Read Online Better Late Than Leopard (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Sunset Valley Book 2) by Alannah Blacke - Free Book Online

Better Late Than Leopard
    Ella screamed in terror at the sight before her.
    Charlie, her ex-boyfriend, was stumbling backwards, doing his best to fend off the wild leopard with a wicked looking hunting knife. The blade seemed to gleam in the light from the house as he waved it back in forth in front of him.
    The leopard paced him, taking a step forward for each step he took back. It was crouched down low, the lips pulled back to show off the huge, sharp teeth, ready to rend flesh from bone the moment they clamped down on something. The snarls and snaps came in a constant, unending stream.
    Her scream seemed to get through to both the animal and the leopard, with both turning their heads to stare at her, frozen mid-motion. If she had been scared before, what happened next left her speechless.
    The leopard stood up, altering its shape and size in seconds, beginning to resemble that of a man. A man she knew intimately.
    "Jake?" she asked breathlessly, her eyes and her mind telling her conflicting stories. Part of her was denying what she just saw, while the other half was telling her that it truly had happened the way she saw.
    "Whoa man, that's messed up. This dude just stood up from nowhere. And what happened to the dog?" Charlie was slurring his words, obviously in the middle of an epic drinking session. Ella had no time to deal with him, nor was she interested.
    "Go home Charlie. You aren't needed here, so go home and get some sleep," she snapped, pointing back up the street.
    "How did you get here anyways?"
    "Cab. Now, can we go home?" he replied, completely nonplussed with the way she was treating him or her tone of voice. Snorting in disbelief at how she once thought she loved him, Ella pointed again back up the driveway. At that last, he turned and began to walk away, the knife falling out of his now listless grip. If Ella had been in the right frame of mind, she would have questioned how easy it was to get him to go.
    Once he was out of sight, Ella turned her attention back to Jake. He looked up at her and began to open his mouth.
    "No," she said, fuming over his lies and terrified of what she had seen. "Just stay outside while my friend comes to get me, okay? I can't deal with this right now."
    She slammed the door in his face, locking it behind her. She knew he had keys, but if he respected her at all, he would stay there until she could leave and not try to force himself upon her. Right now she couldn't deal with this revelation and having to explain her ex-boyfriends presence as well. Ella was just too embarrassed and shocked by everything to have a coherent conversation about it.
    Lucy didn't pick up the first time, but answered the phone just as it was about to go to voicemail the second time.
    "Hello?" she said, her voice bleary, as if she had been asleep. With a start of surprise, Ella looked over at the clock, realizing just how late it was.
    "Listen, Luce, it's El, I'm so sorry but I need you to come back and get me." Lucy had dropped her off, because Ella's car was in the shop. She hadn't planned on needing a ride anywhere, for her and Jake had discussed her spending the night and him showing her his shop tomorrow. It seemed like that was now out of the question and she was in need of a way out.
    "What? Why?"
    "I'll tell you on the way home. Suffice it to say, things were not what they appeared. Please Lucy, I need this." It was rare that Ella actually asked for help, which made the fact that she was doing so now more urgent to her friend. Judging by the change in her voice, the point had gotten through.
    "I understand. I'm on my way."
    Ella hung up the phone and began to pace through the house. It would be half an hour at least before Lucy could be expected to be here. It felt so awkward to know that just outside the door Jake was sitting there, wondering what was going on. She contemplated going to talk with him, to try and understand what the heck she had witnessed.
    She just couldn't though. Whether it was