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“Are you stalking me?” I tried to jump to my feet, but a wave of dizziness plowed through my head, and I tumbled back to the ground. Determined, I rolled over to all fours and then lurched to my feet. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to get, but I’m not about to let that happen, Logan. I’ll fight you tooth and nail.”

At first, he didn’t respond. Finally, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirky grin. “Oh, I know you will.” He gestured in the direction of the fleeing mountain lion. “That much is obvious.”

I wanted to tell him off and demand he go fuck himself, but I couldn’t form the words. My thoughts had gone fuzzy. My mouth made a series of sounds but no sense.

My dizziness turned into something much stronger, and darkness rolled through my mind. It didn’t matter anymore. As the ground disappeared from beneath my feet, strong arms caught me before I impacted the pavement.

Damn it all to hell.

I’d done my best, but I didn’t have anything left.I love you, Mom.Don’t read too much into my being naked when they find me.My teeth chattered, and my body went limp, unable to fight against any attack of any kind now.

The cold of the night was too much for my bare skin, and my clothes were still in shreds on the ground, so I leaned into the warmth of the man who’d caught me.

Logan pulled me closer. A million static shocks thawed the chill, and the chattering of my teeth slowed. Without speaking, he held onto me as I fought against complete unconsciousness.

“What’s happening to me?” I finally whimpered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe, Emma.”

The rear of my car was still open, casting a dim light over us, and he placed me gently on the carpeted surface inside. Then he took a deep breath, and his lips brushed my cheek and his fingers grazed the rainbow tattoo on my hip.

And I gave in to the dark.

CHAPTER TEN

logan

Earlier

Abear. A fox.Twoshifts. At first morph.

And I’d made a promise to keep Emma safe, kissed her cheek, and touched the tattoo on her hip before she’d passed out in my arms. What a load of foolish romantic garbage.

If she remembered this tomorrow, I would have hell to pay for my lapse in judgment, and I didn’t need any more reasons for the woman to mistrust me while she sorted out her destiny.

The quiet in the campsite had grown heavier with each passing moment. Blood covered Emma’s sides and legs, but her wounds had healed when she had changed forms. It was one of the benefits of shifting. After she had gone limp, I tried to figure out how I hadn’t recognized her. Her scent should have clued me in, but she didn’t smell like her.

I took a deep breath, studying her colorful hair in the moonlight. No, that wasn’t true. She smelled like her now, but more… Sure, there was the layer of perfume she wore, but any number of humans wore it.

Even if I’d known who or what she was, I couldn’t very well pop up at her campsite…naked… to wait around for the prophesied moment—her multi-shifting—to show up. The magic had to manifest, and she had to shift first. There wasn’t any other way this night could have gone, though the aftermath might still be catastrophic, and it would be life-changing for Emma.

Navigating the next several months would take every skill I had as a negotiator, a leader, and an alpha. Emma Carter, DVM, had shifted into two different animal forms. That made her something special to our kind, and it was up to me to help her understand what had happened to her.

Could she be the multimorph?Impossible. But I couldn’t deny what had happened. I’d watched her shift into two different creatures, right out in the open in Magnolia State Park. The revelation rattled me to my core, even as Emma’s pale face clawed at my heart.

Getting her back to the manor inside our territory was my top priority.

What a helluva fucking night.

A happy thought struck me, but my grin was wasted on the unconscious Emma. At least she wasn’t the poisoned-souled beginning of Acheron’s dark plot. She could be the way we would finally putan end to Acheron. How many times had Dr. Wise warned me about the histories she had been studying?

I grunted as though I’d been punched in the stomach. This had to be the first time she’d changed, or I would have smelled the magic inside her. In Willow Creek or at the bar.

The bar…

She wouldn’t have been able to hide anything from me while my tongue was in her mouth, and her magic had been enormously powerful. She had to be in her mid-twenties, maybe even late twenties. If this was the first time she’d shifted, what had held the change at bay? Maybe Dr. Wise would have insight.

In the meantime, I had to get her back to Six-Mile Pack headquarters. No way was I going to leave a walking prophecy out in the woods naked and alone.