Changing Hearts Read Free Page B

You got another name, boy?
    Slade shook his head at her. Impossible. How did she know? The old woman laughed, cackled, really. Her bright green eyes bored into him. Slade blinked a few times under that relentless gaze. What in the hell was she? She wasn’t a shifter, just something he had never come across before.
    She didn’t read like any of the other psychics he’d met. They’d known his kind right away. Other sensitive people knew something rang strange about him even before he told them. He hated sharing any part of himself. Malcolm. I’m Malcolm Slade.
    The old woman sat back on a porch swing he hadn’t paid any attention to and chuckled merrily. Slade felt his ruff rising. Make fun of me, will she? Doesn’t she know that I could be up and across the porch before she could take aim with that stupid pistol? His head dropped, though he maintained eye contact with the old woman.
    He gathered himself to jump. Muscles tensed as his shoulders followed the line of his neck.
    He could kill her in a heartbeat and… Slade stopped. I don’t want to kill her. His body flowed out of attack posture back to a more relaxed state. Until now there’d never been a pressing reason not to attack humans first and ask questions later.
    He looked at this strange old bird sitting on the swing with her feet just grazing the floor. She watched him as carefully as he watched her, but he didn’t feel her in his head now. Still, she had to know what had almost happened.
    What was it about her and the young woman? Something drew him in, but he couldn’t figure it out. All he knew was that the animal side of him didn’t want their blood. Yet. Surely this was just an anomaly.
    The floor creaking and the soft sound of a footfall on the porch had his full attention turning to the door. Not because of the noise, but because she stood there. Lilac woman, Joie. Ignoring the pain in his side, Slade drew himself upright. As unreasonable as it might be, he didn’t want to appear weak in her eyes. Not that he had anything to worry about. And why did he care if this he impressed this human female, anyway?
    She was so damn short he knew that in his present form his head would come nearly to her chest. Her breasts looked like soft, inviting pillows, calling him to bury his face and breathe in her scent. He let his mind wander in that direction for a moment before jerking it back on track.
    Instant attraction wasn’t something he was used to. He’d certainly never felt it for any shifter female and never expected to feel it for a human, but there it was.
    No, not for a human, Slade, humans are nothing but trouble. It has to be because I hurt so much. She’s being nice to me now, but sure as shit, the other shoe’s going to drop soon and she’ll be like every other human I’ve known. She’ll betray me, or she’ll hurt me in some other way. He dropped his head slightly, keeping both women in sight.
     
     
    Joie stopped. Not staring at this creature would have been impossible. She tried to control her breathing, but knew her pulse ran ragged. He fascinated her. Intense came to mind as she studied him. She’d never seen such a large wolf before. Now she knew how a deer must feel when it faced a predator like him.
    From gray to black with some tan thrown in, his coat fell across his body in dense waves. She knew that if he were in the woods, she’d never see him with his camouflage. And those eyes! I could fall into those beautiful eyes. Intelligence shone there and something else, something more. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it made her think a human looked back at her. What nonsense!
    His nose twitched and she realized she hadn’t put the water down. He waited for the bowl and until she had backed up to stand beside Tante Kay before he took a careful step forward.
     
     
    Slade sniffed. Nothing but well water tainted with natural minerals, but caution never hurt anyone and he’d survived more than a few poisoning attempts that