Make Him Purr: A Paranormal BBW Werepanther Shape Shifter Mail-Order Navy SEAL Romance Read Free Page B

her face, licking at her mocha skin. She hadn’t come for the Lieutenant Commander, though she’d seriously considered it – hiding behind the wide back of a military man would have made her feel a whole lot safer than she currently did, but some problems couldn’t just be wished away.
    The ad had made her look up Shifter Grove. There weren’t a whole lot of places like it. Usually, shifter towns were strictly for one species only, and having a town that welcomed humans and shifters alike, even if they weren’t someone’s mate, was almost unheard of. Sonya knew of a few places where more than one species lived together, but it was mostly for safety rather than function – for example, many of the herbivore species tended to huddle together, as if expecting the wolves and big cats to start hunting them again – though it did sound like fun.
    Sonya shook her head. She was clearly trying to distract herself from the fact that she was in some deep shit – and doing a damn fine job at it. But that wouldn’t, of course, make any of those issues go away.
    She’d been a foster kid growing up. Leaving a young panther without a firm hand to guide her through life had easily led to the inevitable – she’d found that she was very good at getting around undetected, and that snatching things that didn’t belong to her was easier than working for them. So, for most of her teens and early twenties, she’d spent her time as a capable, clever cat burglar – pun intended.
    It was only when she met Blade that she felt she could stop. The burly tiger provided for her in every way possible. In retrospect, Sonya figured it was that which kept her with him and not that she loved him dearly – Blade was a hard man to love (and she knew he wasn’t her fated, but it hardly seemed to matter), but he kept her safe. She’d known for a long time that he was a dangerous man and that the things he did weren’t okay. But he’d never turn that immense strength against her, right?
    Wrong.
    Sonya didn’t deny that she had a big, sassy mouth that she really liked running. In fact, she’d thought she’d been the one to blame the first time he’d hit her – that she’d asked for it. The second time, though, she knew it wasn’t her anymore, and that it wasn’t just her mouth. He enjoyed it, enjoyed seeing her scream and cry for him to stop. And after the third time… Well, now she was in Shifter Grove, and Blade Morden was not happy.
    Sonya tucked one hand into her pocket and fingered the small velvet bag there. She felt the weight of it in her hand, knowing that there was a small, gold tiger figurine with emerald eyes and ruby talons hidden within the bag. A small smile spread on her lips. Sure, it had been somewhat childish to steal it from Blade, but it was his one and only beloved possession.
    For a man who owned just about every piece of tech, every high-end car, every villa and imaginable amenity, he sure was attached to the little gold figure. She’d often wondered what it was about that statue that made him keep it in his bedroom, tucked away in locked boxes and in places only he and Sonya knew of, but she’d known that she had to get it. It was the only way she could hurt him back, at least a little.
    Her theory was that he’d huff and he’d puff and he’d calm the hell down after she made it out of his house with the statue, but she’d been wrong. Blade had called on a full-scale cat-hunt for her, and as far as Sonya was concerned, there wasn’t a safe place in California for her. So, she’d needed a place to run to.
    Middle of nowhere Idaho, riddled with filthy-yummy shifters? Sounded like the perfect place to be, right?
    Sonya felt her eyelids drooping, exhaustion wanting to claim her weary body. She hadn’t slept in more than 36 hours. Figuring it best to scope out the town before walking straight into it, she’d hopped off the one and only bus coming within thirty miles of Shifter Grove and walked the rest of