Page 21 (1/2)

"So if I needed a bodyguard, since you’ve got the qualifications, could I hire you? Since you don’t believe anyone here is qualified Although it depends on your going rate I can’t be too frivolous withthat she switched the subject, so he had no qual about what Jake had confided in hi yet He didn’t believe she could fight the change for five months

"You have shape-shifted, haven’t you? Without anyone being aware of it You’ve had to run as a wolf and haven’t had tiht?"

The corner of her ht I’ve been running around in the woods at night, but I have to work at the hospital during the day and haven’t had any tireat detective But then I’m sure you already knew that"

She was too coy and had switched too easily froave her a s the shift"

"Nope, when you’re right, you’re right"

He’d rather she’d continue to be indignant Like this, she was too agreeable and toying with hin of your wolf scent in the woods You haven’t been running through theuestrooed "Not sure how to do that"

Ryan lifted a brow "It comes with the shift A natural part of who you are Instinctively, if you’re to howl to let others knohere you are, to gather the pack, to warn others away, you howl If not, you don’t"

"Of course I haven’t needed to howl"

He rested his arms on the table and leaned closer, unable to shake loose of what he knew had to be the truth "You can’t be refusing to shift"

She smiled "Refuse to shift? Of course I can’t That’s ithe shift But then again, the wo Maybe she did have the inner strength to fight it He tried another ploy

"How does it feel when you shift?"

"Furry"

He chuckled and then grew serious again "How are you keeping fro?"

She s about that look made him think of a olf, full of mischief, impish, not to be trusted

"Don’t tell aped as he recalled another incident "When Mervin grabbed you in the great rooered your need to shift, didn’t he?"

Her expression froze, and she didn’t say a word

Which gave ahat truly had happened "You changed clothes but not to compete with the other wo out of your clothes when Lelandi chased you down"

Ryan should have been there, not that la the shift, he wasn’t sure what he would have done Tried to convince her to shift, learned what he could about how she was fighting it, maybe

"You didn’t have a choice Somehow you stopped the shift, and to cover up the fact you were in trouble, at least to your way of thinking, you changed clothes Did Lelandi recognize what you were up to?"

Carol shook her head "I can’t get anything past you, can I?"

Ryan rubbed his chin No way could Carol stop shifting because of having so-called visions Yet he’d never heard of anyone so newly turned being able to control that aspect of his or her new condition

"You’re a danger to yourself and others, Carol You have to allow the shift to occur"

"You’re right" Indignant, she rose from the table "Tom can take me home, and I’ll shift and run around the house for a while Sorry I couldn’t enlighten you further, but--"

The tavern grew deathly quiet

Ryan rose to stand in front of her, towering over her She looked up at hiaze pleaded with him to believe her She looked so vulnerable, a little pale, and the dark under her eyes seerilling, tired of being made to participate in olf activities that she wasn’t used to--and now she had to be concerned that the redher

"What vision did you have that stopped the shift?"

"That Darien shifts to a wolf and can’t change back," she whispered, tears in her eyes "And I feel guilty because I believe I’ll have more freedohtened, and I think of hoould be if all of our kind ended up in the same predicament What then? If I shift, I’ll be doomed to be a wolf forever" She bit her lower lip