Jaguar's Kiss (Lone Pine Pride) Read Online Free PDF Page A

have deflected, turning the conversation back to light topics, but this was Patch.
    “I don’t have to. But I will.” She sighed and dropped her empty into the bucket, taking Patch’s as well and handing out the next round. “Do you think that makes me a coward? Because I’m always doing the easy thing, trying to make everyone else happy?”
    “Is that always the easy thing?”
    It wasn’t. Trust Patch to know that. “I don’t please people because I’m scared to be myself.”
    Patch looked at her, the gold of her eyes gleaming a little in the darkness. “You aren’t a coward, Lila. Where’s that coming from?”
    Santiago . “It’s nothing. Just something someone said.”
    “Well, someone is an ass. It takes a brave woman to sign on to be the Alpha’s mate.”
    Lila took another swig of beer. It was darker than she liked, the taste sharper than the fruity ales she preferred, but tonight she liked the bite. She didn’t feel brave. She didn’t know what she felt. Not how a bride was supposed to feel, that was for sure. “I don’t know why I’m not more excited. I get to plan a wedding. And force you to wear a dress loaded with ruffles and flounces.”
    Patch ignored her attempt to goad her with bridesmaid dress hell. “You don’t love him.”
    “I don’t see how that matters. My parents don’t love each other. It’s never been a problem for them.”
    “You aren’t your mother.”
    “No. More’s the pity.”
    A white fence appeared out of the darkness beside them. The elk enclosure. They’d come farther than she thought.
    “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
    No, Patch was her staunchest ally. She would never say what Lila always thought the pride elders were thinking. That Lila didn’t have her mother’s strength. That she didn’t have her poise and intellect and leadership ability. That Lila wasn’t Alpha’s mate material at all. That she was just a girly pleaser who could play the role when it was easy but would buckle under the first real threat.
    “I just meant that you’ve always wanted to be in love,” Patch explained. “Ever since we were kids.”
    She had. It was almost embarrassing to admit, since she’d known since birth that no fairy tale prince was going to sweep her off her feet. She had a role to play and falling in love wasn’t part of it. “Maybe I’ll fall in love with Roman. He’s very…” She couldn’t think of anything. He was handsome. He was smart. He was strong and powerful. He was everything a lion should be. “He’s a great man.”
    He just never looked at her like she was even remotely special. He looked at her like a duty. She supposed there was affection there, but no interest. No passion. No heat. He didn’t look at her like…
    Like Santiago looks at me.
    Lila squashed the thought. That wasn’t lust. Santiago didn’t even like her. At least Roman felt affection for her. She could build on affection. Maybe she could even fall in love with him—though it was harder to imagine him falling in love with her.
    That was it. The icy stone of fear lodged inside her heart. Her husband would never love her. No matter how many people she pleased or how pretty she was or how wonderful he was or how much she learned to adore him, Roman would never see her as worthy of love above all others.
    Lila whirled and chucked her empty bottle as hard as she could toward a fence post. It struck dead center, shattering in a magnificent shower of glass. And her brief flash of rage instantly deflated. “Crap. I should clean that up.”
    Patch caught her arm when she moved to set down the bucket. “You aren’t cleaning up broken glass at night with your bare hands. We’ll get it in the morning.” She reached up and gently removed a red ribbon from Lila’s hair and went to the fence, her hiking boots crunching in the glass, and tied the ribbon around the post. “There. X marks the spot.”
    Patch picked up the bucket, handing her a fresh beer and they walked