Free In Debt to the King: Paranormal Shape Shifter Alpha Male Cage Fighter Werelion Romance by Mina Carter Page A

he’d expected one or both to wheedle and whine, pleading with him as he ordered bones broken and the club handed over to new management.
    Stealing from the king wasn’t allowed, and he needed to send a message, but fuck it…he hadn’t expected one of Hunter’s kids to be a damn woman. And certainly not one as fucking hot as Zara.
    Petite, she filled out the sheath dress she wore to perfection, the dark silk wrapped lovingly around lush curves. Her dark hair was cut short, a pixie crop that framed delicate features and showed off the graceful curve of her neck before it flowed into shoulders revealed by the wide neckline of her dress.
    He flicked a glance back up at her face and felt his lion, hidden deep inside, growl possessively. Large, dark eyes watched him carefully. There was no fear in her expression, a fact that eased something deep in the center of his chest. Almost everyone he knew looked at him in fear because of his appearance. But for some reason, he didn’t want her to.
    Instead, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms, to keep her safe…from everyone but him.
    The trouble was, he was the one she needed keeping safe from. Especially if she brought out the wild side of his nature. If she caught the interest of his lion as well…heaven help her.
    Ignoring the growl deep within him, he brought his mind back to business and looked around the club. It had been allowed to fall to rack and ruin but that wasn’t his issue at the moment. These two were. Nodding to one of his men, Gage, to accompany the brother, he indicated that Zara should precede him.
    “Let’s take this discussion somewhere a little more private, shall we?” he suggested, watching her face carefully.
    She was good. Her body language gave nothing away, and if he had to play poker with her, he’d come out of it a losing man. But there was just an edge in her scent—and a look there in the back of her eyes—as she nodded.
    His cat growled, the predator’s interest caught.
    She was nervous and trying like hell to hide it. The urge to pull her against his larger body almost overtook him as she nodded and turned, presenting him with her back. Unable to help himself, he slid a lingering look down her figure from the gentle curve of her neck through delicate shoulders, which narrowed into a waist so small he could probably get both hands around it, then flared out into full hips… Lust took him on a joyride as he imagined gripping them from behind while he powered into her.
    “This way, sir.”
    Her voice brought him back to reality and he followed like a puppy in her wake as she walked through the club. Even though he looked around—giving every indication he was the mean SOB interested in the running of his empire like normal—afterward, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you a thing about the place.
    He would, however, have been able to tell you everything about Zara’s legs and the towering, “fuck me now” heels she had on. Even in them, she barely came up to his shoulder, which made him realize what a tiny little bit of a thing she was.
    “Just in here.” She stood aside to let him precede her into in the office.
    Usually he would have stood back but he was a big man and the office, as it turned out, was a damn closet. Generally, that wouldn’t have bothered him. Using his size to intimidate someone was nothing new. He did it all the time in the ring and with some of the less savory characters on the club circuit. Using his size to intimidate a club manager, albeit a temporary one, of a club that owed him money? Fucking obligatory. Using his size to intimidate a woman who he’d just caught the scent of fear from…not happening.
    If fear was all he’d scented from her, he wouldn’t have forced the issue. However, as soon as he’d identified the emotion rolling from her pores, another scent joined it. This one he knew but hadn’t expected… the sweet, hot spiciness of arousal.
    He blinked and looked at her quickly. She