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She visualized Lelandi, the pack leader’s anza the previous week exclusively for women in the pack—complete olf-romance writer Julia Wildthorn’s latest novel aritas, and lots of laughter They were still finding popcorn underneath cushions and beneath the couch in little clusters Carol s they could repeat an activity like that soon
But then the heat rushed through her body again with a neave of warning Every ht As if she’d called to the gods of psychic phenoan to blur, and she knew her psychic sense was trying to take control again
Holding her thoughts hostage, the dreae showed an out-of-focus man, dressed in red and white stripes, who had knocked her down and was holding her there Instantly, her blood cooled, the need to shape-shift withdrawing A scrap of relief trickled through her She focused, trying to see theto deter feeling she experienced from the encounter Not fear Loss of control, est emotion was definitely annoyance
The vision grewhazier and the red and white stripes blurring into pink until they faded cohts and her physical form
Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her arms, which were covered in chill bue, and she felt so the need to shift She shivered The coer every month with each full moon She could also shape-shift anyti Only the royal olves, whose roots had not been diluted by strictly huenetics in their recent ancestry, could shape-shift during the phase of the new moon
She feared that one of these tih or maybe not at all The arrival of her visions was as unpredictable as the tie a vision and the shift superseded it again? Worrying about that wouldn’t change a thing
She meant to dream up a fantasy world that would distract her so she could fall asleep again, because she desperately needed the sleep, but her thoughts drew back to the wolf in her vision earlier He would come for her Why? She didn’t have a clue But she knew she couldn’t put off the inevitable
Her ragged sleep interrupted, Carol stared at the white eyelet couest bedroo her feel like a fairy-tale princess She snorted Right, like Rapunzel locked away in the tower Except that Carol had chin-length hair She had no long golden tresses to toss out the two-story , allowing her princely rescuer to climb to her room and take her away from her imprisonment
She touched the bed beside her where her tabby cat would normally sleep Poor old Puss Stuck at the kennel until Carol learned to control this olf-shifting business But for now, her cat was happy, sprawled out on the receptionist’s counter every afternoon greeting custoh Carol wanted him home with her She suspected Darien didn’t worry that her shifting into a ould frighten Puss to death as much as he really wasn’t fond of cats
She sighed Darien wasn’t just the owner of the silver oods factory, nor was he just on the school board, the hospital board, and every other board in Silver Town He ran the place… as a gray lupus garou pack leader, along with his triplet brothers, Jake and Tom
Lelandi, the red wolf, was his mate And Carol was now a red like her
With her skin covered in a light sheen of perspiration, co attacked and the shifting urge she continued to experience, she rose from the bed and walked toward the rooown she wore caressed her skin with every step, her bare feet pressing silently against the springy golden carpet
Not believing how upside down her world had becoo a feral red olf had savagely ripped her open, turning her into one of their kind No scar existed, not even a trace of one She sighed deeply She’d known for some time that a ould turn her Damned psychic visions But she hadn’t seen hohen or what the rae would force her to take a mate sooner rather than later
Once she’d had the vision of what they truly were before she’d been turned, everyone had scrutinized her—Darien, Lelandi, his brothers And the rest of the pack They had watched her and uarded secrets of the olf kind once they realized she knehat they were because of her psychic visions They had supervised her, barely ever allowing her out of their sight
She was still a danger to theht the shift, which was an oddity in itself But solimpses of the future And soather a psychic impression from it This bothered them, too Even Lelandi, who had become like a sister to her, was troubled somewhat by Carol’s paranormal abilities
She sighed She would never truly fit in, never belong Yet for now, she was stuck under Darien’s thu with him, his mate, and his brothers until he could secure a mate for her Barbaric! But it was the only way to ensure their safety and hers