The Alpha Awakening

chapter 3

Lyra knocked at Shani’s door with a smile. She’d been naughty in Caius’s office and he’d never know.

Oh, he might find the dirty handkerchief in his drawer and assume it’d been used, but she’d know. After her little self-pleasure moment in his office, she’d ended up using his private shower.

“You look like the cat that ate the canary,” Shani laughed. “What did you do?”

Lyra shrugged. “Nothing. I’m just happy it’s Friday.”

Shani raised a brow, bouncing little Max in her arms.

“Do I look like I was born yesterday?”

She giggled and wiggled her fingers, ready to take baby Max for herself.

Her lioness purred the moment she had the little cub in her arms. Man, she wanted babies so badly. If only her damn cat wasn’t obsessed with Mr. Geek and would look at other shifter males. No way in hell was she mating him.

“So, how was work?” Shani asked in the living room. “Hey, where are Taylor and Tiana?”

“The twins are asleep,” Shani said and raised a glass of wine filled with fruit punch in a toast. “The only one awake is alpha baby over here.”

She glanced at Max and fell in love with his big brown eyes. They reminded her of Caius’s sexy chocolate eyes.

The baby gurgled and gave her a toothless grin. She hugged him and inhaled the scent of baby and lion cub. Both her human maternal instinct and her lioness sighed.

Her biological clock was hammering the need for kids over her head and she wasn’t even mated.

“Lyra!” Shani exclaimed. “Are you listening to me? I asked how was work.”

“Same old.” She grinned, unable to suppress the memory of what she did in Caius’s office.

“Doesn’t look like it to me. You look guilty.” Shani sighed. “Remember that Caius is a good guy. Your brother had to talk to him to get you a job.”

She knew that. Caius had known Nick all through college and helped Nick learn to build his money, to make his wealth work for him. Heck, Nick, Shani, and the kids were set up for life thanks to Caius.

The man was a genius when it came to the stock market and finances. She bounced Max on her lap. “I know. I’m doing my job. I chose to stop working at Nick’s security business because I got tired of getting shot at by stupid humans. Hunting and capturing the bad guys was exciting, but my lioness wanted out of that kind of business.”

Shani nodded. “You lost your patience a lot.”

“Yeah, well, there were a lot of really dumb shifters that wanted to be protected and did the exact s**t we told them not to do so they wouldn’t put themselves in danger. A person can only do so much before realizing these morons like the attention.”

She’d quit on Nick. He had been so understanding, telling her he understood. The truth was once she realized she would rather hurt some of those clients herself than protect them, she knew there was a problem.

“I do my job when it comes to Caius. He has no complaints.” She was the one having a hard time not riding him on his office chair. She wanted to yank down his pants, scratch his chest and watch his black-rimmed glasses fog up from the heat they’d create. But Caius was human. And she didn’t have it in her to go there with him.

Do it. Just one time. Just once.

“Are you excited?” Shani refilled her fruit punch and passed a glass to Lyra, who raised a brow. “Don’t look at me like that. If I have to drink fruit punch, so do you.”

“What is it you think I should be excited about?” she said, rocking Max back and forth. He’d gone quiet and his eyes started drooping.

“Lyra, really?” Shani shook her head. “The party Caius is having this weekend. He’s invited every employee and client.”

“Oh, that. Meh. I’m not sure if I’m going,” she said softly and lowered her face to Max’s and brushed a kiss on his dark head.

“You have to go!” Shani exclaimed.

She glanced up and met her sister-in-law’s serious gaze. “Why?”

Shani turned away and then gave her a guilty look. “We already said you would.”

“What? Why?”

“Caius looked so excited to have you there. It was hard saying we didn’t know, so we said yes for you.”

“Shani!”

Shani winced. “Sorry. But yes, now you have to go.”

“Well, at least I’ll have you guys as company.”

Shani glanced down at her glass. “Oh, come on! You’re not going? What the hell will I do there if you guys aren’t coming?”

“Mingle? Maybe meet a single man? Heck, you never know, you might meet your mate.”

She growled and stood. “I’m putting this cutie pie to bed.”

Once she laid the baby down, she stood by his crib and watched him. Caius and his geeky glasses and bow tie came to her mind. Her lioness purred and whined, pushing at her skin.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

No! No! No! The damn feline was not getting the picture. Caius wasn’t her mate. He was a weak human she could mash in the throes of s*x. All she had to do was scratch him and he’d be mortally wounded or end up in the hospital.

She couldn’t live with herself if she killed him.

So change him. That wasn’t guaranteed to work. He could die. She wasn’t taking that chance.