Taming The Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance (Gray Bears Book 5) (2 page)

Kaylee took a deep breath and
turned out of the highway. She headed towards the small town,
feeling nervous and hopeful.

She had never been to Shadow
Point, but for some inexplicable reason, she had the strangest
feeling that she was heading home.

CHAPTER
THREE

Kaylee leaned forward and
peered through her windscreen. The city she had just left wasn't a
big city. It was a small, relatively quiet little city, but compared
to Shadow Point, that small city seemed big and bustling.

There were low buildings at
the periphery of Shadow Point, but not a light was on in the windows.
Everywhere was just dark and silent. All the shops were closed and
the few cars lining the streets sat still and brooding under the dim
street lamps.

She was at the very edge of
the small town, and it seemed not many people lived out here. Maybe
things would get livelier when she got to the center of the town.
Perhaps a pub or two would be open, and she would actually see some
people around, not just shadows.

Kaylee was about to turn the
corner when she caught a movement on the other side of the street.

She stopped the car and
stared at the door of a small shop. She thought she saw it open and
shut just a moment ago. And she thought she saw a hand gripping the
edge of the door.

Keeping her eyes on the door
of the shop, Kaylee got out of her car slowly. She gasped when the
shop door opened suddenly and a man stormed out. The man was stocky
with greasy black hair, and he was dragging a woman out of the shop.

The poor woman looked dazed
and there was blood trickling down the side of her face. She
struggled feebly and made frightened, whimpering sounds.

“Help,” she
managed to cry out as the man muscled her into the backseat of a
dented car.

Kaylee scrambled across the
road, yelling, “Hey! Stop! Let her go! What do you think
you're doing? Help!”

The man glared at her and
growled as he leaped into the driver's seat. The car roared to life
and Kaylee met the man's glowing yellow eyes just as he gunned the
car at her.

She screamed and managed to
twist out of the way just in time. Rolling on the ground, she pushed
herself up and saw the car veer sharply away from the curb and hurtle
down the dark street.

Kaylee ran to her car and
floored the accelerator. She narrowed her eyes and sped after the
escaping car.

She couldn't let him get
away. There was a helpless, innocent woman in the car. Kaylee was
the only one who'd heard her cry for help. There was no one else
around.

Kaylee gritted her teeth and
glanced down at her phone on the passenger seat. Should she call the
local police? She made a strangled sound in her throat and cursed as
she righted her car in a hurry. She had almost run down a trash can.
If she didn't keep her eyes on the road, she would end up wrapping
her car round a tree or a lamp post.

No time to dial the police.
A pulse-pounding, bone-rattling high-speed chase was underway. This
was the highest speed her car had ever done. She was pushing her
little car way past its limit and she was sure that one of them was
going to suffer a heart attack soon.

“Come one, come on,”
she urged her car and herself. Her car shook with excitement and
exhaustion. Or maybe just with exhaustion.

But Kaylee refused to take
her foot off the accelerator. She was gaining on him. She could
stop him!

“You're not getting
away,” she hissed and stomped hard on the gas.

With its last wheezing
breath, her car managed a final spurt of speed and flew forward.

She plowed into the back of
the fleeing car and the two vehicles skidded towards a large tree.

Kaylee heard a deafening
crash and when she lifted her head, she saw a huge, black wolf
smashing through the windscreen of the car in front. The wolf turned
and fixed its glowing yellow eyes on her.

Kaylee recognized those eyes.

“You...” she
whispered.

The man was a wolf shifter.
Kaylee swallowed the blood in her mouth as the wolf bared its fangs
at her. When she blinked again, the wolf was gone. It had escaped
into the night.

“Shit, shit! Where is
she?” Kaylee swore as she tried to free herself from the
wreckage. Was the woman still in the car? Was she alive? Kaylee
had wanted to save her, but had she killed her instead?

Thick, crimson droplets clung
to her eyelashes. Kaylee jerked at the handle of her car door but
the door wouldn't open. It was jammed.

The big red drops continued
dripping down her face. She looked up at the smashed up car in front
and glimpsed a hand slapping weakly against the back window.

The woman was alive.

Alive but trapped, just like
her.

CHAPTER
FOUR

Winston Knight flicked on the
siren of his Sheriff's cruiser and sped to the scene of the accident.
He arrived at the same time as the ambulance and saw that a small
crowd had gathered round the wreckage.

A motorist had come across
the two smashed-up cars and called the Sheriff's Department
immediately. Two of his deputies were already at the scene.

Winston watched the
paramedics load the two injured women into the back of the ambulance
with quick, practiced movements. Winston recognized one of the
women. Lorni Jones, a young widow who ran her late husband's
hardware store, Nuts and Bolts. Her curly black hair was matted with
blood and Winston saw claw marks down her arm. Those weren't caused
by the accident. Lorni had been attacked prior to the accident.

Winston didn't recognize the
other young woman. As the Sheriff of Shadow Point, he knew almost
everyone in town. He had either helped them, arrested them or issued
them a ticket or a warning at some point in their lives.

But he had never seen this
young woman. He would definitely remember her if he had met her
before. She was blond, curvy and she had the most brilliant blue
eyes. Her eyes had fluttered open briefly while the paramedics
carted her away and she had looked right at him.

His eyes flashed feral for an
instant as his lion rose and stared right back at those electrifying
blue eyes.

His lion wanted to go after
the speeding ambulance. It wanted to get closer to that pretty,
blond female but Winston forced his lusty beast down. He had work to
do.

He would go see the two women
later, but now, he had to see what his deputies had gathered.

His deputies, Aidan Gray and
Rico Garcia, nodded at him as he approached.

“Mr Chung here was the
one who made the call,” Aidan said, gesturing towards a
middle-aged man in a t-shirt emblazoned with the words Chung's
Catering.

Winston nodded at Tian. He
knew Tian Chung well. Tian and his family ran a catering business,
and his brother had used their catering services on a number of
occasions. Their food was good and their prices reasonable.

“Did you witness the
accident, Tian?” Winston asked.

Tian shook his head and
babbled, “No. My wife sent me out to grab some flour. She
wanted to make scallion pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. But the
mini-mart near our place was closed. I was just taking this shortcut
when I saw the cars, all smashed up at the side of the road!”
Tian gestured wildly, his eyes wide with shock and distress. “I
called the ambulance immediately! I tried to pull those two ladies
out of the cars, but they were stuck. I was so afraid the cars would
explode!”

“There's not much
petrol left in the Nissan,” Aidan said. “The lady was
almost running on empty. And I'm betting the black car in front is a
stolen car. Robert Park reported that his Ford was stolen three
nights ago. This car matched the description.”

Winston nodded and said,
“Lorni was in the backseat. Someone was driving her away, and
I think the other lady saw something and sped after her. We need to
talk to her as soon as possible. Did you get her name?”

Rico held out a small
handbag. “Kaylee Wright. I checked her identification.”

Winston took the bag with a
curt nod. “We'll have to inform Lorni's sister, Loretta. Does
Miss Wright have any family?”

Aidan and Rico shrugged.
“The only word she managed to utter was 'wolf'.”

“She was describing
her attacker,” Winston said immediately. “Tow the cars
back to the Station. Comb them for evidence. This isn't just a
simple traffic accident. Lorni was attacked.”

“Yes, Sheriff.”

Winston turned to Tian. “You
get yourself safely home now. We'll contact you if we need any more
information.”

Tian gave a shaky nod and
climbed into his small white van which had “Chung's Catering”
printed in bold on its side doors and across the back.

Winston and his deputies
began interviewing the small crowd, but no one witnessed the
accident. The crowd had only gathered after Tian Chung arrived on
the scene and put in the call. Most of them had been driving by when
they saw the cars and Tian Chung's catering van at the side of the
road.

In this remote part of town,
the shops and offices were only open during the day. The shopkeepers
and office workers all went home before dark, and there were only
very few residential dwellings out here. Most people preferred
living closer to the town center, not at the very edge of town.

Winston remembered talking to
Lorni Jones about moving to a safer, more densely populated part of
town after her husband died, but Lorni wanted to keep her husband's
little business going and she insisted on staying in the dingy
apartment above her shop.

Winston stared off into the
distance, the image of Kaylee's pale face flashing through his mind.
He had set eyes on her for less than a minute, yet he could recall
her feverishly bright blue eyes, her upturned nose and plump, full
lips clearly.

He found her features
strikingly familiar. In fact, she looked a lot like a younger
version of…

“Aidan?” He
turned to his deputy with a frown.

Aidan finished jotting down
the statement of yet another helpful member of the public. So far,
nobody in the crowd had anything useful to add to Tian Chung's
account.

“Yes, boss?”
Aidan said.

“Does Ne-ma have a
niece, grandniece or any female relative who's about the same age as
Miss Kaylee Wright?”

“Ne-ma? Why would you
ask...” Aidan's brows creased.

Winston waited and saw the
exact moment when the gears clicked into place in Aidan's mind.

“Ne-ma! My God!
Yes!” Aidan sputtered at last. “Yes!
You...she...Kaylee...we have to tell Ne-ma right away!”

“Ne-ma mentioned
Kaylee?” Winston prompted.

“Ne-ma mentioned a
grandniece once. They lost touch, but I think her name is Kaylee!
Kaylee Wright!”

CHAPTER
FIVE

“She's awake now,
Sheriff. You may speak to her for a few minutes. Just a few
minutes,” the doctor said pointedly. “The patient needs
to rest.”

Winston nodded. He might be
the Sheriff, but he knew the good, no-nonsense nurses wouldn't
hesitate to kick him out of the patient's room if he didn't follow
the doctor's orders.

He waited until the doctor
and nurses have all left the room before going to Kaylee's bedside.

Pulling up a chair, he began
slowly, “Miss Wright, my name is Winston Knight, and I'm the
Sheriff of Shadow Point. I'd just like to ask you a couple of
questions.”

Kaylee gave a small nod. Her
arms and legs were heavily bandaged and there was a band-aid on her
forehead. Her face was purplish and swollen but she was conscious
and coherent.

“Can you just tell me
briefly what happened before the accident?”

Kaylee took a shuddering
breath and rasped, “He d-dragged her...to the car. I was
driving by when I saw him pull her out of her shop and push her into
the car! The w-wolf…he's a wolf!” She jerked and
turned to Winston. “Is she okay? The woman...”

“Yes, Lorni is okay.
She's injured, but she's alive,” Winston assured her. After a
pause, Winston went on, “You saw a man dragging Lorni Jones out
of her shop. Is that correct?”

“Y-yes.”

“Can you describe the
man?”

“He...he's a wolf! He
c-changed into a wolf, and escaped...”

“A wolf shifter.”

Kaylee nodded jerkily.

“Can you describe the
man and the wolf?”

“Huge, black, yellow
eyes...I mean the wolf. In human form, he had the same yellow eyes.
He was stocky, and he had lank black hair...” She grimaced.
“I can't remember what he was wearing...”

“That's okay. Thank
you. You've been very helpful, Miss Wright.”

Kaylee's lower lip trembled.
“I just wanted to stop him,” she whispered. “I
didn't intend to crash into the car. I just wanted to overtake him,
and help the woman...”