The moment the kind and beautiful Daisy Martin applies at Shadow Security, lion shifter, Cooper Brooks, wants to make her his mate.
Except she’s terrified of shifters.
Daisy will never be his mate, but Cooper’s lion refuses to accept defeat. With his human and lion sides at odds, Cooper creeps toward madness.
Wanting a normal life, Daisy accepts the job for the money and her last-ditch effort to overcome her trauma. She doesn’t have to be friends with them, she just needs to overcome her fear.
But she never expects her boss, a large, tattooed, and certified badass lion shifter, to have such a soft and protective side. With patience and persistence, Cooper shreds her fears one by one, and when she realizes that only she can save him from insanity, their connection grows.
But when she’s caught between a dangerous cheetah shifter and his intended victim, Daisy confronts her biggest fear.
With Cooper’s help, can she conquer the shifter and her past?
* * *
For more information on the Shadow Security Series, go HERE.
For a FREE Ramona Gray short story, as well as excerpts of upcoming books and contests and giveaways, sign up for Ramona’s newsletter here
Chapter One
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cooper’s voice echoed in the empty room. He didn’t give in to his desire to simply slam his fist on his laptop, but it was a hard-won battle.
His lion barely moved within him. Normally if Cooper was pissed, his lion was automatically pissed too. But ever since he’d been shot three days ago trying to save his best friend, his lion had been… weird. Cooper wanted to chalk it up to the whole being shot thing, but he’d been shot before and it had barely affected his lion at all.
Using his left hand, he scratched clumsily at the beard on his throat. It was years since he’d gone longer than a couple days without shaving and his skin was already irritated and red. But it was bad enough that Wes would be helping him shower tonight, he wouldn’t ask him to shave him too.
He stopped scratching his irritated skin and switched to gingerly massaging his arm above the sling. After three days, he was ready to toss the sling and give using his right hand a go. It was bullshit trying to do everything with his left hand and he was over it.
He stared at his laptop, the automatic update that had started and cost him an entire two hours worth of work making his temper rise again. When the fuck would he ever remember to save the document he was working on? Daisy had reminded him numerous times to stop every twenty minutes or so and save his work, but did he? Of course he fucking didn’t.
Not even the mention of the receptionist at Cooper’s security firm stirred his lion. The beginnings of panic unfurled in his belly. Deep down he knew exactly what his lion’s apathy was about, but he had no idea what to do about it.
He couldn’t demand his lion stop believing that Daisy was his mate, just like he couldn’t demand Daisy to stop being terrified of him and his lion.
She’s afraid of all shifters, not just us, his lion growled.
At least that had stirred his lion out of his funk a little. It was right. Daisy wasn’t just afraid of Cooper - she was terrified of all shifters. Which made her decision to interview for a job at a security firm where she would be the only human just that much weirder.
Why would a human afraid of shifters want to work with them?
He had no idea and in the three months that Daisy had worked for him, he still hadn’t figured it out.
You should never have hired her.
Fuck, wasn’t that the truth. He one hundred percent agreed with his inner voice, but his lion… for one of the few times in Cooper’s life, his lion had surged forward in the interview and taken control, hiring the tiny auburn-haired human before Cooper could regain control.
From the moment Daisy had walked into his office for the receptionist interview, so terrified she could barely speak, his lion had claimed her as his mate. Cooper had denied it for the last three months, but after what happened a few days ago, he couldn’t deny it anymore.
Doesn’t matter. We scared her. Our mate is afraid of us and she’ll never come near us again.
His lion’s whimper made goosebumps break out on his skin and a wave of depression washed over