When A Lioness Snarls (A Lion's Pride Book 5)

C
opyright © March 2016
, Eve Langlais

Cover Art by Yocla Designs © February 2016

Edited by Devin Govaere

Copy Edited by Amanda L. Pederick

Line Edited by Brieanna Roberston

P
roduced
in Canada

Published by Eve Langlais

1606 Main Street, PO Box 151, Stittsville, Ontario, Canada, K2S1A3

http://www.EveLanglais.com

When a Lioness Snarls
is a work of fiction and the characters, events and dialogue found within the story are of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is completely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to digital copying, file sharing, audio recording, email and printing without permission in writing from the author.

J
eoff
, is a bit of a killjoy, a super cute one who gets furry on full moons.

But so does she.

Luna is everything Jeoff is not. Outrageous, outgoing, and violent. Very violent, and unafraid to go after what she wants—and she wants Jeoff.

Silly man, he thinks he can resist, but once a lioness sets her sights on a man, paws off! And if anyone thinks to try and take him… There’s a reason why the ladies of the pride win the yearly award for Baddest Biatches.

Fear the claw.
*Snarl
*.

* * *

T
his is the life
.
Luna didn’t care what anybody said. Nothing could compare to the enjoyment of sunbathing in a warm patch of sunlight while the chill of fall gripped the city outside.

She stretched on the fabric-covered pile of cushions, extending all of her limbs, practically purring in delight as the rays of brilliant sunshine streamed through the large plate-glass window of the condo.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The shocked male voice didn’t startle her. Noisy wolf. She’d heard him coming for a while. He really needed to work on his stealth technique.

Exhibiting a laziness that usually only a male lion could achieve, Luna opened an eye and peered at the man standing, arms folded over his chest, across the room. He glared—how cute. “Hi, Jeoff.”

“Don’t you hi Jeoff me. What the hell are you doing in my apartment? Naked.”

He’d noticed. Point. “I’m naked because it turns out you have a delightful afternoon spot, right about here.” She indulged in a long stretch atop the cushions that she’d yanked off his couch and upon which she lay with her arms and legs extended. The pose pulled her tanned skin taut. Tanned with no lines, she should add. She’d recently gotten some time on a beach for a job in the south. It was a shifter-friendly locale and clothing optional.

“You do realize that the folks in the building across from here can see straight in.”

How positively titillating. “Are they watching, do you think?” Luna rolled to her stomach and peered out the floor-to-ceiling glass window. She waved, but with the sun streaming in, couldn’t tell if anyone watched and waved back.

A heavy sigh let her know Jeoff still stood behind her. As if she could miss his presence. Jeoff wasn’t the kind of guy a girl could ignore. And not just because he reeked of dog. Dog as in a wolf shifter, not a true canine, although the two species did smell remarkably alike.

But she could forgive his furry fault because he was the standoffish hottie everyone wanted to bang. Like seriously, anyone with a pulse wanted to strip and ride Jeoff cowgirl style.

He had only himself to blame. Tall, much taller than her, Jeoff had broad shoulders but a lean build, an athletic build with defined muscle. He wasn’t like the lions in her pride, all beefed up and impressed with himself. While a touch nerdy with his glasses and three-piece suit—the glasses a bit of a superhero accessory to his public persona—Jeoff was all man. And an uptight prude.

“If your naked ass ends up on the Internet, don’t come yowling to me.”

“I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” she announced with a grin.

“Impossible,” he muttered. “Just impossible to reason with.”

“Don’t blame me because you can’t grasp the female mind.”

“The female mind is easy compared to that of a lioness. You’re all freaking nuts.”

“Why thank you.” Another sigh from him already? That might be a record, and another point.

“Why are you here?” Jeoff asked with an exasperation that had taken her under five minutes to achieve. The wolf proved such an easy mark to frazzle.

“I am here on pride business.” Luna flipped to her feet and padded toward Jeoff, leaving her sunny spot behind.

Don’t worry, my precious. I’ll be back.
The winter months were about to begin. She’d need all the sunny spots she could find for napping.

“Does your business always involve breaking and entering?” Jeoff asked as he turned from her and headed to his kitchen.

“Not always, but more often than you’d think.”

He stuck his head around the fridge door to ask her, “Because the job demands it, or because a certain kitty got curious?”

“Jeoff, that is so species-ist. I should totally kick your ass for that.”

He straightened out of the fridge and handed her a beer. “Kick my ass later. Get some clothes on and then you can tell me what kind of business brings you here.”

“I don’t need clothes to talk.”

“Maybe you don’t, but I refuse to listen while your coochie is hanging out.”

Some people could be such prudes. “I’ll have you know my coochie does not hang because I do Kegels daily.” Luna did a squat just to see him avert his eyes to the ceiling.

But he wasn’t completely uninterested. The bulge in his pants was too pronounced for that.

Well, well. Maybe Jeoff isn’t as immune as I thought.
And she really did wonder. She’d had her eye on the wolf for a while now, had even made a few overtures that he’d politely brushed aside. According to him, he dated only human girls because, “They cause less drama.”

Kind of boring really. But hey, his loss.

“Put some clothes on. Now.” Funny how a single guy in his early thirties could totally channel the voice and tone of a father.

Luna wasn’t a little girl, though. It didn’t take much to pounce him from behind and wrap naked limbs around him. She yelled, “A naked woman is touching you!” She totally couldn’t wait for him to freak out.

What she didn’t expect was to get flipped onto her back on the cushion-bereft couch with him poised atop her.

His eyes practically blazed. “Are you demented?”

She smiled. “Only when I take after my mother’s side.”

“And what did you inherit from your father’s side?”

“Ability to burp the alphabet in one shot.”

“That is not something I’d brag about to people.”

“That’s what my Aunt Zelda keeps telling me. Says my grandmother is probably rolling over in her grave. Which I see as a good thing. I’m sure she wants to stay in shape in case the zombie apocalypse comes and she needs to chase down brains for dinner.”

“I should know better than to try and have a conversation with a cat. You’re all impossible.” He rolled off her and got to his feet. Moving a few feet, he dropped onto a chair that retained its cushion. With his free hand, he yanked at his tie and loosened it. “Tell me why you’re here and then go.”

“Aren’t you going to beg me to put some clothes on?” Luna perched on the couch across from him, legs primly crossed, hands on her knees, shoulders back. The picture of perfect posture.

He kept his gaze trained on her face. “Naked looks good on you. So, no, you can stay that way. I’m good.”

Oh.
Point for him since he’d managed to surprise her, and dammit, he knew it judging by the twinkle in his eye and the deadly dimple in his cheek.

“Are you flirting with me?” Shyness wasn’t something Luna suffered from.

“I don’t date—”

“—shifters, and especially lionesses. I know.” She rolled her eyes. “I still don’t see why. We could have so much fun. No strings. Just hot, sweaty sex for hours and hours.”

“If it takes him hours to get you off, then he’s not doing it right.” For a moment, his eyes flared with fire.

“Don’t tell me you’re a two-minute wonder.”

“Whatever helps you not lust after me at night.”

“I don’t lust after you.”

“Says the woman sitting naked in my apartment. I know a dating service if you’re that hard up.”

At the implication Luna couldn’t get a man, annoyance burned. She leaned over and grabbed her T-shirt from the armrest it had landed on when she’d stripped earlier. Tugging it on, she noted his gaze a little south of her neckline once her head popped through the hole. She hid an inner smirk as she smoothed the fabric over her frame.

He might push her away, yet he wasn’t unaffected.

Just playing hard to get.

She could dig that, although she would admit she didn’t usually flirt with a man so blatantly. Luna preferred a more forthright manner. Usually of, “Hey, you’re hot. Wanna check out my ceiling?”

Her ceiling, his ceiling, either worked so long as he didn’t have a ceiling fan. Watching them spin made her dizzy.

“Check it out, Captain Prude. I am wearing clothes. Are you happy now?”

“Not particularly. Have you seen what’s on your shirt?”

She peered down and grinned. The shirt displayed a buck-toothed beaver, wearing lipstick, with the stamped words,
Pet My Beaver
. “Isn’t it cute?”

“I don’t recall the last beaver I saw being that hairy.” Utterly deadpan.

Yup, he’d totally noticed the trimming down south. “Want to pet it?”

Again, he went still, his eyes flashing with a wildness there one second, gone the next. “Enough with the verbal games. Let’s get down to business. Why are you here?”

“Word has it you’re looking for some missing wolves.”

“No idea what you’re talking about. The pack is perfectly fine.” As the alpha dude in charge of the small group of city wolves, Jeoff would know. And apparently, Jeoff lied.

Luna blew a raspberry. “Bullshit. You’ve got unexplained disappearances, and the way I hear it, the ones you are looking for aren’t the first ones to go missing. It’s not just your pack with that problem.”

Brow creased in a frown, Jeoff asked, “How do you know about the missing people? I haven’t released that information to anyone.”

She shrugged. “The pride has its ways.” She wiggled her brows and grinned.

Their ways consisted of Brody’s new girlfriend, who happened to be Jeoff’s sister, keeping them well informed of what happened in the small city pack.

“I still don’t understand why you’re here. The people who have gone missing are wolves, which makes it pack business.”

“A pack that abides by pride rules.” When predatory groups shared living space within an area, one always took dominance. In this case, the lion’s pride ruled, with Arik, their fearless leader, at the helm—and the lionesses to act as muscle.

“No rules have been broken. There is nothing to report. We have no evidence of foul play. No clue at all as to why they’re gone. I don’t see why the pride would get involved.”

“Because we’ve had people go missing too.”