Page 51 of The Mating Frenzy

Drawing in a breath, she focused, seeing the blade, seeing it as a weapon that could slice through the bastard thing that had hurt her mother. Ella began to twirlit.

Kieran tossed an apple at her and she arced the blade, dividing the fruit into half. Shaken she set down the weapon on the table and stared at the apple on thefloor.

“I didthat?”

A satisfied smile touched his face. “Yes. It is within you, for the blade responds to a true warrior’stouch.”

Ella sat, a little shaky and stunned. “I’m nowarrior.”

“You will be. Stay here. I shall returnshortly.”

She spent the hour trying to focus on work. When he finally returned, she shut off her laptop. “Well?”

“I’m taking you to a park I found to prove to you that you are awolf.”

She stared. “This is going to be interesting. Not a zoo? Or a petstore?”

Kieran lay a finger over her lips. “Hush, now. You’llsee.”

With considerably more skill than he’d demonstrated back in Colorado, Kieran drove. He thought she was a wolf. A four-legged, furry creature who liked to roam in packs and eatmeat.

“Your mother did too good of a job convincing you that you’re human. My job is to convince youotherwise.”

Ella’s fingers curled around the strap of her seat belt. “You’re a cat. And you’re the one supposed to show me how toshift?”

As if it were possible. She was a human, not a magick creature. Yet her skill with that knife…she’d had no fear of hurting herself. The weapon felt natural in her hands. It made nosense.

“Shifting is shifting, no matter what the animal. I’ve had more than a thousand years ofpractice.”

Breath caught in her throat as she turned her head to regard him. The dashboard lights showed a handsome face, expression grim, with a sensual mouth and dark brows set over intense brown eyes. Very cute, but an ordinaryman.

No, a millennium-old jaguarshifter.

Her mouth opened. Closed. Thoughts became scrambled. Finally she found her voice. “I’ve always liked oldermen.”

Kieran flashed a quick, charmingsmile.

“You can’t be that old,” she muttered. “You look no more thanthirty.”

“Shifters age quite slowly, especially in the Faeworld.”

Age slowly? “If I’m a shifter like you say, then how long will Ilive?”

He gave her a sideways glance. “As long as you can, if I have anything to do with it. Being a shifter doesn’t make you immortal. Only the Brehon like Gideon, the judges and guardians of Others, areimmortal.”

Then he’d muttered under his breath. “Even they are notinvincible.”

The park he’d selected was closed at night. He parked the car on a side road near the entrance and shut off the engine. Sweat trickled down hertemples.

“How can you teach me to shift into acanine?”

Logic had ruled her world until a few days ago. Ella clung to it like a life raft in a windsweptsea.

“Shifting is the same, whether you’re a wolf, jaguar, bear or squirrel.” He reached over, tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The tenderness in the gesture shook her self-assurance. She didn’t want to draw close to this man, thisshifter.

Ella wanted reason and reassurance in a world turned upside down by beasts and threats to herfamily.

“Let’s go.” He glanced at the star-studded sky. “When the moon is high, it’s the best time toshift.”