Her Wild Hero

“So, how did you learn that I’m a…monster then?”


Loughlin unscrewed the top from the bottle and downed the rest of the water in a few deep gulps. “First off, you’re far from a monster—”

Declan snorted. “Marissa would disagree with you on that.”

“Probably,” Loughlin agreed. “But that’s only because, for all her intelligence, Marissa couldn’t have known your talents are purely the result of a genetic mutation that occurs in an extremely tiny portion of the population. In your case, the blending of human DNA with that of an ancient member of the genus Ursus. As far as how I found you, it wasn’t easy. But if a person knows what to look for, he can pick up on little clues here and there. Physical feats you demonstrated through middle and early high school, the way other animals react around you, police reports that read just a little too strange. From there, it was a matter of getting some of your DNA and knowing what to look for.”

Declan hadn’t realized his jaw had dropped until it snapped shut. Forget about how they got his DNA. The only thing he cared about was one word. “Ursus?”

“Yes, Ursus—a bear.” John frowned. “You didn’t recognize that when you shift, you take on certain obvious bearlike qualities? The size, the strength, the shape of your face and teeth?”

Declan shook his head. “I’ve never really seen myself when it…happens. I’ve just seen the horror on other people’s faces. I thought I was a werewolf or something.”

Loughlin laughed. “While there are a lot of wolf shifters out there, you’re definitely not one of them.”

It was Declan’s turn to frown. “There are others like me?”

“Other shifters? Yes. Several of them work for me. You’re the first bear shifter we’ve found, though. For reasons unknown to us, higher-order canids and felids seem to predominate the shifter ranks.”

Declan’s mind whirled a thousand miles an hour. He’d spent every minute of his life, or at least every moment since he was fifteen—when he’d started changing—thinking he was some kind of freaking monster. Now this guy walks in here out of nowhere and tells him that not only is there a rational scientific explanation for what he was, but there were other people like him.

“These other shifters—they work for you?”

Loughlin stood and walked over to the small fridge. He opened it and took out another bottle of water. “You mind? That walk out here didn’t look so bad on my GPS.”

When Declan shook his head, Loughlin took a long swallow, then went back to his seat.

“Yes, these shifters work for me, along with other less unique, but no less valuable people. We partner them up in small teams that accentuate the strengths and skills of each member, then have them carry out missions that best suit those skills.”

The idea of being able to work with a team of people who wouldn’t view him as a monster when they discovered his secret was damn enticing.

“Okay, you have my attention,” he told Loughlin. “What kind of work would I be doing? I mean, I might be one of these shifters you’re talking about, but I don’t have any special skills that I know of.”

Not unless you counted being able to throw someone through a wall.

“You have more skills than you realize—you simply need training to bring them out,” Loughlin said. “We won’t ask you to do anything that’s beyond your capability. Or outside the boundary of your moral compass.”

“I’m still listening,” Declan said.

“Good. Because I have a new team I’m putting together. You would be working with three other men that I consider to be some of the finest people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting.” He shook his head. “I won’t sugarcoat it. This team will have a very difficult job. You’ll be responsible for tracking down and capturing—or killing if necessary—some of the worst predators in the world. Killers, rapists, terrorists, and worse. Some will be everyday, run-of-the-mill psychopaths. But others will be shifters who have gone rogue.”

Damn. “Does that happen a lot?”

“Not too often, but when it does, the average cop, federal agent, or soldier isn’t prepared to handle it. That’s where you and your team will come in.”

Declan shifted on the stool. “I’m not sure I could kill someone—shifter or otherwise—no matter what they’ve done.”

Loughlin regarded him thoughtfully. “I know what happened the night Marissa left you, Declan. You exposed yourself to protect her, even though you knew it might cost you.”

Declan didn’t say anything.

“Something tells me you would have done the same thing if it hadn’t been Marissa—if it’d just been some random stranger,” Loughlin said. “Am I right?”

Declan didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes.”