Living a Lion: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Sleeping Lions - Shifters Prime Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Forward

  Chapter One – Kane

  Chapter Two – Amara

  Chapter Three – Kane

  Chapter Four – Amara

  Chapter Five – Kane

  Chapter Six – Amara

  Chapter Seven – Kane

  Chapter Eight – Amara

  Chapter Nine – Kane

  Chapter Ten – Amara

  Chapter Eleven – Kane

  Chapter Twelve – Amara

  Chapter Thirteen – Kane

  Chapter Fourteen – Amara

  Chapter Fifteen – Kane

  Chapter Sixteen – Amara

  Chapter Seventeen – Kane

  Chapter Eighteen – Amara

  Chapter Nineteen – Kane

  Chapter Twenty – Amara

  Chapter Twenty-One – Kane

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Amara

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Kane

  Chapter Twenty-Four – Amara

  Chapter Twenty-Five – Kane

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Amara

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Kane

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Amara

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Kane

  Chapter Thirty – Amara

  Chapter Thirty-One – Kane

  Also By Harmony Raines

  Living a Lion

  Sleeping Lions

  (Shifters Prime Book One)

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  Note from the author: My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.

  ***

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2016 Harmony Raines

  Silver Moon Erotica

  Kindle Edition

  Forward

  Kane has been lied to his whole life. As the nephew of Darius Reinier, he thought he knew his place in the world, rich, eligible, he had his whole future mapped out. And then he finds out he is one of them. A shifter.

  Does he still have a choice? Can’t he just hide from who he really is? Carry on as if the moon doesn’t call to him, doesn’t make him want to rip the flesh from his body and turn into … what? What is he?

  She has the answers. Amara. Beautiful, curvy, dangerous. She will turn his world upside down, and also make it whole. If he can only find the strength to let go of his past and embrace his future. To become who he is supposed to be.

  After a bitter war, the world is split, shifters live on one side of the border, humans on the other. Any shifter who enters the human world must where a collar, silver threaded with copper, to stop the chemical reaction triggering the change. They can own no property, and can never be treated as equals.

  This is the world Amara finds herself in when she has to pay off her father’s debt. Despite having to wear the collar that keeps her lioness a shadow in her mind, she counts herself lucky, when her contract is bought by Darius Reinier. Her job working in his mansion is easy enough … until the moon beckons and she is thrust into the life of Kane Reinier.

  But as she learns about Kane, she knows she has to help him, not least because it means she will be able to go back home to Shifters Prime, but because he happens to be her mate. Although he has no idea.

  Can these two strangers learn to live together, will Kane master the beast that lives within him, and can he find the strength to avenge his past? Find out in Living a Lion.

  Chapter One – Kane

  Kane glanced up at the moon. It was full, a thing that stirred his blood more often these days. Each month, the pull of it grew stronger, irresistible to the blood that pumped through his veins. It was why he was out here now, letting the silver rays caress his skin. It shone down on his face and bare forearms, leaving him with the desire to strip his clothes off and let it bathe his whole body in its luminescent beams.

  He chuckled to himself. Wouldn’t that give the paparazzi a picture to sell to the papers?

  As the nephew, and heir, of one of the most powerful businessmen in the human world, he would be plastered all over the front pages of the daily papers, and the Internet too. It would certainly make him trend on social media, for all the wrong reasons.

  Instead he had contented himself with coming out here, to the far side of the ornamental lake which stood in front of his uncle’s mansion, and sit in solitude. Here he could allow the moon’s pull to consume him, away from the scrutiny of the staff who worked at the house. This was his time, and he didn’t want to share it with anyone, because it was only at times like this that he felt truly alive.

  However, it also saddened him. As the pull got stronger, he had given up all thoughts of ever settling down with a woman. How could he explain disappearing off for one or two nights a month to sit under the open skies?

  No, he had made up his mind: he was going to live his life a bachelor. He would take women to his bed, but never let them in his heart. A family trait, it seemed; the same blood pumped through his uncle’s veins. His uncle, Darius, the man who had raised his nephew on his own.

  Kane had never been able to work out why he had never married. Rich, good looking and with a charismatic smile, Darius was an eligible bachelor many women had tried to ensnare, and yet none had been able to. Was the moon to blame for his uncle’s solitary life too? Or was it Kane’s fault, the responsibility of raising his brother’s child having weighed too heavily on his shoulders.

  He pushed away his melancholy thoughts. Tonight the air was warm, and the breeze on his face was soft as a woman’s touch. If only he could find a woman who felt the same as him, it would be the perfect time to lay her down on the grass and make love to her with the moon’s rays shining its light on her pale skin.

  His rising pulse made his cock harden. Damn, he was going to have to stop thinking like that or he would end up driving into the city and picking up a woman and taking her to the nearest hotel so he could indulge himself in the most base of carnal pleasures.

  Just because he had decided on no relationships, didn’t mean he was about to become a monk.

  A muffled sound caught his attention. There was someone else here. Maybe he had disturbed someone. A member of staff, or maybe two, who had the same idea as him and come out here to make out under the stars.

  “Who’s there?” he called.

  Silence. He lifted his head and breathed in. All his senses were heightened when the moon was full, it was something he couldn’t explain. Now he used it to his advantage.

  Perfume. A woman. He took another draw of the air and couldn’t scent a man’s cologne. Opening his mouth slightly, he drew the scent in over his taste buds, not knowing why, but it helped. Unusually, he recognised the scent, but couldn’t work out why his brain had even registered the woman.

  She was one of the shifters who lived in Shifters Prime, on the other side of the border. His uncle sometimes took them on to do work around the mansion. Darius had employed her on contract, meaning her family owed money and
she was here to work it off.

  Or sell her story to the press about the disgustingly rich Reinier family. That would be enough to set her family up for life. He wondered why his uncle was so charitable to their kind.

  “Come out. I know who you are. And unless you want me to tell my uncle to pass your contract on, I want to see your face and know what you are doing here.” He spoke with the air of a rich and privileged man, because that was what he was.

  A movement. He caught the scent of jasmine on the air as she brushed past the shrub, and then she was there, her body a silhouette, until the moon caught her in its caress and made her look as though she were a creature from another world.

  She is, he reminded himself.

  “What are you doing out here?” he asked, playing the master to her servant to its utmost extreme. This was who he was, he reminded himself.

  “I wanted to be alone,” she said, standing before him, all voluptuous curves: ripe, beautiful, and out of his reach.

  “Do you have permission?” he asked.

  “Permission?” She smiled, a sadness in her voice. “No. I don’t have permission. I didn’t realise I had to ask for permission to walk in the grounds. I apologise.”

  She moved to walk past him, her head down, avoiding his gaze. And he should have let her go, but as he watched her, her eyes lifted up to the silvery moon, and he saw his own fascination—no, addiction—mirrored.

  In that moment he was no longer the rich nephew of Darius Reinier. In that moment he was lost.

  Chapter Two – Amara

  “Wait,” he said, and she froze.

  Amara had been here for a month. This was her first moon with this damn collar around her neck and she wanted to sit and cry, or fight like a hellcat to get it off. It was why she had come out here to be alone. To keep herself out of trouble.

  It would get easier, Misty, one of the other shifters had told her. But Amara knew it would only get easier if she allowed a part of herself to die. Little by little, her true identity would be erased and she would be left hollow.

  So when she was commanded to stop by Kane Reinier, she found herself clenching her fists, her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands, as she fought to keep her tongue under control.

  In truth she was also scared, although she would never admit that. A lioness was never scared, but here, outside of the Prime, she was out of her comfort zone. The collar, made of pure silver, absorbed the messages her brain sent to her body, telling it to shift from human to lion.

  Her lioness was a caged animal, and Amara was vulnerable. Vulnerable to this man, who had a reputation of being a man-whore. Always a woman in his bed, but never for more than one night. Was that what he was going to demand of her now? That she provide a service to him, to make up for daring to trespass on his precious lawn?

  He came towards her, and she tried in vain to stop her heart from pounding in her chest. Keep calm, don’t let him know you are afraid.

  “Is there something I can do for you, sir?” she asked, immediately cursing herself for using such a leading question.

  “Yes.” His answer was blunt, the look in his eyes saying more. His pupils were dilated; he was aroused. Damn it. He was probably going to demand she submit to him here on the lawn in front of his mansion. Proving himself a man, the lord of his domain. Well, his uncle’s domain anyway.

  The little lord, being schooled to one day take over his uncle’s empire. This man before her had never known hardship, never known loss; all he had to do was be a good boy and one day he would take control of the Reinier Corporation.

  “Whatever it is, I can go back to the house and fetch it for you.” She turned to walk away, not hurrying. Just walking at a quick, steady pace.

  “No. I want you to stay here.”

  “I thought you wanted me to get off your lawn,” she said, and kept walking.

  “Stop,” he growled and she obeyed. She knew a command when she heard it. This would take some talking her way out of.

  She stopped, turning back to face him, her chin tilting up, needing to show him, despite her rapidly beating heart, that she was not afraid. He could not bully her into doing something she didn’t want to do. But the collar around her neck seemed to close off the air to her lungs, as if reminding her he was completely and utterly in charge of her life.

  “Walk with me,” he said and turned to walk back towards the lake. This was not looking good. The further away from the house they went, the more chance there would be of her cries going unheard, if he decided to hurt her.

  Her hesitation only lasted a moment. She might not be able to turn into a beast with four paws, but her two legs could move pretty fast when they wanted to. And there was always the lake. Yes, she could push him in there if she needed to. That would certainly dampen his desire. She smiled to herself at the thought.

  She walked four paces behind him, keeping as much distance as possible between them. He led her down towards the water, and then turned towards the small copse of trees at the head of the lake. There was a weeping willow, its branches dipping into the edge of the lake. Once they were under there, no one would see them. No one would know.

  His word against hers. If he attacked her, he could say she was the one who instigated their joining. Everyone would believe him. In this part of the world, he was better than her. Her pace slowed; she should run now.

  Kane stopped and turned to look upwards, her presence momentarily forgotten by him. The danger he presented momentarily forgotten by her, as her eyes were drawn to the silver disk hanging above them. This was the very place she had been when she had heard him coming. The moon’s reflection was whole and unbroken on the surface of the lake. The thing that mystified her most was why it had the same effect on him, as it did on her: mesmerising, hypnotic.

  “Why are we here?” she asked, now more curious than afraid. She had been stupid to think a man like Kane would be interested in her. But she was fascinated by him, something hidden, a depth she couldn’t understand. Now she knew why so many men went to bed with him. Animal magnetism.

  “The moon. That’s why you were here.” A statement of fact, not a question.

  “Yes,” she answered simply.

  “Tell me about it. Tell me how you feel on a night like this when the moon is full.” His eyes flicked briefly to hers, and then they were dragged back to the light.

  “You know what I am?” she asked, wanting to be sure he knew she was from the Prime.

  “Of course. The collar isn’t exactly hard to miss,” he said, not cruelly, but still it hurt and her hand went to it, feeling the cold hardness of the metal. Even though it touched her skin, it never absorbed her body heat. It was always cold as death.

  “The moon makes the change harder to control,” she said, thinking of how her father had taught her to gain control of herself. If they didn’t learn when they were young, by the time puberty hit, the moon would force them to shift, their animal dragged from them to howl, or roar at the moon.

  “Tell me. What’s it like?” he asked.

  “What? To have a collar around your neck that stops the other half of you from existing?” Her voice was bitter with resentment. She still couldn’t understand how her father, so loving, so caring, had managed to end up with so much debt. Short of selling their family home, there had been no choice but for Amara to offer to bargain a contract to pay off his debts. Three years of slavery for the Reinier family. That was how long it would take to repay the debt.

  “No. Tell how you feel when the moon is full.”

  “Right now I feel as if my body wants to explode. The tension inside is like holding your breath underwater for too long. I want to tear my skin from my body until my other side is freed,” she said, filled with bitter passion and longing.

  He nodded, as if he understood exactly what she meant, and then his gaze dropping to look at the moon’s reflection. Her heart stopped beating rapidly. Instead it slowed, the blood in her veins no longer hot in readiness to fi
ght him off; replaced by a chill, deep in her bones, that made time slow down and her mind clear.

  The lioness no longer prowled. She was still, the two of them working as one to piece together the fragments of information that were floating around in her head.

  She took a step towards him, and then another, her voice soft as she spoke. “This is my first moon with the collar. The hardest one, so I’m told.” She was so close to him now, she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to. Instead, she allowed her eyes to do the touching. Caressing his body, taking in the broad shoulders, encased in a shirt, open at the neck, that emphasised his toned chest. A part of her wanted to reach out and touch him, but the rest of her told her not to start something she would be powerless to stop.

  “And when you don’t have the collar on?” he asked quietly, half turning to look at her, his amber eyes soft, mournful; empty of something that he couldn’t find. The exact same expression that greeted her every morning since she had left Shifters Prime.

  Then she saw it. He wore a bracelet around his left wrist. Unable to resist temptation, she reached out, her fingers connecting with the cold metal, the same colour as the moon. She jumped with shock, and touched his skin, feeling an electrical current shoot up her arm.

  Scared, she turned and ran.

  Chapter Three – Kane

  Kane staggered backwards as if he had been shot. The jolt of electricity that had burst out from her left him unable to move. It reminded him of the time he had been walking through the park on his way to work and had watched a man, a shifter, being cornered. One of the policemen had panicked, thinking the guy was about to change, and he had drawn his Taser. The shifter had arched his back as the electricity shot through his system, and then collapsed on the floor, his body in spasms.

  He lifted his hand and clenched and unclenched his fist. What had she done to him?