“I can call a cab if you won’t drive me. I just feel safer at home.”
Tak stood up and erased the distance between us. “When you’re with me, you’re safe.”
I backed up against the door, my hand on the knob.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised. “Has that ever happened before? Your episode, I mean.”
My episode.How did he know to call it that? Panic attacks weren’t common among Shifters, especially since danger often had the reverse effect on wolves. It awakened our animal, and we fed off that power.
I dodged his gaze and weaved around him. “Sometimes it happens when I’m least expecting it, but it’s never been that… paralyzing. Not in public where everyone could see me.” I sat at the foot of the bed and buried my face in my hands. “Now they’re going to know.”
“Know what? That you were afraid of a rogue grizzly four times your size?” Tak rocked with laughter. “You and every other man in that bar.”
I lowered my arms. “I lack courage.”
He folded his arms and leaned against the wall by the door. “You’re not weak because you can’t take down a grizzly with your purse. How many women your age in this town left their packs and opened up their own store? How many have a contract with a man like Shikoba? He doesn’t do business with just anyone, you know. There are prominent tribes in the region he wouldn’t close a deal with. Courage comes in many forms.”
“People expect more from me. Cowering beneath a bar isn’t befitting of a Packmaster’s daughter.”
He nodded. “I know a little something about that. Maybe we have more in common than I thought.”
“I doubt it.”
Men like Tak feared nothing. He couldn’t possibly understand my shame. I looked down at my bare feet and then noticed my shoes beside the dresser.
“I have a clean shirt if you want to change,” he offered. “I always bring extra in case I feel like taking a shift.” Tak was holding in a laugh, and I suspected his play on words would have earned him a laugh in the bar.
“I’ve already taken some of your clothes.”
He strode over to his bag. “That’s right. Why didn’t you offer them to me when I stayed the night?”
“I forgot I had them,” I admitted.
He handed me a brown shirt. “You just wanted to see me in a dress. Don’t deny it.”
I smiled and began to unbutton my blouse, which reeked of beer and cigarette smoke. Tak turned toward the curtain and pretended to be straightening the drapes while I changed.
I pulled his shirt over my head and flipped my hair out from inside the collar. Growing up in a pack, one could hardly be bashful. Aside from that, he’d already seen everything. “Why did you shift?”
“At the bar?”
“No. Here.”
Tak remained silent for a few seconds as he stared down at the table beside him. “Who gave you this letter?”
“What letter?”
He turned halfway and glowered. “The one that says: ‘I’m going to cut off your head.’”
A chill ran down my spine when I saw him pointing at a piece of paper on the table. “Where did you get that? Were you going through my things? You had no right.”
“You were unconscious. I had every right to look for your phone to get Lakota’s number. My apologies for getting distracted by the death threat.”
My eyes settled on the torn envelope beside it.
“Well?” he pressed. “Who gave this to you?”
“I don’t know. Someone taped it on the window outside our store. We had trouble when we first opened, probably—”
