Her Purrfect Match (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Paranormal Dating Agency Book 3) by Milly Taiden

She lifted her head and met his gaze. “This took me by surprise.”
    He pressed her head back on his chest and caressed her hair. “Me too. I’ve never reacted so quickly to any female.”
    She shouldn’t be happy he said that, but she was. He wanted her and he’d lost control over her. Her. Alyssa Moran, dowdy law office assistant with too many curves to count. The feminine side of her squealed and high-fived itself. The rational side of her tried to tell her this was just the beginning. To not get her hopes up.
    Too late.
    “What do we do?”
     

SIX
     
    Gray listened to Alyssa’s question unsure what to say. He didn’t want to scare her by saying ‘I hope you’re pregnant so I can kick the nonsense about losing my pride in the ass’. “We’ll wait. It could be nothing.”
    She sighed, her body losing some of the tension she’d gotten when he said they had to talk.
    “Are you ever going to tell me what those guys were talking about? You needing a mate and your pride and all that?”
    Great. That was exactly what he didn’t want to talk about. “What do you want to know?”
    Sliding his fingers through her hair, he was able to keep the tiger calm. He had to open up to her or things between them would never work. Opening up to anyone was not something he was familiar with. It was something he never did.
    “Tell me what that means. The things they said.”
    He sighed and thought back to his father. He’d warned him that his reluctance to find a mate and bear cubs would be his downfall. The previous pride leader of Green Edge had been old and wise. Too bad Gray had decided to ignore his suggestions and continue things the way he wanted.
    “My tiger pride has a hierarchy. I am the pride leader,” he said, reminding himself that he never allowed anyone to bully him into making any decision. He was his own man and he’d be damned if he mated anyone just to keep his pride. He’d fight for it, but he wouldn’t do that to Alyssa. He wanted her for purely selfish reasons. He wanted her for himself.
    “So you’re the leader, then you’re fine, right?” There was a hint of worry in her voice.
    He hugged her closer, enjoying her naked curves laying on him. The breeze drifting through the windows helped cool their heated bodies. “More or less. They’re pressuring me to mate.”
    She was quiet for a moment. “What do you mean mate? I haven’t gotten all the terminology down of your kind. Doesn’t that mean like marriage?”
    He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and caught himself. When had he ever done that before? Never. But already he acted as though she were his mate. As though there was nothing between them but time to develop the relationship.
    “Yes. Something like that. If I don’t produce cubs soon, I will be seen as weak and unable to lead the pride. Some of the females offered to bear my cubs, but I don’t like being pressured into anything.”
    She jerked in his arms, her head rising quickly and her wide gaze meeting his with open shock. “They offered to just have your babies? Just like that? No commitment expected?”
    She sat up, grabbing the sheet dangling from the foot of the bed and wrapping her naked body with it. He disliked the lack of view of her curves and disliked even more that she’d moved away. He didn’t think, just acted. Grabbing hold of the sheet, he tugged her back on the bed next to him. He unraveled the material until she was once again flush against him with the sheet covering both of them.
    “So?” She leaned her head on his arm and stared expectantly at him. “They just offered to have your babies no questions asked?”
    He sighed. “That’s the way of the pride. Many leaders have cubs with as many females as they want. It ensures that they’ll have multiple future leaders.”
    Her lips pressed into a tight line. “I’ve never heard of women doing that.”
    “Like I said, it’s the way of prides. Only I didn’t want to be forced into mating or