Running toward a better option in life, a lioness finds herself right in the tiger’s clutches.

Lee was raised to be subservient, but her soul was screaming in agony with every moment in her household. Her mother helps her escape to the Crossroads the very night her father begins proceedings to sell Lee to one of his companions as third wife in a pride.

She was unprepared for the dating scene and shocked by the mating scene at the Crossroads, but the moment she sees something wrong, her shock turns into action and she does what she has to do.

James watched the lioness in his bar, but despite her body being exactly his type her shy demeanour is a turnoff. He wants a woman who can hold her own with him, a woman who can stand at his side, not behind him. He is convinced that she is too timid for him until she follows two thugs out into the night and claws them bloody before they can attack their vulnerable target.

Watching her go from timid to ferocious, he has to reassess his first impression, and he has to admit, the claws are a bit of a turn on.

Excerpt:

“Leandiir, this is my friend, Carloth. He is looking for a third wife, and I have offered you as his mate.”

Shock rippled through Lee, and she had to fight to keep her inner lioness from ripping his throat out. “I am flattered.” Her voice was flat.

Carloth came up to her, and it took every ounce of self-control she had to not claw him open.

He circled her and touched her as if he had a right to. “A little more meat on you than I like, but since you are capable of working and bringing funds into my pride, I will overlook that. Yes, you will do fine.”

He pressed a kiss to her lips, and Lee jerked her head away from the slobbery contact.

Her father spoke up. “Not so fast, Carloth. You have to come up with the bride price, and my little Leandiir does not come cheap. Child, you may go to your room while we hash out the details.”

Trembling with suppressed rage, Leandiir passed her mother. Her mom grabbed her hand, and when she released her, there was a small card in Lee’s palm.

She walked up the stairs to her room, past her siblings who were arranged in the hall with their leonine ears perked to hear every detail. Eleven half siblings, they all looked at her with sorrow in their features as she passed. They would be next, one by one.

Lee sighed. Well, the girls would be able to finish school at least. The boys would be thrown out when they were eighteen minus one day.

In her room, she looked at the scrap of paper in her hand. A phone number. She walked to her bed and slid her hand under the pillow that carried her mother’s scent. Aha. The burner phone.

With calm deliberation, she dialled the number and waited while it rang. When a woman’s voice answered, “Hello?” Lee spoke quickly and quietly. “Hello, my name is Lee, and I need to find a mate…fast.”

“My name is Kris, is there somewhere we can meet?”

Lee thought about it for a moment and rattled off an address.

“Be there in two hours.” Kris hung up.