Riding back, you opted to stick with Leah and Terry, Rudy tagging along with you and equally happy not to be squished in between a bunch of churning stomachs in the back of your aunt’s SUV. And bit by bit, you were finally getting to know Terry, drawing him out of his shell now that you were away from your more predatory family members. Less Leah. Though bewilderingly, Terry didn’t seem afraid of Leah. From what he’s told you, he’d spent several years looking over his shoulder, utterly terrified that he’s see Leah’s gaping jaws just behind him.
Instead of ending up in her stomach, he wound up in a collar and leash. The way your cousin told it, she’d thought he was cute, and surprisingly brave for such a skinny male. He’s thrown a slushy in her face four years ago when she’d tried to eat him, and she’d been startled into letting him go. She’d chased after him, intent on dragging out his digestion, but he’d gotten away. So Leah had made it her mission to hunt, devour, and digest every friend and acquaintance he had… which sounded like it should have given Terry plenty of reason to fear your cousin.
Apparently it had, but at some point Leah had grown fond of Terry and had just enjoyed chasing him and teasing him too much to stop.
It was a side of your cousin you hadn’t seen before. You were so used to Leah being an alpha pred that you mostly just thought of her as a digestive tract with legs. Learning that she’d spared you without you even knowing it, and seeing how protective she was of Terry, you couldn’t think of Leah as just a man-eater anymore. Of course, she was still capable of incredible cruelty. She had made it a point to eat Terry’s friends. And he’d probably seen more people he knew shat out of her ass than anyone else ever had.
