Walker’s stance became suddenly nervous, but he walked away with Rebecca. Ellison followed them, limping a little, still recovering from being shot, while Sean moved off into the desert, watching the darkness.

Liam settled himself comfortably next to Carly, resting his hands on his knees. With his worn jeans, leather coat, and dusting of unshaven dark whiskers, he might be a biker sitting back for some rest before continuing on the road.

“Do you know how we tracked you down?” Liam asked, his voice calm.

“I know you’re going to tell me,” Carly said.

“Connor was watching the morning news. There was a local story about a man who’d gone into a convenience store and stopped a robbery in progress. The hero broke the robber’s gun into about ten pieces, knocked the guy down, and then broke his hand. And knocked him out. The amazed clerk described his rescuer as a very large man, hugely strong, and wearing a baseball cap. And then this superhero disappeared. Tiger was gone, no one knew where, and you’d vanished out of your gallery—don’t think Spike didn’t get an earful about that. How brainless would I have to be not to figure out who this hero was?”

“He couldn’t help himself,” Carly said. “It’s who he is.”

“The clerk, who’s now Tiger’s biggest fan, volunteered to me that he saw him getting into a dark SUV. Easy for our Sean to look at traffic cams for that hour and find likely SUVs and their plates. Easy for him to hack into the title records database to find that Walker Danielson had bought a vehicle with that description only yesterday.”

“I got pulled over on the freeway,” Carly said, her voice flat.

“Aye. I asked my friends in counties all over the state to look for the SUV but not to make it official. And not to arrest anyone, but to tell me where the SUV was and where it was heading. Another friend at the Bridge of the Americas gave me another clue, and my Shifter friend Eric has access to a plane.”

“Who else did you tell?” Carly asked. “The Shifter Bureau?”

“Now, why would we be doing that?” Liam gave her an incredulous look. “No, lass, I told no one.”

“And no one will wonder why half of Shiftertown left Austin tonight?”

“The few of us here are a long way from half of Shiftertown. Most of Shiftertown goes out at night anyway. Bars, dance clubs, the fight club. It’s not unusual to have Shifters prowling the town until two thirty in the morning, which is our curfew. Many of us come from nocturnal breeds.”

Carly listened impatiently. “What about the Shifters who want you to put a Collar on Tiger?”

“Carly.” Liam rubbed his hands on his thighs. “I agreed to look after Tiger because I felt for him. No one should do to a Shifter what was done to him. I’m trying to protect him. And I’m trying to protect him from himself.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“I know you don’t believe me, lass. He can wind you around his finger, can Tiger. He’s got a way with him, as my mum used to say. But what happens if he attacks someone, like he did the robber? If I’m not around when daft humans try to arrest him, what will Tiger do to them? Or the authorities might try to kill him, which would cause even more havoc. I’m not in favor of putting a Collar on Tiger, or terminating him either, trust me. But we need to control him somehow.”

“Why do you need to control him at all?” Carly demanded. “Why can’t you leave him alone?”

Liam blew out his breath. “If you haven’t noticed, Tiger is dangerous. Look at the havoc he’s wreaked only the last few days.”

“All in self-defense and in defense of others. He told me that if you put the Collar on him, it will probably kill him.”

Liam looked off into the distance of the starry night. “I admit that when we tried the first time, I thought it would kill him. That’s why I took it off.”

“And you want to put it back on? What kind of logic is that?”

“Mmm.” Liam fell silent for a long time as the cool breeze from the desert and the hills beyond flowed to them. The SUV’s settling engine emitted a pop and a small hiss.

“I’m going to tell you something,” Liam said. “I need to swear you to secrecy on it, but if it helps get you to believe me and help me, then it’s worth it. I’m trying to find a way so that no Shifter has to wear a Collar ever again.”

Carly gave him her grudging interest. “How are you doing that?”

“Experiments. Me and Dad and Sean. On ourselves—not anyone else. I’d like to get Connor out of his before his Transition. I made Tiger a fake Collar, which was good enough to fool the humans. So far, we haven’t been successful at removing Collars, but what I’d like to do is see if we can make one that’s even more realistic, say delivers a mild shock or the show of one when a Shifter starts an attack. Tiger would be perfect for this. I could learn how to tone down the Collars, or make better fake ones, and the other Shifter leaders would get off my back about Tiger.”

“Experiment on him,” Carly said.

“Yes, but in this case, I’d be searching for ways to not hurt him.”

Liam argued a good case, and his charming voice made Carly want to believe him.

“That’s all very nice,” she said. “But still, all I’m hearing is about how people want to use Tiger. Walker is helping him, but he’s still trying to figure out what Tiger is and how he can be useful. You think Tiger’s the perfect guinea pig, and you believe you’re being nice by taking him home and sitting on him while you try out your Collars. You all want him for your own benefit. You don’t want him for himself.”

“I like him, Carly,” Liam said in a patient voice. “I want to see him happy. I can’t believe he’ll be happy running wild in northern Mexico, having to hunt for his food.”

“How do you know?” Carly glared up at him. “Have you ever once asked Tiger what he wants?”

Her eyes blurred with sudden tears. Having Carly near him had made Tiger calm and happy. Knowing she’d started a cub had made him happy.

“He’s a hard one to understand, I admit,” Liam said. “I truly want to find him to keep him from harm. And to keep others from being harmed by him.”

Carly wiped her eyes. “He won’t attack. Not unless someone deserves it.”