She turned in time to watch them run out of the room.Unable to help herself, she grinned and caught Shawn’s eye.
The pair of them snickered, and Shawn said, “I didn’t think I’d ever see those guys run from anything… and if it had to happen, never thought it would be because of you.”
“I’m so scary, don’t you know?”she retorted, baring her teeth at him.
He snorted.“Can’t scare me, babe.”
Her smile was more genuine this time.“I know.”And she did, and that was infinitely reassuring.
Chapter 10
The healer arrived within the hour.
Shawn saw her from El’s bedroom window where he’d been holed up since the others had left.
He had work to do so he’d brought in his laptop, but his presence was comfort enough, he thought.
She didn’t have much to do; that was her trouble.
She was used to being busy with her projects and campaigns for the charities she worked for.And it was work.
He, like a lot of the population, discarded charity work.Thinking only rich and bored housewives took it on because they had nothing else better to do with their days.
Well, there was some truth in that.El didn’t work, didn’t have a job, mostly because she said that there was no point in her taking away a work position from someone who actually needed the money.
In that, El was not ambitious at all.
She had all the funds she needed, and didn’t mind not having a ‘career’ to support her.
But, that didn’t mean to say she wasn’t a worker.
Some days he was the one who had to drag her off her projects at the eight charities she worked for.
Yeah.Eight.
When she’d signed up for so many over his years of guarding her, he’d been astonished by her output.Fifteen hour days and heaps of donations plowed into each one…
El wasn’t the type to sit back and twiddle her thumbs.Nor was she the kind to be happy to go shopping and to while away her days with that shit.
She needed something to do… and Shawn knew he’d have to talk to Ryan and the others about what it was her talents could be put to work on.
He rubbed his chin as he watched the healer approach the lodge.He knew the woman was a healer because she had a weird kind of smile gracing her pretty features.
It was like she was high, or something.Half-baked on peyote.Her flower-child kaftan was another indicator—she was the first person he’d seen on the compound not wearing a suit.Or looking reasonably smart.The compound was the seat of the Pride House, after all.The Pride’s main governmental house within the state.
He guessed he was living in their version of the governor’s home, so political figures were often seen walking around.
Even the guys who came here to shift and roam around the compound usually arrived dressed smartly.
“The healer’s here,” he told El, turning back to look at her laying back on the bed.
She didn’t look ‘in heat’, he mused.Not that he knew what that looked like.
The only experience he had with Shifters was with the men serving in the CUBS.It wasn’t a sexist choice to have all males serving in that unit; no women had ever signed up.As far as he was aware, no Shifter women signed up for the Armed Forces, and having been around the Pride for a while now, he realized that was more to do with how they cherished their females.With their births rare, and at a 3:1 ratio with males, it was no wonder they discouraged them from heading off into war zones.
Heat, however, indicated warmth.A flush, even, would have satisfied his investigation… but nope, there was nothing to indicate she was giving off pheromones that packed enough punch to have three grown men running off.
Well, running off was relative he guessed.
