Tanner
Hidden Realms of Silver Lake
The Four Sisters of Fate
Book 6
Vella Day
Tanner
Copyright © 2020 by Vella Day
Kindle Edition
www.velladay.com
Cover Art by Jaycee DeLorenzo
Edited by Rebecca Cartee and Carol Adcock-Bezzo
Published in the United States of America
E-book ISBN: 978-1-951430-12-2
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief questions embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Snow leopard, Ella Snowden, has a problem. Her parents are requiring her to mate with a man she detests.
Love is not even an issue for them. For the sake of her clan, Ella is supposed to mate with the up-and-coming Alpha to the panther clan in order to repopulate the dwindling leopard clan. Her solution? Do what any strong-willed woman would do. She leaves her posh and fairly pampered life and sets off on her own.
Too bad Fate interrupts her escape and sends an avalanche her way. Great! Just what she doesn’t need. Buried beneath ten feet of snow, she considers her options—options that are very limited. Does she have any regrets she ran away? No. She’d rather die than mate with that panther.
Tanner McCarson is up to his eyeballs in work building an eco-tourism park in Plux. When he heads to Thedia Province to check on some supplies, he watches as an avalanche buries a car. Being the protective man that he is, he rushes to the rescue, only to discover the woman inside is his mate.
While Ella is thrilled to be rescued by a super-hot dragon shifter, she can’t tell him the real reason she is on the run. Needless to say, when that panther finds her, trouble ensues. What will Ella have to do to convince Tanner her lies were for his own good?
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Other Books by the Author
About the Author
Chapter One
“I’m leaving—for good. I refuse to mate with that arrogant panther shifter, Moran Blackwood. I’d rather give up my life of luxury and live among real people than be with the man who is next in line to be Alpha of his clan. I don’t love him, nor will I ever,” Ella Snowden announced.
Her mother’s shockingly blue eyes lasered in on Ella’s face as her lips pinched. “Our family is counting on you to join our two clans.”
She’d heard that tired refrain for years: Our snow leopard clan is dwindling. We have to breed with the Blackwood Clan. That was total rubbish. Ella wanted to mate for love, not out of obligation.
“There’s always Mori or Christa.” Her two younger sisters seemed more than willing to marry for prestige.
“Mori is too delicate for the likes of Moran. And Christa? She might consent.” Her mother, who was the mate of the snow leopard Alpha, had been in an arranged marriage. Apparently, she didn’t find it all that distasteful—at least at first. And now her mother wanted to do it to her. How fair was that?
Ella painted on a smile. “There you go! It’s settled. Christa it is. Hug for old times’ sake?” In all honesty, she doubted even her sister would be able to stand Moran.
From the way her mother stiffened, Ella’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on the matriarch. Or it was because she didn’t like to be touched. While Ella loved her mother, the light in her mom’s eyes had dimmed in the last few years. Was it due to the stress of trying to rebuild their clan? Or had all semblance of love gone out of her life? Ella believed it had been a little of both.
Her mother lifted her chin. “You’ll be back. Snow leopards aren’t built for the heat—assuming you leave this province.”
Their kind needing it cold to survive was probably another tale told to all young pups. It didn’t matter. Ella would adapt. Determination and dedication were what allowed her to become a competitive skier—a sport her parents shunned. She would use that same strength to pursue her dream of freedom. “Perhaps I’ll remain in the mountains then.”
Not true at all, but she didn’t want her family to know her plans. Because her father loved her, he might send out the troops to bring her home, and she couldn’t let that happen.
“What will you do for money? Don’t expect us to send you some.”
She’d been taught to be self-reliant her whole life. It had been a hard lesson at times, but her father was right not to coddle his children. “I’ll find a job.”
Her mother barked out a laugh. “You? Work?”
That was insulting. “I might not have earned wages, but I’ve been running the staff in this mausoleum for years.”
“That’s hardly the same. You are practically royalty. You won’t last a week among the peasants.”
Peasants? If her mother went out more, she’d see people weren’t as bad as she believed them to be. Her mom was under the impression that she and her daughters were supposed to remain at the top of the Winger Mountain range so they could rule. Bull.
Ella picked up her suitcase. “I’ve already said goodbye to father.” And her loving sisters, who she would miss a lot.
“He will cut you off, you know,” her mother shot back with ice in her veins.
No, he wouldn’t, though he implied that if she left, she’d be on her own. “That’s the chance I’m willing to take.”
“What will I say to Moran and his family?” her mother asked.
That was the real reason she didn’t want Ella to leave. “You can tell them yourself whatever lie you want to.”
With that, Ella spun around and headed out. She wanted to get the hell away before the guards could track her down. As for money,
