Authors: Harmony Raines
Tags: #General Fiction
Fighting A Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shape Shifter Romance (Sleeping Lions - Shifters Prime Book 3)
Fighting the Lion
Sleeping Lions
(Book Three)
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Note from the author: My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.
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All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2016 Harmony Raines
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Misty has been released from her contract early, something she doesn’t question, until she glimpses the other side of Darius. In that moment, she understands he is a shifter too, stuck on the wrong side of the border. Only when she is kidnapped, does she realise the lengths other people will go to to discover the secret of the man who has kept her safe for the last two years.
Kieran is a cage fighter. And he’s good at it. So good that no one has ever beaten him, and despite knowing he is a shifter freak, he enjoys the rewards that come with his job. Until Misty enters his life, and he realises she is his mate. Now he is about to throw everything away to rescue her, and take her to safety across the border to Shifters Prime.
A place he swore he would never go.
Because Kieran was brought up to fear the Prime. But he soon realises, it’s time to face his past, and his future, and this is one fight he cannot afford to lose.
“Here, I think this covers what I owe you,” Misty said.
Pedro took the notes from her, checking them quickly, before putting them in his pocket. “It does. Although I didn’t expect all of it today.”
“I thought I’d better pay you off, and thank you for getting me the things I needed,” Misty said, her voice trembling a little with excitement.
“Why is that?” Pedro, tall, dark-haired, obviously from a southern European heritage, kept his voice light and inquisitive, but she knew he was the kind of man who gathered information and used it for his own ends. However, she could see no reason to not share her news with him.
“I’m going home.” The words seemed almost sweet on her tongue. She wanted to savour them, let them linger in her brain.
“I thought you had another two weeks to work out your contract?” He pretended to look preoccupied, but she could feel the strength of his gaze on her. Pedro was a fox, sly, cunning and until now her friend. But Misty got the feeling that was just a mask he wore, the charming shifter who helped others out, got them their contraband, and listened to their woes: but really he had another agenda, one completely of his own.
“I might be able to pay it off sooner,” she lied. In truth, Darius had told her he would waive the last of the money her family owed, and arrange for her to go back to the Prime within the next few days.
As Pedro’s eyes bored into her, she wished she hadn’t felt so damn obliged to pay the guy what she owed him. Or tell him why she was settling her account. She should have lied.
“Lucky you,” he said, his face breaking into a smile. “Your family will be pleased and relieved to see you.”
She relaxed. Maybe she had got it wrong, misread the situation. “Yes, I’m going to surprise them.”
“Look, I have to go. But really, I am so pleased for you, Misty.” He came to her and hugged her briefly, something that kind of made her skin crawl, but then he was a predator and she was a prey animal, a thing she could pick up on, even with this collar around her neck. So perhaps it was natural he made her feel this way.
“Goodbye, Pedro, and thanks again.” She figured it was time to get as far away from Pedro as she could.
“Bye.” He stood and watched her for a few seconds. Her other side, her horse, gave her the ability to be aware of things behind her, it was weird, but something she had learned when she was a child. Other shifters had enhanced hearing or smell, but hers was to literally have eyes in the back of her head.
Heading along the road, she cut through a lane and then over a gate. Her horse was desperate to run through the grass, but the silver collar around her neck prevented her from changing.
Soon
, she promised, and a distant neigh told her the horse couldn’t wait to gallop over the hills and far away. Misty smiled. For months she had not been able to feel the presence of her other side, but the news that they were going home had awoken the silver mare, and sometimes, when she was half asleep, she had caught glimpses of the once-proud mare, and tears had spilled onto her pillow.
Walking quickly, she headed towards the big house in the distance; the mansion she had called home for nearly two years. Misty knew she had been lucky to work for Darius; he was a good man, and she might have easily ended up in a factory, or a sweatshop, working sixteen hours a day with only food and shelter provided. Why he’d chosen to help her, she didn’t know, and soon it wouldn’t matter.
Yet something niggled at her about him. He had changed over the last couple of weeks, since his nephew had gone on a business trip to the Prime. He had become quieter. Even the cook noticed he was off his food, and rumours were beginning to spread.
Gossip. That’s all it was.
Going in through the back door, she crossed the kitchen, picking up the tray of food which was ready to be served, ignoring the critical glance of the cook and her mumbled complaint that the food would be cold. Misty no longer took any notice.
She was going home
. With a small smile, she headed up to the dining room, where Darius was waiting.
“Put it there, Misty.” He looked at her, watching her move as she came in. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else I can get you?” she asked.
“No. Thank you.” He moved towards the table, and she edged towards the door. Every time she saw him, she was half afraid he would change his mind, tell her he had made a mistake and make her work out the rest of her contract. “Are you all ready to leave? If you are, you can go tomorrow.”
“So soon,” she asked, her voice breathy like an excited schoolgirl. Misty cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m ready, thank you.”
“Good. Well, I’m heading into the city. If you accompany me, the driver can drop me off, and then take you to the border.”
“Are you sure? It’s no trouble for me to catch the bus.” She had just enough money left over to afford the bus fare. A taxicab would have been better, but it was too expensive.
“No, no trouble, I would rather know you are safe. I’d actually escort you, but I’m sure it would cause tongues to wag.” He smiled weakly, and she knew the gossip had reached his ears.
“I understand. And can I just say again how happy I am to be going home.” She had her hand on the doorknob, twisting it, wanting to leave.
“I envy you.” He turned to look at her, really look, and in that instant she understood. A gasp escaped her mouth, and her hand didn’t get there quick enough to smother it.
“How do you…?”
“With great pain.” He smiled, the saddest sight she had ever seen.
“May we meet again.” Her voice was a whisper on the air.
“In a better place.” He nodded, and she opened the door and slipped out, her heart hammering as if there was a pride of lions on her back, instead of just one forlorn lion sitting on his own, a hundred miles from home.
For Misty, all the pieces began to slot together. And she knew now, beyond any doubt, that her friend Amara and Darius’s nephew Kane were never coming back. They had escaped back to Shifters Prime. More than that, the gossip about Darius was true. He was a shifter, and his days over here, amongst humans, were numbered.
Once word got out, he would lose everything, his home, his business, because shifters were not allowed to own anything outside of the Prime.
As she went through the motions of her last night in the mansion, she worried how desperate the situation was, and surmised that it must be bad, and that was why he was sending her home early. And she was thankful to him, more than he would ever know.
The next morning, she sat, her eyes sore from lack of sleep, in the front seat of Darius’s car, her mouth tightly shut, her eyes focused on the road ahead, not daring to even think of the big, caged predator in the seat behind her. When they dropped him off, she said goodbye, keeping her eyes lowered so she didn’t have to see that pain again, and when they drove off, heading to the border, she was so relieved she felt as if she were having an out-of-body experience.
But as they turned off the highway, heading out towards the border, a car slammed into them and they came to a sliding halt. Dazed, she looked up, trying to make sense of what was happening and thinking how she would need to take the bus after all.
Then a hood slid over her head, and hands pulled away the dented metal of her door. Half dragging, half carrying her, she was put into another car, and as it sped away, she had the terrible feeling that she might never see the Prime again.