Carol’s brows arched at the reference to her being pliable.

“I told Rosalind you weren’t the least bit biddable.”

“What do I have to say about this? Anything?” Carol pinched his nipples lightly.

“Just agree.” He quickly rinsed them both off before the water could turn from cool to cold. “You need to learn our ways,” he added, whispering against her ear.

She backed away, but he stopped her with his hand on her wrist before she could leave the tub.

“Absolutely no way am I shifting. Not in light of what’s going on. And besides, I won’t take a mate just because…” Her eyes narrowed, and she stiffened. “Don’t tell me that it’s okay to mate with me now that you believe I’m psychic.”

“That’s not the reason at all. But you’re going to be my mate.”

She laughed, which made him frown.

“I’m serious,” he said, feigning bruised pride.

“Well, of course you are. I’ve told you all along that you want me. But more is at stake here than your needs.” She left the tub and grabbed a towel.

By the time he’d finished rinsing off and towel dried, she had dressed and left the bedroom. Hell, he knew that this business of shifting would be a sticking point with her, but he hadn’t thought he’d muddle it up so quickly.

When Carol reached the bar in the den in search of a good stiff drink, she found Jake drinking hot cocoa as he leaned back on a recliner and watched her. She frowned at him, whipped around, and headed for the kitchen, the cocoa sounding a lot better on this chilly night. Besides, chocolate always did her a world of good.

“Problems?” Jake asked, following her into the kitchen.

She really didn’t need Jake pestering her right now.

Jake took a sip of his cocoa and then set the mug down and pulled one out of the cupboard for her. “What did he say or do to upset you?”

“Nothing, Jake.”

“Your face is flushed. You’re breathing hard. If you were a wolf…”

“I’m not, damn it.” She stared at the counter, her eyes blurring with tears. She brushed away a couple that dared to slide down her cheeks.

Looking uncomfortable, Jake didn’t say anything further. He just poured her a mug of hot chocolate. She heard Ryan coming before he entered the kitchen and wished they’d both leave her alone.

When Ryan walked inside, he didn’t speak to either of them, but she knew they were exchanging knowing looks. Two men, both born lupus garous, both on the same side of the issue. She wouldn’t gain anyone’s sympathy here. She muttered a thank-you to Jake for the hot chocolate and then escaped to the solitude of the sunroom, hoping that neither of them would follow her.

The room was cold: the fire was untended, and the massive windows let in the chilly air now that the sun had disappeared for the night.

She sat on one of the sofas and threw a wool afghan over her lap and took a long sip of the hot chocolate, wishing she and Ryan were just two ordinary people who had found each other and fallen in love. Everything was so complicated with them being werewolves. Did Ryan think he could order her around because he had been born a werewolf? Because he would be her mate? She was not shape-shifting!

She gazed out the window at the darkness and saw Mervin staring off into the woods. Serving as one of their guards, no doubt. She sighed. No matter how much she wanted to avoid her wolf side, she also wanted Ryan. Unfortunately, having one meant having the other.

The room was so cold that she slipped off her shoes and tucked her feet underneath her on the velour sofa. But she still shivered as she looked out the window where she observed the growing moon, beautiful and white like a huge, exquisite pearl against the black velvet night.

She drank more of her chocolate, trying to shake the chill. The heat from the chocolate and the blanket were beginning to warm her. Warm her… no. The moon. She gritted her teeth, feeling the urge to shift, the craving to ditch her clothes, and tried to summon a vision. But nothing came to her.

She hurriedly set the mug on the coffee table and jerked the afghan aside. Her movement caught Mervin’s eye, and he smiled at her and waved.

No, no, no! She jerked off her scrubs shirt, exposing her bra-clad breasts, and felt the heat deepening as it worked its way through her bloodstream.

See something, Carol. Envision something. Make it stop!

Mervin watched her from his distant post, his mouth agape. She couldn’t leave now, couldn’t head for her bedroom, or Ryan and Jake would catch her in her current state of alarm as she made her way through the great room to the stairs. And follow her. Probably try to make her accept what she couldn’t accept.

She jerked off her socks and yanked down her scrubs pants. Oh, God, no. She couldn’t do it. The heat invaded her bones, and her skin perspired lightly. She was going to shift.

Jake didn’t say anything as Ryan fixed himself a cup of coffee, but Ryan knew he wanted to hear what had upset Carol. He’d probably figured out what it was all about anyway. Ryan didn’t owe Jake an explanation, but he offered it anyway.

“She’s mine.”

“That goes without saying.” Jake poured himself another cup of hot chocolate.

Ryan looked in the direction of the entryway to the kitchen. “I upset her when I told her she needed to learn our ways.”

Jake gave a conceited smile. “Figured that was what was bothering her. I could have told you that Darien and I have gone round and round with her over it. Tom is more subtle about it. Lelandi’s tried in a sisterly way.” He shrugged. “Her mate will have to take care of it.”

Lelandi smiled as she walked into the kitchen, looking much revived.

“Hmm, the aroma of hot cocoa. You knew what would stir me from a nice spring nap, didn’t you, Jake? So whose mate will have to take care of what?” She pulled out a mug from the cupboard, and Jake poured her a cup of chocolate.

Neither Ryan nor Jake said, but they shared looks with each other.

“Oh, Carol,” Lelandi whispered and then frowned. “Did you… you know, finalize things?”

Ryan shook his head.

“They haven’t mated. But he’s declared she’s his,” Jake said with a smile. “Better let Silva know so she can spread the word via the grapevine. But there are problems in paradise already. She doesn’t like him telling her she’s got to learn our ways any more than she likes us telling her.”

“Where is Carol now?” Lelandi asked, her voice low.

“Sunroom,” Ryan said. “I was giving her a minute to be by herself. I’ll see to her.”

The door to the sunroom slammed open, and Ryan said, “Shit. She couldn’t have run off by herself. What the hell is she thinking?” He tore off for the sunroom with Jake and Lelandi on his heels.

But when they reached the sunroom, Mervin raced inside to meet them. “She, Carol… hell, she…” He motioned to her clothes piled up on the sunroom floor next to the couch.

“Shifted?” Ryan couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah and went out the electric wolf door. I don’t have permission to leave my guard post.”

“She’s one of the ones we’re guarding!” Ryan squelched the urge to call Mervin an idiot. Instead, he began ripping off his clothes.

“I’ll call Darien,” Lelandi said. “Jake, you go with Ryan.”

“I have to stay and protect you. I’ll call in more help.”

Ryan didn’t wait to hear what else Jake decided. Instead, Ryan shifted and raced out the door. Mervin ran outside after him and pointed in the direction she had run. But Ryan could smell her just fine and took off after the footpad scent she was leaving behind.

He hoped the hell North and his men were nowhere about and that Carol wasn’t too traumatized by what she was experiencing. He had no idea how she might cope with this aspect of her life, but he wished she’d let him be a part of it.

He’d run for about a mile when he heard the sound of gunfire. Hell. And then more. A wolf yelped in the distance. Then another.

He paused. Carol’s scent headed in a different direction from the sounds of the injured wolves. Ryan lifted his head and howled. He was met with silence. He howled again, long and deep and low.

Except for the rustle of the breeze stirring the tree branches, nothing.

He took off after Carol’s trail again. He had to find her and then locate the other wolves. Just as he ran down toward the river, he saw her, a beautiful red wolf snarling, her nose wrinkled, teeth bared, ears and tail held high, as she stood backed up against the water’s edge, while three men taunted her with a fishing net.

It was North and two of his men, one of whom had grazed Ryan with a bullet.

Chapter 22

THEIR BACKS TO RYAN, NORTH AND HIS MEN READIED a fishing net that was aimed at Carol. Her wolf posture indicated she was ready to bolt, and the men’s bodies steeled with tension as they shouted to one another, “Don’t miss her this time, damn it!”

“Hell, I’m not a fisherman, North!”

“Yeah,” another man said. “If we fish, it’s with our teeth!”

Her red fur bristling and fluffed out to the max, Carol appeared larger and more threatening, yet she had the sense to skitter out of the way of the net. But she wouldn’t go into the water where she could have easily escaped capture. Seeing this, the men kept her corralled with her back against the stream. As soon as the net landed on the ground, missing her, the men scurried to retrieve it, while watching her to make sure she didn’t attack. Why didn’t she just jump into the water and swim away?

At least none of them seemed inclined to shoot her.

Ryan kept running toward them. Concentrating hard on Carol, not one of the men realized the threat swiftly approaching at their backs. Ryan could have growled to warn them before he attacked. But he was worried that they might have guns and shoot him, and then he couldn’t protect Carol. He targeted the man in charge, North. Even now, Ryan could see red, remembering how the bastard had left Carol wet and naked, shivering on the frosty grass near Darien’s house.