Read Online Lions and Tigers and Bears by Kit Tunstall, Kate Steele, Jodi Lynn Copeland - Free Book Online

thoughts of crawling to her were forgotten.
    Liddy the woman was gone. Liddy the lioness stood before him, strong and graceful and brilliant white. Soulful dark eyes fixed on his and her mouth pulled back in a familiar smile.
    Kevin grinned back as understanding dawned. He should have known. No other woman had ever appealed to him the way Liddy did, just as no other lioness had ever appealed to him the way the white lioness he’d fucked the previous night did. The white lioness looking upon him now. “Sierra.”
    Balendin , she thought his feline name with an incline of her head. I didn’t know who you were. I thought… I felt so guilty about the other night. From the first time I saw you, something about you captivated me in a way no other lion ever had. Now I know why.
    And now he knew why he hadn’t been able to resist Sierra.
    Kevin shifted into his lion form, wanting to be both physically and emotionally as close to Liddy as possible. He went to her and nuzzled her neck, inhaled her scent. How could have he missed the connection? Regardless of her form, she was the same incredible Liddy. His Liddy.
    Joy pressed at his heart as he lapped a kiss at her mouth. I felt guilty, too. Like you I was drawn in. It was your eyes for me. Dark, soulful. I couldn’t place them before, but now I can. I was looking into Sierra’s eyes and seeing Liddy. My Liddy.
    She purred against his mouth. I want to be yours, Kevin. I want you to teach me. To show me everything. There’s so much I don’t know.
    His joy turned to curiosity as he recalled her saying only a few other shifters knew about her. Most shifters came from a line of the same. That Liddy hadn’t, could only mean she had been turned, clearly by a lion who hadn’t stuck around long enough to instruct her in their ways. How did you become this way? When?
    She brushed his mouth a last time and moved to look out the window. He’d purposefully surrounded his home with trees so no passersby could look inside and catch a glimpse of something they would fear.
    Six years ago, when I spent the summer interning with the sanctuary. Liddy’s thoughts came across quietly, as if it pained her to share them. I was studying the lions’ behavioral patterns when one of them went wild. It lunged at me, pinned me down. I was out back, too far for anyone to hear me screaming. Eventually someone came looking for me. They found me asleep. Seemingly untouched. And gave me a lecture about taking naps in the lion preserve.
    Kevin’s heart squeezed with hurt for her at the picture she painted. Poor Liddy. He had heard tales of the turning process and it sound painful and often unwanted. Had she wanted it? Did she regret it even now? No, she couldn’t. If she did, she wouldn’t be asking to learn more. But you weren’t untouched?
    No. The cat didn’t hurt me, just bit me and exchanged enough blood to turn me. At first I was fine, then little by little I started feeling sick. I figured out slowly why that was, what was missing from my diet. I had been a vegetarian up until then.
    Her thoughts had grown stronger as she shared, and he took that as the sign it would be okay to approach her. He moved to the window beside her and glanced over. It was hard to hang on to his sorrow for what she had gone through when he was looking at her, seeing her, his beautiful white lioness in his home. Remembering how amazing she’d felt in his arms, her body joining with his. He wanted that forever.
    You weren’t scared? he asked, fighting back the urge to declare his love here and now. He’d been falling for Liddy since the day they’d met, but as much as he knew how authentic that love was he wasn’t certain if she was ready to hear the words.
    I was scared of telling my family or pretty much anyone else, yes, but otherwise, no. I was happy, content in a way I’d never felt before. For the first time, I felt truly comfortable in my own skin. At least, behind closed doors.
    Some of Kevin’s happiness