Read Wanted By The Alpha Lion (Heroes of Shifter Creek 2) for Free Online Page B

want a young, posh city girl uncovering the treasures of the frontier. But as she outlined a drawing of the man-beast in her sketch pad, she began to wonder if perhaps the local authorities had known the secrets within the sand, secrets they wanted to stay buried.
                  But why a tiger? Unless... her mind began to race, growing excited. Perhaps the man-beast was not some ancient creature legends were created around, like she originally assumed based on numerous mythologies she had encountered in her studies. Perhaps this man was someone who had travelled from Asia, or had ancestors who did. Perhaps he was connected to the lost settlers she was looking for...
                  “Hey sunshine,” a deep, sexy voice greeted, popping his head into the tent.
                  “Derek! What if I had been changing,” Krista protested, though truly she’d jump at the chance to be naked around Derek, to feel his piercing blue eyes on her curves and his sturdy lips trailing kisses down her skin. Hot cowboys were hard to find in the city, especially ones with the gentle but authoritative nature Derek encompassed.
                  “You’re practically naked as it is, so why would it matter?” he returned with good humor, smiling brightly under his oversized cowboy hat. “What you got there?”
                  “Nothing,” Krista said and she quickly closed her sketch pad. “Just being creative.”
                  Derek Shiloh was rugged and handsome, but she barely knew him. He was a local rancher who had befriended her one day when he was out looking for a lost cow. They’d made polite conversation, and since then he came to visit her often, claiming he didn’t like her camping out on her own, a sense of protection glinting out of those piercing blue eyes of his, made bluer by his tanned skin.
                  That’s what she had told him – that she was camping and collecting mineral deposits. It was a half-truth. She was a scientist studying the land. But it was people she was hoping to find, not minerals. People hunting raised questions. Minerals did not.
                  Krista probably could have trusted Derek with the truth, before her find. He was sincere, his need to protect her real. But she couldn’t tell him now, not with a man-beast lying so near. He may not understand like she did. Years of reading Native American legends had prepared her, eased her into the possibility that shifters existed. If she showed Derek the bones of the man-beast, his whole sense of reality could be destroyed. He wanted to protect her, but she wanted to protect him just as much.
                  Derek held his hand out. “The sun is going down. Come join me in the shade. I brought some brew.”
                  Krista gladly accepted his hand and followed him out of the tent. Standing next to him, she was reminded how tall and strong he was, built like a mountain of muscle, muscles that peeked through his navy blue T-shirt and jeans. As he reached down to put a six pack of beer into her cooler, she couldn’t help but glance at his broad but firm behind.
                  They don’t make them that good in the city , she thought.
                  “Over there,” Derek said, pointing to a rock formation nearby, holding the cooler. “There’s some shade over there.”
                  Allowing him to take charge, she followed him to the shade. It was blissful, much cooler than her tent, but Krista couldn’t relax. Sitting with her shoulder pressed against Derek’s was electric. They were so close, a section of her long glossy brown hair cascaded over his T-shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind.
                  “To new friends,” Derek toasted, cracking open a beer and handing it to her.
                  “To new friends,” she said as he opened his