Leonie repressed the wistful thought. Straightening, she took out her clipboard, flipping to a fresh page. There wastoo much work to be done to waste time in useless daydreams. Someone had to stay grounded.
“And deal with a secret agent, apparently,” she muttered, scribbling irritated notes to herself about all the tasks she’d have to somehow squeeze into her theoretical free time. “Wonderful. Just what I need.”
Yes,her inner animal said unexpectedly.
Leonie started, pencil skittering a jagged line across the paper. Like most big cats, her lioness spent the vast majority of the day asleep. It wasn’t like the lazy beast to offer an opinion unprompted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said out loud.
Her lioness licked idly at one paw.You liked him.
“I don’tlikehim.” Wonderful, now even her own animal was teasing her. “I don’t have any feelings about him at all. I’ve only spent about ten seconds with the man. We didn’t even speak to each other.”
Her animal stretched in a feline shrug, amber eyes already drifting shut again.Maybe you should.
Leonie frowned, mentally picturing Special Agent Zhao. He’d certainly been imposing. Good-looking, too, even with those ridiculous mirrored sunglasses slicing across his face.
But she was an apex predator herself. Her lioness had never been impressed by mere strength. And Leonie couldn’t believe it would even notice whether or not a man was physically attractive, let alone comment on it. So why on earth had the agent caught her animal’s attention?
Maybe it was just his shift form. The only winged felines she’d met previously were all members of her own family. She’d never evenheardof a winged tiger.
Perhaps he was a hybrid of some kind. There were plenty of mixed-animal shifter couples. Usually, any kids took after one side or the other, but you occasionally got some oddcombinations. Then again, for all she knew, there were entire clans of flying tigers out there.
Sadly, her curiosity would have to go unsatisfied. It would be unspeakably rude to question a stranger about his shift form. And the agent wouldn’t be at camp long enough for anyone to get to know him. Not ifshecould help it. Leonie intended to do everything in her power to ensure his visit was as brief as possible.
As if on cue, a shadow swept over her. A huge, predatory shape banked over the camp, orange wings spread wide.
Okay. Maybe it wasn’t such a mystery why her lioness had been impressed.
In the morning sunlight, the tiger’s striped flanks glowed like smoldering fire. Every motion he made was pure poetry; an endless leap through the sky.
Awe snatched her breath away, even as envy stabbed through her chest. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the magnificent beast as he spiraled down.
He was beautiful. He was majestic. He was?—
“Oh, no,” Leonie breathed, and broke into a run.
CHAPTER 3
Shan had thought he’d taken every precaution.
He’d scrutinized the staff schedule so he could pick an arrival time when all the counselors would be safely occupied with training activities. He’d circled the camp three times, observing the entire site from the air. He hadn’t landed and shifted to human form until he was completely sure there was no risk of encountering his true mate.
He wasnotprepared for her to charge out of nowhere and tackle him like a linebacker.
She was barely half his mass, yet she nearly knocked him clean off his feet. He staggered, instinctively grasping her shoulders to steady them both.
His mate didn’t give him so much as a second to regain his balance. Grabbing his tie, she marched off with rapid, angry strides. Helpless to resist, Shan found himself stumbling at her heels, hauled along like a disgraced dog on a lead.
She pulled him into a storeroom, the walls lined with rows of shelves and neatly labeled boxes. The door shut behind them with an ominousclick.Releasing his tie at last, she turned to face him, hands on her hips.
“You idiot,” she snarled up at him. “What were youthinking?”
At that precise moment, he wasn’t thinking anything. A kind of bright, ringing blankness filled his mind.
He’d resigned himself to never seeing her again. He’d tried to forget her warm amber eyes, the dimple in her cheek, the way the sunlight caught in her hair.
Now she was here, right in front of him, every perfect inch. Pure need gripped him. She was so close. So close to being able to taste, to claim, tohave?—
