for something. I don’t have time to eat.”

“You will eat, and then we’ll talk. I’ve not had my breakfast, and I think better on a full stomach. Now, you can have a meal with me, go over what you know calmly, or you can come back when I’ve had my meal. All right?” She didn’t look like she was going to sit down, but in the end, she did. “All right. I’m going to have eggs and bacon. What would you like?”

After getting her to agree to eat, he was happy to see that she enjoyed the meal with him. Ronan didn’t know if he could help the young girl, but he would give it his best if he could. After their plates were taken away, he knew a little more about the lion in question.

“What zoo is he in?” She told him that he was out in California. “I don’t even want to know how you were contacted by him. I’m assuming that it wasn’t just a simple case of him getting in touch with you.”

“No. It took a while for him to get to me. But now I can talk to him directly. He’s old, very old, and he’s never been anything but a lion in captivity. His mom was killed when he was no more than a cub, and then a group of men sold him to a person who had him roaming his lands. When the authorities found out, they took him and put him on display.” Ronan asked her what he wanted from him. “He knows who you are. And he’s very humble about what he is requesting from you. He would like to die as a freed lion.”

Ronan had an idea that he was not going to like what the lion or Billy wanted. For a sixteen year old, she had a better head on her shoulders than most adults he knew. So if she had come to him about this, she knew just what she needed him to do. Leaning back in his chair, he asked her what the plan was.

“He’s a good lion. Never has he caused any trouble at the place he’s been in. But he knows that his death is coming. His body is worn out. When he dies there, they’ll bury his body in some place with all the other animals that have gone on before him. Give him a marker that states his name and how long he’d been there. But that’s now what he wants.” Billy looked at him, and he could see that she was passionate about what she wanted. “He knows that he will pass on. However, he wants to be laid to rest on his own terms. Like his ancestors before him. King, what they call him at the zoo, wishes to simply be left where he dies so that the earth and its glory, he said, can take it back into itself.”

“Where would you like for him to be able to die, Billy?” She said on the land that is here. The ranch that Robby owns. “He might not die as soon as we bring him here. What do we do with a full grown lion that cannot shift into a human? He’ll need care, won’t he?”

“No. He doesn’t want that. What he wants is to be able to roam the lands as a free lion. I don’t think he even knows what that means, but he won’t bother anyone while he’s here. He’ll steer clear of the horses and other fenced-in animals that are on the ranch.” He asked her if she’d figured out how they were going to get him here. “No. I only know that I want this to happen for him.”

Ronan wasn’t sure even where to begin in getting something moving on this. He wanted this to happen for Billy simply because he loved the young girl. Calling in his family and getting everyone involved, Ronan was able to get not just a meeting with the zoo president but also the vet that was caring for the animals that were in the park with King. Thanks to Rouge, Quinlan’s mate who had some connections with the FBI. They had a meeting in three days.

“This lion, what happens if he tells every lion he is in contact with that this can happen for them? I don’t want to be mean or rude, but I don’t want to have to figure out a plan each time a lion or another animal wants to come here to die, honey.” Billy stared at him. “Billy, what’s really going on with this lion. This is more than just him wanting to die here. Tell me, please.”

“I promise you, Uncle Ronan, it’s just what I said. He’s dying, and his last wish is to roam free.” He didn’t say anything. It wasn’t as if he didn’t believe her, but he felt there was something more. She told him all she knew about his life, some of it as bad as he’d ever heard of about a captive creature. “Haven’t you just wanted to take a walk and not be bothered by fences or people getting in your way? Go to a store maybe and spend your money without anyone saying that you can’t because of some stupid rule that you didn’t agree to. Perhaps you wanted to go to a ball game or something like that. People around you have made it so that you can’t get there. That the walls, big walls they’ve put around you are for your own good, they tell you.”

“You really want this to happen, don’t you?” She told him she wanted this more than she wanted anything in her life. “All right. I’ll do my best. I’m not sure that it will work, but with this meeting that we’re having, perhaps we can at least get someone to listen to us.”

“Thank you, Uncle Ronan. You’ve no idea how much I appreciate this.” After she left him, he sat there in his chair for several minutes, thinking about what he was doing. Having a lion, one that wasn’t a shifter nor anyone that he knew was going to be roaming the lands. So many things could go wrong with this. Ronan was also sure with all the things that he was thinking about, there were millions more he’d not even thought of yet.

“Christ, I hope that I don’t regret this.” When Brook came home, he was feeling like he’d made a mistake. Tell her all the things that could go wrong with this, including the lion eating one of the humans, and she smacked him upside the head. Then she did it a second time. “What was that for?”

“Let me ask you something, dumbass.” Ronan hated when she called him names. It meant that she was going to make him feel bad for thinking about whatever he’d had on his mind at the time. “Are you not the king of lions? That you are even the big deal over lions that aren’t shifters?” He nodded. She popped him again, making his head bounce forward enough that his chin touched his chest.

“I’m not sure where you’re going with this, but do you think you could stop popping me on the back of my head? I would like to have a few brain cells left when I get older.” She told him to pay attention. “I will. With every part left of my brain. Now, what has you upset with me that I need to fix.”

“You can just tell him not to eat anyone.” He wanted to laugh. Like that was something that…he could do that, he remembered. “Don’t give him too many rules. That’s the point, right? That he wants his freedom. I’m not sure how this will work with King, but I’m willing to give it my all so he can have what he wants. I suppose it’s not so much what he wants but more what he needs. I can understand it too.”

After she left him alone in his office again, he thought about his own freedom. Ronan did have quite a bit of freedom, but he thought, not nearly as much as he wanted. Shifters, even humans, were restricted in how they lived and worked. He let his mind think about what King had had to endure.

He’d been in captivity since he’d been a small kitten. Growing up in a household where he was able to roam the house wasn’t all that good either. Billy had told him that King had been beaten when the master was upset. His food had been hit or miss, and sometimes they’d only allow him to have small portions of food rather than enough for a growing lion.

“He’d been beaten badly when one of his master’s children had been playing with him, and King had clipped him with his paw. It hadn’t been his fault as he’d tried to keep the child off of him. Once he’d been nearly killed by the man, the police were involved because of the child, and he was taken away to a large market where someone from the zoo had purchased him.” He asked her if they were good to him. “I suppose so. They fed him well. Made sure that he was healthy and in good form. It wouldn’t draw many people in if he was skinny and sickly, do you think? He’d get a bath. That was something else that he talked to me about. How he wanted to be able to swim in a river. He’d never done that as a kitten.”

And that was something that Ronan himself loved to do. To shift to his lion and swim the river that was just inside of their property line. It was something that he was sure that his ancestors did when lions. It was the most fun he’d had in a long time. Being a cop before meeting Brook, he didn’t get a lot of free time to get out and be himself. Or at least his other self. Ronan got up from his desk and went to find Rogue.

“Do you think this will be something that we can make work?” She asked him if he was willing to make a donation to the zoo. “Yes. I guess I should say a reasonable one, but Billy, nor for that matter, none of the kids have asked me for anything before, and I want to be there for her. For the lion as well.”

“The meeting has been moved to the morning. I was going to go find you and see if you could go with me tonight. Bring Brook. She will be able to make them see reason if you can’t.” He asked his sister-in-law if she meant Brook would make them do what they wanted. “I’m reasonably sure that you know the answer to that. She’s a hard ass, and she’ll make it happen when she’s passionate about something. However, even if they don’t ask, I think you and her should make a nice donation to the zoo for the preservation of the lions’ den. Hell, Ronan, you should just tell them what your plan is, and perhaps they’ll be on board with that too. I don’t know, but you can read their minds and see what they think.”

“You want this as well, don’t you?” She told him that she did. Not that she understood being a lion, but she could understand being boxed in and limited in what you could do. “Yes, I’ve been thinking about that as well. Like what would I do if I were trapped like that after having the freedom I have now.”

“All right then. We’ll leave as soon as Brook is ready to go. I’m hoping it’ll only be for one night, but who knows.” Rogue grinned at him. “At least we won’t have to travel with a lion in a commercial plane if we get him. Parker said that once you land here, she’d pop him to the ranch as soon as we’re on the strip to take off. I’m fucking excited to do this. I’m worried too but more excited.”

Ronan was as well. But he was terrified. So many things could go wrong, and he knew it more than anyone.