“All the time.”
“Really?”
Mac nodded. “You’ve been around the guys long enough to know that they shift when they get pissed, excited, or hyped up, right? Trust me, most of them don’t even realize it’s happening either.”
“But it’s never happened to me before.”
“It did tonight.” Mac smiled. “You’re pretty new to this whole werewolf thing. Maybe you just had to get angry enough to let the shift happen.”
Khaki supposed that made sense. She’d definitely been angry with Jeremy. But while some of the guys shifted a little when they got mad, they could do it when they weren’t angry, too.
“But how do I control it?” she asked Mac. “How do I get the parts of the werewolf that I want while keeping the other parts hidden? And how do I keep it from coming out at the wrong time?”
Mac shrugged. “I can’t help you with that. Gage has told me about what it’s like when he’s shifting, and I’ve seen him do it a lot. But we’ve never gotten into the how-to part of it. You’re going to need to talk to one of the guys, preferably one who’s been a werewolf for a while. Gage, maybe?”
Khaki shook her head, embarrassed at the thought. “There’s no way I can tell him that I don’t know the first thing about being a werewolf. It’s why he hired me. I don’t want him thinking I’m incompetent.” She gave Mac a stern look. “You can’t tell him either.”
Mac held up her hand. “I won’t, I promise. But you need to talk to someone, sooner rather than later.”
Khaki took another sip of iced tea as she ran down the list of guys on her squad again. Other than Cooper, Trevor was the only other werewolf with a lot of experience. While she definitely got along with him, she wasn’t sure he’d be very good at teaching her how to be a werewolf. There were several experienced werewolves on Mike’s team, but she didn’t know any of them well enough to ask.
“Have you ever considered asking Xander?”
Khaki almost choked on her iced tea.
“I’m serious,” Mac said. “I know he can be a bit brusque sometimes, but he’s a really good guy. He’s your squad leader and you can trust him to keep anything you tell him in confidence. If you ask, I know he’d help you.”
Khaki wasn’t too sure of that. She opened her mouth to tell Mac there was no way in hell she’d ask her squad leader for help, but the words wouldn’t come out. Maybe it was her inner werewolf trying to tell her something. Or maybe it was because she knew she had nothing to lose—Xander couldn’t possibly think any less of her than he already did.
Chapter 6
Khaki stood outside Xander’s apartment, trying to work up the courage to knock. This had seemed like a great idea when she’d left Mac’s place, but now she wasn’t so sure. Was it too late to chicken out?
Coward.
She lifted her hand and knocked. He might not even be home. Maybe she should have called first.
She was just about to knock again when the door opened. She blinked, the speech she’d rehearsed on the way over disappearing at the sight of Xander. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that showed off his well-muscled biceps. They were so mesmerizing, she could barely take her eyes off them.
“Khaki. What are you doing here?”
While the words weren’t exactly harsh, they were enough to snap her out of her stupor.
She reached up and nervously pushed her hair behind her ear. “Can I come in?”
He didn’t say anything for so long, she thought he was going to make her say whatever she’d come to say right there in the hallway. But then he stepped back.
“Yeah, sure.”
His apartment had bachelor written all over it. There was little in the way of décor unless you counted the monster TV mounted on the wall in front of a sectional that while not shabby definitely had that lived-in look. There was a baseball game on, but the sound was muted. All of that faded into the background as the smell hit her. It was like being immersed in a bottle of Xander-scented cologne. It actually made it hard to breathe—without drooling at least.
“What can I do for you?” Xander asked.
He’d closed the door but hadn’t moved away from it. He wasn’t making this very easy on her.
She glanced at the couch. “Would it be all right if we sat down?”
He gestured toward the sectional, then sat as far away as he could. Maybe she should have taken a shower before coming over.
