Page 26 of Shifter's Dream

Eventine spoke. “What did she look like?”

Troy could answer that one. He looked out the window and spoke inruhi, every word straight from the heart.Have you ever ran the top of a bluff on a snowy night just after the last rays of sunset disappear? She’s that beautiful. Have you ever heard a wood thrush harmonize with itself in the still of a forest? That’s what she sounds like when she speaks. Have you ever-

Mac leaned over and whispered in Eventine’s ear. Eventine nodded at Troy, cutting him off. “Got it, Troy, thanks.”

“I’ll call Mugshots,” Harlan said, getting out his phone. “It’s early, but maybe someone will answer.”

“No,” Troy said, snatching up Harlan’s phone, his throat locking up at what he was about to admit. “She told me not to look for her.”

Harlan narrowed his eyes and stared Troy down. “She didn’t tellmenot to look for her.”

Troy made as if to pitch Harlan’s phone down the hallway and broadcast loud and clear:I’m telling you all right now, this is my business. No one makes any moves but me.

Eventine put her hand on Harlan’s arm. Harlan snorted and grabbed for his phone. “Fine,” he said. “For now.”

“She wasn’t found last time,” Eventine said, making the entire room quiet down. She stared pointedly at Troy and lifted one side of her lip in a snarl that said,get your ass in gear. Along with that came the scent that Eventine was barely newly pregnant, and she hadn’t told Harlan yet, but not why she hadn’t. Harlan would scent it for himself soon enough. Troy wanted to be around when that happened. Would he cry? Troy bet he would cry, and then he would spend most of the pregnancy trying to carry Eventine around like he was Jaggar and she was Leilani. Troy wanted to see it. Eventine would mess him up.

Dahlia and Cerise had pulled back into the kitchen, and were arguing about something, the sharp acrid scent of their irritation pulling everyone’s attention.

“No, damnit,” Cerise said, almost crying, looking like she wanted to shake Dahlia. Ella ran for them, also seeming like she was about to swoop in and attack Dahlia, which surprised Troy, he’d rarely seen Ella get angry at any of the other mates, even Rogue.

Before she made it into the kitchen, something popped in everyone’s head, Troy heard it go, saw the reactions to it. The males winced and the females looked scary, each of their scents going hard for a second, like they all had serious business of which the males knew nothing of.

The moment passed. Dahlia and Cerise’s scents cleared. Dahlia frowned and Cerise’s expression went alarmed. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to her sister. “Me, too,” her sister whispered back.

Troy looked around the kitchen waiting for something else to happen. So did everyone else, no one speaking.

But nothing did happen.

Soon, Troy’s thoughts were on his female again.

17 – Father Issues

Reed drove around in circles, mad as hell, trying to cool herself off just a little before she went home, plus a paranoia had struck her when she’d left the hotel. The guy was a cop right? If he wanted to find her, she’d be found easily, and that, right there, was reason enough for rule number 24. Never date anyone who is trained to track people down for a living. It had to mess with their heads. It was messing with hers, as she kept looking behind her forhim. He’d already found her once. The worst part was he still seemed towantto find her.

Reed turned on the radio while she drove nowhere, and then the air conditioner, as the late summer day began to heat up. Physically, she felt good. She’d slept long and deeply for the first time in ages, and she’d even gotten her first detailed look at her recurring nightmare, the one she’d had since she was a little girl. If only she wasn’t somad.

Reed pulled into a Starbucks and bought herself an iced latte with the quarters from last night’s tips, knowing she couldn’t spare them, but needing the sugar. She backed into a parking stall in a far corner of the lot where she could observe all the cars driving in and out. The branches of a tree shaded her enough that she could roll down the windows and turn the car off and just… think.

Reed plucked at the shirt she was wearing, eyeing the canoes. She grabbed the shirt with one hand and brought the fabric up to her nose, sniffing lightly.Yummmm.Not able to help herself, Reed took a really big breath in her nose. Clean man scent, mixed with fresh, warm outdoors, like grass heating in the sun, accentuated by a hint of spicy cologne. How could anyone smell sogood?

His smell filled her mind with delicious images of remembered pleasures. All the best parts of the night before replayed in front of her, the things he had done to her that had made her moan… wantonly was the only word to describe it. With want. Full of want for that man, and she still wanted him, even after he’d proved himself… inconsiderate, thoughtless, and impulsive at best. She pulled her seat lever and lowered the seat back, closing her eyes, and thinking about everything he’d done to her, reliving the roughness of it, how sure he’d been that he could please her, how insistent he’d been on pleasing her, how pleased he’d been every time he had.

Reed’s body responded, going soft and flushing with heat.Shit!

Reed sat straight up and returned her seat to upright. No thinking about him. Got it. It was too tempting to drive straight back to that hotel, hoping he was still there, which would totally ruin hernever-see-him-againplan.

Her shoulder! She pushed the shirt back so she could see where he had bitten her in the rear-view mirror, unable to believe that it was healed, already. She cranked her own neck to see the spot, trying to figure out what it looked like. Nothing really. Maybe a mushroom. It didn’t look like teeth marks. The thought of the bite made her angry and horny all at the same time. She had liked it, there was no doubt about it, but she wouldn’t be agonizing over it right now if she’d known it was coming! But then it wouldn’t have happened if she’d known it was coming because she never would have let a manbiteher.

But oh, it had felt good. She slumped in her seat, remembering it, how she’d felt like she was flying, how he’d pawed at her back and bitten her on the neck and the whole thing had been the most erotic act she’d ever been a part of.

She wrestled with the mirror again, trying to see the mark on her shoulder. It almost looked like a birthmark, like what Troy had had on his shoulder in the same spot, instead of the scab it should be.Ok, that was freaky.

The mark made her think of wolves, which made her think of her dream.

Reed gave up trying to see her shoulder. She slumped again and tried to remember every detail of the dream.

The necklace with the wolf on one side and the angel on the other. What did it mean? And why did she hold it up? And why did the cop change to a wolf? She’d been scared to go in a forest since she was young, and this dream had to hold the secret as to why. Reed traced the angel on the center console with her finger while she tried to puzzle it out.

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