Elizabeth stepped down the rickety wooden stairs and over to the passenger side of her car to put the picture on the seat. Her keys slipped free from her fingers after pulling them out of her pocket. She bent down to pick them up and heard the whizzing sound of a bullet splitting the air before the shattering of her window. Glass rained down on her head, slicing her cheek before she could cover her head with her arms. Small shards lay embedded in her skin as she yanked the gun from her ankle holster and trained it over the hood of her car and into the woods behind her.
She sniffed the air, smelling the same rancid animal scents she had when she’d arrived. She stayed crouched on the ground as the door to the trailer burst open.
Matilda glanced at her. “You all right?”
“Yeah, go back inside and stay low,” Elizabeth urged, never taking her eyes from the tree line. She saw the glint of a silver gun poking out from behind a thicket of bushes, and instinctively she knew the asshole was about to fire again. She rose slightly to get the shot, aimed and pulled her trigger seconds before pain sliced her shoulder. The impact thrust her body back into the dirt. “Son of a bitch.”
She sniffed, smelling the tangy scent of blood in the air, a mixture of hers and the shooter’s. The heavy scent of a wolf was nearby. She heard the cracking of branches moving farther away as the shooter tried to flee. She’d hit him. “You better run.”
She tossed the picture into her car through the shattered glass, not wanting to ruin it with her blood. Using her good hand to dial Trapp, she jogged toward the tree line. Blood seeped into her shirt where the bullet had hit her. Blood from the arm, where the glass pieces were embedded, dripped from her elbow as she held the phone to her ear. “Trapp, I’m at the trailer park. I’ve been hit, and I need the damn trackers.”
“Is the bullet still in you?”
She used her good hand and touched the back of her shoulder. Her fingers came away sticky with blood. “No.”
“Shift, so you can heal.”
“I can’t. I have shards of glass embedded in my arms.”
“Fuck, Lizzie. Sit tight. Do not give chase. Do you hear me?”
She ended the call, shoved the phone in her pocket, and held her arm as she jogged toward the trees where she’d seen the glint of the gun. She slowed to a walk, scanning the area as she entered. She smelled the musky scent of the wolf that had been there. Surprisingly, the scent was unfamiliar. She was unable to put a name to the stink. She just couldn’t catch a break today. She’d expected to smell Horace’s unique odor, yet it wasn’t his. She followed her nose toward the smell of gunpowder, and she spotted blood on an outcrop of leaves. She grinned through the pain. “You’re as good as mine.”
Ten minutes later the entire trailer park was surrounded with units, along with Dr. Jamieson Tanner, the division’s personal doc. He walked straight to her while the others worked on canvassing the area. She was sitting on Matilda’s dilapidated steps when he reached her. He eyed the bullet wound, dressing it immediately. “Let’s get this glass out of you so you can shift and heal.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Doc,” Evan added, appearing by her side. “Was it the wolf?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t Horace.” She glanced up at him as Jamieson started pulling stuff out of his bag. “Why are you here?”
“I was already on my way before I got the call. I sensed you were in trouble.”
“We should do this in my office,” Jamieson announced.
Elizabeth stood and walked over to her car. She opened the passenger door, reached in, and grabbed the picture that Matilda had given her before turning and tossing her keys in the air to Evan. “Do you mind?”
“Your wish is my command.”
“If that were true, my case would be solved, and you’d be gone.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and followed Jamieson to his car, not waiting on a smart-ass reply from Evan.
Fifteen minutes later, she was sitting in the doc’s office, watching him use a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers as he tried to pry the glass from her flesh as if they were splinters from a tree. He eased a sliver out and dropped it into the metal bowl on the table next to him.
“Jamieson, do you have family?”
“No. My parents died a long time ago, and I was an only child.”
“Someone special in your life?”
He smiled as he continued to dig glass out of her arm. “I don’t have time for a social life with the way you guys are always getting hurt.”
He dropped another sliver into the bowl and dropped his smile. “Jennifer Smith, the woman you sent for testing, came by earlier.”
“That’s good.” Elizabeth sucked in a deep breath when Jamieson started digging deeper near her elbow. “What animal is she?”
He stopped poking, glanced up at her, and frowned. “She doesn’t have one. She had some anomalies in her DNA, but no sign of any animal.”
“You’re serious?” Elizabeth’s mouth parted. “That’s not possible. Her own mother told me she was a fox. Did you check that gene?”
He shrugged and started digging again. “I’ll run it again just to be sure.”
“Thanks.”
“By the way, when you ran my blood work back when Colton first brought me in, did you see anything to indicate that the enzymes in my bite or the secretions in my blood had the potential to kill?”
Ping. He dropped another larger glass piece into the container.
“Well...Trapp mentioned you can shift into any animal, and if that’s possible, then yes.” He shrugged. “Even if you only do a partial shift, if your psyche chose something with a poisonous bite, then I can see how you could kill.”
“What about if I meet a mate and I’m bitten? Is there a chance I could have poison in my DNA? Are there any animals that are poisonous if eaten?”
He pushed back from her, picked up his tweezers and the bowl, and walked across the room to the sink where he sat them down. “Let me think about that.”
He pulled open the separator that some of his patients used to change clothes behind and gestured for her to get behind it. “You need to shift to close the wounds.”
She stepped around the curtain and started undressing. She heard him clicking away on his computer as she tossed her shirt and bra over the screen before stepping out of her shoes and ditching her jeans and panties.
“Giant Namibian bullfrog,” he called out.
She peeked around the screen. “Excuse me?”
“Poisonous secretions in the skin of that type of bullfrog can cause kidney failure and death if not cooked right.” He pointed to the screen and kept scrolling as she pulled off her socks. “However…”
She peeked back around. “Yeah?”
“Wood absorbs the poison.” He gestured toward the computer. “According to this, when chefs cook the bullfrogs, they line the bottom of the pots with wood to absorb the secreted poison.”
“And people eat them?” She shivered at the thought while making a gagging sound.
“Not only do they eat them, they are considered a delicacy.”
“With that DNA in your system, you could potentially be deadly. You’d kill the human and their animal.”
She concentrated on a little white fluffy cat as she shifted, letting the magic take over. Her bones cracked and pushed and pulled into place, fur sprouted from her arms, and her fangs pushed through her gums. She looked down at her paws expecting to see white fur and was aggravated when she saw the brown and orange paws of the Siberian tiger again.
She stepped out on all fours from behind the curtain and glanced around the room. The doctor was still sitting in front of the computer, but his chair was turned and looking at her.
“That’s a fine, scary animal, Lizzie.”
She purred and walked closer, rubbing up against his leg. She used her head and nudged his hand, lifting it to the keyboard.
“You still want me to keep searching?”
She purred again and kept walking around the room. Within seconds, her skin was healed, and she felt like a hundred percent.
“All better I see,” Evan called out as he walked into the room.
She hissed at him, giving him a good look at her deadly incisors before sauntering back behind the curtain and letting the shift overcome her again, putting her back into her human state.
She ran her fingertips across the new tiny pink scars on her arms before looking at her shoulder. If she kept up this line of work, her body was going to be one big pink mess of scars. She reached for her panties and started getting dressed again. When she was done, she stepped around the partition, moving to stand behind the doctor. She placed her palm on his shoulder as he continued to click away at the computer.
“Keep looking for me, Doc. It’s kind of important. And let me know what you get after rechecking the DNA.” She laid the picture of Jennifer down next to his computer. “Can you have one of the guys make a copy of this and have it delivered back to Jennifer’s mother tonight at the trailer park? I’ve got some assholes to find and bite.” She chomped at the air and grinned.
“Sure.” He stopped typing and glanced up at her. “I’ll call you if I find anything out.”
“What is he looking for?” Evan asked as he followed her out of the room.
“He’s doing some research for me. Where’s my car?”
“Getting fixed. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me tonight.”
She glanced to the front doors of the precinct, and her eyes widened. She’d lost track of time, spending more time in the lab getting glass pulled from her than she’d thought.
“You need to take me back to my hotel. I have a date.”
“With the bear?”
“With my mate,” she clarified as she reached for her phone, realizing too late that she didn’t have Rhys’ number programmed in her phone. She glanced toward Colton’s office to find the light off. “Where’s Colton?”
“He shifted to hunt with the trackers.”
She let out a long deep sigh and started for the door. When he didn’t follow, she turned around. “Well, are you my ride, or am I calling a cab?”
He gritted his teeth as he stormed toward her. “Do you know how much it pains me to drive you to see him?”
“Fine, I’ll call a cab,” she announced and picked up the phone on the nearest desk.
“Get your ass in gear. I’m not waiting all night,” he grumbled and gave a violent push out the door.
Lizzie climbed into the passenger side of the SUV and buckled her belt as Evan started the SUV and pulled out onto the main road. She was stuck with him for the next thirty minutes. “I appreciate the ride.”
He grunted.
“Maybe I can meet you tomorrow night for that glimpse of Jordanians you were going to give me. I’m kind of beat tonight and just want to enjoy a late dinner with Rhys.”
He glanced at her but didn’t say a word. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Minutes went by before he spoke. “Elizabeth, you’re wasting your time with him.” He glanced over at her again. “You are too different.”
“Opposites attract.”
He shook his head and let out a long sigh. “If you won’t stop seeing him for yourself, at least think about what you’re depriving him of.”
“Yeah, what’s that? Because I haven’t heard him complain yet.”
“Children,” Evan answered without looking at her. “A full mate bond. You’ll kill him if he bites you.”
Elizabeth rested her head against the seat. “He’d love me without those things.”
“Your father will never accept him.”
She balled her fists, digging her nails into her palms. “You mean the same father who didn’t want to raise me and sent me to live with his brother among humans? I can’t say I honestly care about what he thinks.”
“You don’t, but what about Rhys? Your father is a powerful man and shifter. What if he turns on Rhys and his brothers? We have laws, Ab—Elizabeth. His laws and the laws of your bloodline have governed our people and kept us alive for centuries. What happens when the king decides that Rhys isn’t good enough for you? Will you condemn Rhys and his brothers to whatever punishment your dad sees fit?”
She shifted in her seat to get a better look at Evan. “Are you sure you aren’t saying this because you’re jealous, and you want me as a mate?”
“No.” His voice lowered. “I’m telling you this because I care about you. I always have. It killed me to wait for you until you turned twenty-five.” He glanced at her, and his brows dipped. “I know you, better than you know yourself. If something were to happen to him, you’d never be able to live with yourself. You’ll either get yourself killed trying to rescue him or get him killed. Mates or not, neither you nor I can let that happen.”
She turned back in her seat without another word and watched the darkness pass by as she let his words sink in. She’d lived most of her life alone, so it was possible she could walk away if it meant that it kept him alive, even if it destroyed her happiness, but there had to be another way for them to be together. For them to be happy.
“Someone once told me that a shifter’s number one priority is to protect and take care of his mate. That her happiness always came first.” She glanced sideways at him. “That’s how I know you and I aren’t mates. We might be connected by destiny and lives, but you’d never walk away if I begged you to, even if it meant that I’d be happy, truly happy, whereas Rhys would if it meant my happiness. As much as it would kill him, he’d let me go.”
She turned and rested her head against the window for the remainder of the quiet ride back to her hotel. The night grew darker as he turned into the hotel and parked. He got out and followed her upstairs no matter how much she protested that he get back in the car and leave.
The door swung open, and her bear’s gaze softened as it rested on her face. He pulled her into his arms and glared at Evan. “What is he doing here?”
“She was shot, and one of us had to take care of her,” Evan announced before turning to walk away.
“Asshole,” she called out after him.
He lifted up the car keys, keeping his back to her as he walked away. “Takes one to know one, Abigail.”