Loved by the Lion: BBW Paranormal Lion Shifter BWWM Romance by Zoe Chant

getting quiet too. "Kira?" he asked softly.
    She lifted her head with a murmur.
    "What do you want to do?"
    Kira thought for a minute. She knew what he was asking: now that they were mates, how were they going to fit their lives together?
    "My apartment lease is up in a couple of months," she suggested, and felt his lion rumble through his chest. Yes, good , her lioness responded, licking one paw contentedly. Mates should be together .
    He kissed her temple. "Sounds good."
    "I like your place better," she confided. She'd always thought of herself as a city girl, but now, the thought of Cole's acres to roam and protect was so much more appealing than taking the bus every day and seeing litter everywhere.
    His arm tightened around her affectionately. "Anything else?"
    "You mean, are we going to get married and have a litter of cubs?" The words would have struck her as ridiculous a week ago, but now they felt good and right for Kira to say even though she was teasing.
    "Only if you want to," he said generously, but she could tell he did want that – and she did, too. She knew with all her heart that they were going to be together forever.
    She nudged him with her toe and began to rise, pulling the blanket more securely around herself. "We have a long time to figure that out," she said, bending to give him a kiss.
    He caught her face in his hands tenderly and returned the kiss deeply. When they separated, he whispered, "And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."
    Her smile as wide as her face, she bustled to the kitchen to see if anything from her attempt at breakfast was worth salvaging. The coffee she'd poured out was cold and the bacon was burned, but Kira didn't mind. She could see the new, bright horizon of her future laid out before her, and she was excited to experience it all.
     
     
     
     

Bear Mechanic
    by Zoe Chant
    Special Sneak Preview
    Elise expected exhaustion to set in any minute, but the opposite happened. She felt jumped-up, like when she drank one too many cups of coffee.
    “Is that normal?” she asked as Noah led her upstairs.
    He flashed a grin over his shoulder that nearly sent her into a tizzy as he unlocked the door at the top of the stairs. “I try to keep my life as boring as possible. So I wouldn't know.”
    “You? Boring?” He was anything but.
    “I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. I came back from Afghanistan and just wanted to settle down.”
    Ex-military. That explained his perfect posture and short hair.
    When they stepped through the door, there was an immediate transformation of the space from “business” to “personal.” There was carpet on the floor she could sink her toes into if she were barefoot, and all the furniture was made with elegant dark wood, a far cry from the plastic and linoleum suffusing the waiting room downstairs. Inside were a tidy office space and an open door that looked like it led to a bedroom.
    He shrugged off his jacket, revealing a well-muscled figure beneath. His white T-shirt hugged his skin, showing off the defined muscles not of a gym rat but of someone who worked with his hands and body for a living. Her eyes were glued to the way the muscles in his back rippled as he hung his jacket on a hook.
    “You're welcome to the bed.” He nodded toward the bedroom.
    Elise bit her lip at the first thought that came to mind; that probably wasn't what he meant. “You don't need to do that.”
    “There's a couch in the office area. I'll be fine. The bathroom is right here if you want to change.”
    Elise sighed with relief. She'd gotten soaked before Noah had shown up with his umbrella, and she’d been stuck in damp jeans for hours.
    She left the door cracked open. As she peeled off layers of moist fabric, she asked, “Do you live up here?”
    “Yeah, I do.” Was it her imagination, or did he sound embarrassed? “For a few years now.”
    “Isn't it really loud?” She didn't know what kind of machinery was used in a garage, but every time she