LITMIR.BIZ

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aren’t you?” Selena asked as Owen pulled her chair out so she could stand.

      Despite being an officer of the law, he didn’t always follow traditional etiquette with women. Even so, something about Selena made him want to revert to the old ways he’d learned as a child here in Canada—actions that had supposedly been imported from the mother country of the UK years, even centuries, ago. Odd, he knew. And he didn’t want to overthink it now.

      But on some level he realized he was hoping to make himself think of his obligatory partner in this program as a lady, not an officer in the United States Army whose rank might be in some ways equivalent to his own in the nonmilitary RCMP, or perhaps even higher. And certainly not as a shapeshifter from whom he had a lot to learn to fulfill his current assignment.

      Plus, he got closer to her this way than he otherwise might. Could smell her fresh, almost floral scent—nothing like the scent of dogs or wolves that he might otherwise have anticipated.

      In addition, while being polite, he could imagine touching her for other reasons than assisting her in and out of cars or pulling her chair out for her.

      Which most likely meant he should start being rude from this moment on.

      “That’s right,” he responded. They left the others behind at the table and wended their way through the bar crowd to the exit door. Once they were out on the sidewalk he continued, “My team and I will move into the house you and your other Alpha Force members will be occupying now once you’ve trained us and moved on.”

      “So where are you all living now?”

      “Hotels. I’m in one, and the rest of the CAs are in a different one.” He’d thought that would help his subordinates bond without worrying too much about being part of a regimented system. That would come in time. And he didn’t worry about his command. As soon as the training and the mission started, they’d know who was in charge.

      She turned sideways to look up at him. “It would be more convenient for you to stay downtown right now rather than driving me back to the house. I could wait until Rainey is ready to go, then ride with whoever drove her here, or she and I could even walk back to the HQ if she doesn’t have a ride. It’s not that far.”

      “In the dark and in tonight’s chilly air? No way.”

      He couldn’t help but appreciate her offer, though. She didn’t automatically consider him and the CAs her inferiors, who were required to take good care of her in exchange for teaching them.

      “All right.” She sounded relieved. He liked that, too. He figured she had made the offer because she believed it to be convenient for him, even though she’d hoped he’d refuse it.

      They walked back to his SUV in the Yukon Bar’s gravel parking lot, and without thinking, he took Selena’s arm and helped her into the passenger seat.

      Despite the sweater she wore that kept him from touching her skin, he was highly conscious of her warmth. She, too, appeared to notice the contact, since her head turned quickly and her amber eyes captured his for just an instant. “Thank you,” she said. He shut the door, then went around to the driver’s seat and started off.

      He had anticipated struggling to find a neutral topic of conversation on the short drive back to the enclave when he realized he wanted to know everything about this woman—including more of what she really thought about being a shapeshifter. But he didn’t really want to bring that up. Not now.

      He was relieved when she started the conversation. She sat in shadows in the seat beside him, but the lights outside the vehicle illuminated her enough that he could see her lovely face—and the fact that she was smiling as she watched the scenery while he drove.

      First, she commented on the bars they’d visited. “I liked the Yukon best, but I can see why our gang likes the Wonderbar. There’s more action there, for one thing.”

      “True. But I was with them once at the Yukon and they really got into talking about...what they were. Quietly, and using euphemisms, in case anyone was listening.”

      “Euphemisms like what? Although I might have heard them all. Used them all at different times.”

      He told her Andrea’s description of what they all had in common as being windows through which illumination fell—like the full moon that changed them, he assumed. Did Selena still identify with that? He knew that shifters in her Alpha Force didn’t need to wait for the right phase of the moon. He had even seen it, sort of.

      His new unit members were also students, ready to learn all they could about the universe. They were animal lovers. And more. And with each description, Owen heard Selena draw in her breath and giggle.

      He liked that he could please her like that.

      “You enjoyed that conversation, too, didn’t you?” she asked, facing him as he waited at a traffic light.

      “I liked her ingenuity,” he admitted.

      “Did you ever think, when you decided to join the RCMP, that you’d find yourself in such an unusual situation?”

      He hadn’t. Not really. But he had previously become aware that shapeshifters existed, and the experience he’d had suggested that illegal, even violent, situations could result from contact with them.

      “No,” he said curtly as the light changed and he stepped too quickly on the gas.

      He glimpsed Selena’s movement beside him, as she was jolted back into her seat.

      “Sorry,” he added, but didn’t explain his discomfort.

      “You had a bad experience with shapeshifters, didn’t you?” she asked quietly.

      Damn, but the woman was perceptive. He would have to watch himself around her.

      “No,” he said only somewhat truthfully. He realized then that this might be a good time to tell her—and vent a little. “Not me personally. But a short while after I joined the RCMP I had a couple of family members killed in the States—in Minnesota—and others there asked me to come and talk to the local authorities and try to make sense of what had happened. I traveled there, and that’s when I learned that one of those killed had been a distant family member by marriage who’d been a wolf shifter. He was shot with a silver bullet while shifted, after he’d killed my blood relative, a third cousin. Despite attempting to dredge out the details and help, I didn’t get a lot of information on motive or anything else, other than that it was a family tragedy, and I never did make any sense of it. The cousin who was killed was apparently a prominent business owner in the area, and the details were hushed up so the shop he owned would survive. His wife and kids still own it and we stay in touch at the holidays.”

      It was something he almost never talked about, and neither did anyone else in the family, except maybe those in Minnesota. But letting Selena know that he genuinely believed in shapeshifters—and why—had seemed appropriate.

      “Look, Owen, I understand that it’s a difficult topic to discuss, but—”

      “Glad you recognize that.” He realized he sounded curt, but she apparently got the message and didn’t push. In fact, they didn’t say much as he continued onward until he reached the houses. She might not be satisfied with his silence, but that was the way he wanted it.

      He pulled his car in front of the larger house, where she and Rainey would spend this night and should be joined by the rest of her Alpha Force team tomorrow. They had left the lights on, and the two homes were illuminated.

      He saw a half-moon off to the east. Not a full moon. It nevertheless seemed symbolic of what was to occur here.

      As he parked, Selena opened her own door. He quickly exited the SUV and hurried around to hold it for her and to reach out for her hand as if to steady her.

      “I’m really okay,” she said, not touching him and giving him a stubborn look. Her full bottom lip stuck out obstinately. Sexily. “But—”

      “You

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