Purr For The Alpha (A Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack) Read Free Page A

I take your word for it. How much are the saddles worth?”
    “Thirty five hundred each.  And about fifteen hundred dollars w orth of damage to our building. We have to replace two doors and their locks.”             
    Her eyes went wide with surprise, and then her expression quickly turned neutral again. “I see,” she said carefully.
    He knew what she was thinking.   She didn’t have that kind of money.  Her family was dirt poor, her father a con man and a thief who’d nearly driven them to ruin.  Her mother had abandoned them years ago. 
    She’d had to drop out of high school in her senior year because her father was a suspect in a series of house burglaries, and the Padfoots had basically been run out of town.  They’d moved to Crystal Falls, and she’d never gone back to high school. Instead she’d worked to support their family while their father fled the state and hid out for a couple of years, waiting until he felt safe coming back to town.
    Karen was so bright she’d been able to get a scholarship to go to college and then law school, but she’d had to take out loans to support her family while she was in school
    She had to make payments on those loans, and she had a fourteen year old brother and twelve year old sister to support. She was waitressing on weekends to put food on the table while she built up her clientele.  Many people wouldn’t do business with her, because of her father’s reputation.
    He knew all of that because he’d been checking up on her. Waiting until the right time to make his move.
    He watched her splutter for a minute, struggling for an answer. Finally he took pity on her.
    “We can make a compromise,” he said.
    “Oh?”
    “First of all, your father is not allowed in Timber Valley, ever again. You should know that if we catch him on our property, we will skip the legal system and go straight to a Death Challenge. He’ll lose.”
    She nodded enthusiastically. She thought she was getting off easy.
    “Secondly, and this is non-negotiable, you will come work for me as a waitress at The Zoo for one month. You will also move to our compound.”
    “What?” she stared at him in astonishment. “You want me to waitress? Why, to humiliate me? I’m a lawyer!”
    “You already waitress on weekends,” he pointed out, earning him a suspicious look.
    “How did you even know that?” she demanded. “That’s in Crystal Falls.  I’ve never seen you in our restaurant.”
    He shrugged. “The shifter community is a small one. Word gets around.”
    She shook her head. “I can’t lose that job,” she said.
    “You don’t have to. My family does business with the owner of that restaurant; they’ll work with me. I can send over one of my waitresses to cover your shifts,” he said. He was prepared for every argument that she might come up with. She’d slipped through his fingers twice before; now they’d close around her like a steel trap. A humane trap, of course, not the kind with sharp steel teeth; he wasn’t pure evil.
    “That doesn’t make sense.  If you can spare a waitress, why do you need me at your night club? And why have me move here?”
    “To make a point.”
    “By publicly humiliating me and displaying me as your servant,” she glowered. 
    He smiled.  Her heated response spoke of her passionate nature. He’d bet she was a real tiger in bed. The thought of finally making the prim, buttoned-up kitty lose her inhibitions and unleash that passion stoked a roaring firing him, and caused a swelling in his pants that made him very glad he was sitting behind a desk.
    “That’s one way to look at it,” Ty said. “We need to make a very public showing of the fact that the Padfoot family is making amends for their transgressions against us. Having you both work for me, and move in to the compound, where you can help us out as needed, will do that.  Let me remind you how things work in the wolf world. It’s not that different with felines. A