Pride Mates -  Jennifer Ashley

Ever find yourself drawn into a conversation where you really don't know what it's about? Or where you feel like you missed something? That was me in this book. Oh, the surface was easy enough to figure out - random shifter was occupied elsewhere when his human girlfriend was killed. Because he'd gotten suckered in by the regional leader into doing something...unethical...he couldn't exactly say where he was. So he was imprisoned and, to the leader's disgust, a lawyer took the case and decided he wasn't going to be railroaded into taking the fall for the girl's death.

 

That's the cover story.

 

The h is the lawyer, the leader essentially manipulates the H into either giving her to him, or claiming her himself. The H had every intention I think of claiming her and, having little respect really for the leader, doesn't make much of an attempt to get her to back off the case.

 

The leader is a scumbag who gets it in the end fortunately. The h gets knocked up, gets the shifter freed, etc.

 

And...what I puzzled about the whole book was why the leader had issues with the H and his family. It was never, ever, ever addressed. The closest one came to an explanation was that the H's father would have defeated the leader if he'd challenged him, but then the H would have been compelled to challenge dear old dad. Which doesn't really make much sense as a reason when you think about it.