The Lion’s Mate

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Blurb:

A lion shifter, paranormal, pregnancy romance novel. In a world filled with the paranormal, Leah’s just a regular human. She makes her living as an author, and is both creative and passionate. But these aren’t the qualities that grabs Mark’s attention when he spots her taking a bath at a local dock!

With his good looks and strength, Mark is a lion shifter through and through. And he’s decided that Leah is the one he wants to claim. At first, Leah tries to brush off the shifter who’s obviously a playboy, but it doesn’t take long for his charm to break down her defenses.

Mark’s not just handsome; he’s a lawyer too, and he might just be the key to winning a crucial case for Leah’s best friend. Now with a baby on the way, can their growing love for each other help guide them to victory? Get answers in this shifter romance book by Mary T Williams.

Chapter 1

Leah looked in all directions before untying her yellow robe and letting it fall off her shoulders into a pool around her feet. As she dived off the dock and was surrounded by the cool, refreshing water, the stress she’d been harboring in her mind slowly drifted away as she sliced through the water. The tense shoulders and neck released as she used long strokes to pull away from the dock. At nearly fifty feet, she stopped and tread water, looking up at the sky, pleased with what she saw. Clouds in the blue sky greeted her, and she happily floated on her back and allowed the water, the sky, and the surrounding forest to calm her.

Leah had been working non-stop over the last week, rushing her creative process more than she cared to in order to meet the deadline proposed by her editor. She had yet to miss a deadline since she’d published her first novel, and now that she had published four, she knew she had a little leeway when it came to the deadline. But that didn’t mean she wanted to miss it. That would drive her insane.

Her newest novel was different from the others she’d written, although all had the same characters and were set in the same world. The fifth was the final installment of the world she’d created. She had envisioned two different endings, but now that she’d reached the end, neither of them felt right. The character she had created had been embraced by the young adults of the shifter world, something Leah took pride in. Although she was human, she had lived around weres her whole life and felt just as comfortable with them as she did with humans.

In her mind, she composed yet another ending as she floated. A dog barking caught her attention, and she lifted her head out of the water to scan the area. Her Labrador retriever, Jenny, was sitting on the dock, waiting to be invited into the water. Leah laughed a little, then whistled quietly. The dog leaped into the water as if she’d been released from a bow, causing a huge splash. She swam straight to Leah, waited for her head to be patted by her mistress, and turned around and swam back to shore. She’d just come in to make sure Leah was not drowning. With the reassurance, Jenny walked up on the beach near the dock and flopped down in the mud to enjoy the sunshine.

Leah grumbled playfully, a grin on her face, “Damn dog. Now she’ll need a bath.” A noise across the small lake called her attention, but she could see nothing from her vantage point in the water.

She wondered briefly if Annie would be willing to bathe her, but discarded the thought immediately. Although the pair got along, Annie, a shifter whose animal form was an owl, caused a skittishness in Jenny, who would slunk away and stay behind Leah.

Let her enjoy herself. You are, Leah thought to herself. She rolled back over to her back and continued floating and composing, completely relaxed, just as she needed to be in order to write brilliance.

*****

A male lion, larger than what can be found in Africa, sat at the edge of the forest, watching intently, his enhanced vision allowing perfect sight. And he was grateful for his lion eyes today.

Mark, a lion shifter, smiled, his lion tongue lolling out of his mouth as he watched the human woman swimming in powerful strokes across the lake. She was made for the water, moving in it like a mermaid, beautiful and graceful. His eyes followed the pattern she made, and when her dog jumped into the water, he grinned and chortled. The dog made so much splashing noise, thank goodness, that he wasn’t overheard by it or the woman. The loyal dog swam out to her mistress and waited for a pat on the head before heading to shore and dropping down in the mud.

When the woman murmured to herself, he chortled again at her words. Her head turned toward his spot just inside the cover of trees. He froze, silencing his lion laugh, and waited only a few seconds before she returned to her swim.

Her strokes had become lazy as she returned to the dock. She climbed up the ladder, her naked body shimmering with water in the afternoon sun. A good portion of her time was spent outside in the sun, probably nude, based on the lack of tan lines on her flawless, golden skin. Her wet hair looked brown, but he would bet it was a strawberry blonde when dry. Hints of red and gold showed on the wet strands. He was too far away to see her eyes, but he imagined they were either blue or green, hopefully green.

His eyes widened as he watched her bend to retrieve her robe, and he moved forward a handful of steps to see her better. As she swung the robe onto her arms and pulled it to cover herself, she turned around. Her eyes landed on him in his lion form, and she froze.

*****

Leah stared at the lion. Her lips tightened; she wasn’t stupid. That was a shifter, and he’d been watching her swim and had seen her naked. Fury pushed through her body and out her mouth.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yelled across the water. She watched as the lion moved into the sun and shifted into a man. Her eyes narrowed. “You son of a bi*ch.” She whirled around to get to her house. Jenny, meanwhile, had taken notice of the man and set to barking like a rabid dog, but she didn’t move toward the man.

“Wait,” Mark called to her. He hurried around the lake. “Please, wait! Let me explain.”

Leah halted and jerked around to face him. Jenny stood just behind her, hackles up and growling menacingly. Her eyes returned to the lean form hurrying toward her in all his naked glory. His hair was the color of a lion’s mane and just as untamed. Golden eyes looked back at her surrounded by dark lashes. His features were strong and chiseled, handsome and wonderful to look at.