Heads or Tails: Lions in the City

By Celia Kyle

Quick & Furry: Love, Laughs, and a Bit of Rawr on the Go.

 

Werelioness Hilary Stewart is making her escape and nothing is gonna stop her. Except maybe a locked door. No matter, she's resourceful, she'll figure out something. When nothing comes to mind, she's thrilled to find herself rescued. After being a Colletti captive for nearly her whole life, it's amazing to find herself breathing air that isn't tainted with violence and anger. Instead, it's filled with the scrumptious scent of her heavily muscled, gorgeous, and possessive as hell werelion mate. Oscar freed her and now he's gonna belong to her… As long as the Collettis don't kill her first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Summerhouse Publishing
• Release date: Mar 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215686089

Celia Kyle

Ex-dance teacher, former accountant and erstwhile collectible doll salesperson, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Celia Kyle now writes paranormal romances for readers who: 1) Like super hunky heroes (they generally get furry) 2) Dig beautiful women (who have a few more curves than the average lady) 3) Love laughing in (and out of) bed. It goes without saying that there’s always a happily-ever-after for her characters, even if there are a few road bumps along the way. Today she lives in central Florida and writes full-time with the support of her loving husband and two finicky cats.

Book preview

1

Hillary really wished she had some sort of superpower. It didn’t even have to be one of the more known abilities. She’d be happy with something small and insignificant, such as being able to turn her finger into a metal key instead of a lion claw. Mainly because as she stared at a locked door, a key would be really helpful. A lion claw… Not so much.

She just wished…

Nothing. She wished for nothing. After sitting behind a locked door for over twenty years, she’d finally accepted that hoping and praying got her nothing. And yet… She’d heard the whispers and low growls, snatched a look at a newspaper blowing in the wind drifting across the street, and she the recognized the scent of fear that hovered in the air. Something had changed. And if she played her cards right, and waited for just the right moment, she might escape.

Or rather, she might have escaped had she played her cards right the first time around. But she hadn’t and so now she sat alone in her room staring at a locked door.

Which… brought her back around to wishing she had a superpower.

Hillary sighed and flopped onto her bed. It was one of the nicer ones she’d had over the years even if the location left much to be desired. The mattress was plush and soft with just the right amount of give without being too squishy. And bonus, the whole room was hers alone. Considering the first fifteen years of her imprisonment had been spent sharing a room with one half-mad werelion or another, this was heaven.

Mostly. It wasn’t quite so heavenly when the activities outside her room, and the sounds that came through the thick door, insinuated there was some heavy-duty movement going on. Not super surprising. She couldn’t count the number of times they’d changed location, but the situation seemed so very, very different than all the others.

In the past, Tony Davis—head of the werelion branch of the Colletti crime family—directed everything. In the present, Tony was behind bars.

Get your ass in gear! We need to get the fuck out of here! Johnny bellowed, and Hillary felt the vibrations in her bones. Damn, the big fucker was scared. And that guy… he was never fearful. Nothing ever rocked his boat. He was almost seven feet of rock hard crazed asshole.

I said get the fuck moving! Panic filled his tone. Then a heavy thud was immediately followed by an echoing crack of wood and her door bowed slightly, a thin line now bisecting the panel.

Obviously somebody did not have their listening ears on and Johnny was throwing things, or werelions, around.

Hillary rolled from the bed and padded to the door. She banged her fist on the solid wood and raised her voice to be heard. Hey! What’s going on?

And she heard… nothing. Not really surprising. Her jailers weren’t exactly happy about keeping an eye on her. When the responsibility of watching over the Colletti/Davis omega werelion was weighed against shooting and killing people, the omega thing tended to lose.

Hey, she would be happy to relieve them of their duty and waltz on out of the building, but they never took her up on the offer. Something about the boss being scarier than her. Whatever.

Another crash, this one shaking the entire wall and little bits of the popcorn ceiling rained down on her. She shook her head and dislodged the dust, sneezing when some tickled her nose. Seriously? She’d just washed her hair.

Her lioness whimpered and whined—concerned that Hillary was about to start some shit—but she totally wasn’t. The animal didn’t believe her and Hillary couldn’t blame the kitty. Her human half had gotten her into a lot of trouble over the years and she was ready to experience some more now.

Aldo! Is that you? You gotta stand up to Johnny, man. Don’t let him throw you into walls. You gotta demand some— A bellowing roar from Johnny cut off the rest of her statement and she crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for him to come snarling at her. The man was strong as hell and loyal to a fault, but… pretty dumb. And not even pretty pretty dumb. The guy had gotten into ten too many fistfights and that nose of his…