Terry Spear - [Shifter 02] Read Free Page A

ended, Lion Mane motioned to a small table. “We have a table here for the pretty lady.”
    His two friends stood on either side of him, all motioning to the four chairs. The men all smelled like cat shifters. The inference was that David could get lost.
    She opened her mouth to say “No thanks,” but David beat her to it. “We’ve got a table over here.” He pulled her along quickly. “The problem with someone like you coming to a club like this is that other shifters want a bite.”
    She frowned up at him, not getting his meaning.
    “They instinctively know you’re different.”
    “Different, how?” She was a cat. They were cats. She couldn’t detect any difference in them.
    “You’re a jungle cat.”
    “Jungle cat?” Weren’t they all?
    They reached the table before she could ask anything further. Wade was already standing, pulling the chair out next to him, his feral gaze fixed on her. Maya hesitated to sit beside him. He seemed so primal. So dangerous.
    “She’s Connor’s sister ,” David quickly said.
    “Sister.” Wade studied her. His mouth quirked up fractionally as if he was seeing her as someone different and intriguing now.
    “I’m not Kat .” She hated sounding annoyed. She loved Kat as a sister and was thrilled she had fallen in love with Connor. But she didn’t want some guy who had been interested in Kat thinking that Maya was just like her.
    “ No ,” he said, drawing out the word, “you’re not Kat.”
    She frowned. Then she was irritated at herself for caring when it shouldn’t have mattered.
    The three male cats watched Maya as if they were calculating how much of a risk it would be to approach her when she had two male bodyguards. She didn’t think she would have all that much trouble around other shifters. Until she saw Wade in the Amazon, she had never witnessed another jaguar shifter, except for her mother and brother. She’d been more than interested in Wade. Who wouldn’t have been when the jaguar had risked his life for them, and he hadn’t even known them?
    Wade and David were still waiting for her to take the seat between them. She hadn’t expected other cats to be so territorial with her. She shook her head and took the seat Wade offered her.
    The brothers traded relieved looks. The other cats looked like their pumped-up egos had instantly
been deflated.
    As if the brunette sitting on the other side of Wade was afraid she might lose out, she stretched out her hand to him. “I’m Candy, and you are?”
    Too hot for you to handle , Maya wanted to say. David grinned at his brother.
    “Wade.” He gave her a brief handshake and glanced at Maya, as if he were worried about what she’d think.
    Candy frowned at him. “We all just give club names in here. Like the guy over there, the redhead who’s watching her ”—she poked a finger in Maya’s direction—“that’s Red, though he’s asked me out before and told me his real name is Bill Bettinger. The blond dude, the one that’s also salivating over your friend here, is Blondie.”
    “Lion Mane.” Maya hadn’t meant to say anything, but that’s the nickname she thought suited him.
    “Lion Mane?” Candy stuck her tiny nose up in the air. “He goes by Blondie.”
    Maya wanted to call Lion Mane over to the table and prove to Candy that he would come no matter what she called him—or didn’t call him. The way he was eyeing her, she was certain a crook of her finger would bring him to her.
    Wade shook his head at Maya, just slightly, telling her not to do it. He seemed to know what she had in mind.
    David was studying her just as closely, waiting for whatever would happen next. Wade appeared settled and complacent, but a jaguar would change his posture into combat mode in the blink of an eye if necessary.
    Maya had no plans to stir up a lot of trouble, though it was tempting.
    Candy eyed Maya. “So what’s your club name?”
    “Wildcat,” David answered for her, smirking.

Chapter 2
    Wildcat? Maya