Alpha Lion: BBW Lion Shifter Paranormal Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

you’ve got plenty of time to fill out your membership form.”
    “Membership?” Sam asked, suddenly unsure. Membership sounded like something that had unavoidable fees. “Maybe I should talk to Dale—”
    “He’s busy right now, but he took care of everything,” said the girl. “You’re all paid up, you just need to fill out the registration information and you’ll be all set.”
    “Oh,” said Sam. All paid up . Well, but Dale had said he was part-owner, so hopefully he hadn’t had to pay any actual money on her behalf. She thought about insisting on seeing him anyway and making sure, but…
    She’d been afraid all night last night, tense and waiting for the guys to come back. Nothing had happened, but she’d been exhausted by halfway through her shift…and then too anxious to fall asleep when she got home.
    She couldn’t keep this up. She at least needed something to help her feel like she could deal with another attack, so that she could keep living her life.
    “Okay,” she said. “Let’s see the forms.”
    “Great!” The girl produced a few sheets of paper and handed them to her. “I’m Dawn, by the way. It’s wonderful to meet you—Dale said some nice things about you.”
    Sam blushed hard. She wondered if this young, thin girl was a part of the pride. Did they hire non-shifters at the studio?
    Not that that was any of her business. She distracted herself by filling out the forms. Name, address…emergency contact. She hesitated for a second, and then just put her mom. She’d want to know if anything happened, at least.
    Dawn excused herself for a second while she finished the forms, and when she got back, she had an older woman in a workout outfit with her.
    “Lynn Callahan,” the woman said, holding out a hand. “I hear you’re my new student.”
    “That’s right,” said Samantha, liking her no-nonsense attitude. “I apologize for it being so last-minute.”
    “No trouble,” said Lynn. “Any friend of Dale’s is a friend of ours.”
    “You have to tell us how you made friends with him, though,” Dawn put in, leaning forward. “He’s such a workaholic, he never makes friends.”
    “Dawn,” said Lynn—not sharply, but with authority.
    “Sorry.” Dawn flushed pink.
    Why, Sam wondered, wouldn’t Dale have any friends? Did the pride not count? “Dale helped me out of a tight spot,” she said, not wanting to get into the whole story. “He suggested that self-defense classes would be a good idea, to keep anything like that from happening again in the future.”
    Dawn opened her mouth, glanced at Lynn, and closed her mouth.
    Lynn just said, “Self-defense classes are good idea for anyone. Do you have any experience?”
    Sam shook her head. “Complete newbie, sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize,” said Lynn. “That’s what the class is for, to teach people what they don’t know.”
    “Then I’m ready to learn,” Sam said.
    “That’s what I like to hear,” said Lynn, then turned as a door closed down the hall. “There you are.”
    It was Dale.
    He was just as gorgeous in the light of day—it was like he brightened the hallway just by his presence. He definitely filled it—his shoulders looked broader inside four walls than they had out in the open, and he was even taller than she remembered.
    He didn’t look too happy, though—he had a frown line between his eyebrows as he came toward them, quick and purposeful. “Lynn,” he said. “What’s going on here?”
    “We were just meeting my new student.” Lynn gave him a cheery smile.
    “Right.” Dale looked back and forth between Lynn and Sam. Sam gave him an uncertain smile.
    There was clearly something going on beneath the surface between Dale and Lynn here, and she wasn’t sure if it was about her , or what.
    But why would it be about her? Maybe Lynn was upset about the free classes. Sam hoped that wasn’t it, but if it was, she’d have to talk to Lynn out of Dale’s earshot and offer to back out. She