Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance) Read Online Free Page A

back.”
    She settled down on the floor beside him, stroking his ears. “Although you have to stop. He made one of his threats, Lyle did. Said if you ran away again he was going to take you away, whatever that means.”
    The lion lifted an eyebrow, or at least that’s what it looked like.
    “Do you understand me? Why does it always look like you know what I’m saying?”
    Cass stared at him for a second, and then laughed at herself. “Thank God I have the excuse that it’s barely past dawn and I’m hung-over. Otherwise I’d be certifiably batshit, sitting here and talking to a lion.”
    Lex licked her hand, his sandpaper tongue tugging slightly on her skin.
    “Anyway, it’s just as well he woke me up and you magically reappeared or whatever you did. We gotta get packed, get going. We’re supposed to hit the road before too long and I’d rather not have all the stuff fall off my shelves again.”
    *
    I t hadn’t been three hours before the noise outside her trailer got Cass thinking maybe something wasn’t quite normal. And then about thirty seconds after that, she realized that things were really out of hand when a brick came through her window.
    “Dick!” she snarled, climbing up on the bookcase she had bolted to the wall and looking out at a handful of sour looking, red-cheeked faces. “The hell do you think you’re doing?”
    “We’re gettin’ that lion,” one of them – she couldn’t remember the name that went with the face, but he was the largest of the men, wearing an unbuttoned plaid work shirt and loose-fitting Dickies. “I ain’t gonna have him roaming around at night, getting my kids or anything.”
    “Maybe you should send them to school?” Cass snarled back. “He never hurts anyone. Just mind your own way.”
    The problem though, was that she knew it was bad to have him getting out. Lyle was right, loathe as she was to admit it. It couldn’t possibly be good for business to have rumors of an escapee lion prowling the carnival grounds. So, she did the only thing she could – lie.
    “Lyle said if I kept him in from now on, nothing would happen. You gonna go against him?”
    As she watched the crowd, which had become a group of about seven by that point, she realized their faces were vacant, almost blank. “Lyle don’t like it when people go against his orders,” she said. Cass hated that when she got really mad, really drunk, or she panicked, her South came out when she spoke. Thankfully, none of those things happened very often.
    Another brick came, but this one thunked harmlessly off the matte green aluminum trailer and to the ground. “We’re takin’ him,” another of the faces said, in a weird, detached, placid sort of way. The taste of dirt and grit between her clenched teeth made Cass pull back into her trailer. She turned to Lex, who had stood and was creeping toward the trailer door, his head low and menacing, a growl deep in his chest.
    “Calm down,” Cass whispered. “I doubt killing them is going to be the best way to convince anyone you’re not dangerous.”
    At her words, Lex’s shoulders relaxed, though he stayed on his feet, alert and ready for whatever came his way.
    “Is he in there?” It was Lyle’s voice that time, cold and sober. “Nobody’s found him yet, so he must be. You come out first, Cass, and you won’t get hurt. Neither will he, unless he puts up a fight.”
    She opened the door, but left the screen with the chain lock in place. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
    The grin on Lyle’s face sickened her, just like his brown teeth and red cheeks. “Bad for business. Don’t you remember givin’ up your pay this week to feed the animals? Come on, little girl, don’t be stupid. People are scared of this cat. I’ll take him off, you can—”
    “Wait, hold on.” She put her feet solidly square on the ground. “You said if I found him first you’d leave him alone.”
    “Changed my mind. Get out of there or I’ll do it