Gerard — Kathi S. Barton

Susie Benjamin had been denied nine jobs in three days. She had served five years for a crime she didn't commit, and it didn't seem to matter to these jerks that she'd been exonerated and wasn't an ex-con at all, just a victim of circumstance. If she didn't find a job soon what little money she had left would be gone. Susie was a panther shifter and no one had ever told her the rules of her kind. Mason Douglas was quick to bring her to task for her not reporting that she was in town to him, the local Alpha. She'd work her sentence off on the ranch, but then she'd be gone. She wanted to be as far away as she could get before her father could find her again. Gerard Douglas knew his brother had a new panther on the ranch, but wasn't in any hurry to meet her. Heck, he barely had time to sleep as it was he was so busy. But when he caught sight of her at the river it was all he could do to keep his distance. She wanted him too, he could tell, but he'd never seen anyone so skittish. Susie knew from his scent they were mates. But he'd be better off without her because if her father found out he'd kill them both….