Southern Shifters: Werelock (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page A

less, and he always got paid.
    So why did he get the feeling there was more to her story than Brogan was telling him? To hear the guy talk, Renae was the biggest bitch to walk the face of the planet, but what Hale was seeing didn’t match that at all.
    Suddenly his quarry changed direction and he lost sight of her.
    “Oh, no you don’t, Missy,” he muttered and reached into his core for more speed. He hit the same clearing just in time to see her slide through a gap in a fallen tree trunk.
    “Shit!” He was after her in a heartbeat, trying to grab her before she disappeared into the gap. A shiver and pop of power in the air told him she’d shifted and he yanked his hand back just in time. Vicious claws slashed where his arm had been mere moments before. Shit. She was fast.
    She’d finally shifted. He couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his lips, absurd pride filling him that she outwitted him, if only momentarily. He knew spells that would shatter the log around her so her reprieve was only temporary.
    He liked the challenge of getting her out of there without using magic though. And yeah, he was curious to see what her cat form looked like. Would she be small like her human form and delicate, or big and powerful like most lionesses he’d seen?
    Making sure to keep out of range of those vicious claws, he crouched down to look through the gap in the wood. The interior of the trunk was darkened, but he got an impression of a hulking feline form. Bigger then, and powerful, the total opposite to her human form. Large green-gray eyes, rather than the amber he’d expected studied him intently. Her lips curled back from her teeth and she hissed at him.
    “Hey there, gorgeous,” he smiled, keeping his teeth covered. Dealing with shifters 101 , showing teeth, even when smiling, could be seen as a threat, and he really didn’t want his face ripped off for saying hello. “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
    She swiped at the entrance in warning. He hid his smile.
    “Come on, there’s no need to be like that,” he chided, wagging his finger at her. Surging forward, she swiped at him again, her movement affording him more of a look at her. And she was gorgeous. Lean and sleek, her pale fur covered the hard body of a lioness in her prime. Why hadn’t she shifted before?
    “Let’s get you out of there and have a look at you, shall we?” he murmured, and clicked his fingers in front of her face to make her look at him.
    As soon as their gazes locked, he started to chant an incantation. Magic swirled around him. Reached out for her. He felt her start of surprise as soon as the tendrils reached her. Saw those amazing eyes widen. What he didn’t expect was the surge in power as his magic wrapped around her, ruffling her fur in a gentle caress. As though it recognized her. As though she belonged to him… A feeling that he’d tried to find for years but had always eluded him.
    Until now.
    A suspicion crossed his mind and Hale frowned. His voice grew louder, the words shifting from ones of cajolement, to command. The command of a warlock calling his familiar to him.
    Hisses and snarls erupted from the darkness of the trunk, but she inched forward. The battle to refuse his command was written all over her face and she was strong, fighting the bond. Against him. He kept chanting. Inch by inch, she emerged from the log, first her head and he got a look at her beautiful near-white fur in the light of day. It suited her unusual eyes.
    His voice rose in pitch and she edged toward him, snarling. Almost there. He reached a hand to her and she bared her teeth at him. Her claws remained sheathed though, and he knew she wasn’t going to hurt him. Just as he could never hurt her.
    He eased himself to the ground, to her level, as she crawled out from the safety of the log and finally he understood why she hadn’t shifted. Her back leg was the wrong shape, and curled in slightly under her. Anger hit