Shifter's Claim (The Shadow Shifters) Read Free Page B

that only continued to pique his interest.
    He sat forward, placing both palms on the table and looked directly at her. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re really after?”
    She opened her mouth to speak and Bas held up a hand to stop her.
    “Tell me the truth and I’ll see if there’s a way I can help you. Lie to me again and this evening doesn’t end as well as we both hope. Take your choice.”
    She didn’t frown, but arched an elegant eyebrow and nodded. Right now she was probably thinking that she had an inside lead, that since she believed Bas worked for Rome, she could get him to provide the real information she wanted from Rome. That was not remotely possible, but Bas was enjoying the little light of excitement in her eyes at the possibility.
    “I don’t usually bow to threats,” she replied after a short pause, and then immediately faltered.
    It was quick, a blink of her eyes, a look toward the window, then back at him with her composure firmly in place. Fear, with its tangy citrus-like scent, filtered between them, and Bas was immediately concerned. Had someone else threatened her? Shadows possessed a very protective nature where females were concerned. That’s why the feel of his cat pressing firmly against his human form was no surprise. It was rearing up, ready to defend if need be.
    “At any rate,” she began again with a sigh. “There’ve been some incidents in the past few months, the gruesome murder of Senator Baines and his daughter, a huge bank heist by supposed masked robbers, and the grisly and still unexplained death of a stripper at Athena’s. All crimes unsolved.”
    Bas nodded. “It’s a shame how much violence is still present in the world.”
    She tilted her head then, staring at him as if that remark had changed something in her mind. Then, with an almost imperceptible shrug, she continued. “There have been rumors, maybe you’ve heard them.”
    “I don’t usually listen to rumors. They’re rarely true,” he told her.
    She sat forward then, pushing her wineglass to the side and folding her arms on the table. Her voice lowered as she spoke. “Some say the bank robbers stood and walked tall like men, but had the looks of big cats. Eyes, sharp teeth, everything except walking on all fours and wagging a long tail.”
    Through their monthly and sometimes weekly conference calls, Bas had learned of the incidents that had taken place in D.C. even though he lived across the country. Each incident that she’d mentioned had been a concern for the Assembly as it threatened the exposure they wanted so desperately to avoid. Still, he kept his composure. “Some say I have cat’s eyes,” he replied lightly. “Are you accusing me of being a cat?”
    She contemplated his words before replying. “That’s not what I said. The way the senator and his daughter’s bodies were mangled definitely leads toward a nonhuman killing except the bodies weren’t found in an alley or in a wooded area, for that matter. And that stripper, she was just about ripped to pieces.”
    Bas didn’t like to raise his voice or show much emotion. It gave the other person the upper hand, he thought. If someone knew what button to push to get a reaction out of him, they’d likely push it all the time. That act would surely get someone killed, there was no doubt. His cat teetered on the brink of rage and painful hunger.
    “I thought the stripper was filled with some type of drug that may have actually been the cause of death.”
    She was instantly shaking her head. “There’s no drug that will shred human skin like that. Something sharp and something vicious had to be involved. I saw the body myself! It was horrible,” she exclaimed.
    He wondered how she’d managed to see that body but remembered she was a reporter. The lengths to which the press went to get a story these days had long since ceased to amaze Bas—disgusted him, yes, but not amaze.
    “And just how does this relate to Roman Reynolds and