Free Better Late Than Leopard (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Sunset Valley Book 2) by Alannah Blacke Page A

fear of what he was, anger at the fact he had never told her, or something else entirely, every time she thought about it, her body seemed to freeze up. It was as if part of her that she couldn't control was preventing her from doing the logical thing.
    When Lucy called her to say she was waiting outside, Ella gathered her things and prepared to leave. Looking out the peephole, she couldn't see any sign of Jake, only the car sitting in the driveway. With a deep breath she pulled open the door and made a run for it.
    "Ella!" The voice came from behind her, but she did her best to ignore it. Tears streamed down her face as she remembered how she had left Charlie's place not so long ago, only to discover she was doing it all over again with someone she had thought was different. She had thought she was done with the fleeing and lies, but apparently they were destined to follow her everywhere.
    With the car in gear and hauling it out of there, Lucy reached down into the center console and handed her a still-warm hot chocolate.
    "You're a doll, thank you so much." Ella took a sip of it, relishing the warm liquid. It was just what she needed right now to relax.

Jake
    He watched the car roll up the road and out of sight. The leopard within him was screaming at him, telling him to chase her down and force her to listen, but Jake knew better. This was a human problem, not an animal one. Simple brute force would not work with convincing Ella, like it might a mate in the wild.
    So all he could do was watch in anguish as the woman he had thought he was fated for drove away. He continued to stare up the road long after the taillights had disappeared into the forest surrounding his property.
    The forest.
    With a growl, Jake turned and charged for the nearest treeline. As he moved, his strides became swifter, his legs more powerful, and his entire body began to change. Just before he reached the first tree, he leapt forward, landing on all fours as his leopard charged recklessly into the trees, his only concern being to put as much distance as possible between him and the house.
    He ran for what seemed like an eternity, simply pushing himself to his limits and beyond, letting his anguish and anger bleed off, until he could think straight. Once his thoughts began to coalesce a little more rationally in him, he made a course correction and set off towards his destination. It was late, but he had a feeling that wouldn't matter.
    A short while later, he emerged from the trees into a clearing that was mostly occupied by a small log cabin. He shifted once again, standing up on two legs for the first time in a few hours.
    "Max?" he called out, after verifying that there were still lights on in the cabin.
    "Jake, is that you?"  The reply came wafting out through an open window. The voice sounded somewhat distracted to him, which meant that his friend was likely at work on some new piece or another.
    "Yeah, do you have a beer?"
    "Fridge," was the only word that came back. With a smile, Jake let himself inside and grabbed a pair of beers before heading into the back of the cabin. Max's workshop was back there, though it barely consisted of more than a chair, table and a few tools here and there. Still, the two of them had spent many an evening conversing as he worked, so it felt perfectly natural. It was exactly what Jake needed at that moment.
    "She didn't seem to know," he said, sitting down on the spare stool that Max always kept there for him. His friend hadn't even looked up from his work until he said those words. The meaning was heavy enough to get through even to Max though, who stopped what he was doing and looked up, setting his tools down.
    "The site is supposed to cater to us Max. How is it she didn't know? How did she even find it?" That was the truth of the matter for Jake right now, he had thought Ella was just not talking about the subject because she wanted to know him for who he was, not what he could do. Now though, it turns out