Carol glanced over at Ryan, her eyes widening, her ears flattening a little, her snarl vanishing. The men turned around to see what had caught her attention.

“Holy shit!” one of the men said, dropping the net and running for dear life.

North and the other man ran in a different direction. His wolf urges dictating his actions, Ryan fought the craving to chase any of them down and end their sorry lives, which would mean leaving Carol alone. He couldn’t abandon her. Not with the possibility that the person shooting wolves might come upon her. Or that North or his other men might come back for her.

But mostly, he wasn’t sure how she’d react now that she was wearing her wolf coat, and he had to be here for her more than ever.

Her ears perked up again, and she studied him. He loped toward her, hoping she wouldn’t run off. He had no idea if she could understand their ways in wolf form. Not unless she’d grown up and learned their nuances. He grew close. Still, she didn’t take flight. He stepped nearer, nudged the side of her muzzle with his nose, and then licked her face. Come home, he wanted to say to her. Come with me. But she seemed frozen in place.

He heard a couple of people running toward them and looked back over his shoulder. Christian and Jake, neither of whom had shape-shifted.

“What the hell’s going on?” Jake said to Carol. “We’re glad you shifted, Carol, but you need to return to the house now! Lelandi’s going to have those babies early if she gets any more upset about this.”

Carol looked toward the house and then filled her lungs with air. Making up her mind, she loped toward the house, to Ryan’s relief. He joined her and ran alongside her, his body lightly touching hers, trying to console her if she needed his support. He was sure she needed someone’s.

Jake and Christian ran behind them, but at a human’s speed, they’d never catch up. Jake was talking on his phone, giving Darien an update on Carol and the wolf shootings.

“All right, we’ll hang tight until we get word from you. Yeah, she’ll be all right. You know Carol. She always perseveres.”

Ryan was glad to hear the admiration in Jake’s voice instead of condemnation. Carol needed encouragement more than anything else, and he planned to be her uncritically enthusiastic supporter helping her through the changes in her life.

When Ryan and Carol reached the house, Mervin was inside with Avery and Lelandi.

“Thank God, you’re all right,” Lelandi said to Carol. “We heard shooting.” She rubbed her stomach in a worried way. “I put your clothes in your room.” She bit her lip. “And yours also, Ryan.”

He would have smiled at Lelandi’s thoughtfulness, except for the seriousness of the situation. Instead, he followed Carol out of the sunroom, through the great room, and then up the stairs to her bedroom. He didn’t even give a thought to the possibility that he might not be able to shift back, or that she couldn’t. But when they reached her bedroom and he shifted, she didn’t. He closed the door and dressed while she paced like a caged beast.

Shifting was so natural to someone born a werewolf that he didn’t know how to explain what she should do. He thought the process would be innate, but apparently not. Or…

He didn’t want to think about the doc. She couldn’t be stuck in her wolf form!

He walked over and touched her neck. She stopped and waited. He wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her, leaning his face against hers.

“You can shift back, Carol. Just will it. You’re so distraught that you’re not thinking clearly.” At least that’s what he hoped the matter was.

For at least another ten minutes, which seemed an eternity, she stood there and breathed in hard breaths, her eyes gazing at him briefly. Then she focused on the dresser. It felt like she would stand there for the rest of eternity, just staring at the furniture, unable to do anything else.

“You can do it,” he encouraged and rubbed her head between her ears. Then he ran his hand over her back, attempting to console her. If she hadn’t liked it, she would have growled or moved away, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Still, when he stopped petting her to see what would happen, she didn’t nudge his hand to encourage him to continue. And then she began to pace again.

Hell. “Carol, you can do it. You can shift back. Close your eyes and see the change. Feel the heat, the swift transformation. Feel it.”

She suddenly ran into the bathroom and pushed the door closed with her nose.

She didn’t want him to see her shifting? “Carol, shifting is a natural occurrence for us. It’s a beautiful process, something to be cherished.”

Minutes later, she jerked the door open and scowled at him, naked and beautiful, her expression heated as she stalked toward her clothes laid out on the bed.

“For you, maybe, damn it, but not for me.”

He grasped her wrist to stop her from avoiding him and folded his arms around her silky body, holding her tight. Her armor instantly slipped.

“I thought I was lost to the wolf,” she sobbed.

He swallowed hard, kissed her on the top of her head, and held her close until the sobs died down. “You’re all right, honey. You’re going to be fine.”

“I’ll never be fine again,” she said through the tears.

“You will. Together, we’ll do this. I’ll always be there for you.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with unspent tears. “You want me? Even as much of a mess as I am? You’re a pack leader. You need a mate who can help you lead. Not someone who is totally clueless and doesn’t even know how to howl or shift back. Or control when she’s going to shift in the first place.”

“You’ll be fine, Carol. What brought about the shift this time? Mervin came running to tell us you’d taken off. Did he accost you again?” Ryan tried to control the growl in his voice, but if Mervin had grabbed her again…

She quickly shook her head. “I was just sitting in the cold sunroom, trying to get warm while I drank the hot cocoa. I saw Mervin guarding the place and then glanced up at the growing moon. The damnable moon.”

“The moon has something to do with the change as it continues to wax. But the cold can, too. If we’re in a really cold environment, we can shift into our wolf half so we can be warm.”

“Yeah, but you do it when you choose to. Not when the wolf chooses to.” She sighed deeply. “Ryan, I couldn’t fight them. North and the others. The natural ability to defend myself came into play, the growling and snarling, the baring of teeth, but I couldn’t attack them.”

“There were three of them, and they had a net. If you’d attempted to attack, they could have easily captured you with the net. Instinct warned you that using a defensive posture was the only way to deal with the situation.”

“I couldn’t have killed them. Not any of them.”

“If one had tried to kill you or someone else, you might have seen it differently. That’s not important. What is important is that you get the shifting under control. You could have escaped by swimming across the river, though.”

“I can’t swim.”

He raised his brows. “Swimming is a natural ability for wolves.”

She frowned up at him. “Yeah, well shape-shifting is supposed to be a natural ability for us, too. And so is howling. Why couldn’t I howl to let you know the three men were trying to catch me in a damned fishing net?”

He smiled. “You could have swum. Later, when things are more settled, I’ll teach you how as a human. As for howling, you probably were too busy concentrating on the men and their net. If I had been in your fur coat, that’s what I would have been doing.”

Jake hollered up the stairs, “Everything all right up there?”

Ryan rubbed Carol’s bare arms and kissed her cheek. “You all right?”

She nodded and pulled away from him to dress.

“We’ll be down in a minute. Everything’s fine up here.” But Ryan had a new worry, and he was certain that was some of what was still bothering Carol. When would she next shift? And why hadn’t she been able to conjure up any visions this time to block the need to shift?

Not wanting to see anyone in the pack ever again because of having turned into a wolf, Carol reluctantly went downstairs with Ryan to join Jake and Lelandi. She knew Lelandi had to be worried about her. Jake, also. But she didn’t want to face them. She’d lost what little control she’d had over her shape-shifting ability, and now Darien was sure to ban her from working at the hospital.

Jake eyed Carol with too much concern.

“I’m okay,” she said, rubbing her arms and glowering at him. But she didn’t feel okay. She felt that any little thing could trigger the shift again.

Lelandi crossed the floor, gave her a big hug, and rubbed her back. “You’ll be fine, Carol. It’s just the beginning. I swear you’ll get used to it.”

Jake’s phone rang. He whipped it off his belt and said, “Yeah, Darien?” His gaze shifted to Carol. “Shit. All right. I’ll take her to the hospital now. What about Lelandi?” He glanced in her direction. “All right, she stays here with her guard detail. I’m on my way.”

He hung up and called someone else. “Deputy Trevor, three of our men have been shot—in their wolf forms. Not by North’s men. By human townsfolk. Get the word out pronto that anyone who shoots a wolf gets mandatory jail time. The sheriff’s tracking the shooters down now, so he needs you to spread the word. I’ve got to get Carol to the hospital to help with the victims. Talk later.”

Jake motioned for Carol and Ryan to come with him as he called someone else.

“Sam, I want you to take care of the guard detail watching Lelandi. Silva can come and stay with her. I’ve got to get Carol and Ryan to the hospital. Some of our men have been shot in their wolf forms, and Doc Mitchell has disappeared. Yeah, I know. Talk about a hell of a mess. We’ll leave as soon as you get here.”