Free Grayslake: Lion to Get Her (Alpha Lion Shifter Romance) (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Jamesburg Shifters Book 8) by Lynn Red

could see the road from where he stood. “Why not just...”
    He looked at his feet, bare as they were, he felt just as naked. He’d never opened himself up to anyone like that, not anywhere near that quickly anyway. And to have her just run, he couldn’t figure out what he’d done to change her mind.
    “It was going so well,” he opened his hands, stared into his scratched-up palms and whispered. “What the hell do I have to do?”
    In the distance, he heard wheels squeal against pavement. She was probably a quarter-mile away by then, but his ears were so keen, and his attention so pointed and focused, that he knew it was Laney.
    “No way will I let this go,” he snarled, clenching his fists. “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care if I have to pull the moon out of the sky, I’m not giving up. Not this time. Not now. Not ever again.”
    He scratched at the dirt with his toenails. Sweat ran down the sides of his face as he clenched his muscles and scowled. But then, a split-second later, as his anger and confusion melted into purpose; into desperate, determined, steely-eyed confidence. “I’m not letting you go,” he said again. “No way in hell am I going to miss out on the only woman I can’t get out of my mind. No way I’m letting the only girl that made me laugh, then smile like that get away. Not now, not ever. I don’t care what it takes, Laney, you’re mine. I’ll make you believe me. I’ll make you understand.”
    His voice fell into low, almost dangerous tones. “We’re all animals,” he whispered. “Underneath all our rules and our bullshit, we’re just animals who want to get let out of our cages. Without you, I’m as pinned-in as anyone else. But with you? I feel free, like I never have. No way in hell am I gonna let this get away.”
    Rip crouched down and with a single thought, ripped his jeans into ribbons as his legs twisted and his bones shifted. He threw back his head, with the huge mane cascading all around it, and shook the world around him with a roar so fierce and terrible that he thought Laney probably heard it.
    “If you did,” he whispered into the air, “good. If not, you will soon.”
    His legs flexed, his muscles flared like arc welders blasting, white-hot into action. He didn’t know exactly where he was going, as he’d gotten completely turned around and confused between the bouts of unconsciousness and the apparent narcolepsy he’d started to have. But none of that mattered just then.
    Nothing was on his mind, including how he’d ended up in Redby Township of all damn places, at all. Not except Laney, and his single-minded drive to find her, claim her, and make her his.
    And he wasn’t stopping. Not now, not ever, not until he had her.

7
    ––––––––
    “N othing happened,” Laney said. “I just had a bad morning. Hangover,” she claimed, though clearly not believing anything that came out of her own mouth.
    “Right,” Elaine said as she pursed her lips. “You saw him again, didn’t you? Either that, or you finally figured out who he is. One of the two. And I’m not sure which would be worse.”
    Even though the last thing in the world she wanted to do was engage even further in the hell that swirled inside her own head about what she was doing, Laney couldn’t deny herself the opportunity. “Wait,” she said in a short, curt voice, “what the hell are you talking about? You knew who he was?”
    “No, not really,” Elaine said. “I mean I had an idea. I didn’t think it could possibly have been the same guy though. I mean, I know you’re kind of braindead about the whole world outside your head, but I couldn’t honestly believe you didn’t know who Rip Black was. He’s been plastered all over the damn news since he disappeared.”
    “Yeah,” Laney said, “about that, he told me everything.”
    “So you did see him again!”
    “It’s a long story,” Laney said, even though it really wasn’t. She just couldn’t get