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

Deep, mellow yellows danced around bloody red that seemed to stream in and around a pool from where the deepest blue emanated.
    “Deep blue,” Laney whispered, not realizing she was vocalizing her thoughts. “Deep...”
    “Huh? Like the chess playing computer?” Elaine asked. “I watched a documentary about that a couple nights ago, and let me tell you, that Russian chess player was hot . Wait, I don’t mean like he was hot, although he sort of was, I mean he was pissed about that computer. So Gilligan won’t be here today and as you know, we have another session of kiddie time at eleven, and you know I can’t stand kids and you have a heart of gold and won’t say no to me. Also, I can’t believe how crooked the thing with that computer was. Did you know they wouldn’t let anyone in the room with the programmers? Did you know they wouldn’t let anyone see the real print out reports from the thing’s memory banks? Did you know all that?”
    “I love you Wendy,” Laney said. “Even if you did just sneak in the fact that I have the distinct pleasure of enjoying kiddie time with a bunch of rambunctious baby shifters that will no doubt spend the entire time asking about the sleeping lion who was having what appeared to be a sex dream in front of them.”
    Elaine snorted a laugh. “Gross! You didn’t say anything about that yesterday! Was he really gettin’ it on back there? I wonder who he was dreaming about.”
    “A hamburger. And yes, I’m serious.”
    “Wait, what? A sex dream about a hamburger?”
    “No,” Laney said with a laugh, “turns out it wasn’t a sex dream. But our mystery man—”
    “ Your mystery man,” Elaine cut in.
    Nodding, Laney found herself smiling again. “Yeah, right, my mystery man. He was having a dream about turning a hamburger patty. I don’t know if I believe him or not.”
    “Really? Who the hell would lie about something that weird. I mean, maybe if he made up a story about... actually you know what? I can’t think of a single thing that would be weirder than a sex dream about a hamburger. But you know what I think?”
    “You’re probably going to tell me no matter what I say,” Laney said with another laugh.
    “I think you found the one guy who can match you in being fucking weird. Also, there’s something I was supposed to tell you that happened after you left last night. I forgot what it was, though.”
    Laney sighed and shook her head. “Like I said, I love you, Wendy.”
    As Laney held the phone at arm’s length again, closed one eye and squinted the other to figure out where to stick her finger to end the call, she didn’t hear Elaine remember what it was that she’d forgotten. And then after the phone went dead, Elaine was too tired to bother calling back.
    Laney looked back out the window after she tossed her phone absently onto her sofa. That time, she didn’t bother covering herself up when that same squirrel, who she was reasonably certain was just a slightly obnoxious real squirrel instead of a perverse neighbor, got another eye full.
    “I think I need this, and I need it right now. It’s been a long, long time since I had a run.” She looked down at herself and laughed. “Maybe I should do it more often, even when I’m not halfway into a nervous breakdown over a guy I hardly know.”
    The squirrel cocked its head to the side as though it understood what she was saying. She glared at the little rodent as she pulled her underwear off and crouched down in the pool of sunlight that formed on her floor when the big, burning orb finally rose over the treetops. As the hair slid out of her follicles, turning into golden-brown fur, the world all around her changed alongside Laney.
    The colors all turned brighter, the sounds all grew more intense and clear. She nudged the window open with her nose and slid out of it, her feline grace impossibly different from her standard, slightly-clumsy, nature. She tripped, first, over a loose brick on her back