Read A Tiger's Bride (A Lion's Pride Book 4) for Free Online Page B

family and certainly never a disaster her sister had ever managed.
    Point for me?
    No, because Meena evaded Dmitri’s plans.
    I, on the other hand, fell like a domino. Worse, I didn’t see it coming. I really thought he liked me. Thought he’d meant it when he said he would woo her and prove his intent.
    What a jerk, kidnapping her like this and marrying her on the sly. Making her his wife.
    His wife?
    Could a lioness giggle? Her inner feline certainly seemed a tad too pleased.
    His mate. The mental rumble vibrated through her body like a ghostly purr, one that left her senses alive.
    Are you going to stand up and assert your rights?
    “You can’t force me to marry you. Tell him.” She addressed the latter to the man dressed in a suit with a clerical collar of black and white, some kind of religious guy.  Surely he wouldn’t condone this farce. “Tell him it doesn’t count because I didn’t agree.”
    “You said I do,” Dmitri reminded her.
    “Because you told me to while I wasn’t even awake. It doesn’t count. And why is that priest ignoring me?”
    “Little kitten, if you calm down, we can—”
    “I will not calm down.” She lunged from the chair, only belatedly realizing the flimsiness of it.
    The plastic bucket chair with its metal legs, a relic from the seventies, cracked. The hand she’d used to push off slid as the plastic snapped, and she lost her balance. Tipping sideways, she threw out her hand, but her reflexes were still kind of woozy and she missed, hitting the floor with her shoulder then a ricochet of her head. Damned industrial marble floor.
    She lay there, at an angle, stunned, and also exposing a lot more leg than she should. Through squinted eyes, she noted her skirt riding high on her hip.
    Dmitri noticed too. Interest smoldered in his gaze, a gaze stolen by the collared man, who cleared his throat.
    How dare he steal Dmitri’s attention?
    Grrrr.
    Who growled?
    “Now, now, little kitten, give me a moment to deal with this obviously brave man, daring your vicious rage.”
    “I am not vicious.” Vicious was her sister.
    “I think you’re tougher than you know.”
    He’s right.
    Pounce him and give him some licks. Inner kitty just couldn’t keep her giant nose out of it. But she wasn’t alone in appreciating the compliment.
    With a flourish, the marriage license was whisked away and sealed in a brown envelope.
    “Make sure you file it today,” Dmitri ordered as he handed a wad of green bills to the priest. “I trust there is enough there to maintain your discretion.”
    “Always a pleasure doing business with your family,” the man replied.
    “Business? This is illegal,” she shouted, kind of annoyed at both of them for their blasé attitude.
    “Women. You can’t live with them,” the collared man grumbled, “and you can’t kill them without doing time. And they wonder why I joined the church.”
    “A man needs heirs, legal ones if he’s to leave behind a legacy.” Dmitri saw the man to a metal door and let him out.
    It was then she noted it was the only door in the room, although the term room was being generous.
    Getting to her feet gave a full perspective, not that there was truly much to see.
    The gray walls screamed utility space, as did the scarred white table, orange smudges, black rings, and scratches forever ruining the pristine surface. Around the table was scattered an odd medley of chairs. As if regurgitated from the seventies, orange plastic bucket seats, mixed with some dark blue and a few lime green ones, were haphazardly scattered.
    The one she’d broken lay in two pieces on the floor. It served as a reminder that even while sitting trouble couldn’t leave her alone.
    While a part of her seemed to think she should lay her head down for a nap—yawn—she knew that wasn’t a good plan. Even her woozy thoughts recognized a few important facts.
    One, alcohol hadn’t caused her slumber. She was drugged!
    Two, she was freaking married.
    And three,