Page 8 of Claimed By the Guardian

He wanted to believe that she meant Please don’t risk your life by facing down an angry grizzly, but he knew better. She was begging him not to restrain her.

“Please, I’ll listen. I’ll do whatever you say.” She looked over at Mother. “My name is Dr. Cecilia Lu. He’s abducted me from the CDC?—”

“Save your breath,” Mother interrupted. “You’re stupid and blind. Sit there with your eyes open and learn.”

He sincerely doubted that anyone had ever called Dr. Cecilia Lu stupid. Certainly not an old black lady living near the projects, but he had to give Dr. Lu credit. She didn’t turn huffy or pompous. Instead, she buttoned her lip and waited for another opportunity to escape.

One problem down. Now he turned to Mother. “Please don’t shoot her. She’s blind right now, but?—”

“Yeah, yeah. What you gonna do about Sammy?”

He grimaced. “The only thing I can do. Talk bear to bear to calm things down. But once things are quiet, you gotta do the rest. Talk like a person?—”

“I know what to do. You just…” She gestured vaguely with the tip of her shotgun. “Just be careful. We got a brand-new TV down there.”

And right there was why he liked Mother. Angry wolves outside, kidnapped doc inside, and him about to face down a new grizzly. And what did she care about? Her new TV. He knew she was really saying, Don’t get killed, but sentiment had never been her way, and that’s what made him smile.

“Got the cable hooked up and everything?”

She grinned at him. “Looking forward to next year’s Super Bowl.” Then she set the shotgun down. “You can come to the party if you don’t break it.”

He nodded at her once, accepting the invitation. Then he leaned down and hauled the kitchen table out of the way. Next came the couch, but the noise set Sammy to growling. And the scratches on the door were getting louder. He doubted the thing would hold out much longer even though the door was solid oak. He knew because he had bought and installed it himself in anticipation of this moment.

Mother looked worriedly at the door, her expression tight. “I’ll open it. Better hurry.”

He nodded and pulled off his shirt. He’d learned how to strip out of his clothes in under three seconds and he didn’t take much longer this time. Shirt, shoes, pants, underwear. Everything off and set neatly on the couch. Then he turned full frontal to Dr. Cecilia Lu.

Her eyes were wide, her expression shocked. Then he said slowly and clearly for her benefit. “I’m a shifter. I turn into a black bear. I’m going to do it now.”

Mother cut in. “So pay attention, girl. Open your eyes.”

CHAPTER 4

List of possible explanations for what she was seeing:

She was asleep on the lab table and was having one hell of a bad dream.

She was so exhausted, she was hallucinating.

She’d caught the Detroit Flu and was hallucinating.

She’d hit her head, and this is what happened when one had brain damage.

A zillion other explanations burst through Cecilia’s brain, all of them equally plausible and way more likely than a man being able to turn into a big black bear. That just wasn’t possible and 100 percent of her brain rejected it out of hand.

And that’s what finally convinced her to really look at what she was seeing. Because as a scientist she prided herself on exploring all the possibilities. Had aliens abducted the deli guy at her local grocery store? Absolutely possible until she saw evidence of a different explanation. Nessie lived in Loch Ness and came up occasionally to help boost tourism? Unlikely but possible. Big Foot, fairies, even ghosts and all other paranormal activity? She’d consider them along with a dozen more likely explanations.

But suddenly shifters were 100 percent impossible? Even though she watched a man thick with bulging muscles and zero body fat face her straight on and start to sprout fur. There might have been a golden glow. She didn’t know. It was too fast for her brain to process. But she absolutely saw sleek black fur, a lengthening muzzle, and bright brown eyes flow wider on an expanding face. She watched as he dropped to all fours. As hair—er, fur—rippled down his back into a short, rather cute little tail. And those narrow hips and his tight, manly ass thickened and spread until she saw the rounded back end of a bear.

But even as she was looking—and maybe screaming a little—his sweet brown eyes remained the same. Sure, they’d flowed outward on a bone structure vastly different than a man’s, but they had the same calm expression, the same color, and the same steady resignation that had been on the man. As if he was doing his best by her but sincerely doubted it would work.

And then she was looking at a big black bear with liquid eyes and a long pink tongue.

And yet she was 100 percent sure that she was hallucinating? That was bullshit because nothing was ever 100 percent certain in science. Nothing.

Which meant…

Oh hell. Shifters existed.