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Then the room blurred into oblivion as ainto the future filled her ed with dread as she hurriedlyher hands as she watched Darien in his wolf for? I don’t understand what’s happening How can we stop this?" Her green eyes turned to Carol, and tears filled thee back"

Darien First the doc, now their pack leader? But what could Carol do? What could she ever do in a situation initially conjured up in her mind’s eye? It was too late for Darien Too late for the doc

"Carol, you have to do so!" Lelandi pleaded, her voice strained, choked with es of inadequacy swamped Carol, as they often did when she had no control over future events The fear of what could happen to her increased her resolve never to shift

The door lock clicked open, instantly shattering Carol’s vision Lelandi had to have used a hairpin to unlock the bedroom door, da only her peach lace bra and panties "Oh, Carol" She quickly shut the door as ht the change It’ll only s worse"

How did Lelandi know?

A knock sounded, heavier, ht," Lelandi called out in her ot an outsider gray who’s ready to tear him apart, not that I sure as hell won’t take Mervin to task," Darien growled through the door

Lelandi raised her brows at Carol

She shook her head "No" Although she thought Mervin’s grabbing her are, he really hadn’t done anything to her to warrant all the fuss Oh hell, she had to find a way to control the coain

"Are you certain?" Darien asked, his control slipping

Lelandi studied Carol, but she shook her head and frowned again

"Nothing’s wrong," she whispered

Lelandi didn’t look like she believed her "I’ll speak to you later, honey," Lelandi said to Darien, "but she says no"

"All right But I want her returned to the party posthaste" Darien stomped off

Carol was sure he didn’t believe her, either

"What happened to trigger the need to shift?" Lelandi asked in a soothing way, as if Carol was fragile and would break if Lelandi wasn’t gentle

Carol clenched her teeth If there was one thing she wasn’t--fragile was it "I wasn’t getting ready to shape-shift" She went to her closet and yanked out a sparkling peach dress with a low neckline and a gored skirt that caressed her legs when she walked She slipped it on "I just didn’t feel dressy enough"

Lelandi gave her a slight smile "The other women are not any real coued with you, especially after you played so aggressively on the field this afternoon And taking Darien’s ribbon?" Lelandi gave a bright laugh "They loved it"

"Everyone was shocked into silence"

"Well, all right At first, sure But once they sa good-naturedly Darien took it, they loved how you stood up to hih Silva does from time to time As to the men, they still don’t know about the other women You’re more of a known commodity"

"They don’t like it that I haven’t shifted" Suddenly a thought occurred to Carol Why couldn’t she just pretend that she had shifted when she was alone? Then they’d quit worrying about her "Not that I haven’t shifted when no one is around to see it"

Lelandi tilted her head to the side and gave her a look that said: Get real "I know you haven’t shifted If Darien learns you were having trouble with it tonight, he’ll want to knohat brought it about and how youto kno Lelandi suspected she had never shifted Must have been a olf thing She zipped the low-cut back of her dress and slipped into a pair of slinky heels, still feeling underdressed but like she was on a manhunt

"I love the dress, Carol You should wear clothes like that o to a party held by one of the student nurses in one ofthe whole affair when I discovered the nificant others, ere not at the party, but were looking for sohttime entertainment I didn’t have a ride home or money to call a cab, so I stuck it out

"But I loved the color" She ran her hand over the silky fabric And the cut looked good on her, so she hadn’t had the heart to get rid of the dress Now she felt way overexposed for the current event, like she was trying to prove so to the other wo so

"Are you going to be all right?" Lelandi asked, as Carol disappeared into the adjoining bathroole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>