Claws by Kassanna Read Free Book Online

start. Goddess, why did she feel like she owed the man an explanation? But she had to make him understand. There was no way they could do this. Entering into a mating right now was just wrong. She had a job to do. Honestly, she liked her freedom.
    Her mother had withered away because she’d been caged in a mating with an abusive partner that had only cared for himself. Her daddy was a creature with a vicious temper who had no problem beating her mama into submission and striking out again when she tried to stop him from hitting his child.
    Sasha stared at the road ahead of her, seeing the faces of her past. Her father, Salt, was a Florida panther with a penchant for alcohol. Sweetest man around until he got hard liquor into his system which was the reason she never touched the stuff. The night she left her kin, she’d witnessed her father break down and left him on his knees staring at the still form of her mother. She ran away as quickly as her legs would carry her and never looked back.
    Her mother hadn’t done some asinine chore that he thought should have been completed by the time he got back from the bar. He spent his evenings drinking away what little money they had. For that transgression, Salt decided her mom needed to be taught a lesson and the face slapping started. For some reason her mother chose that night to fight back. It was the crashing of furniture that had drawn Sasha from her room.
    She’d never forget the scene she walked in on. Her mama was begging her daddy to stop. Huddled in a fetal position to protect her middle, she pleaded with Salt to see reason. Drea, her mother, tucked her head when he started to kick her. For the first time in Sasha’s life her vision changed and she literally viewed everything tinged in red. She hadn’t realized that she’d shifted. Her sole objective was to protect her mom.
    At that time she didn’t have the finesse to handle a partial conversion. Nope, in her teenage mind, changing into her beast was a go-big-and-tear-a-mofo-up type deal. Bounding up on her father’s back, her claws tore into Salt’s flesh. He’d easily thrown her off and swung around, his attention focused on her and being an older panther he had mastered all the tricks of shifting. He sliced through her foreleg with one swipe of his claws.
    She rubbed the three faint slash mark scars on her biceps, a reminder never to trust a man and not to take a beast as a lover. She’d already broken cardinal rule number two. Sasha blinked a few times, trying to clear the memories running like a movie through her mind. All she saw was her mother’s face, the determined set of Drea’s jaw.
    Salt didn’t get a chance to take another swing at her. Drea changed forms, becoming a leopard. Sasha hadn’t been able to do anything but stare at her mother. Her beautiful black-and-tan coat rippled over her mom’s body. The woman stood on all fours, battle-ready, opened her mouth, and roared. Although she’d never seen her mom raise a hand to protect herself from Salt, she went at him full throttle, chomping down on his arm with so much pressure Sasha heard bone crack.
    Another first, Sasha witnessed her father shift. His panther was huge. In awe she watched her mom rise up on her haunches and battle her dad with her fore legs, taking swipes at his head and chest. Lamps toppled as tables were shoved aside when one or the other beast went down. Their sofa was shoved across the room, the wooden legs skidding as wood tore through linoleum. For a brief moment the leopard had the panther pinned and snapped her jaws at his muzzle. With lightning speed she witnessed her dad clip her mom’s back legs to slide from beneath her and suddenly everything slowed. Salt flipped back, landing on Drea’s spine with all his weight. The sickening crunch told Sasha he’d broken her mother’s spine.
    She’d dropped to her knees and fell forward on her palms as she emptied all the contents from her stomach onto the discolored