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Why was I feeling protective of her? Why did I care?

This was a job, nothing more, nothing less.

I did these all the time. Cruised into a town on my bike, did my job for a week or so, got paid, then left it in my rear view.

It wasn’t simple lust, either. Sure, Cameron was hot, gorgeous, and fiery, but I felt myself wanting to care for her.

And I’d never experienced that feeling before. It was discomforting.

A sound behind me caught my attention, and I spun, ready for anything.

The feral shifter? Rick, ready to defend the honor of his girlfriend?

Maybe that pissy drunk shifter Ollie and I’d taken out at the bar a week ago was back for revenge?

Any of those would have shocked me less than what I saw walking toward me.

I’d known Cameron was coming, yes, but I never expected this.

My eyes widened in surprise as I took her in.

She wore a low-cut dark crimson cocktail dress that accentuated her every curve.

Her hair was pinned back with some type of glimmering jeweled clip.

Her lips were dark red, and I pictured it smeared on every part of my body.

It was all I could do to keep my eyes off them as she spoke.

“Well, here I am,” she said laconically. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?”

Recovering my composure, I grinned at her, resting my hands on the top rope of the ring.

“Wow. You didn’t need to get dressed up for me. I’m honored.”

Cameron let out a snort of derision. “Very funny. I think you’re more the type to go for girls in bikinis dancing on the stage of a strip club.”

“Ouch,” I said, giving a mock wince. “That hurts. I’ll have you know Daisy Comes was one of the nicest girls I ever dated. Just because someone is a stripper doesn’t mean they’re a bad person.”

“ Daisy Comes ? Is that actually a real person’s name?” Cameron scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll have to use your imagination.” I narrowed my eyes and licked my lower lip. “I bet you have a really good imagination, don’t you, Cameron?”

I took pride in the red blush that rose to her cheeks. Her eyes darted behind me to the broken arm on the mat.

“Looks like you’re ripping the place apart.” She glanced around, taking in the old-school gym. “Does the owner know you’re here? Or did you break in?”

“We have what you’d call an understanding,” I replied. “I helped the owner with an issue a few years back. It’ll be fine. I’ll pay for it. No big deal.”

She nodded and stepped closer. One of the overhead lights illuminated her better. Her eyes were dark with worry, and she was trembling.

“Are you okay?” I asked, all hint of flirtation gone.

“Not really, Nate,” she said. “Are you going to tell me what the test said or not?”

She was terrified, and it showed. More scared than she’d looked when facing down that feral shifter in the alley. Her little banter back and forth with me was her way of trying to hold back the panic.

All she was worrying about were simple things. Diseases that might be a pain in the ass but could be mitigated or cured with drugs. She had no idea what mindfuck was in store for her.

I climbed through the ropes. “Let’s talk.”

“Oh, God,” she muttered, her voice trembling. “It’s bad, isn’t it? What is it? HIV? Hepatitis? What?”

Jumping down, I hurried over to her and put my hands on her shoulders. “Cameron, calm down. Take a breath. You don’t have a disease. Stop worrying about that. Okay?”

Her hand fell away from her face, and her shoulders sagged with relief. “Oh, thank fuck. I was freaking out.”

“I could tell,” I said.

She ran a hand across her forehead and took a couple steps back, trying to gather herself. I spotted it a half second before it happened.

“Watch your step!” I shouted, pointing behind her.

Her high-heeled shoes struck my gym bag, and she tilted back, ready to tumble onto the concrete floor.

I caught her wrist and yanked her back to me, her body pressing into my chest, her hair tickling the skin on my collarbone.

Surreal déjà vu swept over me as I recalled almost this exact moment from a week ago when I stopped her from falling down the stairs at her apartment.

“We gotta figure out how to keep you from falling,” I murmured against her ear. “I won’t always be there to catch you.”

Cameron looked up at me and gave me an embarrassed smile. “So far, you have been.”

My inner wolf went wild. An insatiable urge overcame him.

He wanted her. Wanted her badly . Images flashed through my mind, fed by the wolf within.

Cameron, sweaty and moaning, riding me. Cameron, screaming my name as she pressed her face into the sheets.

Cameron, her moans muffled by my stiff cock in her mouth.

I shook my head to clear the images and sent a warning thought to the wolf. I wanted her, too, but that wasn’t going to happen. We both needed to get over it.

I wasn’t used to the wolf side and human side being out of step. This was a new situation, and I wasn’t sure how to get it under control. At that moment, with Cameron still pressed against me, I realized I hadn’t had an inkling of desire for any woman since meeting her.

Strange for me, and most likely a very bad sign.

Before I could stop it, the wolf managed to wrest control of my right hand, moving it in a slow sweep across Cameron’s back, from shoulder blade to lower back to?—

She stepped away from me, blushing furiously.

“This isn’t a good idea, Nate,” she said breathlessly, but I could see deep down she’d wanted my hand to go further.

Of course it wasn’t a good idea. She had a boyfriend. My wolf roared in my head, and my fists clenched as I imagined him with her, her naked body entwined with his. Nausea roiled in my stomach.

I shrugged, doing my best to remain calm and exude the same cocky confidence I always did. “Were you having inappropriate thoughts about me, Cameron?” I asked, putting a hand to my chest in mock shock. “What a dirty girl.”

The joke broke the tension, and she rolled her eyes.

Inside, the wolf and I both fell into despair and confusion.

I had no idea what was happening to me, but I needed to be the bigger man.

Needed to be decent, and that meant not giving in to my base desires and wants.

It meant I needed to be there for Cameron for the shitstorm about to come her way.

“If I don’t have a disease, then what’s the problem?” Cameron said. “Why all the cloak-and-dagger shit?”

“Yeah. About that,” I said, pivoting to the issue at hand. “While there is no disease, that bite has had an effect on you. The nausea, the headaches, the low-grade fever?”

“It’s probably just stress or something if it’s not a disease,” Cameron said.

I’d never had to explain this before. A shifter biting a human was beyond rare.

It was nearly always a feral who attacked a human, and in those cases, the human pretty much never survived.

Then you had to think of the maternal and paternal bloodlines.

So, the rare human who was bit and survived only had a fifty-percent shot at turning—at best.

Why the fuck was a lone wolf like me breaking this news?

“It’s more than stress,” I began, speaking slowly. “The tests we ran on your blood show that you have a certain gene through your paternal line, which interacts with this specific bite.”

“A gene?” Cameron frowned. “You checked my DNA? What kind of bite are we talking about? Who was this guy?” Some of the fear had vanished from her face. Now she looked more intrigued and curious. This woman was born to be a journalist.

We couldn’t get bogged down in specifics yet. I had to make her understand.

“The genetic material that passed into you from the bite is causing the gene to evolve,” I said.

She shook her head, furrowing her brow. “What are you talking about, Nate?” She gestured at my sweaty workout clothes. “You’re not exactly a doctor. What do you know about all this? There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“The nausea and headaches?” I reminded her.

“No big deal. Like I said, it’s stress. That’s all.”

“Cold sweats? Sensitivity to temperatures, loud noises, and bright lights? Increased sense of smell, maybe?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. The fear returned to her eyes.

“I know,” I stated. “And not because I’m a doctor, but because I have the same genetic quirk.”

“ You ?” She shook her head, eyeing me with worry. “Nate, please, for the love of God, tell me what the fuck you’re talking about. You’re scaring me.”

“I know,” I said, coming to grips with what I’d need to do for her to understand. “Cameron, I’m going to give you proof. Visual proof.” My hands were clammy with sweat as I spoke. “You’d never believe it if you didn’t see it with your own eyes. Not in a million years.”

Cameron took a hesitant step back, obviously seeing something in my eyes that scared her more than my words had.

“What’s happening?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“You’re one of us,” I said. “That’s what you’re evolving into.”

Her scent took on the sickly sweet smell of terror and confusion. Even from ten feet away, I could see the goosebumps rise on her arms and the exposed flesh of her cleavage.

She swallowed hard. “ Evolving ? What is it evolving into? What do you mean I’m one of you? One of what ?”

She narrowed her eyes as if only now seeing me for the first time. Had some part of my true self shone through, and she was able to see it?

“Wh… what… what are you, Nate?”

“A wolf,” I said simply, keeping my eyes pinned on her.

She gaped at me. “What?”

“I’m a shapeshifter. I can transform into a wolf. Soon, you’ll be able to as well. I’m going to show you.”

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, and she took a few quick steps back.

“I want you to understand something,” I said, speaking quickly, praying she wouldn’t turn tail and run from the man spouting the crazy stuff I was saying.

My mouth was so dry that my tongue kept sticking to the roof of my mouth.

“No matter what you see, I’m still me. No matter how scary it is, remember you are safe.

Nothing—and I mean nothing —will hurt you while I’m here. I promise you that.”

She was shaking her head as I finished talking. When she opened her mouth, she spoke with false confidence. Her tone was that of a woman who was trying to talk her way out of a bad situation.

“It’s fine, Nate. Never mind. It’s okay. You don’t have to show me anything.” She took a single step toward the door of the gym. “I should really get back to the gala. Rick will be looking?—”

“Stop, Cameron,” I said.

She froze, and her lower lip trembled. “This is crazy. It can’t be real. I’m scared, Nate.”

“Don’t be afraid of me. Can you promise me that? That you won’t be afraid of me?”

Her breath was coming in short, panicked gasps. “I don’t know how. It’s sort of like the whole world is tilting sideways.”

“It’s because you can sense it. You’re reacting to me—to being near me. I promised the truth, and I’m going to give it to you. I won’t do it until you tell me to.” I stared deep into her eyes, willing her to say the words. “Do you want to see what I am? Do you want to see what you’re becoming?”

Her left foot rose, hesitant. I knew what was going on in her head.

Part of her was screaming to run, to scamper back to the real world, to keep her head buried in the sand.

The other part—curious, thirsty for knowledge, and hungry for the truth—won out.

The reporter within her, desperate for understanding.

Rather than taking a step back, she stepped forward, closing the gap between us.

“Show me,” she whispered.

The cool sensation of shifting coursed through my body as the wolf took control, altering my body, transforming me. In less than a second, I landed on four paws and looked up at her with my wolf eyes.

Cameron stood, gape-mouthed, staring at the wolf that now stood before her.

The breath whooshed out of her. “What the fuck?”