The Shifters Read Online Free

forward and extended a huge hand across the table.
    She looked at him frostily. Oh, you are, are you? As if I’m going to believe anything a shifter says. Shapeshifters changed names as often as they changed forms.
    â€œAnd?” she demanded, keeping her hands to herself.
    He left his hand extended, now daring her. She felt a reluctance to take it, but what better way to sense someone out, after all? She reached across the table and touched his palm, felt her hand engulfed in his, and an electric charge…which he was no doubt aware of, because he smiled slowly and tightened his grip on her hand, not hurting her, but not letting go, either, just letting her feel the strength and heat of him.
    Flustered, she pulled back, trying to extricate herself…and after another moment he let her go, but not until she was completely aware that it was only by his choice that she was free.
    â€œNow, what do you want?” she snapped, not realizing until after she spoke that it wasn’t exactly the question she’d wanted to ask.
    He smiled knowingly at her. “We’ll get to that. But at the moment, we have bigger fish to fry.” His expression changed. “I’m a bounty hunter. I’m tracking.”
    â€œTracking what?”
    His eyes turned serious, and Caitlin felt a chill in the candlelit darkness. “There’s a band of…entities on their way here. Extremely rogue. Extremely dangerous. I’ve been tracking them from Africa. I lost them in Antibes, but I’m guessing they’re coming here next. They ride the wind.” The wind. Her bad feeling intensified, but she kept her tone skeptical. “What makes them so dangerous?”
    â€œThey weren’t born into bodies of their own, so they feel no obligation to anyone human.”
    â€œNo obligation to anyone? Sounds like shifters to me.”
    Ryder Mallory assumed a mock-injured look. “That’s harsh. There are all kinds of us, you know.”
    â€œAnd yet, there’s that one key element that distinguishes you all.”
    â€œAnd that would be…?”
    â€œYour inconstancy.”
    He looked at her piercingly, and Caitlin suddenly felt naked, wanting to run. “Ah,” he said. “You’ve been hurt.”
    â€œIsn’t that your nature?” she whipped back at him.
    â€œTell me who it is and I’ll take care of him,” he said, and he sounded completely serious.
    â€œWhy assume it’s a him? ” Her temper flared.
    He fixed her with a look that set her insides onfire. “Some things are obvious without the cards, Keeper.”
    â€œWho hired you?” she demanded, trying to get back on track.
    His face suddenly closed off. “That’s confidential.”
    â€œAnd why should I believe anything a shifter says?”
    â€œThat’s your job, isn’t it? To determine these things? You said you were good.” He held her gaze, and it was intimate in the small room, more intimate than she wanted it to be, enough to make her breath short.
    She forced herself to focus, to keep her voice steady. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll be sure to look out for…entities. Do you have a number where I can reach you?”
    â€œI’m at the Marie Claire.” It was a small, older hotel, just a few blocks away.
    â€œAnd you know where to find me, obviously,” she said.
    â€œI do.” There was a sensual promise in his voice that she didn’t want to acknowledge, so she just stared coldly.
    â€œThen I think we’re done, here,” she said, and hoped it would be enough of a hint to get him out.
    â€œIt’s been a pleasure.” He rose to leave, and was about to exit through the velvet curtain, when heturned. “Good reading, by the way—in case I didn’t say.” He paused, with a slight smile. “Did I tell you I read cards, too?”
    He reached for the deck still facedown on the table, fanned out