Freeing A Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shape Shifter Romance (Sleeping Lions - Shifters Prime Book 2) by Harmony Raines Read Free Book Online

my credit card, so I’ll have to go in. Hopefully he won’t have the TV on.”
    “We’ll be waiting in the car. Anything happens, just run,” he said, concerned.
    She took her keys and handed them to him. “If anything happens you drive, leave me here and get across the border. You have the money I gave you.”
    He took her hand, but instead of taking the keys from her, he held it, the warmth of his skin chasing the dread from her bones. “We leave together. If you need protecting, I’ll take my collar off.”
    “No,” she said, pulling back from him and stepping away. “They will shoot you. And Lea. What about her?”
    She turned her back to him and walked into the store with more confidence than she felt. “I’ll only be a minute.”
    She heard the car doors open and close as they got inside. Mentally she tried to figure how she would get out of the store by the quickest route. But when she looked up, the young guy behind the counter was too busy texting on his phone to notice her, not even looking up when she paid for the fuel.
    Taking her card back, she tucked it into her purse and made for the door, keeping a nice steady pace, when all she wanted to do was run.
    “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said as she pulled the car door shut and started the engine.
    “No you’re not. You’re strong, Lottie. Now pull out nice and slow and let’s get going.”
    She did as he said, wanting to get them to the border, and wishing she could go with them across it and leave all the bad memories behind.
     
     
     

Chapter Ten – Daniel
     
    He was worried. When he went across the border into Shifters Prime with Lea, he would be leaving Lottie behind to deal with the repercussions of helping them.
    “Will you be OK?” he asked, seeing the way she clutched the steering wheel, her eyes fixed on the road; he got the feeling she was driving on auto pilot.
    She nodded. “Sure.”
    “I wish there was something I could do. To stop you getting into trouble for helping us.” He was silent and then said, “Why not tell them we made you do it?”
    “It’s OK,” she said, but the tone of her voice told him it wasn’t.
    In the back seat, Lea was contentedly licking her ice cream, savouring every drop. He was torn, feeling his need to get Lea to safety, but battling with the need to protect Lottie. But why? Yes, Lottie had helped them, but was that enough for him to feel so strongly about leaving her in trouble with the police?
    “Lottie. Tell them whatever you have to. The police will believe I forced you.”
    She shook her head. “It’s not the police I’m worried about.”
    He frowned. “Trevor, from the circus? Damn.”
    “Not him either,” she said, her voice trembling.
    He didn’t know what she meant, but he knew she was scared; he had been scared enough times in the past couple of years to know that look. “Tell me.”
    She shook her head again. “It’s nothing you can help me with.”
    “I feel responsible.” He did. Really responsible for her and her safety. Going over their time together, he tried to identify just what it was about her he was attracted to.
    In the back of his mind, his lion shifted, the tenuous link between them making it difficult for Daniel to understand what his lion was trying to tell him. If only he could take this collar off. Yet he daren’t risk it, he had been trained to shift immediately into his lion and he didn’t know if he had the control to stop himself. So the collar had to stay on until he was over the border, and he had to understand what was going on here without his lion’s intuitive help.
    “Daniel, this has nothing to do with you,” she said. “Let’s focus on getting you home.”
    “Home,” he said, sitting back, trying to relax. “I always thought of this as being my home.”
    “Do you remember Shifters Prime at all?” she asked, and he knew the other conversation was closed. He didn’t push her, it was her choice; they both had secrets, both