Read Online Fighting A Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shape Shifter Romance (Sleeping Lions - Shifters Prime Book 3) by Harmony Raines - Free Book Online

as we go along, it’s how I’ve always lived my life.” He began walking and she followed. “And I see no reason to change now. Do some work, get paid in food and lodging, that’s how I’ve always lived.”
    “But where are we going?” She thought over what the old guy had said, and knew if Darius had wanted her to meet up with Frasier, it was important. But Kieran had his own ideas.
    “I thought you wanted to go to your herd.”
    “I do.” Desperately, with all her heart, she wanted to see her family again. And yet there was something nagging at her brain, as if she were missing something. “But it can wait. I think this is important. What if Darius is in trouble and he was trying to get me to take a message to Fraser?”
    “What, you owe him now your contract is paid off? You worked for him, don’t act as if he is your friend.”
    “But I do owe him, he looked after me, I could have ended up goodness knows where. So many of us end up in factories, made to work sixteen hours a day just for food on our plates and somewhere dry to sleep. No one does us any favours over there.”
    “Do you think I don’t know that?” He turned back towards her, his face clouded in memories. “You might think I had it easy, that all I had to do was punch a few people to survive. But I knew every time I entered that cage that there was a chance I would never walk out of it, never even crawl out of it. I took advantage of what Lance gave me. But don’t think I had it easy, don’t think I actually enjoyed it.”
    His mood had changed, he was closing up on her, and she couldn’t let that happen. “And does no part of you want to find out exactly who you are? To find out who was trying to hurt you when you were younger? This Philippe, he took you from here; he kept you safe and taught you to be afraid. He wouldn’t have done that without a reason, and now you’re back you should want to find out.”
    “Well, I don’t.” His face was set and she could tell he had made his mind up. For whatever reason, he wanted to shut out his past, but his past now affected her and it would affect their children. You couldn’t hide from it, but that was exactly what Kieran had been doing all his life, and he was too scared to change. Not that she was about to point that out to him. He was in a fragile place mentally; all his demons were gathering, pushing in on him.
    “Then do it for me.”
    “For you?” He almost sneered as he said the words.
    “Yes, me, your mate, remember?” she asked crossly.
    He didn’t stop. He just walked away and that made her so angry. He might be scared, but it did not give him the right to treat her like dirt.
    Right now, she really did want to go horse and trample on his big, fat, arrogant head. Or maybe just kick some sense into him.
     

Chapter Twelve – Kieran
     
    He walked off, leaving her fuming; she probably wished she had let Lance kill him. He had hurt her, but he couldn’t help it, he was that little boy again, the one who had been brought up to be careful, to be scared, to fear that which he didn’t know.
    The same little boy who was still inside him and always would be. Maybe if he did find out why Philippe had taken him across the border, it might one day be free.
    Alternatively, his fear might be the thing keeping him alive. What had Philippe told him? Don’t ask questions; don’t stir up the past.
    She walked after him; he could hear her anger in every step, but he wasn’t going to turn around and tell her it was okay, because it wasn’t. She kept dangling this mate thing over his head, but in all reality he didn’t really feel it. Not now. It had gone.
    When she was in danger, the feelings he had for her were strong, his need to help her and keep her safe all-consuming. But now they were walking across the grasslands that led deeper into the Prime, it was almost as if the connection between them had gone.
    “Hey, wait,” she said running to catch up with him. “You know what