chapter 6
Michael's heart stopped for a second as he let her question roll around in his mind. Did he have to have sex with a she-wolf on the full moon? Where the hell had that question come from? Growling, he knew that it was from the hyenas.
F*ck. How could he have this conversation with her over the phone? "I know it's late, Shyne, but I want to come talk to you. Give me your address."
"127 Barber Street, Apartment 2B" she replied without hesitation.
"I'll be there in about a half hour. But put the thought from your mind, sweet. The only thing I absolutely have to do on the full moon is shift and hunt. I swear."
She said goodbye, and he stormed through his trailer, stopping only long enough to pull boots on and grab his keys. His bike roared to life, and he raced to her apartment, using the GPS program on his cell to find her place.
She opened the door with damp hair and skin that smelled warm and clean like she'd just come from the shower. She was wearing pajama shorts and a matching tank, red with pink and white hearts. He stood there for a moment in the hallway, just drinking in the sight of her. Her skin was a beautiful silky color like coffee with cream, and her large eyes were dark brown and ringed with a fringe of lashes to rival the thickest lace.
She backed into the room, and he followed, closing the door. She had the coffee table set with soda and snacks, and he sat down on the couch next to her. With little prompting, she told him that the hyenas had been whispering in her ear about him since the moment he joined the gym. Chief among their whispers were that wolves only had sex with she-wolves and mated them because the full moon made them too horny to resist the hot wolf tail.
"I'm really sorry they had you so worried. You could have asked me, I would have told you anything." He took her hand, rubbing his thumb across her smooth skin.
"I didn't want you to think I was prying, or, taking anything for granted."
His heart swelled. Did she like him? Did she want more? "Shyne, I haven't had sex in a long time. If what they were saying was true, then I'd be with a she-wolf at least on the full moon, and I haven't." He stopped speaking for a minute, realizing he'd just said he hadn't gotten laid in a while. Well, too late to take that back. Hopefully she'd think it was sweet and not that he wasn't worth f*cking.
She was looking at his hand with hers quietly, and when she looked up at him, her eyes were bright, and a small smile touched the corner of her mouth. "I'm not a wolf."
He relaxed, "I know, sweet. Doesn't bother me a bit. My brother's wife is only half wolf, her father was human. Some wolves in our pack are married to humans. If what your bosses said was actually true, there would be a lot of divorces, and wolves don't do divorces. When we mate, it's for life."
"How long is a long time?"
"What?"
"Since you've, you know, tumbled with someone?"
Shit. Damn his big mouth.
"About a year." He winced inwardly, feeling like a total loser. But then he mentally shook himself out. It wasn't that he didn't have offers, it was that the offers he had weren't worth it. He laid that truth out for her, and when her eyes crinkled when she smiled, he knew she understood.
"So what now?" she asked, taking a drink of soda and leaning back against the couch, still holding his hand.
"How about you let me take you on a real date, tomorrow?"
Her frown surprised him. "They asked me to accompany them to a boxing match tomorrow night."
"Wait, those underground ones? I know he doesn't fight legally, because he's a were."
She nodded absently. "I've been to two. They were really supportive of me when I was getting my certificate. I feel guilty turning them down when they ask me for simple stuff like that."
"Well, I don't like it a bit. Those places are full of dangerous people." Criminals and gangsters for one thing. While some of the fighters might be good people, the ones running the matches and making bets most certainly were not. He'd heard enough over the years about those fights. People died at them, their deaths covered up. His wolf snarled in his brain about letting her go.
"No one will mess with me, it'll be fine," she promised, squeezing his hand.
If she was his already, he'd have put his foot down before putting his fist through that one bald hyena's face. He was just pissed off enough to do it, too. You didn't take someone gorgeous like Shyne and parade her around in front of a bunch of criminals. It was insane.
"Will you do me two favors?" he asked.
"Three, if you ask nicely."
He returned the smile even though he really didn't feel like it. "Will you please call me when you get home so I know you're safe?"
"Sure. That's one. Number two?"
"Promise not to go to another one again."
"Because they're not safe?" She quirked her head to the side.
"Right."
"And because you care about that?"
"Yes, woman," he growled, and she laughed, biting her bottom lip.
Ah, tease. "It's dangerous to tease a wolf when he's in a bad mood," he groused, pulling her hand up to his mouth and kissing the top.
"I think you're not in a bad mood anymore." She leaned over and kissed him just once on the mouth and hugged him. "I promise I won't go to any more of them. And thanks; no one besides Trav has ever really cared about whether I was safe or not. My bosses, they claim to care, but there's something off about it all, and I'd just as soon not spend time outside of work with them if I can help it."
"Then we'll have to find something else to occupy your time." He took the opportunity of the hug to take a deep breath of her scent, loving the natural sweet way she smelled. His wolf agreed completely.
"Do you need to get home?" she asked, pulling away from him slightly but keeping her cool fingers against his neck.
"Nah. What did you have in mind?"
"Movie?"
He nodded, and she hopped up and went to a small cabinet, kneeling in front of it and naming DVDs. He teased her about her taste in movies, way too many chick flicks, but when she said she had Exit Wounds, he stopped her. Finally a decent action flick with a great soundtrack.
She put the DVD in, flicked off the light, and snuggled right up against him on the couch.
"Okay?" she asked, pressing play on the remote.
"More than okay," he pressed a kiss to the top of her head and settled back to watch the movie, more interested in the beauty leaning against him then anything on the screen.
* * * * *
Michael paced, walking a trail back and forth across the back patio at Jason and Cadence's. He had no idea how long Shyne would be at that boxing match, but every time he checked his phone to make sure she hadn't called and he'd missed it, his nerves ratcheted up another notch. Was time standing f*cking still?
"You're making me nauseous," Cadence complained, perched on Jason's lap in one of the cushioned patio chairs.
"Sorry." He ran his hands through his hair a few times and leaned against the railing.
"So you really like this girl, huh?" Jason teased. "It's about time you settled down."
"I was thinking the same thing," he smiled at his older brother and his sister-in-law. The only thing missing from the evening, in his mind, was Shyne.
He stayed at their house until Cadence fell asleep on Jason's lap while they were reminiscing about their younger days. He'd taken the evening off from the bar, happy that they had enough trustworthy staff so he could take time off occasionally. In truth, the bar was making him batty. And now that Shyne was in his life, the last thing he wanted was a serious commitment like the bar to interfere with getting to spend time with her.
She sounded tired when he answered his cell on the first ring. It was well after one a.m. "You weren't sleeping, were you?" she yawned at the end, and he wished he was there to put her to bed. And other things.
"Nah. I'm a night owl."
"I thought you were a wolf."
He laughed. "And that. Was it, I mean, did you have fun?" He smacked himself in the head for not being able to put a decent sentence together.
She let out a thoughtful sigh, and he heard the sound of a zipper lowering. Oh for the love of all things holy! Was she undressing while she was talking to him on the phone? "Yeah, it was okay. I told you that they were acting kind of strange, clingy?"
His wolf sat up in his mind. "Yeah."
"Well, I don't know. It was almost worse tonight. I always liked Mason, he's sweet and kind of goofy, but when it's the three of them, they come on pretty strong. And then they kept making little snide comments about wolves all night long. It was really, I don't know, stressful?"
He heard the rustle of fabric and the creak of what sounded like a bed and pictured her sliding naked into bed and wanted even more to be there with her. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I think I made things worse for you there, and I hate that."
"No, you didn't have anything to do with it. They've hinted around for a while now that they wanted more from me than just friendship, but I'm pretty good at keeping things casual. Or at least I was. At least I have tomorrow off from work."
"So I can maybe persuade you to let me take you out to dinner?"
"Maybe," she practically purred and his wolf went nuts.
"What if I promise that it'll be the best first date ever?" Oh hell, why did he promise that?
"Really? Well, I wouldn't want to turn down the best first date ever." She paused for a few moments, and he had a feeling she was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Okay. When do you want to pick me up, and what should I wear?"
Dumbfounded by the question, he was silent so long she said his name twice before he snapped out of things. "I'll pick you up at eight, and wear something pretty."
She laughed lightly and sighed, "Thanks, Michael."
"For what, doll?"
"For being sweet. I needed that."
"Anytime. Goodnight, sweetheart."
"Goodnight, Michael."
By the time he was shaving for his date, he had everything in order, and it had been no small feat. He'd picked both Cadence and Karly's brains, and his mom's, bought a new dress shirt for the occasion, and borrowed Karly's Porsche Boxter with her and Linus' blessing. If it wasn't a completely ludicrous car to have for a man who was thinking about marriage and family, he would offer to buy it from them. As it was, he realized that he needed to get something more than his motorcycle, and soon.
He'd not ever known that someone could be breath-taking in real life, figuring it for one of those romance novel clichés, but here she was — heart-stoppingly, breath-stealingly gorgeous. And all his. Her dress was black with white trim and thin straps, curve-hugging to the waist and then flared to mid-thigh where the skirt fell. Her beautiful bare legs ended in black heeled sandals where a toe ring glinted along with a shimmery ankle bracelet.
Her onyx hair fell like a satiny wave down past her shoulders, and he had such an urge to run his fingers through it that he almost cracked the bouquet in half squeezing it so hard. "You look gorgeous, sweetheart," he handed her the flowers and kissed her cheek. Although roses had seemed like a good idea, the three women he polled said they were old stand-bys and urged him to think outside the box. He went to a florist recommended by Linus and explained what he needed. The old woman behind the counter had worked her magic and given him a large bouquet of soft pink and yellow Peruvian lilies, tied with a pink satin ribbon.
Shyne fawned over them, inviting him in while she put them in water. Already, he was heady with the knowledge that he'd done at least one thing right tonight. When the flowers were sitting on the coffee table in a clear vase, she took his hand, and they walked out to his borrowed car. She didn't seem to care about the car, which he found interesting, but as he drove to the restaurant, he realized that she actually really only cared that he was there with her. Everything else was just...details for her. He felt exactly the same way.
The restaurant was an Italian bistro that served fantastic lobster ravioli. Since she had admitted at the bar that she didn't drink before driving, he decided to follow her lead, and they both enjoyed sweet tea with their meal instead of wine. He'd once made fun of Linus for not drinking at the bar when Karly was with him. Now he understood. In fact, he now understood a lot of things that his friends had dealt with as they found their mates.
For dessert, he made arrangements with Robert to use the lake. While Shyne sat in the car waiting, he laid out a blanket on the dock and arranged a few candles and two plates of desserts that Karly had made special for the occasion.
Shyne sat across from him, the plates between them, and he fed her a mini apple tart. She repaid the favor, selecting a small square of mocha cheesecake. The silence hung between them as they shared the sweet little bites of desserts and said nothing. When the plates were empty and the taste of sugar was heavy on both of their lips, she crossed the small space between them, fisted her hands in his hair, and kissed him for all she was worth. Her tongue slid past his lips with a moan that made his cock stand at attention, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Her body molded against his as she fed at his mouth, nipping his lips before delving back in to slide her tongue against his. He'd never been so thoroughly kissed in all his life, and his mind reeled at the feelings coursing through him.
She tugged on his shirt, moving sensually against him and making small whimpering noises, and he stilled her hands before things went too far. "Sweetheart," he stopped her hands and pulled away slightly, nipping slow kisses across her cheek to her ear, "not like this, not here." He dropped her hands and cupped her face, watching the candlelight flicker in her eyes. "The first time we make love, Shyne, I want it to be special and right. Not like this."
Her curious expression gave way to a genuine smile, and he knew that although he'd need an ice cold shower when he got home, he'd made the right choice. "You're so sweet, Michael, I," she paused, and he was almost positive she was going to say she loved him. Could she possibly? His heart swelled at the thought.
He pulled her into a hug and nestled his face in the crux of her neck. "You're very important to me, Shyne. I want to treat you right."
She hugged him back and chuckled, "I want to let you."
The evening ended on a sweet note, as he walked her up to her apartment and said goodnight with a much more chaste kiss this time. She promised that it was indeed the best first date ever, and he hoped that she never went on another first date again.
The next week, they talked on the phone every night. She seemed to think that something was going on with the hyenas, but she didn't know what. One of them had asked her to dinner, and she turned him down. Although they didn't ask her the reason, she was fairly sure they knew why. He wanted to tell her to quit her job, that he would happily bring her to his trailer and take care of her until she found another job, but he had a feeling that she wouldn't take him up on the offer. And he wouldn't want her to think he didn't appreciate all her hard work to get where she was.
On Thursday, he asked her if she'd like to go see a movie on Saturday night, and she agreed. Before he hung up the phone that night, he reminded her that he wouldn't be able to call her the next night because it was the full moon, and he'd be busy all day and then hunting at night. The pause was very significant, and he wished he knew what she was thinking.
"You do believe me, about just hunting, don't you?" he asked finally.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, of course. I think you're a lot of things, Michael, but a liar isn't one of them."
"Oh?" he laughed, "What else am I?"
He could practically hear her smile over the phone. "A smartass."
"True."
"A sweetheart. A loyal friend. A good brother. A sexy, dangerous wolf."
He barked out a laugh as she pulled that phrase from one of their first conversations at the gym. He wanted her to say that he was hers — that he belonged to her — but she didn't, and that was okay. Although he had the feeling that he was right on Sunday and that she was falling in love with him as much as he was falling in love with her, he didn't want to push her too far too fast.
"You're the sweetheart, Shyne. You're too good for me."
"Careful, a girl could get used to all these nice things you keep saying."
"You should. I plan to flatter you non-stop."
She sighed in a happy way and giggled. She was just such a girly girl. He loved it.
"Maybe next full moon, sweetheart, if you're interested, you could come stay at Cadence's house while I'm out hunting with the pack. We always have a big cookout, and Karly will stay at the house and clean up, and I'm sure she'd like the company. Cades doesn't shift, so she only goes out to where we are until we shift, and then she walks back and waits for Jason. It's just... this month it's a little too soon. I'd need to bring you around more to visit with the other wolves first."
"That would be nice, if you think I'd be welcome."
"Of course." And he meant that. Although he could probably have her there, it wasn't official yet that they were mates, and wolves on the full moon did tend to get fairly horny. He didn't want to have to fight in front of her if he could help it. Not that he wouldn't destroy anyone that made a move on her, but he'd rather her not see that part of himself if he could get away with it.
All day as he prepared for the full moon, he thought of Shyne and wondered how she was. When he shifted for the full moon, all he could think about was how stupid it was of him not to ask if he could just come over anyway, even if it would be late. Or call, at least. He determined to call her first thing in the morning to say hello and hear her voice.
Shaking his head at himself with an inward smile, he thought, I'm toast with this girl. Hot, buttered toast.
He took off with Jason, Bo and Linus as he usually did, but as he ran through the woods, he paused at the familiar scent that hung on the air.
Shyne.
Why was she in the woods? It wasn’t safe on the full moon, hadn't he explained that to her? His heart spiked as he branched off from the pack to find her and wait out his shift time until he could yell at her for not being safe. As he twisted through the woods following her scent and leaving his pack far behind, he prepared the long speech he was going to lay on her about safety. He hadn’t ever really cared about a woman’s safety before. Sure, he cared if his mother was safe and Cadence as his sister-in-law and pack alpha, but not like he felt about Shyne. He lived and breathed her safety already, even if she didn’t realize it.
He was nearly out of the woods, far from their full moon meeting place behind Jason and Cadence's home and in the opposite direction where the pack normally hunted in the summer, when he saw a flash of red fabric on a low shrub. Drawing close, he recognized one of Shyne's red lycra tank tops that she wore to the gym. The scent of her was heavy on it, and he sniffed it and then looked around. Suddenly, the air around him crackled with warning, and his hackles rose just as two of the were-hyenas from the gym stepped into view, surrounding him.
“Hello, Michael,” the bald one said with a sneer as something sharp was jabbed into the back of Michael’s neck.
“Goodbye, jackass,” one said through a tunnel, as Michael slipped into unconsciousness and fell to the ground.
* * * * *
The first thing he was aware of was grass under his cheek and something hard pressing against the side of his mouth. Groggily, he reached up to see what it was and felt metal wires fashioned in a cup around his mouth. He was muzzled! His eyes opened, and he was staring at four curious natural wolves in a very unnatural habitat. Those f*cking hyenas! They drugged him, muzzled him, and gave him to the zoo!
Groaning at the ache in his head, he sat up slowly and searched along the leather harness to find the buckle to release the muzzle, and after trying to get his fingers to cooperate with the thick buckle, he pulled it free of his face and tossed it aside.
Just as he was about to stand up and head for the door at the back of the habitat, an angry voice above him shouted, “Hey, you! What the hell are you doing in there?” Looking up, he saw the beige uniform of a zookeeper leaning over the railing, pointing an angry finger at him. Spread out all around the rail with him were the gaping faces of elementary school children.
A glance down reminded him that he was painfully nude. Fan-f*cking-tastic. He scrambled to his feet and ducked behind a tree to shield himself from the impressionable eyes and called out with a gravelly voice, “Sorry, I think my buddies played a prank on me.”
The habitat door opened and shut quickly, and two angry zookeepers and four security guards stalked to him, giving a wide berth to the wolves who were watching the scene with bored curiosity.
Before he could say anything in his defense, one of the security guards pointed a taser at him, and another one tossed a navy blue janitorial uniform at him. He pulled it on hurriedly. The moment it was buttoned, his hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was marched out of the habitat under the watchful gazes of the kids and the natural wolves. Embarrassment heated his cheeks so deeply he thought he would pass out from the rush of blood to his face.
In something like a holding cell, he was told to sit on a bench and behave, left alone to ponder why a zoo had a holding cell in the first place, because the last thing he wanted to think about was Shyne’s top. As he’d been marched inside the zoo’s main administrative building, his thoughts kept coming back to rest on that top. How had those hyenas gotten it? She wore her workout clothes out of the gym. Had they been at her house and snatched it somehow? Or worse, had they asked her for it so they could trap him? His thoughts shifted darkly. He knew that Shyne would not purposely hurt him, but they could have tricked her.
A real police officer's voice broke through his thoughts. “You got a name, son?” He looked slightly amused.
“Michael Gerrick.”
“You live around here?”
“I don’t know where ‘here’ is, Sir. I’m from Allen.”
“You’re in Corrine, just south of Louisville.”
Holy f*cking shit. His head dropped on a sigh and groan combined. The door unlocked and the officer uncuffed him. “You’re not going to cause me any problems, are you, Mr. Gerrick?”
“No, Sir.”
“Alright then. The zoo wants to press trespassing charges against you, so I’ll take you downtown and get your story and process you. You should be able to be out by dinner with a fine, maybe some community service if it’s your first arrest.”
He nodded absently. He was going to jail. Even if it was only for a half day, it was still a mark on him. On his record. And no one in the pack would let him live it down.
As the police officer led him down a long hallway, he said, “Those friends of yours that you said pulled a prank on you? You the sort of boy that’s going to say their names or take the punishment yourself?”
Oh, he had a punishment in mind for certain, but it involved making them pay. Off the books. “I think my mind is a little fuzzy about last night.”
He hummed in his throat, “That’s what I thought.”
The door opened, and the zookeepers were arguing. “It’s because of that man, he upset poor Dahlia!” One of the female zookeepers said. “She won’t touch her food!”
Another female zookeeper rushed over to him and slapped him in the face.
“You’ve scared our only female gray wolf so badly she’ll probably never recover. I hope you’re satisfied you juvenile a*shole! I hope you get a cellmate with big hands!”
All the blood drained from his face as he stared down into the angry face of a woman about his own age. He’d never had anyone wish he was raped before. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding,” he said stiffly, “but she’s not eating because she’s pregnant, not upset. She needs to den. Give her a place to make a nest for her cubs so she can rest. That habitat is too open for her.”
He smiled smugly at her shocked expression and walked away with the cop, out of the administration building of the Corrine Wildlife Park and sat down in the back of the cruiser. A short ride later, he was seated next to a desk in the busy police station.
He’d already worked through possible scenarios in his head to tell the officer how he’d ended up in that predicament. If he said he’d gotten drunk and wandered in, they could get him for drunk and disorderly maybe, plus it wouldn’t explain the muzzle. Finally, the best scenario he could come up with was a partial truth. “I’m a heavy sleeper. My buddies and I play pranks on each other, and they got me good this time.” He shrugged and tried to sound like he thought it was funny, when it was very far from the truth. At least they’d put him in a wolf cage where the wolves wouldn’t look at him like a threat. If they’d tossed him in with bears or big cats, well, that could have been an entirely different, disastrous scenario.
“You care to name any of your buddies yet?” Officer Gregory asked with a raised brow. He was about his father’s age and had clearly seen enough in his career to know a snow job when one was handed to him. As his father would often say, ‘don’t piss on my leg and tell me its rain’.
“Still fuzzy. Like I said, I’m a heavy sleeper.” Sure he could legally go after the hyenas, those prick brothers that were trying to snare Shyne into joining their clan. He could claim kidnapping and being drugged. It would be sweet on some levels, but not satisfying enough. If they wanted to play hardball, then Michael would show them why he was second of the Tressel pack.
Turning the desk phone towards him, Officer Gregory said, “Make your one call. Tell them they can pick you up in a couple hours after the paperwork is filed.”
He reached for the phone and stopped. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“Nothing much. It’s just trespassing. If they hadn’t been so worked up about those wolves, then they probably would have just banned you from the zoo or something like that. It’s not as if you harmed any of their animals. You’ll get a fine for sure, but it’s a minor thing so I wouldn’t give it much thought, okay? Not a felony by any stretch, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I was.”
“Whoever your ‘friends’ are, son, I suggest you find other ‘children’ to play with.” He stood up with a stack of papers in his hands and smiled down at him for a moment before walking away.
He called Bo, because he could trust Bo not to bring half the pack up for a show like Jason or Linus might. Bo promised he’d leave right away, alone, and come straight there and wait for however long it took. Michael was incredibly grateful for his childhood friend and packmate.
They didn’t put him in a holding cell, but in an interrogation room, which at least had the luxury of a padded chair, metal table, and a bad cup of coffee. Since he had no belongings, he signed himself out of jail after nodding at Bo who was seated in the foyer of the police station.
Just as he was going to ask about paying the fine, Officer Gregory came to the desk and said, “Son, they're willing to drop the charge if you’ll come back to the zoo now and tell them what you know about the wolf.”
“Really?” he asked in surprise.
“Really.”
“No, yeah, I’d be happy to.” Obviously, he wasn’t a complete idiot.
“Okay, you’re free and clear now. Just out of curiosity, how did you know that stuff about the wolf?”
“Let’s just say I have an insight into wild animals,” he smiled and left it at that.
“So first we have to stop at the zoo, and then you’re going to buy me something to eat and fill up my truck, right?” Bo asked, turning on the truck and backing out of the parking lot.
“Shit, you’re an expensive date.”
“Don’t call me a date when I just sprung you from jail.”
“Ha ha. Yeah, it shouldn’t take long to explain how to help that wolf.”
“No worries. You given any thought to how you’re going to make those dogs pay?”
He cracked his knuckles. “Not entirely. First I have to figure out how they got Shyne's top. If they lied to her or stole from her, then I need to share that with her, too."
Bo stopped at a red light and looked at him. “There's no way that she betrayed you. She's already crazy about you.”
Michael grinned. "I know. I'm crazy about her, too. I just don't like them using her, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened.”
“Me, too.”
After explaining to the zookeepers about the female wolf’s pregnancy and helping them set up a den for her in the habitat away from prying eyes, the woman who had slapped him – Jessie – apologized all over herself and kissed his cheek. Along with the other zookeepers, she coerced the two men to stay for an early dinner at the zoo’s nice restaurant, and he spent a good portion of the meal fending off her advances.
Jessie, cute in a girl-next-door sort of way with short blonde hair, green eyes and a pouty mouth, did nothing for him. When she pressed her business card into his hand with her home phone scrawled on the back, he was polite but noncommittal as he thanked her again for dinner and for dropping the charges.
“She’s a cutie,” Bo mused as he started the drive back to Allen.
“Yeah, but she’s not Shyne.”
She most definitely was not.
Bo dropped him off at home, and he changed out of the zoo jumpsuit and into more suitable clothes, jumped on his bike, and headed to Dalton. The gym was open until eleven. It was only nine, and he knew that Shyne had a late class. Cutting the engine, he rolled his bike to the side of the road that led to the gym, walked through the tall grass to the side of the building, and with Shyne’s car in view, waited for her to walk out.
He still hadn’t decided what he was going to do with the dogs yet. He needed to talk to Jason, not only as his brother but as his alpha, so a plan of action could be made. But right now, all Michael cared about was making sure that Shyne was okay and holding her tightly in his arms.
He scented her as soon as she stepped out of the gym, and he leaned from the edge of the building to watch her. She didn’t look right. Her shoulders were tense, her steps hurried, and her fear was like a bitter pill on his tongue. She was frightened. His need to comfort her rose up inside him, and he rushed from the shadows to hold her and protect her.