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the anatomy of peace, the audience was much smaller, and more shifters than humans had shown up
for that one.
A waft of jasmine passed his nose, and he stiffened. He scanned the audience a second time, and
this time he spotted her, third row from the back. What the hell was she doing here? Did she want
to torment him? All of the control he thought he had gained evaporated, and he found himself
sucking in deep breaths to keep himself from shifting to a tiger and leaping off the stage to get at
her.
 Damn it, he growled.  Why is she here?
He spun away from the audience and stepped behind the curtain. Snapping his fingers, he caught the
attention of one of the teacher s assistants. The young man stepped up, his face full of whiskers
twitching.
Chase frowned.
The young man scratched at his thick brown fur.  Sorry, professor. This is not a good time of year
for me.
Don t I know it?
 Never mind that, Collins. I want you to go out into the audience and look for a young woman that
smells of jasmine and nail polish.
Collins s eyes widened.  Other descriptions, sir?
 She s the only one that smells like that here tonight. Tell her to leave immediately. Tell her
Professor Monahan . . . uh, Chase, does not want her here.
As Collins walked away to carry out Chase s order, he realized how stupid it sounded to have that
message delivered to her. One, she wouldn t listen, and two, it revealed to Collins and whoever else
might be listening that Lori affected him in some way. But it couldn t be helped. He d never be able
to give his lecture with her there. Not now. Not during his mating season.
Damn it all!
He was stronger than this, wasn t he? No, common sense and experience told him to always plan
ahead, to always take into consideration the beast within. Doing so had gotten him to the place he
was now, to being a respected professor at a prestigious university. He could not afford to toss it all
away. He was in a position to influence future leaders who would make decisions that could affect
all shifters. A beautiful human he ached to fuck would not be allowed to ruin it all!
A crash like a door being slammed against the wall jerked him from his thoughts. Stevens made a
startled exclamation into the mic, setting off a screech of sound that brought Chase down to one
knee in pain. Humans began to scream, and Chase jumped up to rush to the stage. The audience was
overrun with wolves and a couple of bears.
 What the hell? he shouted.  Shifters! Stevens, get out of here. Lock yourself in one of the offices
until the police arrive.
Chase didn t wait for an answer from his colleague. He leaped off the stage and landed on all fours
in his tiger form. His clothes had been torn away by his change. He vaulted up the aisle, the thought
of getting to Lori in his mind.
Rough shouts and chants of  Free shifters! No more unfair laws! ran through the auditorium.
 Idiots, he growled. This was not the way to conduct a peaceful protest. To give them some credit,
the shifters weren t attacking, but he was sure that it would take little more than one human to
panic, one unintentional injury, to take this situation from bad to worse.
Chase leaped onto the back of one of the bears and kept moving. He ignored the angry shout of the
shifter behind him and threaded his way between bodies. There she was, standing in her chair with
her pale bare feet, toenails neatly polished red sticking out from her pants legs. He should not be
stiffening at a time like this, but he was.
When he reached her, he put his front paws on her chair and opened his mouth to instruct her to
get on his back. She whacked him with a shoe she held in her hand.
 Back! she shouted.  I m not afraid to use this.
He blinked at her. What damage could her shoe do?  Stupid human, get on my back. I ll take you to
safety.
Her eyes went wide.  Chase?
 Get on! he snapped.  Now!
A woman, trapped in the row with them, stumbled and fell down. The sharpened pencil she had in
her hand jabbed into her flesh. Chase saw the dot of blood seemingly the same time as he got a
whiff of it. Like the others would when they smelled it, a sense of frenzy came over him. He fought
the ache to attack, to taste the blood. The wolves would be worse. He had to keep it together, but it
was hard to think.
A growl rose in his throat. He dropped his head low and watched the woman scoot backward from
him on the floor. Baring his teeth, he inched closer, his tail swishing in the air behind him.
Without warning, jasmine engulfed him. Lori jumped down from the chair between him and the
woman and jerked his head forward to smash his nose into her stomach. He pulled away with such
force that his claws slid on the bare floor beneath the seats, and Lori landed on top of him.
When his mouth was free, he said,  Are you insane? I could have ripped you to shreds. I might not
have snapped out of it, and bitten you!
She popped his nose with her shoe again.  But you didn t. Get me the hell out of here, and her too,
before they attack. I figure the wolves will be worse than you when they get a sniff of her blood.
He frowned at her for a moment.  Just how do you know so much about animals?
 Never mind! Let s go! She stood up and snatched the woman to her feet.
Having no choice, and it being too awkward to carry them both on his back, Chase forged a path
through the bodies. Instead of guiding them to the front exit, he considered that there might be
more shifters out there and instead led the two women to the hall at the side of the auditorium.
When they had burst through the door, Chase having forced the lock, the other woman took off
running down the hall.
 Wait, Lori called out, but she didn t stop and disappeared around the corner. Lori turned back to
him.  Well, come on. We have to get away from this place before the police come, or every shifter
will be arrested or killed if they don t go quietly.
Chase found the way to an exit with no one inside or outside. Again, he broke the lock, and soon
they were sprinting along the street. He had to slow down a few times when he almost left her
behind and once for her to slip into her shoes. At a corner with traffic whizzing by and pedestrians
strolling along giving them odd looks, they stopped.
Lori stooped beside him.  Why don t you change back? You re more conspicuous this way.
He bumped her so that she landed on her ass, legs slightly apart. He licked his lips.  I could if you
don t mind me naked. But then that would be just as conspicuous, wouldn t it? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]