Like a Fox, Ridgeville Book 7

Published by Summerhouse Publishing. Like a
Fox. Ridgeville, Book 7. Copyright © 2013 Celia Kyle. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International
and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint
or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be
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Celia Kyle

http://celiakyle.com

This is a work of fiction. The characters,
incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s
imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to
actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely
coincidental.

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“
Love at first sight doesn’t exist. There
is, however, love after five orgasms in one boinking.”
—Maya
O’Connell, Prima of the Ridgeville Pride and woman in love. Alex is
such a giver…

The alluring, seductive scent of his mate
woke Gavin Mara from a dead-to-the-world sleep. He bolted upright
with a gasp, rock-hard cock stiff between his legs and a sheen of
sweat on his brow. He drew the flavors into his lungs, and he had
no doubt that his mate was a cat…and very, very close by.

He took a deep breath… Yes, she was a purring
lioness. He knew those underlying, feline scents. He’d been
visiting his sister Elise in Ridgeville ever since she’d mated her
werelion Brute, and Gavin had come to recognize the various
shifters the town held.

Lioness.

Would she roar for him? Or better yet,
purr?

The heavy aroma of breakfast from downstairs
in the Drool and Dine reached out to him, distracting him
momentarily. Well, his stomach, anyway.

Each time he visited his sister, he rented
the room above the diner, unwilling to share Elise and Brute’s
home. He liked the guy. He just didn’t want to listen to his sister
have sex with the gigantic lion.

Rushing from the bed, he scrounged around for
something to wear. He was spending his last week of peace in
Ridgeville, and he’d wanted to visit with Elise before he began his
job in Chicago with the Council. They’d hired him to be the
Director of Communications. He snorted. Tech support with a fancy
name.

Gavin tossed clothes around, sending T-shirts
flying as he hunted for something freaking clean to put on. God, he
should have taken his sister up on her offer to do his laundry a
few days ago. But he’d had a plan, a stack of quarters, and a
Laundromat down the street. Right. Digging into the bottom of his
suitcase, he came up victorious, clutching a semi-wrinkled, thin
T-shirt he’d forgotten about.

“
I Lick!
” was emblazoned across the
front in bright red letters.

His sister thought it’d get him a little
action since “all ladies like a little downtown lovin’.”

Another round of searching netted him a pair
of jeans with some sort of weird stain on the leg. He brought the
fabric to his nose and sniffed. Well, at least it wasn’t a toddler
by-product. He’d gotten enough of that from the pride Prima’s
twins. The fuckers were messy little things.

The A/C kicked on, and more of his mate’s
alluring scent drifted to him. Shit, he needed to get down there.
Now. Before she managed to get away from him.

Gavin rushed to the front door, slipping into
a pair of worn sneakers on the way, and then he was outside,
pounding down the metal steps.
Clang clang clang clang.
He
sprinted around the side of the building and raced toward the front
entrance.

He looked through the windows and scanned
faces while he ran, attention adeptly split between the space in
front of him and the interior of the diner. He recognized the
werebear owner, Seno, and his wolf mate, Alice. A few other pride
lions occupied the restaurant, as well as some rabbits and a wolf
or two.

He rounded a corner, and then it was only
three strides to the front door. He gripped the handle and
practically tore it from its hinges, the need for his mate spurring
him on. The slam of the metal and glass panel against the exterior
of the building had everyone inside falling quiet. The hush rolled
across the diner, and all eyes focused on him.

He stepped inside, took a deep breath and
drew more of his mate’s arousing scent into his lungs. She was
still here, her aromas concentrated within the room. They called to
him with invisible arms. Another step in. Then another. Seno, a big
bear of a man, rounded the counter. With a frown etched onto his
features, he closed the distance between them.

“Gavin.” The man’s growl was a deep
rumble.

He waved the bear away and inhaled again,
hunting for the source of the alluring fragrance. He moved to the
left, nose raised.

Seno cut him off. “
Gavin.
”

Gavin growled, curling his lip and baring a
fang. “Mine. Mate.”

His fox had taken over, the beast within
searching for the woman who belonged to him. To them.

The bear’s eyes widened, but he backed up.
“Gavin?”

Suddenly Elise was there, her attention
shifting from his shirt to him and back again. “You wore it! I’m so
excited.” His sister grinned and then frowned. “We should have
added ‘a lot’ to it. Or would that be false advertising? I don’t
want too much info, but we want to be accurate. Do you, you know,
do it a lot?” Elise gagged. “Never mind, even asking the question
made me throw up a little in my mouth. I take it back.”

Gavin squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring Seno
and Elise while absorbing the essence of his mate. He inhaled, let
the scent fill his lungs, and released it in a rush. It was
stronger now, and Elise carried hints of the aroma.

He grabbed his sister’s shoulders, leaned
down and ran his nose along Elise’s neck before pulling back.
“Where is she?”

“Where’s who?” Elise wiggled away from
him.

“His mate.” Seno answered her question while
Gavin fought for control.

Close close close.

Elise stilled. “Your mate? And I smell like
her?”

He jerked his head in a nod.

“Uh.” She glanced over her shoulder and then
back to him. “The only non-mated woman I’ve been around all morning
is Gina.”

Gina.
He let his mate’s name roll
through his mind, tasted it on his tongue.
Gavin and Gina.
Cute.
They’d name their cubs and pups Gabriel and Gemma. A big
“G” family.

Gavin followed his sister’s gaze across the
diner, and his attention fell on the corner booth packed full of
women. He recognized Maya (the pride Prima), Carly (a rabbit),
Maddy (a lioness) and Elly (a squirrel) all sitting together. But
there was a single, gorgeous, seductive woman he didn’t
recognize.

“She’s here?” He could smell the sudden case
of nerves that filled his little sister. “Elise?”

She nodded. “Yeah. The brunette next to
Maddy.”

It had to be her: the brown-haired,
hazel-eyed goddess hidden among the Ridgeville pride’s
troublemakers. He let his gaze linger on her long wavy hair, her
round face, wide eyes, pert nose, and lush mouth. The cut of her
shirt allowed him to see a hint of her abundant cleavage, and he
noticed more than one man appreciating the same view.

Gavin growled. “Elise? I need…” He
snarled.

“Okay, okay,” she stroked his arm and then
twined her fingers with his. “Let’s go.” A slight tug got him
moving. “No growling though. She’s had a rough time after Jenner
and all that. It’s been a year and a half, but… She doesn’t need
you being a meanie.”

He recalled the lion who’d tormented his
sister. Jenner had been living a double life as both a depraved
member of Freedom and a Ridgeville pride member. And the man had
dated Gina through it all. His Gina.

Even though Alistair McCain was dead,
courtesy of Ridgeville’s newest resident squirrel, Elly Karn,
Jenner was still in permanent custody by order of the Council.

“Never. I never would. I’ll make her so
happy, sis.” The closer they got, the more he saw. The small mole
near the corner of her left eye. A tiny scar on her chin.

Her beguiling scent grew stronger with every
step, slinking through him and wrapping around his cock like a
ghostly hand. He rapidly closed the distance between them, and then
she was there before him.

“Gina, this is my brother, Gavin.”

He extended his hand and she answered his
silent request, placing her fingers on his palm. The skin-on-skin
touch sent a bolt through him, a rough zing of electricity and
pleasure racing along his nerves.

“Gavin, this is—”

Gavin’s fangs burst from his gums,
lengthening in preparation of claiming his lioness. “Mine.”

*

Oh.

Oh wow.

Gina took a deep breath, drawing in the
scents of heavy oak, dirt, and all around deliciousness.

This. This is what a mate smelled like. The
feelings weren’t forced, and her lioness didn’t have to be
convinced. This was her mate. Her man. Their man.

With Jenner, she’d had to cajole the cat into
being happy with the male lion. She’d deluded the feline into
agreeing to be with him. And then… And then they had found out
Jenner had been working for his cousin Alistair McCain, the leader
of Freedom. He’d been one of the men who’d raped her new friend
Elise while Freedom held her captive.

But this guy…
Gavin.

Heat tingled through her with Gavin’s touch,
the warmth of his fingers somehow crawling deep into her body and
grabbing hold of her soul. He was her match, her other half.

He didn’t release her fingers, but held on as
he eased closer to her. She sat at the edge of the circular booth,
the rest of the women crowded in beside her.

With Gavin’s pronouncement—the single word
she felt all the way down to her essence—their corner of the world
exploded.

“Mate?” Maya screeched.

“I don’t think so, mutt.” Carly jumped
in.

“What does he lick?” Gina recognized the
laughter in Maddy’s voice. “Because if I wasn’t mated…” The woman
purred, miming a claw and scratching the air.

Gina snarled at the other lioness, baring a
fang. Hers. All hers.

“Well, no reason to get your vagina in a
bunch,” Maddy harrumphed.

When Gina turned back to Gavin, she found
heat and a bit of cocky bravado in his gaze. Jerk.

Sexy as hell jerk.

Where lions tended to be wide and heavily
muscled, her mate was long and lean. The man topped six feet and
was head-to-toe hotness. Beneath his thin T-shirt, she could see
the carved lines of his body. She wanted to nip each one, and by
allowing her tongue to transform a tiny bit, see how he liked the
cat’s rough lick.

A smile formed on his lips, and she returned
the expression. A small curl fell across his brow, the lock
catching the early morning light, and she restrained the urge to
brush it aside. His eyes sparkled a deep, dark brown. Not quite
black and not some blah color everyone else in the world possessed.
No, it was deeper, a hue that drew a person into its depths. Gavin
lured her with his gaze, pulled her in with the carved muscles that
coated his body and the seductive scent that flowed from him in a
constant stream.