“Enough,” Bowman growled. “Can we stay on point? Liam, we need you to Collar the tiger. Keep him controlled and out of trouble.”

“I told you, the Collar might kill him. I can’t do that to another Shifter.”

“If you don’t, we will,” Bowman said, and about half the leaders nodded agreement. “He attracts too much human attention to our business. If he causes more trouble, humans will start poking around to see what’s going on, why he’s not being controlled, why he can’t be controlled. If they find the fake Collar, we’re all screwed. We can’t afford to have humans figuring out too much. Precarious times, Liam.”

Liam sat back, growing uncomfortable. Bowman had a point. Humans thought they had Shifters corralled and tamed. Tiger, uncontrolled, might bring human scrutiny too far into Shiftertowns, where the humans could find all kinds of things Shifters wanted to keep hidden.

“We also need to find out everything we can about this tiger,” Bowman went on. “Hack into the humans’ research, figure out what they were up to. They created him from scratch, but how? Who did they use? The more we know, the more we can contain this. And if the tiger needs to be eliminated . . .” Bowman’s gaze was all for Liam. “Then we eliminate him.”

Goddess, had Dylan had to put up with shite like this? Probably. Liam wished for his father’s strength, a little of his ruthlessness, and most of all, his penetrating stare, the one that could make all other Shifters back down in quiet terror.

The lion inside Liam began to growl, his hackles rising. “You aren’t leader of the leaders, Bowman. Tiger’s in my Shiftertown, and I’ll decide when he’s too much of a danger.”

“You feel sorry for him,” Bowman said. “I get that. But it’s clouding your judgment. He should have been taken out right after he was found. There’s no way he can adjust, and there are cubs to think about.”

“Tiger lives in my house with my cub, and he’s amazing with her,” Liam said. “Watches over her as well as I and her mum do. He’s protective, and the cubs like him.”

“You’d better hope your judgment isn’t misplaced,” Bowman said.

“And I am keeping an eye on him. Or I would be, if I weren’t being dragged out to sit in stinky back rooms in bars with a bunch of Shifters with their knickers in a twist.”

One of the other leaders stood up. “I say we put it to a vote. Liam puts a Collar on the tiger. If Liam can’t handle him, we take the tiger out. All in favor?”

“A vote?” Graham asked, incredulous. “I’ve seen everything now.”

The other Shifters, ignoring him, put up their hands. Almost all of them. Liam got to his feet.

“Screw this. You don’t come into my Shiftertown and mess with my Shifters.”

“And,” Eric said in his calm way, “there’s the problem of being able to kill Tiger at all. How do you propose to do that? A Shifter who can survive bullet wounds? When I first found him, it took two tranq shots just to make him sit down.”

“Which is why we need to act now,” Bowman said. “Who the hell knows what else he can do, or what he’s become capable of? We need to contain or kill him before he hurts one of us.”

Liam barely held on to his temper. “I agree about finding out all we can about him. But those other decisions are mine.”

“Not anymore, Liam,” Bowman said. “You’re holding a potentially lethal weapon. If it gets out of control, it could spell the end for all Shifters. Living in Shiftertowns was a decision pushed through by advocates for Shifters, if you remember. Humans who didn’t want to see us treated like lab rats or slaughtered outright. But the humans will shove us back into cages and drug us until we die if they think we can turn into whatever this tiger Shifter is. You know it, Liam.”

“Yes,” Liam had to say. The word tasted sour in his mouth. “But it’s still my decision.”

“Like I said, not anymore.” Bowman stood up casually, as though they weren’t talking about the life and death of one of Liam’s friends. “We should go before people start wondering why so many Shifters are in town.”

Meeting adjourned, in other words. Several of the leaders and their bodyguards got up and exited without saying good-bye. Others lingered, would drift away a little at a time. A mass exodus would be a bad idea.

Bowman had to pass Liam and Eric on his way out. Graham stepped enough in Bowman’s way that Bowman would have to make physical contact to get around him.

“So they let a dickhead like you run a Shiftertown?” Graham said, giving Bowman his gray-eyed stare.

“I’m doing what I have to do to protect my Shifters,” Bowman said, meeting his gaze without flinching. “It’s my job.”

“If Tiger was living in your house you might understand better, I’m thinking,” Liam said.

“If he was living in my house, he’d already have a Collar.” Bowman turned his body to slide past Graham without touching him. “See you, Liam. Eric.”

Eric remained. He was about the same height as Liam, a little leaner, tanned from Las Vegas sunshine. He folded his arms and leaned against the back of a chair. “You can return him to our Shiftertown if you want,” Eric said. “I know I kind of forced him down your throat.”

“You didn’t.” Liam ran a hand through his hair, hoping he could get the smell of angry Shifter out of it when he got home. “I was the one with the arrogance in thinking I could control him, even without putting a Collar on him.”

Eric didn’t argue with him, Liam noticed. Or bother trying to make him feel better. “Want to grab a beer? Lunch?”

“No, I need to be getting back.” Liam sighed and unhooked his sunglasses from his T-shirt. “And I need to think.”

“I’m driving,” Spike said, the first words he’d spoken since they’d walked in. He held out his hand for the keys. “If you’ll be thinking the whole time, I need to do the steering.”

“Call me when you want advice,” Eric said. “You know I’m good at giving it.” He showed his teeth in a grin while Graham rolled his eyes.

Spike, now holding the keys, walked out and had the pickup started by the time Liam finished his parting embraces with Eric, then Graham. Liam got into the truck, Spike navigated through the busy streets back to the freeway, and they headed south, Liam slumped against the door.