Lowlander Silverback (Gorilla Shifter Royalty 1) by T. S. Joyce

roughly through his hair and turned at the door, feeling like every step away from her cut a slice into his guts, exposing his insides to air. “Layla, I’m sorry.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest like a shield, and he imagined her doing the same when her parents had left. When Mac went into hospice care. When everyone in her life had left her, and now he was just another letdown.
    He ripped his gaze away from her broken eyes and forced himself out the front door. He closed it and pressed his shoulders against the cold wood until he could see straight because his gorilla was banging on his insides. Go back to her , he roared from his middle. She’s ours.
    But she wasn’t.
    Layla deserved a normal relationship that didn’t put her in the crosshairs of his murderous people.
    She deserved better than he could give her.

Chapter Five
     
    Layla adjusted the heavy satchel that held the library books she’d just checked out and switched the bag of breakfast to her other hand to give her numbing fingers a rest. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about her car. Her poor Civic was still sitting all alone in the overgrown parking lot of the fight barn. She was going to have to mooch a ride from Jake after work tonight to go pick it up, but until then, she was hoofing it. Good thing Saratoga was a small town, and a double good thing she had a badass pair of sneakers. She’d already walked three miles with nary a blister.
    The bacon was definitely going to be cold, but Mac’s favorite nurse, Sherri, would let Layla heat it up. She was always nice to Layla when she visited. The sun peeked out from behind the heavy, dark cloud cover, making her squint against the blinding light. She pulled her sunglasses from her hair and slipped them over her nose, then checked her watch and picked up the pace. If she timed it right, she’d get there an hour before it was time for Mac’s pain killers, and he would be completely lucid for her visit.
    The rumbling sound of engines filled the quiet morning, and she turned on the cracked asphalt to see a trio of muscle cars coming her way. The first was a red Chevelle, the second a deep green Mustang with black racing stripes, and the third was definitely Kong’s classic black Camaro.
    Ripping her gaze away from the parade of sexy cars roaring down the street, she took a quick left and speed-walked away from the noise. This would lengthen her walk to Tender Care, but it was worth it if she could avoid the ache in her chest watching Kong drive by her without a single glance her way.
    Two of the cars loudly drove right by the alley, but the third sounded as though it had pulled off somewhere. Maybe at the gas station she’d just passed. No matter. She was impervious to him. Kissing her and then bolting—the brute. She got it—he was marked by his people and their barbaric traditions, but these were modern times. He was a big ass silverback gorilla as well as a grown man, and she couldn’t believe he couldn’t make up his own mind on who he wanted to hug. And kiss. And dammit, boink, because she wanted Kong bad. She always had, but it was even worse after she felt how tender he could be when he kissed her. And that fight! All sweaty and sexy and bloody like a big old testosterone-filled, sexed-up demigod come to earth to wreak havoc on her ovaries. A man who could fight like a titan and kiss her like that was dangerous to her heart. Especially since he obviously wasn’t going to stick around. She’d had enough of people leaving.
    An engine revved, echoing loudly off the brick walls surrounding the alley. Layla jumped as Kong’s dark-tint car bounced slowly through the mud puddles toward her.
    His window rolled down, and there was the man himself in a tight gray V-neck shirt with reflective aviators hiding those sexy eyes of his. “Get in. I’ll give you a ride.”
    “I thought you weren’t supposed to talk to me.”
    A muscle jumped as he clenched his jaw and looked in the