Authors: Clara Moore
Romance: Wanted by the Alpha Lion (A BBW Paranormal Suspense Romance) (Heroes of Shifter Creek Book 2)
©Copyright 2015 by
Clara Moore
- All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
I have included a bonus collection just for you. Those stories are more traditional romance stories and are at the beginning of the book and therefore if you want to jump straight ahead to the main story of this book, click the link.
Click Here to jump to “Wanted by the Alpha Lion”
Hunter Shipman looked like he was asleep. He was clearly very comfortable, seated on the front porch of his sprawling ranch home with his boots propped up on the railing. His well-muscled arms were crossed over his chest, which steadily rose and fell slowly, in time with his deep, regular breaths. A khaki-colored Stetson angled down over his face, perfectly positioned to keep the early morning sun out of his eyes.
But Hunter’s blue eyes weren’t closed, and the cowboy was most definitely not sleeping. He was wide awake – wide awake and watching. From beneath the brim of his hat, Hunter had his gaze fixed on every move Peony Washington made as she went through her morning workout routine.
Peony was the younger sister of Petunia, a stunning woman who had, for some reason Hunter couldn’t fathom, agreed to marry Hunter’s brother Seth. There were three more sisters besides, all named for flowers: Pansy, Poppy and Primrose. Their mother was an avid gardener, but Hunter was sure there was nothing she grew in a flowerpot that was half as gorgeous as her five daughters.
Peony had come down from Virginia for the wedding a week ago, and Hunter had been instantly smitten. Peony was beautiful, a tall, dark girl with a lush, curvy body that made him weak in the knees. She was graceful, too, moving with an exotic ease that Hunter found intensely erotic.
Most of the women Hunter knew in Texas moved with a purpose. They had things to do, people to see, places to be, and their every motion revealed they were driven by an agenda. They hurried even when they were sitting still.
Peony was different. She took her time always, easing her way through life with gentle gestures; smooth, fluid and almost arbitrary; it was sometimes as if Penny had no will of her own and that instead an external force determined that she’d wave with her right hand and not her left; that she’d walk this way, rather than that.
Her exercise routine consisted largely of stretches; Hunter thought he recognized both yoga and ballet poses. His eyes widened when she stood on one foot and pulled the other up behind her, leaning forward to balance herself with an outstretched arm. It wasn’t a move she’d seen many big women do, but she eased into the position as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Studying her silhouette, Hunter became convinced of two things. The first was that Peony was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. The second, judging by the swelling he’d seen in the lower part of her stomach, was that the beautiful girl who’d captured his heart without even trying was undoubtedly pregnant.
He’d done a little questioning, trying to find out what he could about Petunia’s gorgeous sister. Poppy, the most vivacious of the bunch, happily volunteered the fact that her older sister was single, and appeared to be on the verge of sharing more on that topic when the girls’ mother, Mama Rose, had shushed her forcefully.
“If you’re curious about my daughter,” the short black woman had said, looking Hunter up and down with an appraising eye, “go and talk to her yourself. I’m sure she’d be happy to answer your questions.”
“That’s not all she’d be happy to do…” Poppy started, falling silent again when her mother gave her a look.
Seth wasn’t much more help. “I know she works in costume design,” he said. “Off-off Broadway kind of stuff. There was a play in Norfolk she did; Petunia and I were supposed to drive down, but we couldn’t get away.”
That’s as far as Hunter had gotten in his inquiries. That didn’t mean the conversation had stopped. Petunia had wasted no time in letting their sister now he future brother in law had been making inquiries; she’d pulled her sister aside to discuss this vital development.
“Seth says he’s a good man,” Petunia said. “He’s got this ranch. He’s good looking. And he’s interested in you.” Petunia embraced her sister, placing one hand on each of her shoulders. “Isn’t it time you had some sort of worthwhile man in your life? Someone who could give you some kind of stability?”
“I’ll talk to him,” Peony said. “But I’m not making any promises. Unless he’s a real stand up guy, I’m not interested. I don’t know about this whole cowboy thing.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Petunia asked. “Try it, you might just like it.”
The wedding photographer had been engaged for a week. He had lots of ideas, one of which involved the entire wedding party having their photos taken on horseback.
“How this is going to work,” Petunia explained, “Is that we’re going to have a few shots taken here, in front of the ranch, and then,” she reached out and took Seth’s hand, “my sweetie is going to lead us all on a little trail ride to a scenic spot he knows. We’ll take a few more pictures there.”
Seth’s side of the family took this announcement without one eyelid flickering. A morning spent on horseback was nothing new to any of the Shipmans; while Hunter was the only one of the boys who still worked the ranch, they’d all grown up in the saddle. Petunia’s family was another story. She smiled at the dismayed faces that greeted her announcement. “Come on, you guys,” she urged. “This is going to be fun.”
Hunter was fully aware that his brother spent exponentially more time behind a desk than on a horse. “Where are we headed on this trail ride, little brother?” he asked. “Some of the terrain round here’s changed a bit since you’ve been around..
eth blushed scarlet. “I was thinking we’d go up on the bluff, where we saw the boars that time?” Something in his little brother’s voice touched Hunter, and he remembered exactly when they’d seen the boars – neither of them had even been twelve years old when a morning ride had brought them unexpectedly between a Mama sow and her brood of young ones. It was an encounter that could have very easily gone badly, but the boars had been just as startled as the boys, and after a few minutes of awkward staring, each group had bolted back in the direction they’d come from. “Do you remember?”
Hunter suddenly fully realized how important this wedding was to his little brother, how much time, effort, and energy he’d put into making sure everything was perfect. He gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “That’ll be right pretty,” he said. “You’ll get some good pictures out of that.”
Seth gave Hunter a nod, and in that moment, the brothers knew they were seeing each other in a way they hadn’t in quite a while.
“You’re not getting my black behind on no horse,” Mama Rose suddenly proclaimed. She turned toward Petunia. “I know that’s what you want for your pictures, baby, and I’m sorry. But I don’t know the first thing about no horseback riding. I don’t know how to drive the damn things or nothing.”
Petunia smiled. “Mama, don’t you worry. I knew you were going to say that, and my baby’s got you covered.” Seth nodded toward the tree line, and one of Hunter’s many cousins emerged on a four wheeler. “Check it out. You can ride up the trail in style.” Mama Rose looked pleased.
“And when it’s time for the pictures, we’ve got a special horse picked out just for you. Her name is Daisy.” Mama Rose looked less pleased at this, but Hunter grinned. Daisy was the old, gentle mare they used to take the very smallest children on their first rides; it would take her the better part of an hour to move ten feet. “I promise you it’s going to be okay.”
“I wish she could make me that promise,” Peony muttered under her breath.
“What,” Hunter asked her. “You don’t like horses?”
“It’s not that I don’t like them,” she replied, with a smile that made Hunter’s heart skip a beat. “It’s just that I haven’t had much of a chance to find out whether I like them or not.” She looked down at her curves. “Besides, I might just be a little too big for any pony you’ve got around here.”
Hunter snorted. “Trust me, that’s not going to be a problem.”
Peony slid her hands over her stomach, in an almost unconscious gesture. Then she looked around, anxious to see who might have seen her make that motion. Luckily, everyone’s attention was elsewhere. Everyone’s, that is, except for Hunter.
“If you’re worried about what I think you might be,” he said, “I can promise you that won’t be an issue.” He reached out and took Peony’s hand for a moment. “I’ll put you on my own mare, LouLou. She’ll behave every step of the way. And I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”
Peony’s eyes searched Hunter’s. “You can’t know,” she said.
“I can guess,” he replied.
“And that doesn’t bother you?” Peony said.
“Should it?” He let go of her hand. “If there’s somebody…if I need to step back…”
Peony shook her head. “There’s nobody.” She laughed. “I mean, obviously, there was somebody. But not like…well.” Her face fell, and she looked at her shoes. It was the most heart breaking thing Hunter had ever seen. He had to strain to hear her words. “Not the way there should have been.”
“Hey,” Hunter said gently. He slid his fingers under Peony’s chin, carefully forcing her gaze up to meet his. “Life is funny. There’s no such thing as what should have been. That doesn’t exist, outside of our minds. There’s only what is, for real, right here and now.”
“That’s easy to say when you’re a good looking rancher who’s got everything,” Peony snapped. “But when you’re looking at life as a single mother…and I don’t even have a real job yet; it’s just freelance contract work.” Tears filled her eyes. When Peony looked at Hunter, a single drop slid out, fat and shining. She angrily wiped it away before it had a chance to reach her cheek. “That’s my here and now.”
“No,” Hunter said. He shook his head. “Your here and now is a beautiful morning in the Texas hill country. You’ve got a chance to go for a ride on one of the best looking, best tempered mares between here and the Rio Grande. You’ve got a cowboy ready, willing and able to meet your every need…”
“That’s you?” Peony asked. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but it came close. Hunter couldn’t help but notice how she checked him out in that moment, taking in his broad shoulders, the way his arms filled out his shirt sleeves, and, for one breath taking moment, the way his jeans fit. “Because meeting all my needs could be a pretty tall order.”
“I’ll do my best,” Hunter said. “That’s what I do.”
“That’s all anyone can ask,” Peony said. Her gaze dropped, and Hunter wasn’t sure if he’d said something wrong. Then she looked back up, with a brave, bold, confident smile. “Why don’t you introduce me to Miss LouLou?”
LouLou tended to be a one-man horse; she got a little skittish when anyone but Hunter got too close to her. But with Peony, she was different. Hunter was pleased to see how she behaved like a perfect lady, using her lips to delicately take a sugar cube from Peony’s flattened palm.
“So soft,” Peony breathed. She turned toward Hunter. “Is it okay if I pet her? Like on her face?”
Hunter laughed. “She loves to be scratched between the ears,” he said, demonstrating the affectionate gesture his mare craved. Peony mimicked his gesture, and squealed in delight when LouLou lowered her head and came closer to get more love.
“She likes me!” Peony said. She turned to Hunter, wide eyed. “That’s amazing!”
“I told you she was a good girl,” he said. “I was there when LouLou was born. It was just after Christmas, and we had a hell of a time getting her Mama to stay in the barn. She wanted to be out with all the other horses. You’d see her hopping a fence this high,” he held out an arm at shoulder height, “so she could get back with her friends.”
“She did that when she was pregnant?” Peony asked.
“Swollen out like this,” Hunter said, bowing his arms out around his sides. “It didn’t stop her a bit. She wasn’t going to let a little old thing like being pregnant keep her from seeing her buddies.” He laughed. “You’d think you had her safely squared away in the barn, and then you’d be driving by the pasture, and there she was, out there having a good time.”
Peony laughed. “Did she have a hard time giving birth to Miss LouLou?”
Hunter shook his head. “I shouldn’t tell you this. But no. She didn’t have any trouble at all. She had her head in the feed bucket right up to her eyeballs the whole time.” He laughed again. “By the time dinner was done, there LouLou was.”
“Well, you’ll have to get me some of that feed when my time comes,” Peony said. She sighed. “You know what? It feels so good just to talk about it with somebody.”
“A baby’s an awfully big secret to keep to yourself,” Hunter said.
“It’s not that I meant to be all secretive with it, you know?” Peony turned away, so she was talking more to LouLou than to Hunter. “I’d meant to tell Mama at least, but then Petunia had her news, and this wedding, well.” She shook her head. “It’s pretty much taken over all of our lives.”
Hunter nodded. He’d spent an amazing amount of time being fitted for tuxes; the first look Petunia had chosen wound up not being good enough less than a month before the wedding. “I hear you.”
“And back home, everybody’s into everybody’s business,” Peony continued. “If one person finds out, the whole town’s going to know. And everything gets back to Poppy. She can’t keep her mouth shut for love or money.” She shook her head and looked down. “She even heard DeShawn was going back to prison before I did. You’d better believe she was blowing up my phone with that news. ‘That man of yours can’t stay out of jail for twenty minutes, can he?’”
“She didn’t know you were pregnant,” Hunter said.
“Hell, I didn’t even know I was pregnant,” Peony said. “DeShawn and I. Well. We started seeing each other when we were kids. But he’s dumb. He makes dumb decisions. And I’m trying to make something of my life.” She looked Hunter in the eyes. “When he came around this last time, I told him it wasn’t going to work out between us. I mean, we said goodbye the way we did. But when he left my place that night, we were done. Still friends, but done.”
Hunter nodded.
“Two days later, he’s headed back to jail anyway.”
“What did he do?” Hunter asked.
“The man hadn’t driven a car for what, five years?” Peony laughed. “So obviously, the right thing for him to do is volunteer to be somebody’s getaway driver. They knocked over a little bodega, he’s behind the wheel. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?”
“Umm,” Hunter said. “Did he crash?”
Peony laughed. “It wasn’t quite that bad, but no, he didn’t crash. They got him before he even made it to the highway.” She shook her head. “He didn’t even drive half a mile.”
“Maybe he wanted to go back to jail.”
“That’s what everyone said,” Peony agreed. “After a while, guys get to where they don’t know how to live outside, on they own.” She shrugged, and Hunter found himself staring at the way her shoulders knifed elegantly upward through the air. “What I think is that he thought I’d have all of his business handled for him. He wanted a place to stay, his bills paid, the whole bit, while he got himself reacquainted with the neighborhood.”
Hunter snorted. “It didn’t take him long to get reacquainted even without you carrying him.”
“We are what we are,” Peony said. “I think that’s what I’ve learned from this experience. A player’s going to play. A good guy’s going to stand up when it’s time to stand up. And there’s no amount of hoping that’s going to change one into the other.”
“Is everybody ready?” Petunia shouted, from the end of the barn. “The photographer wants us all down by the driveway to get the best light.”
“We’re coming,” Hunter called back. He turned to Peony. “Are you ready to saddle up?”
“Are you sure it’s going to be all right?” she asked. Hunter could see that even though she was trying to be brave, there was a little bit of fear in Peony’s eyes.
“I promise,” he said. “My girl won’t let you down.” He helped Peony into the saddle, and manfully resisted the urge to feel her legs while he adjusted her stirrups. Then he swung up into Wally’s saddle, and rode up close to Peony. “Do you want me to take the reins and lead her, or do you want to ride for yourself?”
“What do I need to do?” she asked.
Hunter quickly demonstrated with Wally’s reins. “Do this to turn right, and this to turn left.” The big roan moved gracefully beneath him. “When you want to stop, pull back, gently, and say, “Whoa, honey.” LouLou’s ears pricked up at the sound, and they both laughed. “She knows that means stop. And we won’t be going that far, or that fast.”
“I’ll give it a try then,” Peony said. “If you’ll lead the way, we’ll follow.”
“Your wish is my command,” Hunter said with a smile.
While Peony’s first riding lesson went smoothly, the photographer’s plans didn’t. Peony’s sister Petunia had been on horseback enough to hold her own, but Pansy and Primrose were clearly terrified. Poppy, on the other hand, had been drinking all morning, and in her case, it was the horse that was terrified. They’d put her on Snowball, a gentle gelding who generally had a laid-back attitude, but by the time Hunter and Peony arrived at the photoshoot, Snowball had his ears back and his eyes were wide.
After a few quick casual shots, the photographer tried to get everyone to line up for some staged photos. Simply getting the horses into a line proved to be too much for Poppy. She pulled back too hard on Snowball’s reins. The mild mannered horse sat down on his haunches, dumping the big woman on the ground.
There was a lot of screaming. “That horse tried to kill me!” Poppy shrieked. “Did you see him rearing up?”
Her boyfriend, a quiet man who never seemed to have much to say but perpetually had the flask at the ready for his sweetheart, pulled Poppy to her feet and started to lead her away. “I told you this whole horse thing was a bad idea,” he said. “Come on in the house and I’ll make sure you’re not all bruised up.”
“I better not be bruised up,” Poppy announced to the world at large. “If there’s one mark on me, I’m going to have that dangerous beast put down!”
“Well, that went well,” Petunia said, after Poppy and her partner were out of earshot. Everybody laughed, except the photographer.
“We’re going to have to adjust some of what we had planned,” he said.
“Adjusting is what we do in this family,” Petunia replied. “We’ll do what we can, and what we can’t, we can’t.”
Hunter saw Seth admiring his wife to be in this moment, and smiled. The fact his little brother could appreciate Petunia’s take-charge attitude was a good sign of happy years to come, he was sure of it. Over the course of the next hour, the remaining members of the wedding party lined up in different poses while the photographer snapped pictures. During this time, Peony was growing more and more comfortable on LouLou.
“That’s a wrap, everybody,” Petunia announced, when the photographer was finally satisfied. “I think we’re going to take a pass on the trail ride thing.” She cast a concerned glance at her mother, who was sitting in the shade. “Mama’s getting tired.”
“Oh,” Peony said. “That’s too bad.”
Hunter cast her a surprised glance.
She smiled and shrugged. “What? LouLou’s a sweetheart. I wouldn’t mind going for a little ride.” LouLou shifted her feet beneath her and Peony’s smile faltered for a minute. “As long as it’s not too rough of a ride, that is.”
Hunter smiled. “There’s no law that says we need everyone else with us to go for a ride.” He chuckled. “I do live here, after all. I know all the prettiest spots.”