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Lillian was intrigued, but she wasn’t going to let some stranger come into her studio and start ordering her around. She may be an artist, but she wasn’t a pushover.
It turned out that it didn’t take too much to squeeze her for the truth.
Ronnetta made a clicking noise with her mouth, her eyes winking with a clever glance.
“You got me there, Lillian. You know Oliver is a shifter, right?”
She nodded, arms tightly folded.
“I am a friend of Oliver’s, but I’m not here just to keep you company. He asked me to keep you safe. He told me about what happened with Uziel.”
Berline, who must have been listening in, walked in the second the art dealer's name was mentioned.
“Uziel? What happened with him?”
Lillian sighed, then turned to her friend, the gallery owner. She had supported her art for a long time. There were very few people Lillian actually trusted, and Berline was one of them.
“It’s okay, Berline. He has been harassing me lately and followed me to a party …” Lillian turned back to Ronnetta, holding her hands out, palms to the sky. “I feel safe here. There are lots of security cameras and everything …”
“I also know how to take care of my own,” Berline interrupted, touching Lillian’s shoulder. “I have my animal instincts, too."
Ronnetta burst out laughing. Lillian’s head swiveled back and forth, catching the same glint in Berline’s eyes as the strange woman’s.
“Wait, you’re a shifter?”
Berline nodded. “Cougar. I can take care of you, don't worry.”
Ronnetta slid off the stool and then stood tall next to Lillian. The artist was in shock, standing between two powerful female shifters.
“I am glad to hear that Lillian is safe here also. But I have to insist. Oliver isn’t a man to take no for an answer. We both know how determined an angry, obsessive shifter can be.”
Lillian was between a rock and a hard place. A part of her was offended by Oliver’s insistence, but another was curious. Finding Ronnetta there came out of nowhere, but it was an adventure. She was thirsty for that.
“All right, all right.” Lillian waved her hands around, then moved over to the stool with her coffee. “I have to talk to Oliver about this. For now, I guess you’ll have to watch me work.”
“That’s no problem at all,” Ronnetta said, grinning.
Lillian spent the rest of the day trying to focus on the sketch of the moon, which she was considering altering after the full-moon masquerade. Ronnetta didn’t interfere, but she was a stark reminder that Oliver, the stranger she'd slept with at the party, was hanging over her head.
After a strenuous eight hours, Ronnetta took Lillian to Oliver’s place. The weather was growing colder, the windows fogging up. She pulled into a long driveway, lights glowing in what looked like an enormous ship lost on a lonely sea.
“What the fuck?” Lillian muttered to herself.
Ronnetta parked near the front doors after going through a long roundabout. Lillian did the same, climbing out of her car and marveling at the sheer magnitude of the cabin-style mansion before her.
The sun was starting to go down, the sky’s shade dimming to a deeper blue. Lights began to bloom around the property with an amorous flicker. They washed up against the home, their shadows long as they stood before the entryway.
“What is this place?” Lillian muttered into the dying light.
Ronnetta seemed to perpetually have a smile glued to her face. But it wasn’t disingenuous.
“Oliver didn’t tell you, did he?” she said, starting to laugh. “He is the alpha of the sleuth around here. Which basically means he’s the leader. He’s the town manager, as well, and comes from a long line of wealth.”
Lillian was aghast. “He mentioned he was an alpha. He didn’t tell me about the rest.”
Ronnetta touched her arm as they both stood beneath the looming building. Her voice was soft under the sweeping dusk.
“That’s why I couldn’t leave you. Oliver is my alpha. What he says to do, I do. My bear tells me to.”
