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When the doorbell rang, Chloe scrambled out from under the blanket fort they had built after dinner.

Clothes pins ricocheted across the living room, and the blanket collapsed onto Faith.

“Slow down, Chloe!” Faith called after her and tried to disentangle herself. “You know you’re not supposed to open the door without me.”

“But, Mom!” Chloe whined in a tone only a six-year-old could master.

She had recently switched from “Mommy” to “Mom,” and Faith was still struggling to get used to it.

“Maybe it’s Mrs.Rowe,” Chloe added. “Maybe she wants us to feed Garfield again!”

“I doubt it. We just saw her this morning, remember? She would have mentioned it.” Faith somehow managed to crawl out from under the collapsed fort without getting strangled by the twinkle lights. As she crossed the living room to stop Chloe from opening the door, she pulled her phone from her pocket and swiped at the notification from her doorbell camera app. Before she could see who it was, she stepped on one of the clothes pins in her sock-covered feet.

Pain flared through her instep. She gritted her teeth and hopped through the hall to stop Chloe from greeting the visitor on her own.

Chloe was bouncing up and down in front of the door.

Faith put one hand on Chloe’s shoulder and finally caught a glimpse of the live video feed on her phone, which showed the courtyard in front of her house.

The sun had all but set outside, with only a sliver of orange peeking through the gaps between the surrounding brick buildings. In the soft glow of the light above the door, she could make out her visitor’s features.

It wasn’t their elderly neighbor.

Her father stood in front of Faith’s town house. Maybe it was just the dim light, but for a second, she thought he looked older than his fifty-nine years. Usually, the touch of gray at his temples and the fine, silver threads in his neatly trimmed beard gave him a distinguished appearance, but now, a weird expression deepened the lines etched on his face.

He had always been careful not to let her see the depths of his grief after her mom had died. But this look wasn’t sorrow, was it? It seemed more like anger.

Faith’s stomach tightened. What had happened? It was unlike her father to show up unannounced, especially so close to Chloe’s bedtime and after they had seen each other a few hours ago at work.

“Mom!” Chloe craned her neck to see the live video. “Who is it?”

Her voice wrenched Faith from her stupor. “Your grandpa.”

Chloe pulled the door open before Faith could do it. “Grandpa!” she squealed in delight and launched herself at him.

He bent to scoop her up in his arms. The expression on his face softened, and his eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at her. For a moment, the stiffness in his broad shoulders seemed to ease.

Faith slid the phone back into her pocket. “Is everything all right, Dad?”

“Yes. Just thought I’d drop by to check on my favorite girls.” He set Chloe down and pulled Faith into a hug.

The familiar scent of his cologne enveloped her, and for a few seconds, she felt like a child again.

When the hug ended, he looked down at Chloe. “Hey, Chloe, can you give me a minute alone with your mom?”

Faith tried not to tense up. No need to assume he wanted to share bad news. It was probably harmless. “Why don’t you go brush your teeth and pick out a bedtime story?”

Chloe sighed as if she’d been asked to eat broccoli for dessert but then bounded upstairs.

Faith’s father turned toward her. His smile faded away, and his entire demeanor changed. “We need to talk,” he said, his voice low because they both knew Chloe loved to eavesdrop on the adults.

Her throat felt as dry as a communion wafer…at least as far as she remembered. It had been a while since Faith had set foot in a church. She led him over to the couch.

His gaze roamed the living room. For a moment, he looked the way he did when he inspected one of his hotels, and Faith’s cheeks warmed as she tried to see her home through his eyes.

The beautiful acacia hardwood floor was an obstacle course of clothes pins and beads that Chloe hadn’t picked up yet. They had brought over two chairs from the dining area and pulled the cushions from the couch to help build a blanket fort in front of the fireplace. Faith still hadn’t found the time to paint over the purple squiggle, where Chloe had decided the wall was a bit too white when she’d been younger.

At the end of a long day, spending time with Chloe was her top priority, not trivial stuff like tidying or painting a wall.

Her father dismissed the mess with a wave of his hand and pulled something from his coat pocket. “Have you seen this?”

Ugh. It had to be the guest complaint they had gotten this afternoon. She put the cushions back onto the couch, sank onto it, and pulled him down with her. “I’ve got it handled, Dad. I already talked to the guest, and I’ll meet with the in-room dining team first thing tomorrow morning to make sure something like that never happens again.”

The lines on her father’s forehead deepened. “It’s not about work. I know you’ll take care of that. It’s about this.” He held up a magazine, opened to a glossy page.

The headline screamed in bold letters: Forbidden Love at Shape-Shifter Parade: Is a Secret Romance Brewing Between a Shifter and the Daughter of Anti-Wrasa Activist Peter MacAllister?

She stared at the tabloid. “What? They think there’s something going on between me and…and…” She glanced at the photo to see which shifter the journalist had paired her with.

It was the intense woman from the parade last week—the one who had saved Chloe’s balloon and then faced her father’s group with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“And her? A shape-shifter?”

Not too long ago, it would have been a toss-up about what bothered him more: rumors about her being involved with a woman or with a shifter. When she had first come out as bisexual four years ago, he had struggled to reconcile it with his Christian beliefs.

Faith got it. She’d struggled with it too.

Their relationship had been strained for a while. But then he had surprised her. Slowly, he had softened his previously rigid stance. He had decided he didn’t want to lose her as he had her mother, so he had learned to come to terms with it. Well, at least in theory. Faith wasn’t sure how he would react if she ever introduced him to a girlfriend.

“Is there something going on?” he asked, sounding tortured. His face was so red that Faith worried about his blood pressure.

“What? No! Of course not. The tabloids write all kinds of ridiculous things to make money. You know that.”

He shook the magazine clenched in his fist. “I’ll sue them! I won’t allow them to mock our convictions or drag your good name through the mud!”

Faith covered his hand with her own. “It’s not worth it. No one will take it seriously. It’s just harmless gossip.”

His facial color ventured into apoplectic territory. “Nothing is ever harmless when it comes to these monsters!”

“Shh, Dad, please! Chloe will hear you.” Her daughter was at an age where the thought of monsters hiding under her bed made her afraid to go to sleep. The last thing Faith needed was for her to start worrying about scary beasts that were real.

“They’re not harmless,” he repeated more quietly, but just as fiercely. “We know that better than anyone.”

They paused and looked at each other.

Faith glanced away first. The unspoken pain in her father’s eyes was hard to take, even after twenty-two years. Worse than the grief had always been the not knowing. All the questions still kept her up at night—questions she would know the answers to if only she’d gone hiking with her mother, as she had many times before that fateful day.

Her father, however, had found his answers when the shape-shifters had revealed their hidden existence last year. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that one of them had murdered his wife.

Sometimes, Faith wished she could believe it with such conviction too. In rare moments, she did, but most of the time, she wasn’t sure.

Her mother had left the marked hiking trail and had been found weeks later, after decomposition had progressed, so the medical examiner couldn’t tell for sure whether the teeth marks on her bones had been caused by scavenging animals after her death or were signs that she’d been hunted by a predator—animal or shape-shifter—and had fallen to her death while running for her life.

“They’re bloodthirsty killers, Faith. Abominations in the eye of the—”

Clomping noises that sounded like a herd of elephants on the stairs announced Chloe’s return. She skipped into the living room, her chestnut curls bouncing with every step, and slid to a stop in front of the couch.

“Teeth all brushed?” Faith asked.

Chloe nodded and opened her mouth wide, revealing the cute gap where she had recently lost her first baby tooth. “Can Grandpa read me my bedtime story?” She held out a worn book to him.

Faith studied him. His face was slowly returning to a more normal color, so she trusted that he could control his anger and not scare Chloe. “If he has time to stay.”

“I’ll always have time for my favorite granddaughter,” he said.

Chloe giggled. “I’m your only granddaughter, Grandpa.”

“Two things can be true at the same time, kiddo.” He rolled up the magazine and handed it to Faith. “Get rid of that for me, will you?” He took the book from Chloe and got up.

Faith watched them climb the stairs together. Her daughter’s favorite book, The Selfish Shellfish, was much more pleasant reading material than this tabloid. She unrolled it and stared at the picture of herself and the shifter locked in a silent standoff.

A shiver went through her.

She ripped the page from the magazine, tore it into tiny little pieces, then rose to toss the entire thing into the nearest trash bin.

~ ~ ~

Faith could barely remember what a vacation felt like, but it had to come close to this. Chloe was with her ex-husband this week, and it was Faith’s day off, so she had treated herself to a latte and a chocolate croissant at the Blue Bottle Coffee close to her house.

The weather was perfect for the beginning of April—a pleasant sixty-five degrees—so she sat on their cobblestone patio, her laptop open on the small, square table in front of her.

The soft hum of conversation from the tables around her mingled with the hiss of an espresso machine from inside. The air smelled of blooming spring flowers and freshly brewed coffee.

Faith had taken off her jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her blouse so she could enjoy the sunshine on her skin as she scrolled through feedback their guests had left on Tripadvisor and other hotel review sites. A duck splash-landed on the green water of the C&O Canal below her, momentarily distracting her from work.

When she redirected her attention to the laptop, a shadow fell across her keyboard.

Faith looked up.

A stranger stood next to her table.

No, not a complete stranger. Faith just didn’t know her name. It was the shape-shifter from the Wrasa Pride parade—the one the tabloid article had insisted was romantically interested in her.

Faith’s pulse stuttered. What was she doing here? Her presence at the café couldn’t be a coincidence—which meant the shifter was here for her!

A chill ran down Faith’s spine. She tried not to show how shaken she was as she stared up at her. She faintly remembered being several inches taller, yet somehow, the woman created the appearance of towering over her. Maybe it was the alertness in her golden eyes or the short, slightly tousled, coppery hair that framed her angular features with an air of defiance. She could only be a few years older than Faith—maybe in her mid-thirties, and yet despite her petite frame, she exuded an aura of authority and confidence.

In her job, Faith talked to new people every day, but now her brain struggled to form words as she fought to grasp the situation. Finally, what came out was, “How did you find me?”

“Who said I was looking for you?” Her voice was surprisingly deep for a person of her size, and she kept her tone soft and casual yet it still cut like a finely honed blade. She lifted the paper cup in her left hand and nodded at Faith’s own. “Seems I had the same idea you did.”

Admittedly, Faith didn’t know a lot about the shape-shifters or Wrasa, as they called themselves. She had a feeling that most humans didn’t. They knew just some carefully selected details that the shape-shifters wanted to reveal. But she remembered one thing. “Shifters don’t drink coffee.”

“Who says it’s coffee?”

Faith also vaguely remembered they didn’t drink hot chocolate either, and there was no tag dangling from the cup, indicating that it was tea. Whatever game this shifter was playing, Faith didn’t find it entertaining at all. She clicked her laptop shut and clamped her hands around the edge of the table to stop her fingers from trembling. “My father didn’t raise me to be naive. You didn’t come here for the beverages. Why are you here?”

The woman gave her an almost imperceptible nod. “All right. Let’s be completely honest with each other and talk.” Without asking for permission, she slid onto the chair across from Faith and put her cup down on the low stone wall to her left, as if she had never intended to drink it anyway.

Faith clutched the table more tightly. Her gaze darted left and right in search of a police officer, a security guard, or someone who might help if the shifter got out of hand.

But there was no one. A young mother with a stroller and a student engrossed in a book occupied the tables next to hers, and neither was paying them any attention.

She was on her own.

Faith squirmed on her chair. “What do you want from me?” She strained to keep her voice steady. “If this is about the tabloid article, I can assure you I didn’t have anything to do with—”

“It’s not,” the shifter said. “Well, maybe it is. In a way.”

“What?” Faith shook her head, feeling as if she’d missed a step in a twisted game. “Look…” She paused when she realized she didn’t know the woman’s name, then continued. “This is a big city. Why don’t we just go our sepa—”

“Tala.” The woman tapped her chest as if Faith otherwise wouldn’t understand. “Tala Peterson.”

No doubt the shifter—Tala—knew exactly who Faith was, so she didn’t introduce herself. “What do you want, Tala Peterson?”

The corners of Tala’s golden eyes crinkled slightly. It was a change so subtle that Faith at first mistook it for a squint against the sunlight. But the sun was behind her, so maybe it was a grudging respect that darted across her face. “I want us to do what the article said.” Tala’s voice didn’t waver.

“I don’t understand. It’s a tabloid article. It didn’t say a thing that made sense, just went on and on about us having a forbidden romance.”

Tala nodded calmly, as if she were spelling out something obvious to a child. “Exactly. That’s why I’m here.”

Faith pressed both feet against the cobblestones as the world around her started to spin. “You want us to…get involved?” The last word escaped her in a squeak. Was that how relationships between shifters worked? They just walked up to someone and stated their romantic intent?

“Not for real, of course,” Tala said as matter-of-factly as if they were discussing the weather. “But if we pretended to be dating, I believe that could be mutually beneficial for both of our species.”

She should get up, grab her laptop and latte, and storm away. Or grab her laptop, toss the remainder of her latte into Tala’s face, then storm away. But she was too stunned to move. “This is a joke, right? You can’t be serious!” Then it dawned on her. “Oh! It’s April first! If this is your idea of an April Fools’ joke, let me tell you I don’t find it funny at all! Spare me your weird sense of humor and leave me alone!”

The student at the table next to hers glanced over, but when Tala glared at him, he quickly ducked back behind his book.

Tala wasn’t laughing. Her expression was completely blank. Not even a hint of a smile curved up her lips to soften her stern look and sharp features.

Did shifters even smile? Faith couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen it.

“Wrasa don’t do April Fools’ jokes,” Tala declared. “I’m serious.”

Faith gaped at her, caught between shock and anger. “You really invaded my privacy to suggest this ridiculous proposal?”

“I have a good reason for it,” Tala replied coolly, completely unimpressed by Faith’s growing ire. “If you could just stay calm and hear me out, it’ll all make perfect sense in a minute.”

“Stay calm?” Faith’s voice rose. “I’m perfectly calm! You’re the irrational one, barging into my life with this absurd idea!”

Tala regarded her steadily. “This isn’t about you and me. It’s much bigger than us. The situation between Wrasa and humans is like a powder keg that could explode any moment and—”

“I’m hardly responsible for that. Besides, how would a fake relationship between us change that?” Faith’s heart raced, along with her mind. How on earth had she gotten stuck in this bizarre nightmare?

Tala shrugged. The gesture didn’t seem quite natural—more like something she had learned from observing humans and repeated to fit in. “We could show people that not only can our species peacefully coexist, but they can also learn to love each other deeply. It could be a start.”

Love each other deeply… Faith couldn’t fully grasp the words. Not when they were used in regards to her and a shifter. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to calm her inner turmoil. Her father had drilled into her that the shifters were predators who took advantage of any weakness. Showing one of them how upset she was would only confirm that humans were soft and weak—easy prey. She forced a neutral expression onto her face. “I don’t get it. Why me? There are already several humans and shifters in a relationship with each other.”

“Name a few.”

“What?”

“Humor me,” Tala said, then added, “Please.”

It sounded as if she didn’t use the word often. This entire conversation was absurd, but maybe if Faith played along and let Tala get out whatever she had to say, this weird interaction would be over sooner. “Um, there’s Kelsey Yates and her girlfriend, Rue… I forgot her last name. And also…um…”

Tala gave her a knowing look. “I bet most people could name only Kelsey and Rue. And frankly, no one had ever heard of them before Kelsey shifted on TV. Why would people give a crap about Rue’s opinion of us Wrasa?”

But they would care about Faith’s opinion—because of who her father was. “So you’re asking me to pretend to be in love with you even though you embody everything my father despises? Why would I do that?”

Tala tilted her head to the side. “Your father.”

“What?”

“You said I’m everything your father despises. You didn’t say you despise me.”

“I don’t even know you.” Faith held up her hand before Tala could interrupt. “And I have no desire to change that.”

“Fine. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your daughter. Do you really want her to grow up in a world full of hatred and prejudice? In a world where a full-out war might break out between humans and Wrasa?”

Anger surged through Faith, hot and fierce like a wave of lava. “Stop trying to manipulate me! And leave my daughter out of this! She’s not a pawn in whatever twisted little game you’re playing—and neither am I!” Her chair scraped against the cobblestones as she jumped up, snatched her laptop from the table, and shoved it into her backpack.

“Ms.MacAllister… Faith… Wait!”

But Faith had heard enough. Whatever nefarious thing Tala and the shifters were planning, she wanted no part in it. Without taking the time to grab her latte, she whirled around and stormed off.

Tala’s gaze seemed to drill into her as she marched up Potomac Street, but she didn’t look back.

~ ~ ~

Faith pulled up in front of the headquarters of Hearthstone Hotels and Resorts in Arlington, barely remembering how she had gotten there. She’d been on autopilot, scenes from that weird encounter with Tala Peterson flashing through her mind.

As she got out of the car, the crisp spring air made her shiver.

She glanced back at the car, searching for her jacket, and realized with a jolt that it wasn’t there.

Ugh. She had been so upset and angry that she had stormed off, forgetting the jacket draped over the back of her chair.

Thank God her wallet, phone, and keys had been in her backpack.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she entered the towering office building. Usually, it had a calming effect on her. It embodied everything her father had worked so hard for, starting with that first modest hotel her mother had named.

But this time, her heart kept beating frantically as she got out of the elevator on the top floor.

“Hi, Stacy,” she greeted the admin behind the desk in the outer office. “Is my father in?”

“Yes, but—”

Faith hurried past her without stopping to chat, as she usually did.

“Wait!” Stacy called after her. “He’s in an important—”

Faith had already opened the door to her father’s office.

He sat behind the giant desk that had once belonged to Faith’s grandfather. He was on the phone, his tie loosened, which he only did when it was a long, stressful call.

Faith paused in the doorway. A second ago, her encounter with the shape-shifter had felt like an emergency, but was it really? Maybe she was overreacting.

Her father looked up. A tired smile darted across his face, then froze as he took her in. “I’ll call you back,” he said into the phone and ended the call without waiting for a reply. His gaze stayed locked on Faith. “What happened?”

“You were right.” Faith fully stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “They’re not harmless.”

“Who?”

“The shifters.”

Her father leaped out of his leather chair, hurried around the desk, and gripped Faith’s upper arms with both hands. “Are you all right? What happened?”

“I’m fine. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just… I had the most bizarre encounter.”

Instead of loosening, his grip on her arms tightened. “With one of those beasts?”

Faith winced at the word but nodded. “Do you remember the woman from the parade…from the tabloid article?”

“Of course.” He finally gave her one last soft squeeze, then let his hands drop away. “Not like I had a chance to forget it. I’ve been getting calls and visits from friends and HASS members about it all week. One of them from Jon.”

Faith groaned. She should have known her ex would eventually find out about it. “Why did he come to you instead of bringing it up when I dropped Chloe off at his place?”

“Because I told him to let it go. It’s all made-up nonsense.”

“Um, actually… The woman from the article—Tala Peterson—approached me earlier, when I was getting coffee.”

A sharp intake of breath cut through the sudden silence. “What? How did she even find you?”

“I have no idea. The shifters probably have their ways.” The tiny hairs on the back of Faith’s neck prickled with unease.

Her father’s jaw tightened. “If she hurt you in any way, I’ll hunt her down and—”

“She didn’t. She just wanted to talk. Said she had a proposition that could be mutually beneficial.”

“Mutually beneficial?” He snorted. “Since when are our interests aligned with the shifters’? They’re out to destroy everything we hold dear.”

“I know it’ll sound ridiculous, but she suggested…” Faith could barely bring herself to say it. “That we pretend to date. Each other.”

For several moments, her father didn’t speak or move. A heavy silence spread through the office.

“What?” Her father ripped his tie off completely as if it had suddenly constricted his airway and threw it across the room. “I’ll skin her alive and hang her pelt from—”

“Dad, please, calm down. Think of your blood pressure.”

“Calm down? Calm down?” His voice became louder with every word until he was shouting. “How can I calm down when it’s clear those monsters want to use you for their evil plans? I hope you told her to go to hell!”

Faith had expected her father’s reaction, but she hadn’t anticipated the intensity of it. “Of course I did,” she said softly “I was pretty angry too. But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, a tiny part of me can’t help wondering… What if she told the truth and they’re really trying to achieve peace between our species, even if they’re going about it in a ridiculous way?”

“Peace?” Her father spat out the word. “Don’t be naive, Faith. I don’t believe that for a second. Shifters are cunning, manipulative creatures. They’re up to something. I don’t know how, but they’re planning to use this tabloid article to advance their own agenda, and they won’t hesitate to use innocent people like you as pawns in their sinister game!”

He paced the room, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. “We can’t let them win. If we do, they’ll take away our homes and erode our values! Before we know it, they’ll have us worship their animal god. No! Enough!” He smashed his fist against the padded top of his leather chair.

Faith jumped and clutched her chest, her heart thumping hard against her palm. “Dad!”

“I’m sorry.” He instantly stopped pacing, uncurled his fists with visible effort, and scrubbed his face with both hands. Groaning, he sank into his office chair like a deflating balloon. “I didn’t mean to shout. I just worry. It’s clear as day to me that these creatures are trying to gain power over us, and most people seem to not even realize what danger we’re in, so it’s on me to protect them. I have to find a way to turn this around before it’s too late.”

Faith didn’t know what to say. Most of the time, she didn’t feel threatened by the shifters—at least not enough to do anything against them. Was she one of the people who refused to see the danger?

She had always hesitated to believe they had murdered her mother since there was no conclusive evidence. But could she really rule it out? After all, one of the shifters had tracked her down and ambushed her with this absurd suggestion, so maybe her father was right and they were unpredictable menaces.

He tapped his knuckles against his chin as his gaze went inward. “Turn this around,” he repeated, more to himself.

“Um, what?”

“The shifters are trying to play their devious games with us. Maybe it’s time we turn the tables on them and play back.”

“What do you mean?” Faith asked.

The anger on her father’s face was replaced by steely determination. “You should do it.”

Faith stared at him. “Excuse me? Y-you want me to date a shifter?”

“Pretend to. Just think about it. If she wants everyone to believe you are her, um, girlfriend, she needs to give you full access to her home, her friends, her family. Her secrets. She might start to let her guard down around you. After they printed that article, I had her investigated, Faith. She’s not just any shifter. She’s one of Kelsey Yates’s bodyguards.”

“So that’s why she was at the parade. She was there to protect Ms.Yates.”

Her father nodded. “Some of our people also saw her going toe to toe with their top dog, Jeff Madsen. She’s connected to the higher-ups. As her fake girlfriend, you could infiltrate their inner circle. You could spy on them and find out what they’re planning.”

Faith hesitated. All she wanted was a quiet life with her daughter. She wasn’t sure she could do whatever her father expected of her. “I don’t know, Dad. I’m a hospitality professional, not a spy.”

“Do you remember when you were Chloe’s age and that little stinker of a boy started to bully you? Your mother wanted me to intervene—talk to his parents, the principal—but I knew you could handle him. And I was right.”

They both chuckled at the memory of six-year-old Faith flushing the bully’s beloved action figure down the toilet.

He intently looked her in the eyes. “I’ve always believed that you can do anything you put your mind to, and this isn’t any different. If there’s anyone who can do this, it’s you.”

The weight of the world seemed to settle heavily on Faith’s shoulders. “But what about Chloe? If you’re right about the shifters planning something nefarious and I get caught up in it, she could become a target.”

“We won’t let anything happen to her,” he said fiercely. “I don’t think these monsters would try to harm her or you. At least not while they still need you for their little scheme. But in the long run, Chloe is the very reason why I think you need to do this. It’s the only way to keep her and every other human child safe. This could be our one chance to find proof of their evilness and expose their lies to the world.” His gaze went to the framed picture on his desk, and he gently touched the glass with his index finger, right where Faith knew her mother’s face was. Then he looked up and into her eyes. “You and Chloe are the most important thing in my life, and I would never put you in any danger if I didn’t think it was important. But if we can save just one person from dying the way your mother did…”

Faith’s chest burned. She sucked in a breath, but the sensation didn’t abate.

“And who knows? Maybe you’ll even find evidence proving that the shifters killed your mother. We could finally go public without coming across like conspiracy theorists and losing all credibility.”

“That’s a really long shot, Dad,” Faith said quietly. Even if the shifters had killed her mother, would there be any evidence left more than two decades later? If there was, surely they wouldn’t be so reckless as to leave it where she could see it.

“I know.” He rubbed his eyes. “You don’t have to decide now. Just think about it. For humanity’s sake.”

No pressure or anything. She gripped the back of the visitor’s chair in front of the desk. The leather groaned beneath her desperate grip. “I’ll do it,” she choked out before she could talk herself out of it.

“Are you sure?”

Faith wasn’t, but she nodded anyway. “Are you?” She lifted her hand, stopping him from giving a quick answer. “Have you really thought this through? What will your friends from HASS think if they find out your daughter is dating a shifter?”

“If we’re lucky, it won’t take long for you to dig up dirt on the shifters, so it won’t become an issue. But if it does, they’ll eventually find out it was all for a good cause.” He studied her intently. “Are you worried about your friends?”

Faith didn’t have to think about it for long. Or maybe she didn’t want to think about it—otherwise, she would talk herself out of going through with the entire scheme. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had a ton of friends anyway, at least not friends she hung out with regularly. Most of her free time was spent with Chloe, so it had been ages since she had seen her friends from the kayak club. The only one she still made time for was her best friend, Sabina. “No,” she finally said. “You know my friends. They’re all pretty liberal.”

Her father playfully wrinkled his nose. Then he sobered. He got up, rounded the desk, and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Please be careful,” he whispered into her hair. “If it gets too dangerous, you can walk away at any time. I don’t want to lose you too.”

“You won’t,” she whispered against his shoulder, praying that it was the truth.