TAMING THE LION
By
Natalie Kristen
BEAR HEAT series
Bear's Bride (Book 1)
Bear's Kiss (Book 2)
Bear's Claim (Book 3)
Bear's Baby (Book 4)
Bear's Heart (Book 5)
GRAY BEARS series
Marrying The Bear (Book 1)
Loving The Bear (Book 2)
Mating The Bear (Book 3)
Tempting The Bear (Book 4)
Taming The Lion (Book 5)
Copyright © 2015 Natalie Kristen
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the author's written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
About this Book
Winston Knight is a lion shifter and the Sheriff of Shadow Point. He serves and protects the small town, and he has his life in order. A strong, sexy man in uniform has his share of female admirers but his lion has never wanted to claim a mate.
But when a brave, beautiful woman careens into his life, Winston realizes that he has found his mate in this curvy, lion-hearted human.
Kaylee Wright has just crashed out of another disastrous relationship. She is moving on, moving away, again. Driving headlong into danger to save a woman's life, Kaylee never imagined that the near-fatal crash would be the turning point in her life.
For so long, Kaylee has been looking for love in all the wrong places.
But here in this small town, Kaylee feels that she has finally come home.
Happily-ever-after might just happen to her after all.
She just has to stay and fight for it…
* * * * *
CHAPTER ONE
Kaylee Wright stood at the doorway of her bedroom with a cardboard box in her hands. The box contained a large coffee mug, two packs of tissues, a pencil case, some paper clips and a framed photograph of two happy faces.
The photo was taken not too long ago. Kaylee glanced down at the photo of her and Beckett, and felt as though she were staring at a photograph of two strangers. I look happy in the photo, Kaylee mused dispassionately and disconnectedly.
She raised her eyes back up to the bed. Beckett was going at it like a turbo thruster. The bed creaked as the headboard hammered the wall in time to the action. Beckett was grunting and groaning as he nailed the skinny brunette from behind. The woman was the exact opposite of her. Thin, tanned and dark-haired. Kaylee was curvy, pale and blond.
Kaylee couldn't see the woman's face from under her thick tangle of hair, but from the noise she was making, she was enjoying what Beckett was doing to her. Either that or she was really good at faking it.
Kaylee watched the fucking couple for another half a minute. Then she simply let the box in her hands drop to the floor with a deafening crash.
The noise and movement stopped immediately. Beckett and the woman froze and twisted towards the door with identical open-mouthed expressions.
It was almost comical, if Kaylee had been in the mood to laugh. But she didn't feel like laughing. She felt like crying, but now wasn't the time.
It was the wrong time, wrong place, and wrong...life.
“Don't mind me,” Kaylee said in a numb, nonchalant voice as she went to the side of the cupboard and pulled out her suitcase. Opening the cupboard, she began to throw her clothes into the suitcase.
“K-Kaylee...”
She didn't even turn around. She pulled out the drawer and upended it, emptying the contents into her suitcase. “Please, don't stop on my account,” she muttered, as she snapped her suitcase shut and turned to glance at the cardboard box lying on its side at the foot of the bed.
She had just cleared her little cubicle out this morning. The company was downsizing and the data entry clerks were the first to go.
This was the mother of all Mondays.
She had gone to work as usual this morning, and before noon, she was walking out of the office with a small cardboard box and her last paycheck. She thought she would go home, put away her things and go down to Beckett's office. She would just surprise him and see if he was free to have lunch with her. He was a financial adviser and he told her that he had many client meetings and lunches. But she thought maybe, just maybe, he could spare half an hour to have lunch with her today.
Kaylee stood and dusted off her hands. She surprised herself when she managed to smile as she turned to face the bed.
Beckett had wrapped the covers around his waist and was kneeling on the mattress, staring at her with a mixture of disbelief, shock, shame and outrage.
Kaylee stared coolly at her boyfriend. Beckett hadn't even bothered to jump out of bed and come to her. The woman was huddled at the far corner of the bed, her face turned away and partially hidden by a pillow. Kaylee didn't bother with her. She was just a faceless, nameless female, someone her boyfriend was screwing behind her back. She was probably not the only one. Maybe this woman was just one of Beckett's many “clients” who needed “personal financial advice”.
Kaylee put the house keys on the bedside table and pulled her suitcase to the door. She stepped over the spilled contents of the cardboard box and stumbled out of the bedroom. A spiderweb of cracks appeared on the glass of the photo frame when her suitcase rolled over it.
“Kaylee! What the hell…!”
She didn't look back. There was no point in looking back.
Kaylee thumped her suitcase down the front steps of Beckett's single-story house and stuffed her worldly belongings into the backseat of her small, second-hand Nissan.
The little car shuddered as she got in and slammed the door. She had to turn the ignition thrice before the engine finally spluttered to life.
Kaylee glanced in the rear view mirror as she drove away. She saw Beckett running down the front steps in his sweatpants. But that was as far as he got.
He didn't run down the street after her. He didn't run hard after her car. Beckett didn't chase her at all.
He simply stood in front of his house and watched her go.
CHAPTER TWO
Kaylee forced herself to relax her grip on the steering wheel. Strangling the steering wheel wasn't going to make her feel better.
As she drove on, she found herself growing angrier and angrier. But her anger at Beckett didn't last all that long. Her anger kept growing, but the person she was really angry at was herself.
She had made some bad choices and he was just the last douchebag in a long string of bad boyfriends.
How could she be so stupid and blind? And why did she keeping getting into relationships which were bad for her heart, her sanity and her self-esteem? Her parents would be so ashamed of her.
Her parents had passed away when she was eighteen. They were loving and kind, and they sheltered and indulged her perhaps a little too much. She missed them so much.
After they died, she just lost her focus and direction. She flitted from job to job, and from one disastrous relationship to another.
Just what the hell was she doing with her life?
She was twenty-nine years old, jobless, currently homeless and driving aimlessly along the highway of her life.
Kaylee choked out a mirthless laugh.
Yeah,
this highway did remind her of her life. It was lonely and deserted, with unwieldy weeds growing along the sides. She was just zooming purposelessly down the road, with no specific destination in mind. She just wanted to get away, but she had no idea where she was going.
Kaylee blew out a breath. She shouldn't have allowed herself to drift after her parents died. She was lonely and depressed, and she just kept jumping into pointless, unfulfilling relationships. She had to break out of this vicious circle. No more bad relationships for her. She seemed to attract bad boys and cheaters into her life.
No more, Kaylee told herself. She wasn't a sucker for heartbreak and pain.
“I wish I could meet a good man and live happily ever after with him,” Kaylee said to her reflection. She laughed out loud. Her wish sounded silly and ridiculous even to her own ears.
She was too old to believe in fairy tales. She was no princess and she sure wasn't riding into the sunset with her white knight.
Kaylee squinted at the road sign at the side of the highway. The next town that was coming up was Shadow Point.
She gasped. Just how far had she driven?
Gulping, she eased her foot off the pedal and slowed down.
Shadow Point. The name of the town sounded familiar.
Was this where her grandaunt Neveah lived?
She had lost touch with her grandaunt over the years. She had moved so much, so often, never staying in a place, a job or a relationship for more than a year. She'd thought that she and Beckett were going to make it. They had just made it past the one year mark, but she realized now that he had probably been cheating on her for the past six months. The signs had been there, but she just didn't want to see the truth.
Kaylee shook her head and tried to focus.
The last time she saw her grandaunt was at her parents' funeral. Grandaunt Neveah had wanted Kaylee to come live with her, but Kaylee had refused. At that time, she was living with someone, someone she thought she would eventually marry and have kids with. But that relationship had gone up in smoke. So had all the others that came after that.
Gradually she'd lost touch with her grandaunt.
Kaylee winced and released a long, slow sigh.
The truth was, she had lost touch with herself. She felt so empty and sad after her parents died, and she kept looking for something, someone to fill the void in her heart.
She was looking for love, she realized, but she kept looking in all the wrong places.
Well, it was time to stop looking. She would stop looking and start living. She would look for her grandaunt and try to reconnect with her. Her grandaunt Neveah was family yet she had pushed her out of her life. Kaylee swallowed hard. She had a lot to make up for.
Kaylee wondered if her grandaunt would remember or recognize her.
If she remembered correctly, Grandaunt Neveah ran a small inn in Shadow Point. Now what was the name of the inn?
Boomerang Inn? Baseball Bat Inn?
The name had something to do with a wooden item or a household item…
Broomstick Inn!
Yes, that's right. Kaylee let out a short laugh as she slapped her palm to her forehead. “Of course! Broomsticks and witches!”
Her grandaunt was a witch. Kaylee's great-grandmother was a witch, but magic was only passed down to the daughters, not the sons, of a witch. Kaylee's grandfather, who was Neveah's elder brother, married a human woman, and their only son also married a human woman. Kaylee was thus fully human, with not a trace of magic in her blood.
Kaylee took a deep breath and turned out of the highway. She headed towards the small town, feeling nervous and hopeful.
She had never been to Shadow Point, but for some inexplicable reason, she had the strangest feeling that she was heading home.
CHAPTER THREE
Kaylee leaned forward and peered through her windscreen. The city she had just left wasn't a big city. It was a small, relatively quiet little city, but compared to Shadow Point, that small city seemed big and bustling.
There were low buildings at the periphery of Shadow Point, but not a light was on in the windows. Everywhere was just dark and silent. All the shops were closed and the few cars lining the streets sat still and brooding under the dim street lamps.
She was at the very edge of the small town, and it seemed not many people lived out here. Maybe things would get livelier when she got to the center of the town. Perhaps a pub or two would be open, and she would actually see some people around, not just shadows.
Kaylee was about to turn the corner when she caught a movement on the other side of the street.
She stopped the car and stared at the door of a small shop. She thought she saw it open and shut just a moment ago. And she thought she saw a hand gripping the edge of the door.
Keeping her eyes on the door of the shop, Kaylee got out of her car slowly. She gasped when the shop door opened suddenly and a man stormed out. The man was stocky with greasy black hair, and he was dragging a woman out of the shop.
The poor woman looked dazed and there was blood trickling down the side of her face. She struggled feebly and made frightened, whimpering sounds.
“Help,” she managed to cry out as the man muscled her into the backseat of a dented car.
Kaylee scrambled across the road, yelling, “Hey! Stop! Let her go! What do you think you're doing? Help!”
The man glared at her and growled as he leaped into the driver's seat. The car roared to life and Kaylee met the man's glowing yellow eyes just as he gunned the car at her.
She screamed and managed to twist out of the way just in time. Rolling on the ground, she pushed herself up and saw the car veer sharply away from the curb and hurtle down the dark street.
Kaylee ran to her car and floored the accelerator. She narrowed her eyes and sped after the escaping car.
She couldn't let him get away. There was a helpless, innocent woman in the car. Kaylee was the only one who'd heard her cry for help. There was no one else around.
Kaylee gritted her teeth and glanced down at her phone on the passenger seat. Should she call the local police? She made a strangled sound in her throat and cursed as she righted her car in a hurry. She had almost run down a trash can. If she didn't keep her eyes on the road, she would end up wrapping her car round a tree or a lamp post.
No time to dial the police. A pulse-pounding, bone-rattling high-speed chase was underway. This was the highest speed her car had ever done. She was pushing her little car way past its limit and she was sure that one of them was going to suffer a heart attack soon.
“Come one, come on,” she urged her car and herself. Her car shook with excitement and exhaustion. Or maybe just with exhaustion.
But Kaylee refused to take her foot off the accelerator. She was gaining on him. She could stop him!
“You're not getting away,” she hissed and stomped hard on the gas.
With its last wheezing breath, her car managed a final spurt of speed and flew forward.
She plowed into the back of the fleeing car and the two vehicles skidded towards a large tree.
Kaylee heard a deafening crash and when she lifted her head, she saw a huge, black wolf smashing through the windscreen of the car in front. The wolf turned and fixed its glowing yellow eyes on her.
Kaylee recognized those eyes.
“You...” she whispered.
The man was a wolf shifter. Kaylee swallowed the blood in her mouth as the wolf bared its fangs at her. When she blinked again, the wolf was gone. It had escaped into the night.
“Shit, shit! Where is she?” Kaylee swore as she tried to free herself from the wreckage. Was the woman still in the car? Was she alive? Kaylee had wanted to save her, but had she killed her instead?
Thick, crimson droplets clung to her eyelashes. Kaylee jerked at the handle of her car door but the door wouldn't open. It was jammed.
The big red drops continued dripping down her face. She looked up at the sma
shed up car in front and glimpsed a hand slapping weakly against the back window.
The woman was alive.
Alive but trapped, just like her.
CHAPTER FOUR
Winston Knight flicked on the siren of his Sheriff's cruiser and sped to the scene of the accident. He arrived at the same time as the ambulance and saw that a small crowd had gathered round the wreckage.
A motorist had come across the two smashed-up cars and called the Sheriff's Department immediately. Two of his deputies were already at the scene.
Winston watched the paramedics load the two injured women into the back of the ambulance with quick, practiced movements. Winston recognized one of the women. Lorni Jones, a young widow who ran her late husband's hardware store, Nuts and Bolts. Her curly black hair was matted with blood and Winston saw claw marks down her arm. Those weren't caused by the accident. Lorni had been attacked prior to the accident.
Winston didn't recognize the other young woman. As the Sheriff of Shadow Point, he knew almost everyone in town. He had either helped them, arrested them or issued them a ticket or a warning at some point in their lives.
But he had never seen this young woman. He would definitely remember her if he had met her before. She was blond, curvy and she had the most brilliant blue eyes. Her eyes had fluttered open briefly while the paramedics carted her away and she had looked right at him.
His eyes flashed feral for an instant as his lion rose and stared right back at those electrifying blue eyes.
His lion wanted to go after the speeding ambulance. It wanted to get closer to that pretty, blond female but Winston forced his lusty beast down. He had work to do.
He would go see the two women later, but now, he had to see what his deputies had gathered.
His deputies, Aidan Gray and Rico Garcia, nodded at him as he approached.
Taming The Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance (Gray Bears Book 5) Page 1
