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That got a tentative smile from him. “Okay, okay. Hold on.” He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then let out his breath and focused on her. “Go.”
Laura frowned. “Turn around.”
“For God’s sake.” He turned around while she rushed to strip. She shoved her clothes and boots into her duffle then shifted into a four-hundred-pound grizzly.
At her grunt, he turned around. Seeing her, he nodded with approval. “You’re annoying as a human, but you make the prettiest bear.”
Flatterer.
Though she couldn’t communicate with others outside her clan when shifted, Ac-taw had perfected the art of reading body language. She batted her lashes then snarled.
He chuckled. “I know. I’m hurrying.” He fixed the duffel strap around her neck and set his backpack there as well, using some rope from the truck to tie it. Then he shucked out of his pants and tucked them in his bag before she could blink.
And oh my word, what a body. Full frontal, hel-lo.
“Quit staring. You’re making me uncomfortable,” he deadpanned before shifting into a beautiful red fox.
Gorgeous, with dark red fur along his torso that tapered to dark brown on his legs, the tip of his tail, and his ears, he also had white along his belly and up under his neck and chin. But those golden eyes drew her. Browner when a man, but she knew him anywhere and always had.
He chirped and laid back his ears. She lowered her body. Once he’d climbed on, she took off, praying they made it before the storm broke wide open.
And that her last message to the sheriff had gone through. Or they really were on their own with a bunch of homicidal birds on their proverbial tails.
And just in time for Christmas.
Ho ho ho.
Chapter Three
Attorney at Law, Gerald Winter, of Winter and Sons, had been working to serve his community to keep the town safe and livable for the foreseeable future. For the past 150 years, the firm his relatives had started continued to flourish.
They didn’t take cases they assumed they would win. They took cases to preserve the integrity that made Cougar Falls a haven for shifters and humans alike.
The outside world had no knowledge of their kind. So the wheels of justice turned a bit differently for those who could shift into man and beast.
He and his cousins, of which there were many, had been cleaning up raptor messes for the past few years. But this new so-called leadership had pushed him past his limits. He’d been working with the eagle clan, now split from the raptors, to call for a town council meeting.
Everyone knew the current raptor alphas were three shades short of a rainbow. But no one had the courage to stand up to them. Those who did disappeared.
Many in the other clans had had enough. Namely, those hothead catamounts. Freaking cats and their ideas of making things right. Granted, the guys in that clan were his best friends, but they tended to make a mess wherever they went.
So Gerald had been working secretly with the eagles and a few raptor insiders to legally fix the raptors. He’d found a solution, presented it to the presiding judge, and had gotten the current alphas, Glen and Roberta McKay, officially reprimanded and temporarily out of office while the town council waited for the case to go to trial. Right after the holidays.
Unfortunately, the McKays weren’t all the way stupid. They knew if they could get rid of the evidence, and namely Gerald—who everyone needed to make the case work—then they could stay in power until an all-out interclan war brought them to an end. But hell, they’d end up taking the entire town with them at that point, which they’d consider a win.
Nope. Not on his watch. He’d fix this mess if it was the last thing he ever did. He groaned, his head throbbing, his leg aching, and…wait a minute there. What was that delectable scent?
His body woke up and took notice, which shouldn’t have happened. He didn’t normally get a hard-on when in pain. But the feel of full breasts and that heavenly smell made him all kinds of ready to sink into sex.
“Hey, um, buddy. Let go.”
He heard the soft words and didn’t want her to go away, so he eased his arms from caging the sexy female, to be less demanding. But she remained beneath him, sharing his warmth. He shoved his face between her breasts, inhaling her scent.
She gasped.
He pulled back and took a nipple in his mouth. And sucked, moaning his pleasure.
“Holy… Gerald!”
