Her Mane Men (Paranormal Dating Agency Kindle World)(20)

“How is that possible?”

“Really? You come from a family with people who speak to the dead, can move small things with their minds, and play the stock market a little too well, and you are asking how it’s possible?”

She had a point. I did come from a family of weirdos and a couple of drunks, which was why I lived in the city and not my hometown. I had no idea how they could do any of those things and was thankful on more than one occasion that I couldn’t do any of them, especially the dead people gig because, nope, I like to communicate with live people thank you very much and quite often not even them.

“But I can’t do any of those things.” My point was weak. My not being able to do those things didn’t mean spit in this context.

“And I can’t change into the king of beasts,” Roxanne added and had me thinking, could her daughter? The trouble she could get into once she sprouted fur. Oh my!

“He’s gorgeous,” I murmured as he shook his head, his eyes catching the light just so.

“Thanks.” And then Barry was back. Or, at least, human Barry. Technically, Barry had always been there. Or did the lion take over? Processing all of it was going to take a while. “Roxy, camera up, please.”

“Sorry, dear. Good call on the in-your-face method. I’d still be talking clans without using the words.” She was going on and on as if I were no longer there or there-ish, given I was only there via technology.

“She has a freaking necromancer in her family, and you were worried about her not understanding shifters.” He was mostly right.

“I do not have a necromancer in the family,” At least not that I knew of. Grandpa Joe was referred to as dark a lot, so who the heck knew anymore. If people could turn into animals, maybe Grandpa Joe could raise the dead. I officially lived in a world gone mad. “My mom just talks to dead people. Not the same at all.”

“Dead is dead. I gotta go.” He grabbed his shirt off the floor before kissing Roxanne on the cheek and caressing his daughter’s head. “Meeting. Say hi to the guys. You could do worse.”

Not the best endorsement ever, but I didn’t need one. My heart had already decided. I was just waiting for my brain to catch up.

“Bye?” I called out as he left the view of the camera.

“You know meeting meant watching the game.”

I hadn’t, but that sounded about right. “You’re married to a lion.” Because I was tired and bushes no longer needed to be beaten around. “Tell me all things.”

And tell me she did.





Chapter Eleven


I spend over an hour talking to Roxanne about her lion mate and how he was the alpha of their clan. It was then I learned my guys were also members of said clan and shit got real. I mean, accepting Barry was a lion was easy enough, but knowing Curtis and Parker were as well felt like too much.

It was three in the morning before I figured out why. It wasn’t that they got furry or that they could eat me in the less than fun way. No, all of that felt almost normal given my upbringing. It was the mating thing that had me on edge. Was that what they wanted from me? A mate? It was so much, so fast, and yet I knew in my gut that that was what we were meant to be. Waiting until a decent hour to go visit them near killed me.

I found myself knocking on their hotel room far earlier than was considered polite.

“Hello, beautiful. This is a surprise. We were just about to head your way.” Parker whisked me into a hug. Oh yes, he was glad to see me, from the pressure pushing against my middle. Good man.

“I was up early.” It wasn’t a lie. I got in a good two hours of sleep. It wasn’t even nerves, it was excitement. Like Christmas when you’re eight and waiting for Santa excitement, only, instead of presents, I was going to get to see my two lions and all the secrets would be out in the open instead of between us. It was going to be a good day.

“Excited about today?” Curtis asked as he pulled me from Parker long enough to embrace me in a bear hug—or was it a lion hug?

“I was.” I stepped back, taking them both in. Damn, I was a lucky woman. “I’m figuring today is the day you are going to show me your lions.”

It was a solid thirty seconds before either responded, my words not what they were expecting to hear from the reactions on their face. Good. Served them right for letting Barry be the first lion I saw.

“Ahh, so she told you, and you believe her, and you’re still here so that’s good sign?” Parker’s eyes never left mine.

“I wish you’d told me.”

“We were scared.” Curtis took my hand and squeezed it gently.

I mean, sure, if I just ran into a lion in the streets screaming and running and peeing myself would’ve been a thing, but how could he think I could be scared of them or that this was somehow a deal breaker.

“That I would run—break it off?”

“Yes. That.” Parker took my other hand. I was now sandwiched between the two of them, and it was perfect even if the conversation was one of the weirdest of my life.

“My family isn’t exactly what you would call normal.”

They both simultaneously leaned into the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply looking for what I had no idea, but it felt more information seeking than sexy to be sure.

“You don’t smell shifter,” Parker finally stated as Curtis nodded in agreement.