Page 6 of Handcuffed to the Bear

Her eyes sparkled, and she clapped her free hand over her mouth. “Oh God,” she said around her fingers. “I bet that’s going to be hard to explain on your report.”

She looked good when she smiled. Jack smiled back at her. “I swear I’m not a screw-upallthe time.”

“Why the handcuffs, though? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“My guess would be to keep us from shifting,” Jack said.Well, me, to be specific.“What kind of shifter are you?”

“Lynx,” she said, and then quickly, “How did you know I’m a shifter?”

Oops. “I read your file.”

“You have afileon me?” Casey asked with a sharp flare of anger in her voice.

“I’m a federal agent, and you’re part of an investigation. We had files on all of Fallon’s employees.”

“Right, you work for the not-FBI.” She relaxed somewhat. “Care to tell me who exactly youdowork for, Special Agent Ross? Or is that classified?”

“You can call me Jack. And it’s a small agency that deals with shifter-related crimes, called the SCB. That stands for Shif—for Special Crimes Bureau.” He’d almost said “Shifter Crimes Bureau,” which was the agency’s unofficial in-house name ... but that wasn’t what their paychecks said. “Most people haven’t heard of us, even in the shifter community.”

“There’s an agency just for that?”

“Think about it. Most people don’t know shifters exist, or don’t believe it even if they’ve heard rumors. And a shifter gone rogue can tear right through a crowd of non-shifters who aren’t expecting it.”Like they’re going to tear through us, if they catch us.

“That makes sense,” Casey said. She gave him a little smile. “What kind of shifter areyou? No, wait. Let me guess. Bear?”

“Pretty obvious, I guess.” Jack glanced down at his shoulder tattoo.

“So you can’t shift out of your cuffs?”

He shook his head. “My paws are too big. What about you? Do you think you can slip the cuffs over a paw?”

Now it was her turn to give her head a shake. “Lynx paws are large. Not as big as a bear’s, but bigger than my hand.”

“Damn.”

If he had to be responsible for a civilian while being hunted by lion shifters in the woods, it seemed he could have done worse. She hadn’t panicked and seemed to be doing okay at absorbing the information he was giving her.

“And we have another advantage,” Jack added. “I’m not on my own here. I’m part of a team.”

“Do they know you’re here?” Casey asked, perking up.

“They know I was undercover, and I’ve definitely missed at least a couple of check-ins by now. They’ll be looking for us.” He hoped. It depended at least partly on whether this was the same night or a different one. If he’d been out of touch for a day or two, Avery would be moving heaven and earth to find him by now. If this was the same night ... he glanced up at the sky, trying to gauge the time. Nights were short in the summer this far north. The sky was already brighter than it had been, the trees outlined as dark blurs against the growing light.

Even if it was the same night, he’d definitely missed at least one check-in, probably more. Avery might not have tipped into full-fledged emergency mode yet, but he’d definitely know something was wrong.

“I hope you’re right,” Casey said.

“I trust my partner,” Jack replied. “By now he’ll know that I’ve dropped out of communication. If anyone can find us, Avery can.”

CHAPTER3

“You didn’t wake meup?”

Soft-spoken, level-headed Avery Hollen had a firmly established reputation as the office nice guy. He was the calm center around which the hectic heartbeat of the SCB’s Seattle-based Pacific Northwest division pulsed. When Avery blew up, he even did it in a relatively calm way—but that didn’t make it any less startling to people who were used to thinking of him as a guy who never got mad.

Jen Cho jumped so hard she actually leaped away, looking for a moment very much like the gecko that was her shifter form. “Hey, Ididwake you,” she said defensively. “Just now. So don’t shoot the messenger. We weren’t sure anything was wrong. We still aren’t sure if anything’s wrong.”

“Jack’s missed two check-ins and you aren’t—All right. All right.” Avery rubbed his eyes and painfully swung his legs off the couch. He’d known it was a mistake to fall asleep in the office break room, but he hadn’t wanted to take the time to drive all the way home and back, not with Jack out on the first night of a very dangerous assignment. Now he’d be paying for it in stiffness and pain. He had a desk full of painkillers, over-the-counter stuff all the way up to heavy-duty prescription ones, but that didn’t help with the problem of gettingtothe desk.

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