Authors: Diane Greenstone
ROMANCE: LION SHIFTER ROMANCE: Luring The Lion (Lion Shapeshifter Paranormal Fantasy Romance) (BBW Lion Shifter Romance) (3 page)
"Are you offering to stay with me?" Matt said, shocked. He'd need time to think about it, he'd never considered heading up an animal reserve, but if he set it up the right way it would bring in just as many visitors and tourists as a hunting reserve would. He just wasn’t sure it was a lucrative as hunting.
"I would, if you'd have me. The only thing that bothers me is the hunting. Killing because you need to eat, or protect yourself is one thing. Killing defenseless animals for a trophy is another. I can support the first one, but the second one worries me." She told him bluntly. They took a step closer to each other. He liked her, he seemed to be taking it in stride that she could turn into a lion, yet she was putting her heart on the line here. It wasn't really about money, or even Missy. She was trying to find an excuse to stay with him. She had enough money she could probably have started her own animal reserve if she had, too. The idea of learning how to do it all alone bothered her, she didn't want to be alone anymore.
"You'd have me give up hunting?" He asked her, shocked. He knew she'd cringed when he'd talked about it before and had avoided the subject. "What if I hunted for food, could you compromise?"
"Yes, I can eat meat, I do eat meat. I understand that. But, hunting for trophy, wasting the body, I don't understand that." She told him and walked over to him and put her hand on his chest looking up at him. "Whatever I feel for you, Matt, I can compromise if you can. I like you, I think you like me or you wouldn't have helped me save Missy. I wish we could have rescued all of them, but I'm grateful at least one of them survived. But her journey isn't over yet. My struggle to keep her safe and alive isn't over yet. You could help me, you could give me a reason to stay, and you could be a part of something bigger."
"You really believe in this, don't you?" He asked her. He shouldn't have been surprised, but her conviction at letting living creatures be, she wasn't pushy about it. Just clear where she stood and was offering him a choice.
"I do, and I can compromise. I understand hunting for food. I can live with that and not feel bad about it... but killing for sport is an entirely different matter, and that is where I draw the line in my life." She told him and put her other hand on his chest and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. "I want you Matt; I can't be around you for more than a few minutes without my brain turning to mush and my body aching for your touch."
"You are asking me to completely change how I make my livelihood. The resort as it is, brings in a fair amount of money, and I’m not sure if I would make enough to sustain a reserve. I guess it's more of a hobby since I don't need the money, but you are asking me to change how I do it. I like the making love to you Bethany, truly I do, but I need more than sex to make it worth my while to change. Tell me about being a shifter and we can talk more about the other thing later." Matt was trying to focus on what he was thinking, but her fingers and hands were now on his skin and he was having trouble thinking past his erection.
"I was born like this. I come from a long line of shifters. My mother and father died in a boating accident when I was a teenager. My grandfather raised me; he's off exploring the world. He's a shifter too, but he's also an archeologist. He doesn't have time for me these days, but he sends me the occasional email. We tend to live long, healthy lives unless something kills us. We heal faster than humans; we can obviously shift into lions. I can't turn you into a lion, it's genetic. If I had kids, my kids would most likely be shifters. There's a small chance if I mated with a human and had offspring, I might have a human child and not a shifter, but generally shifter genes are dominant." Bethany said and smiled. "I wanted to work with lions, I was raised as an only child and I was lonely. I volunteered at the zoo and eventually got a job there. I went to college at nights until I got my degree in animal biology. I'm not a vet, but I can do almost everything to stabilize or treat common things besides surgery in animals. I can talk to animals, telepathically, but it's not like how you and I talk. I send them images. What else do you want to know?"
"Why me?" Matt asked as her hands started working on his pants.
"Because you're strong, you are independent, you don't back down from a fight, and you saw me shift and it didn't scare you off. I don't know what the future will bring, but I'm willing to take a risk, if you are." Bethany told him as her hand found its way inside his pants and gripped him.
"Bethany, what I've come to feel for you, I don't want to let that go until we've had a chance to see where it takes us. I'm willing to consider setting aside part of my land for a reservation, but it may take time to make the shift over. Perhaps there is a way to do both, I have enough property for them. I also won't stop my scheduled hunting parties. If you want me to give up hunting completely, that's only something my wife can demand of me." Matt said and groaned as her fingers stroked his cock until his knees grew weak.
"I wasn't looking for a husband, or even a relationship. I didn't even think I was in the market for one, but let's make a deal, if and when we get married, if the path leads us down that road, you'll give up hunting. For now, I understand I whirl winded my way into your life, and it's not fair to ask you to make such a drastic change until we are sure it's going to work out, for both of us. However, the conservation part, I'll invest in now." Bethany told him.
Matt looked down at her and then scooped her up and pressed her back against the tree, taking her mouth with his. He made love to her outside, against the tree, leaving scrapes from the bark into her back.
"I think I love you Bethany and I'll make that deal with you." He told her when they were done and he was holding her in his arms near the tree.
"We need to check on Missy," Bethany whispered to him and while she wasn't entirely happy about where this journey led her, she couldn't exactly say she regretted it either.
"Lead the way," Matt told her, and handed her his shirt.
Smiling at him, Bethany slid into it and buttoned it up. Walking back to the house to see Missy, she knew that if they got through this, they probably could face anything together.
*****
THE END
Diane Greenstone is a spirited and inspiring romance writer who spends her time discovering romantic places across the globe that inspires her attention-grabbing stories of love. When not dipping her toes in the canals of Venice, Italy – once home to the legendary lover, Casanova – she can be found wandering the art galleries of Paris. “Love is what makes the world go round,” Diane is fond of saying. When not busy traveling she enjoys quiet nights at home in Vermont sipping red wine with her beloved husband and two greyhounds.
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BONUS BOOK 1
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Seducing The Galaxy Lord
A Paranormal Arranged Marriage Sci-Fi Romance
Diane Greenstone
Seducing The Galaxy Lord
Fiona Starking reluctantly boarded the space ship that was to take her to another planet in a nearby galaxy. Her home, Earth, needed an alliance with the Atlanteans from planet Borrin. Earth was running out of resources to keep the planet alive, and Borrin had the technology to help re-grow everything on planet Earth and get it functional again. Now, in the year 2530, Fiona had hoped that humanity would be beyond ego-driven desires and selfishness, but apparently selfishness was one of those things that even time cannot erase from humanity. Her home planet was nearly destroyed. And now she was being sacrificed to save it.
Earth’s previous leader, Robert Frettle, had wiped out every resource selling it all on the black space markets to line his coffers. While he'd been assassinated after trying to rape the daughter of a high official, the new leader, Manrun Lupin, who'd stepped into his shoes, had big holes to fix. Including the destruction of their home planet.
He had a hard choice to make.
It was either collaborate with the much-reviled Atlanteans from Borrin to get their technology to save their planet, or move everyone into other planets and cultures, hoping their people could survive. It was not ideal, but Lupin felt that sacrificing one daughter of their prime minister was a better solution than moving their entire civilization off the planet to an unknown future.
Which is where Fiona came in.
She was being sent to Borrin to marry the Prince in an arranged marriage that would seal the deal between the two planets. Fiona didn't know much about the man she was on her way to marry, but she had heard about him, and it want’s all wine and roses. Apparently he was a womanizer, spoilt and arrogant. Atlanteans had technology that went beyond most other cultures. Many years ago they had been part of Earth, but had left the planet to start afresh elsewhere, ending up on Borrin. There, they had thrived, and caused some jealousy on Earth, to the point where all diplomacy was broken off between the two. But recently the King of Borrin had approached Earth and offered some of its advanced technologies to it, feeling they owed them for abandoning their home planet so long ago. With their anti-aging serums, and ability to take an uninhabitable planet and make it livable, they could help Earth, but they wanted an alliance in exchange for that – a royal marriage, so to speak.
Their planet Borrin was a fortress. They had advanced military weaponry and technology that no other race could even compare too, and Fiona was getting the chance to be a part of that culture. She should be thankful, grateful even, as a scientist; she could appreciate what their culture had to offer, but as a woman? She had no desire to marry a man she'd never met, yet felt honor-bound to save her people.
As she sat in her room on the ship, she wondered why they'd picked her over all the other daughters of high councilmen. Many of them would eagerly want to get married, or be seen as the savior of their planet, yet they'd thrown her under the bus and decided she was the one he'd want.
The Prince of Borrin was rumored to be attractive, handsome and had his own harem of women that answered his every beck and call. Fiona was not the type of woman to share and she wasn't sure she could handle being married to a man who was so free with his affections. She knew she had to save her people; it's why she was on the darn ship to begin with. But she wondered if she deserved to be happy too, and why they had to sacrifice any chance of her happiness in order to save their people. Why couldn't her leaders have found a way to make the Atlanteans happy besides giving them a woman for their Prince?
Didn't they have plenty of women for him to choose from? It didn't much sense, and being the logical person she was, it made her wonder what was wrong with him that he couldn't find a mate among his own people, even when he already had some many.
She watched the space ship approach the planet. Instead of a red planet that looked like a desolate wasteland from above, this one was green and white and blue, it looked rich in life-supporting elements, and she was almost envious. Living on this planet would be comfortable. The inhabitants clearly had fresh water to drink instead of having to wait for processed, used liquids to be turned into drinkable water, like back home on Earth.
This planet had vast lakes and oceans and forests. As the space ship neared the ground to land, she noticed the tall, healthy-looking and how untouched the planet seemed. Only in small areas did she see their cities and everything was all close together, with tall buildings and homes that housed more than one family unit. She admired their fortitude to live so closely together in order to achieve a health, idyllic lifestyle.
When she landed, a royal greeter was there to take her bags and sign acknowledgement that she had arrived and will be staying on. She didn't say much, trying instead to take in everything she saw in front of her. She wasn't happy about being here, but the air was so fresh. All she could do is close her eyes and take it in, filling her lungs.
For the first time in her almost twenty-one years of life could she take a breath with-out feeling like her lungs want to hurt. She'd never smelled such clean air before. It almost brought her to her knees in gratitude. The acid rains back on her home planet meant they couldn't go outside often, but here, it looked like the rain must be pure.
"It's so beautiful," she murmured as she followed the royal guards to the transport unit. She was surprised to see a beautiful beast, pulling a cart. With their advanced technology, she didn't understand why they weren't using hover crafts or cars, like Earth had.
"What is this?" She asked shocked when the beast turned to look at her with all four of its eye, inside two large heads. Her eyebrows shot up and her gaze widened as she took the creature in.
"Don't let old Sigfrey bother you. He's a nice enough beast." The guard who was driving the cart told her, and nodded at the other guard who was putting her luggage into the top of the cart and helped her on to it.
"This is an unusual mode of transportation," she said, climbing inside. The guard followed her in and sat down next to her. She looked at him waiting for him to respond. While she hadn't asked a direct question, she did want him to explain. She had no knowledge or understanding about anything on this planet, they kept their secrets closely guarded.
"It preserves our planet. By using natural resources, such as the animals we do less destruction to the environment. Motors, gas, hovercrafts destroy nature. We have advanced technology, and the means to do all those things, but sometimes, old fashioned means mixed with technology is the way to go." The guard proved his point by pushing a button on the inside of the cart and out popped a single crystal glass and a bottle of pure water. It was so clean she could see through it and she gasped.
"Am I allowed to have some?" She asked, her eyes growing big as she stared at the water, her mouth almost watering.
"It is for you. I assumed after your long journey here you may appreciate a glass of water." The guard told her as he poured her glass and handed it to her.
Tasting it, she nearly moaned out loud. "You have no idea."
