Buying a Mate (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Quick & Furry Book 8) Read Online Free PDF

time or one hundred.
    “Keep the pictures. I have copies.” Her sister placed the strap of her purse on her shoulder. “You need to forget this little arrangement you have with this person, River. That company belongs to the Brownings—the true Brownings. Not in the hands of some bastard throwaway kid who only exists because a condom broke.”
    “Enough!” Taron’s bellow bounced off the walls. “You have two seconds to get the fuck away from my true mate or I’ll eat you for fucking dinner.”
    The words were scary, but the blast of fire that left his lips…yeah, that was even scarier.
    Then Theresa ran, Taron chased her, and River was left wheezing in the living room, mind spinning.
    True mate?
    Her heart thundered and threatened to burst from her chest.
    True mate?
    No way. No. Way.
    That was taking things too far, as far as River was concerned. She wanted a faux fiancé and pretend husband. She hadn’t mentioned true mates and…
    Her throat burned. And she didn’t expect the emotions that came with his words. Parts of her wanted his declaration to be true. The parts that cradled feelings for him and held them close. Not her desire—though she had that in spades—but beyond that. Beyond sex and into... Into something very close to deep emotion. Like, mate-ly emotions. Or at least, boyfriend-ish with a leaning toward forever feelings.
    But… but she was paying him to be hers, right? So it wasn’t real. It was a game taken a step too far and now her heart clenched with the memory of those words.
    “You have two seconds to get the fuck away from my true mate or I’ll eat you for fucking dinner.”
    She wouldn’t mind him eating her half-sister for dinner, but the true mate claim…
    River retreated to her bedroom and snatched the home phone from the cradle. She dialed her friend’s number from memory.
    The phone rang once, then twice, and then a panting Mari answered the phone.
    “He—” Gasp. “—llo?”
    Any other time, River would tease her, but now wasn’t the time for jokes. "How much did you pay him to say he's my true mate and why would you fuck with me that way?"
     

Chapter Five
     
    Taron knew human women were bitchy, but he’d never seen it up close and personal. He hadn’t appreciated how lethally directed that bitchiness could be, and what sort of devastation it could cause. Not until he’d seen how River’s sister wielded words to hurt her. He’d scented his mate’s distress on the air and seen red. The disrespect toward him didn’t bother him, centuries of scorn left him immune, but to treat River that way… To threaten her life then say she should never have been born.
    No fucking way was he letting that stand. Neither him nor his dragon.
    For a human, Theresa sure could run when she needed to. Over two hundred pounds of pissed of male dragon had that effect, and he hadn’t even changed form yet. She made it out the front door before he could grab her, so he shifted his throat just enough to send a burst of flame after her and then slammed the door shut.
    Anger and resentment of the Boston Brownings rolled through him as he stormed back into the living room to find…
    Nothing.
    The room was empty.
    “Son of a fucking bitch,” he hissed, stomping through the room as he followed River’s scent. Her distress was a taste that coated the back of his throat, the scent leaving a trail through the apartment a mile wide for him to follow. A curl of smoke escaped his lips as he snarled. Pity the bitch was fast, he’d have happily roasted her and hauled her crispy carcass back inside to show his mate.
    "How much did you pay him to say he's my true mate and why would you fuck with me that way?"
    The anguish in River’s voice stopped him cold. The words halted him in his tracks. Shit, had he said that? That she was his true mate? Oh hell, he had. And of all he’d said, she had to latch onto that detail. The one little thing he hadn’t wanted her to discover yet. Not until he’d