Better Late Than Leopard (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Sunset Valley Book 2) Read online

  Better Late

  Than Leopard

  By Alannah Blacke

  COPYRIGHT

  ©2015 Alannah Blacke

  Better Late Than Leopard

  All Rights Reserved worldwide.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without permission from the author. The author respectfully asks that you please support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this book at the authorized online outlets.

  This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Some may be used for parody purposes. Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

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  Better Late Than Leopard

  Ella screamed in terror at the sight before her.

  Charlie, her ex-boyfriend, was stumbling backwards, doing his best to fend off the wild leopard with a wicked looking hunting knife. The blade seemed to gleam in the light from the house as he waved it back in forth in front of him.

  The leopard paced him, taking a step forward for each step he took back. It was crouched down low, the lips pulled back to show off the huge, sharp teeth, ready to rend flesh from bone the moment they clamped down on something. The snarls and snaps came in a constant, unending stream.

  Her scream seemed to get through to both the animal and the leopard, with both turning their heads to stare at her, frozen mid-motion. If she had been scared before, what happened next left her speechless.

  The leopard stood up, altering its shape and size in seconds, beginning to resemble that of a man. A man she knew intimately.

  "Jake?" she asked breathlessly, her eyes and her mind telling her conflicting stories. Part of her was denying what she just saw, while the other half was telling her that it truly had happened the way she saw.

  "Whoa man, that's messed up. This dude just stood up from nowhere. And what happened to the dog?" Charlie was slurring his words, obviously in the middle of an epic drinking session. Ella had no time to deal with him, nor was she interested.

  "Go home Charlie. You aren't needed here, so go home and get some sleep," she snapped, pointing back up the street.

  "How did you get here anyways?"

  "Cab. Now, can we go home?" he replied, completely nonplussed with the way she was treating him or her tone of voice. Snorting in disbelief at how she once thought she loved him, Ella pointed again back up the driveway. At that last, he turned and began to walk away, the knife falling out of his now listless grip. If Ella had been in the right frame of mind, she would have questioned how easy it was to get him to go.

  Once he was out of sight, Ella turned her attention back to Jake. He looked up at her and began to open his mouth.

  "No," she said, fuming over his lies and terrified of what she had seen. "Just stay outside while my friend comes to get me, okay? I can't deal with this right now."

  She slammed the door in his face, locking it behind her. She knew he had keys, but if he respected her at all, he would stay there until she could leave and not try to force himself upon her. Right now she couldn't deal with this revelation and having to explain her ex-boyfriends presence as well. Ella was just too embarrassed and shocked by everything to have a coherent conversation about it.

  Lucy didn't pick up the first time, but answered the phone just as it was about to go to voicemail the second time.

  "Hello?" she said, her voice bleary, as if she had been asleep. With a start of surprise, Ella looked over at the clock, realizing just how late it was.

  "Listen, Luce, it's El, I'm so sorry but I need you to come back and get me." Lucy had dropped her off, because Ella's car was in the shop. She hadn't planned on needing a ride anywhere, for her and Jake had discussed her spending the night and him showing her his shop tomorrow. It seemed like that was now out of the question and she was in need of a way out.

  "What? Why?"

  "I'll tell you on the way home. Suffice it to say, things were not what they appeared. Please Lucy, I need this." It was rare that Ella actually asked for help, which made the fact that she was doing so now more urgent to her friend. Judging by the change in her voice, the point had gotten through.

  "I understand. I'm on my way."

  Ella hung up the phone and began to pace through the house. It would be half an hour at least before Lucy could be expected to be here. It felt so awkward to know that just outside the door Jake was sitting there, wondering what was going on. She contemplated going to talk with him, to try and understand what the heck she had witnessed.

  She just couldn't though. Whether it was fear of what he was, anger at the fact he had never told her, or something else entirely, every time she thought about it, her body seemed to freeze up. It was as if part of her that she couldn't control was preventing her from doing the logical thing.

  When Lucy called her to say she was waiting outside, Ella gathered her things and prepared to leave. Looking out the peephole, she couldn't see any sign of Jake, only the car sitting in the driveway. With a deep breath she pulled open the door and made a run for it.

  "Ella!" The voice came from behind her, but she did her best to ignore it. Tears streamed down her face as she remembered how she had left Charlie's place not so long ago, only to discover she was doing it all over again with someone she had thought was different. She had thought she was done with the fleeing and lies, but apparently they were destined to follow her everywhere.

  With the car in gear and hauling it out of there, Lucy reached down into the center console and handed her a still-warm hot chocolate.

  "You're a doll, thank you so much." Ella took a sip of it, relishing the warm liquid. It was just what she needed right now to relax.

  Jake

  He watched the car roll up the road and out of sight. The leopard within him was screaming at him, telling him to chase her down and force her to listen, but Jake knew better. This was a human problem, not an animal one. Simple brute force would not work with convincing Ella, like it might a mate in the wild.

  So all he could do was watch in anguish as the woman he had thought he was fated for drove away. He continued to stare up the road long after the taillights had disappeared into the forest surrounding his property.

  The forest.

  With a growl, Jake turned and charged for the nearest treeline. As he moved, his strides became swifter, his legs more powerful, and his entire body began to change. Just before he reached the first tree, he leapt forward, landing on all fours as his leopard charged recklessly into the trees, his only concern being to put as much distance as possible between him and the house.

  He ran for what seemed like an eternity, simply pushing himself to his limits and beyond, letting his anguish and anger bleed off, until he could think straight. Once his thoughts began to coalesce a little more rationally in him, he made a course correction and set off towards his destination. It was late, but he had a feeling that wouldn't matter.

  A short while later, he emerged from the trees into a clearing that was mostly occupied by a small log cabin. He shifted once again, standing up on two legs for the first time in a few hours.

  "Max?" he called out, after verifying that there were still lights on in the cabin.

&n
bsp; "Jake, is that you?" The reply came wafting out through an open window. The voice sounded somewhat distracted to him, which meant that his friend was likely at work on some new piece or another.

  "Yeah, do you have a beer?"

  "Fridge," was the only word that came back. With a smile, Jake let himself inside and grabbed a pair of beers before heading into the back of the cabin. Max's workshop was back there, though it barely consisted of more than a chair, table and a few tools here and there. Still, the two of them had spent many an evening conversing as he worked, so it felt perfectly natural. It was exactly what Jake needed at that moment.

  "She didn't seem to know," he said, sitting down on the spare stool that Max always kept there for him. His friend hadn't even looked up from his work until he said those words. The meaning was heavy enough to get through even to Max though, who stopped what he was doing and looked up, setting his tools down.

  "The site is supposed to cater to us Max. How is it she didn't know? How did she even find it?" That was the truth of the matter for Jake right now, he had thought Ella was just not talking about the subject because she wanted to know him for who he was, not what he could do. Now though, it turns out perhaps she had never known all along. Then, when he had shifted in front of her, she had found out in the worst possible way. Their entire relationship might be over now, all because of one misunderstanding.

  "She didn't take it well, did she?"

  Max may not do so well with society, Jake thought, but he had no problems with sharpness, immediately picking up on the problem at hand. It was one of the reasons why the two of them got along so well. They simply understood each other, needing to speak as few words as possible.

  "She left, without even giving me the chance to talk. I thought it was because of what had happened, but now I wonder if she's scared."

  "How did she find out?"

  "Her ex, that Charlie guy, was drunk and showed up at my door. I was going to just scare him off, but he had a knife and was yelling about making sure she could never run away from him again. So I tried to get rid of him without harming him." A silence hung for a moment there while they both drained some of their beer, Jake gathering his thoughts while Max simply waited.

  "I guess I thought the leopard was the best bet to keep her safe."

  "Looks like you guessed wrong."

  Jake snorted. "Thanks Max, you're such a good friend. I wouldn't have shifted in front of her like that if I had known she was in the dark about it. I would have raced off, then returned and told her about it in person."

  Still, he had to admit that he had almost cracked a smile at the comment. Sometimes he wondered how much Max said off the cuff, and just how much of it was well thought through. His friend would never answer though, it was just part of who he was.

  He sat back and watched while Max returned his attention to the log in front of them. It was a long time before he left for his house, the moon already high in the sky. The morning would come soon, so he wanted to get as much sleep as possible. Although his heart ached at the sight of the covers still rumpled from earlier, sleep came easily to him. Shifting so often along with all the running he had done had left him exhausted.

  ***

  He barely waited until it was a decent hour in the morning before he called Ella. Jake wasn't expecting her to pick it up and she didn't surprise him. After leaving a brief voicemail, saying only that he wanted to talk, to explain things, he hung up. She hadn't been to the store yet, but she knew where it was if she wanted to see him.

  The shop was booming again, with one of his regular clients displaying their new wolf collection and a brand new shifter trying his services. There hadn't been a slow day since he had returned almost a month ago, nor was today going to buck the trend. Max was there shortly after he was to help him prepare. Due to the extra traffic in the store, Jake had been forced to practically hire Max on full time.

  Thankfully his friend didn't care, going about it with his customary cheerfulness. If anything, Jake thought, this was actually helping Max, forcing him to interact with people on a regular basis. Perhaps, one day, he might be able to turn the store over to him.

  On his lunch break, with the store closed down momentarily, he tried calling Ella again. This one didn't even make it to her answering machine, indicating that she had ended the call once she saw it coming. Dejected, he went to throw his phone back into his locker. Just as he was closing it, he heard the phone go off. Someone was calling him!

  "Hello, Ella?" he said hurriedly into the phone, not even glancing at the number. He didn't get too many calls and he assumed it was her finally calling back.

  "Hello? Is Jake Masterson there please?" The voice was male and most definitely not Ella. His heart sank and he didn't respond for a moment.

  "Speaking," he replied in a dull, monotone voice.

  "Jake this is Doug over at Aerodyne Construction & Design. I've got a project for you."

  "I'm not interested." The last thing he wanted now was to accept another design contract somewhere out of Sunset Valley. He needed to be here in case Ella agreed to meet with him or came by the store. If he missed even a single opportunity to reconcile with her, he wasn't sure he could deal with the consequences.

  "Let me tell you the pay, then you can decide." Without waiting for a response, Doug named a sum. It was not inconsiderable, in fact, Jake had to pause for a moment to seriously consider turning this down. Still, he had enough money to survive for now, he didn't need this.

  "Double it." On the off chance they were crazy, he decided to test the waters. If they accepted, it would be more money than he had ever seen from one job before. It was unlikely though, because nobody commanded those rates, not even Jake Masterson.

  "Done. Can you be here tomorrow?"

  "Give me forty-eight hours. I have to settle a few things here first. Send the information to my email."

  They hung up, and Jake went looking for Max, to give him the news. His friend took it without flinching, never really worrying about anything as usual. Jake felt just a tiny bit smug when Max's eyebrow's rose when he asked him to look after the store while he was gone.

  "Yeah, just leave me the keys," was his only response though. Apparently there were limits to how much he could surprise him. With the first smile on his face in hours, Jake returned to work for the day. He would examine the email and requests later, over dinner perhaps. For now, he was going to enjoy his last day in Sunset Valley for awhile.

  As he packed up his bags, he checked his phone constantly to see if Ella had called him, texted him, emailed him, anything at all. Each time he read 'No Notifications' though he became more and more depressed. Finally he just tossed his phone onto the charger and left it in another room.

  He was trying to make things right, but she wasn't having any of it. Until she changed her mind, if she ever did, there wasn't much more he could do. Jake was used to being on his own, even if he had preferred life with Ella in it. After a quick change in plans, he threw his luggage in an airline cab and left for the airport a full day earlier than planned.

  Ella

  The long car ride home with Lucy seemed to take an eternity. Although she had promised to tell her friend exactly what had happened, the words just never came. She was having a hard time reconciling everything with what she knew of reality. The tears at his deceit eventually came though, and she sobbed quietly to herself for most of the second half the journey.

  Like the amazing friend she was, Lucy took her to the motel she had been staying at. They both crashed there for the night, unwilling to do any further driving. In the morning Ella knew she would have some explaining to do, but for now, sleep claimed her.

  ***

  When the morning rolled around, she woke early, dressing and heading to the small diner attached to the motel. She grabbed breakfast for the two of them and headed back, closing the door just as Lucy was getting up.

  "Morning, I got us some breakfast, so rise and shine." She tried to put som
e chipper-happiness into her voice, almost succeeding in the attempt as well. They sat down to eat the eggs, bacon, and toast.

  "So what the hell happened last night Ella? I've tried to be patient, but I mean, you haven't said a word yet!" Her friend wasn't mad, just worried for her, wanting to know what was going on.

  "I've been trying to find the words, but no matter what I come up with, you're going to think I'm crazy when I tell you. Then you'll probably call some mental institution and I'll be done away with." She almost started crying as she voiced her concerns, unable to stop her eyes from watering. Blinking them away before they could fall though, she continued.

  "I saw him do something that shouldn't be possible for any human being. Something that I've only read about in books or seen on TV Lucy. It scared me half to death."

  "What did? You're obviously distressed over it and you weren't wasted last night, so you must have been seeing straight. What was it?"

  Taking a deep breath, Ella put down her fork and sat back in the chair. It was now or never, she had to tell her friend at some point, it was burning her up inside not to be able to speak of it. She started to tell Lucy about how the whole thing had gotten started, with Charlie showing up, Jake leaving, then how she had gone to open the door.

  "When I opened it, there was Charlie, drunk as all hell, waving this massive knife around. I was about to scream at him, until I saw what he was waving it at."

  "Which was?" Her friend was so focused on the story now she couldn't even wait for Ella t o take another breath of air.

  "There was this massive leopard in front of him, all snarls and bared teeth and such. It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen in my entire life."

  "A leopard?! Here in Sunset Valley? Are you sure Ella?"

  "I told you, you wouldn't believe me. That's not even the craziest part." Her friend leaned back, arms folded while she waited for her to continue. She was doing her best to hold in an outburst, Ella could see that clearly, but the comment about not believing her seemed to have hit home.