Alpha Lion: BBW Lion Shifter Paranormal Romance Read online

  * * *

  The kids turned out to be a big help—having six people instead of three meant that the move went incredibly fast.

  Sam made sure she had a chance to talk to each of them separately, and they all seemed friendly, although Victoria and Liam were typically teenaged-monosyllabic most of the time. Travis, on the other hand—

  “Dale and Lynn are like, if your mom and dad could karate-chop assassins through the floor and then threaten to send you to military school,” Travis said cheerfully, as he and Sam shoved an armchair into the elevator. “It’ll be cool to have an alpha around who’s more normal.”

  “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” was all Sam could think to say, but it made Travis laugh, and then they were occupied with squeezing themselves around the chair—overstuffed, comfy, and the only piece of furniture Sam was really attached to—in the tiny, tiny elevator.

  Pretty soon, they were driving the U-Haul across the city and repeating the process in reverse, which involved a lot more heavy lifting but still went faster than Sam could’ve dreamed.

  Although there were a few hiccups. “Do not just dump boxes anywhere,” Dale snapped at Victoria on their third trip up. “There’s a list for a reason.”

  “Victoria,” Sam cut in, seeing her face crumple a little, “can you come help me bring up the bookcase?”

  Victoria looked at Dale to see if it was all right before she moved, but he took a deep breath and nodded. She followed Sam out the door and down the stairs.

  “Sorry,” she said after a minute. “I didn’t mean to mess up the system.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Moving is stressful. I’m just grateful you guys are here helping at all—actually,” Sam said with inspiration, “I want to take you out to lunch sometime in the next couple weeks. I’m doing it with all the younger pride members.”

  It was even sort of true already. She and Dawn had gone out a few days before, and once Dawn had stopped apologizing, they’d had a nice talk.

  Sam knew better than to think she could make Dawn have friends in the pride, but maybe if Dawn had a good relationship with her, she’d feel more confident overall.

  “Oh,” said Victoria, surprised. She smiled. “Sure. I mean, none of us really know you.”

  “Believe me, I know,” said Sam, as they left the building and went up to the U-Haul. “And I don’t want to barge into your lives and start telling you what to do. I’ll just barge into your life and buy you a sandwich first, how does that sound?”

  Victoria laughed. “That sounds great.”

  It was so nice, Sam reflected, to have laughter in her life again, to be able to relax and make jokes and know that things were going to be all right. To be able to offer to buy someone a sandwich without worrying that it would kill her food budget for that day.

  “Great,” Sam said. She looked at the bookcase. “Let’s haul this up some stairs, then.”

  Dale met them halfway up and helped them the rest of the way, and then once they were inside, said, “That was the last of the heavy stuff.” He glanced at Sam, and said, “How about a short break before the rest of it?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Sam said, wondering if Dale was worrying about how she was doing. He didn’t need to, if so: she didn’t feel sore at all.

  But then Dale said, “Victoria, do you want to show me what you’ve been learning with Lynn the last couple of weeks? I haven’t had a chance to stop in the advanced classes and see.”

  Victoria’s face lit up. “Sure,” she said, and the next thing Sam knew, they’d cleared a space in Dale’s living room and were sparring lightly.

  “This is new, you know,” said Lynn, coming up beside her.

  Sam looked over at her. “What is?”

  “Before, he would’ve snapped at Victoria and not realized he needed to make it up to her, or not known how.” Lynn shook her head. “He’s always tried his best, but there’s a lot of things he never learned from his parents, and I’m not the best person to teach him; we clash when I try, mostly. But you’re helping him see how it’s done.”

  Sam blinked back tears, and smiled instead, to express the swelling feeling of joy inside her. “Thank you, Lynn. I’m going to try my best, too.”

  Lynn gave her a rare, small smile. “You’ll do fine.”

  * * *

  Eventually, every box made it into Dale’s apartment. Pizza was ordered, the teenagers inhaled it like starving...lions, Sam guessed...and decamped in someone’s mom’s car to go to someone else’s mom’s house and play video games. Lynn left soon after, saying something about nesting lovebirds that Sam was just as happy not to have heard very well.

  Then it was just Sam and Dale, alone in their apartment.

  They grinned at each other. Dale, Sam had noticed, was smiling much more broadly lately. It lit up his entire face, and somehow managed to make him even more gorgeous than he already was.

  “Well,” Dale said, after they’d just smiled at each other like lovesick idiots for a few minutes, “are you ready for a night at home?”

  Sam closed her eyes for a second in bliss. Home. “Yes, and I think I know what I want to do with it.”

  Dale raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

  Sam smiled and started down the hallway to the bedroom.

  When she was at the door, Dale caught up with her and pressed her against the wall. “You didn’t answer my question,” he whispered into her ear.

  Sam tried not to squeak when his hair tickled her neck. “I think I want to spend the night here,” she turned in Dale’s embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck, “with my gorgeous,” she leaned up for a kiss, “strong,” kiss, “brave,” kiss, “loving mate.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Dale whispered into her mouth, and then kissed her for real.

  Sam hoped she never got used to it, that for the rest of her life, she’d melt in Dale’s arms when he kissed her like this. The kiss was so deep, so passionate, that her knees turned to water, and only Dale’s arms were holding her up.

  He pulled her into the bedroom with him, and lay back on the bed with her on top of him. “Welcome home,” he said, and drew her down into another spine-melting kiss.

  “Mmmm,” Sam sighed into his mouth, and then pulled back to strip off her shirt, and then her bra.

  Dale reached up to cup her breasts in his hands, and rubbed his thumbs slowly over her nipples. Sam moaned as he pinched very, very lightly, and then just a bit harder—and then just a bit harder…

  “Oh, God,” Sam said finally, “enough, enough, I need—” She needed to get her pants off.

  She pushed off of Dale and unbuttoned her jeans, and then got distracted when Dale kissed her just below her navel, and then pulled her hands out of the way and kissed the little triangle of skin exposed by the undone button.

  “Dale!” Sam admonished, although not very seriously. “I’m trying—” He licked the patch of skin, and then bit very lightly. “Oh, I’m trying to get them off—”

  Dale lifted his head and said, “Don’t worry, they’ll come off,” and then took the zipper between his teeth and tugged it down.

  Sam’s panties were lace; she’d dressed in practical clothes for the move, but had been thinking about this moment when she got dressed, after the moving was done and the clothes came off...Dale kissed her through them, not quite far enough down to get to her vagina yet, but enough to make her hips lift towards his face.

  He sat back up suddenly, grabbed the waistband with each hand, and tugged. Sam’s jeans peeled right off, and he snagged her socks at the end, and suddenly she was naked.

  His golden eyes were hot, dragging up her body to her face. “You’re so beautiful,” he said.

  Sam was blushing, she knew it—but she was getting better at remembering that her body was Dale’s favorite thing to look at. Instead of looking away or curling in on herself, she spread her legs—and then, feeling daring, reached down and dipped her fingers between them, just touching her clit.

  It
felt amazing, the way the first touch after forever of being turned on always did, but even better than how it felt was the effect it had on Dale. His mouth dropped open, and his eyes fixated on her fingers instantly.

  “Holy shit,” he said, sounding a little strangled.

  “Do you like that?” Sam asked, feeling a little shy but mostly beautiful and...powerful. It was almost like being in her lioness form, knowing that her body was this amazing, gorgeous thing.

  And that she could make Dale’s face do that with it.

  He nodded slowly. Sam moved her fingers, stroking them over her clit, and he swallowed. “It may be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Sam said, and stroked herself again, trying to contain her shudder. Pretty soon she’d be losing control, but for now it was nice to be driving Dale crazy for once, instead of the other way around. She moved her fingers lower, stroking over her opening.

  “Oh, God,” Dale said, and his voice sounded a little hoarse. “As much as I wish I could watch you do that all night, I really need to touch you now.”

  Sam lifted her hands. “I’m okay with that.”

  Before she was done speaking, Dale had his own fingers stroking down her clit—harder and faster than Sam had been going, and she stifled a surprised shriek. Oh God, it felt good.

  Dale pulled back for just a second—Sam made a sad noise, she couldn’t help herself—and stripped off his shirt.

  “Just one second, I swear,” he said, and got rid of the rest of his clothes at lightspeed, and then put his hands back where they belonged.

  He had big hands, and they were warm and a little bit rough in exactly the right ways. Sam was soaking wet, and Dale traced his fingers over her entrance before pushing one slowly inside—and then when that one went in easily, he glanced up at her face as he pushed in a second one, slowly.

  “Feels so good,” Sam murmured, not wanting him to worry he was going too fast.

  He took her at her word and started moving his hand inside her—he stroked his fingers against her G spot from one side, while his other hand pressed gently on her lower stomach, working her from the inside and the outside at the same time.

  Sam moaned as the pleasure built inside her, moving her hips against Dale’s hands, chasing each wave of sensation.

  There came a point, though, where it just wasn’t enough—she couldn’t come just like this, she needed something against her clit.

  She really didn’t want Dale to stop, though, so she reached down herself, figuring from his reaction earlier that he wouldn’t mind.

  He more than didn’t mind—when he saw her reaching, he said, “Do it. Unless you want me to—”

  “No,” Sam said. “Don’t stop. Let me just—” She snaked her hand past Dale’s hand on her stomach and rubbed her clit. Just one touch had her clamping down around Dale’s fingers, and she tossed her head back as she stroked herself harder, wringing sensations from her body that were stronger than she’d ever felt.

  “Come on,” Dale said hotly, watching her hand and thrusting faster and faster with his hand. “Come on—”

  Sam shrieked as she came, her muscles locking down around Dale’s hand in an earth-shattering orgasm. Dale massaged her through it—her own hand was useless; she could barely even remember how to move her fingers.

  But Dale kept her going, spasm after spasm after spasm, until she was twitching through the aftershocks into the beginnings of something more.

  In fact, his fingers still felt so good, and she was so wet and relaxed—she reached up to tug at Dale’s shoulder, and said, “Inside me.”

  Dale’s eyes snapped up to her face. “Are you sure? You’re not too sensitive?”

  “Now,” Sam said, letting her legs fall further open.

  Dale’s eyes were aflame. “Your wish,” he said, and drew his fingers out of her, shifted up on the bed, gripped her hips with his big hands, and thrust into her in one long stroke.

  Sam moaned high and long—his cock dragged right across her G-spot, but it was so much thicker and longer than his fingers had been.

  And now he was right up here with her, his arm coming down right next to her head to support himself. She pulled him into a kiss, wrapping her legs around his hips and opening her mouth to his tongue.

  “I love you,” he gasped into the kiss, and started to move.

  Sam was still twitching from her last orgasm, but Dale’s thrusts caught hold of those little leftover spasms and propelled her straight toward the next one.

  “Oh,” was all she could say, as he pushed into her and she contracted around him. “Oh. Oh!”

  “Do you need…?” he asked, and shifted so he could get a hand between them and brush his fingers over her clit.

  “Yes, oh God,” Sam whimpered, and he pressed hard against her clit, rubbed it in time with his thrusts, and it was just another few seconds before Sam tipped over the edge again, that easily.

  This orgasm was less violent, but no less intense; Sam could feel her nails digging into Dale’s back as her body clenched in pleasure. Dale kept moving inside her, prolonging the waves of sensation until it felt like she was drowning in pleasure.

  “Oh,” she sighed again as it subsided. “That was—amazing.”

  “Good,” Dale panted. Sam looked at him—suspended over her in the lamplight, his hair falling into his face, his eyes glowing gold, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

  “Come on,” she said, feeling overwhelmed by tenderness, wanting him to experience the same indescribable pleasure she’d just felt. “I love you,” she said. “Let go.”

  He gasped in air and started thrusting, and she wrapped herself around him and moved with him—and, impossibly, felt pleasure building inside her again, faster than she’d thought was possible.

  Up and up and up, so quick and intense, until Dale thrust in close and came inside her with a long groan, pressing in so hard that he rubbed right up into her clit, and Sam came for a third time.

  Eventually, they separated, panting for breath. Sam stared at the ceiling—her ceiling. Her bed. And her mate next to her, coming down from making love with her.

  “I love you,” she said, brushing a hand down his bicep.

  He caught the hand and brought it to his lips, and kissed each of her fingers. “I love you,” he said. “I can’t wait for the rest of our lives together.”

  He pulled Sam into his arms, and she closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of her mate.

  The End

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list.

  Please click on the title to write a review of Alpha Lion. I love hearing what my readers think! It helps me decide what to write next.

  Page down to read a special sneak preview of In the Billionbear’s Den.

  The cover of Alpha Lion was designed by Belle Arden.

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