“Liam,” Graham said behind Eric.

Graham was sort of co-leader with Eric of their Shiftertown. He condescended to return Liam’s greeting embrace, but the hug shouted that Graham would be just as happy to break Liam’s neck in other circumstances.

“What did you bring him for?” Liam asked Eric, jerking his thumb at Graham. “I can’t believe he’s your bodyguard.”

Eric and Graham had tangled in the past. Eric’s sister or son didn’t qualify to be Eric’s backup, but Liam was surprised Eric would venture out alone with Graham, who’d made it no secret that he thought he’d be a better Shiftertown leader than Eric. Eric usually brought Nell, a bear Shifter and his neighbor, whose glare could stop the most formidable Shifter in his tracks.

“Didn’t trust him enough to leave him behind,” Eric said. He gave Liam his laid-back smile, but his jade-green eyes were sharp with watchfulness.

“Good thinking,” Graham said, though his body language said, Fuck you.

“Besides, he’s met Tiger,” Eric said, ignoring Graham. “And Nell’s busy with her new mate. Cormac, you know him. Those are the only reasons I’d bring Graham. Graham’s afraid to fly, and he bitched about it the whole time.”

“Huh,” Graham said. He was a big man with flame tattoos on his arms and buzzed dark hair, his wolf-gray eyes holding more intelligence than he let people see. “If the Goddess wanted me to fly, she’d have made me a bird Shifter. An eagle.”

“Penguin,” Liam said.

Graham frowned at him. “Penguins don’t fly.”

“I know.”

He growled. “Yeah, you’re funny, Irishman.”

“Can we start?” The Shifter who’d called this meeting was a Lupine named Bowman O’Donnell, who ran a Shiftertown in North Carolina. He stood at the head of the table, impatient, his dark eyes fixed on Liam. His bodyguard was a lean, mean-looking Feline, with tattoos of cheetahs chasing themselves around his arms.

Twenty other Shifter leaders and their bodyguards took up the rest of the room. Some slouched in seats as though they’d rather be anywhere doing anything but this; others were alert, eyes on Liam, interested.

Liam hid a sigh, trying to make himself sit down and be calm, but he knew he couldn’t be. Tiger was his responsibility, and the other Shifters could scent Liam’s worry about this meeting. That is, if they could smell anything in a room full of Shifter leaders trying to out-alpha one another.

Liam waved his hand in front of his nose as he took his seat. “Can we open a window?”

Several of the other Shifters chuckled. Bowman didn’t look amused.

“If we do this fast, we can get out of here into fresh air,” he said. “Or polluted air. Cities suck.”

More laughter. Bowman’s Shiftertown was in the middle of tall pine woods in the hills. Liam had visited once and had been impressed by the place’s natural beauty. Bowman had gotten lucky.

“So you have a Shifter living with you who can heal himself from gunshot wounds,” Bowman said. “We heard about the second shooting, and that this tiger Shifter basically grew himself a second skin.”

Goddess, word spread fast. Liam and his family had said nothing, and Glory, as crazy as she was, could be trusted to keep secrets. So could Liam’s trackers.

But Shifters had scent and good hearing, and Liam’s neighbors weren’t all so in love with the Morrisseys that they wouldn’t gossip about them and their households. Shifters didn’t need computers and electronic social networks to spread news far and wide. They only needed a chat on a front porch.

“He didn’t grow a second skin,” Liam said. “He’s still in bed recovering.” And doing other things, with Carly, he’d heard through the walls, but Liam chose to keep that information to himself. If these concerned Shifters thought Tiger was already mating, who the hell knew what they’d do? “He did, though, expel the bullets from his body without trying, and the wounds closed up. But he’s weak and tired, not out tearing apart the world.”

“He’s dangerous,” Bowman said. “We don’t know what he is, or how those humans made him, or what he’ll do. Or what he’ll become.”

“I agree,” Liam said. He leaned back in his chair, hands resting lightly on his abdomen. “But he’s a nice guy. I’m not going to kill him.”

“No, but you need to put a Collar on him.” Bowman didn’t move, but his meaning was evident: Put a Collar on him, or we tell the humans and let them make the decision what to do.

“We talked about that, remember?” Liam said. “After I tried it. I thought the Collar was going to kill him—and he’d have killed me right then if I’d attempted it a second time. Tiger’s not like a normal Shifter. The Collar might hurt him beyond repair, or it might kill him. Or it might do nothing at all.”

“Yes, we talked about it,” another of the Shifter leaders said. “Then you decided to fake a Collar for him. How’s that working out for you?”

“It’s fine as long as we keep him contained.”

“But you didn’t keep him contained,” Bowman said. “Day before yesterday, he was in the house of a wealthy human man, tearing it up, then he went crazy in the hospital and had to have Shifter Bureau send in goons. I don’t even know what happened yesterday.”

“He and one of my trackers were run off the road,” Liam said. “A man who looked like a Shifter Bureau goon shot him, then walked away.”

“Walked away?” Bowman asked, curious.

“Didn’t stick around to see if he’d made the kill. I was wondering about that.”

Graham broke in. “Probably he figured no one could survive twenty bullets from a machine pistol in the back.”

Bowman shot Graham a look of irritation. “Bodyguards aren’t allowed to talk in Shifter council meetings.”

“Screw you,” Graham said clearly. “What council? You never invited me to these meetings when I was leader of my Shiftertown. Shifter leaders getting together to discuss things. That’s f**ked up.”

The Feline guarding Bowman leaned forward, slanting Graham a look of challenge. Graham laughed at him. “You want to try it with me? Bring it on, cat.”

The cheetah smiled and rubbed one hand over his arm tattoos. He showed his teeth, eyes turning golden yellow.