Wanted By The Alpha Lion (Heroes of Shifter Creek 2) by Clara Moore Page A

was the star of the zoo. But to Cassie, his newfound celebrity made his situation all the sadder.
                  “Another late night?” Doug, the security guard, asked as he passed through the aquarium.
                  “Night time is the best time for a researcher,” Cassie replied with a smile. “I’ll check in with you before I leave.”
                  “So sunset, then?” he surmised, familiar with her routine. “I’ll have the coffee waiting.”
                  “Thanks,” she called as he left, leaving her alone to observe the behavior of the hundreds of glowing turritopsisdohrnii .
                  “Another time,” she said to the jellyfish and went to see the lion.
                  With the zoo closed, he was back in his den behind the enclosure, lying in a corner with his head tucked in his paws, defeated, but as soon as she drew near, he stood and moved closer to her.
                  This was not the first time she’d visited him. It was one of many nightly visits. She felt drawn to the lion, as if he had some meaning to her life. It was her hope that if she spoke with him nightly, if they became friends, the sadness in him would recede. But it didn’t. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse.
                  “You’re not happy here, are you?” she asked, sitting on the ground with her side against the gate. He edged closer to her, the bulk of his body twice the size of a human’s, but he didn’t come too close. She got the sense he didn’t want to scare her off.
                  “You know, white lions have a place in mythology,” she told him, strumming her fingers along the gate. “They are believed to be children of the Sun God. You’re a gift to Earth. I’ve done a lot of reading since you’ve arrived. A lot. You’ve been a distraction,” she teased. Then she sighed. “But no books can tell me why you look so haunted. None of the scientific ones, anyway.”
                  Suddenly feeling tired, she closed her eyes and began drifting into sleep, staying awake long enough to feel his fur stick between the gate as he laid beside her.
    ***

The following night, after the zoo closed and a majority of the staff went home, Cassie ignored her research on the jellyfish completely and went straight to the lion’s den. She’d spent the day reading a book – a very strange mythological book – that may have had the answers she was looking for regarding the beautiful oddity that was the white lion, but to know for sure, she had to see him.
                  Except that he wasn’t in his den. Nor was he in his enclosure.
                  Panicked, Cassie stared at the empty enclosure, her breath heavy beneath the warm moonlight, and thought hard on where the lion might be. Perhaps the zoo director had loaned him out. Or perhaps he was sick and being looked after at the in-house veterinary clinic.
                  The vet. That seemed the most plausible. And the most worrisome.
                  She moved towards the direction of the clinic, but a loud clanging noise, like metal hitting the ground, caught her attention, forcing her back. It came from the loading dock where heavy equipment was transported in and out of the zoo. Trusting her instincts, she went to the dock.
                  And she found the white lion.
                  Mesmerized, she watched from behind a forklift as he paced nervously while two humans – a stunning blonde woman, not much older than her, and a dark-haired man – unlocked the back of a black utility van.
                  Oh my God, they’re stealing him! Cassie grasped.
                  She couldn’t let it happen. He had enough sadness in him as it was. Who knew what the couple’s intentions were. They could be urban poachers after the white