The Shifter's Choice Read Online Free

out of her trousers. He crossed to them both on his hind legs, clenching and unclenching his fists as he came. She didn’t retreat which showed a distinctive lack of self-preservation.
    Instead, she snapped a salute and Johnny frowned.
    Mac pointed at the woman’s hand. “I think that one is for you, Sergeant.”
    Johnny straightened and returned a sloppy salute, now ill at ease. She was messing with him. He was certain now. He didn’t like playing the fool so he bared his teeth.
    “Sergeant Lam, this is Private Sonia Touma. I’ve briefed her on your condition and she’s anxious to teach you the communication skills you lack. She is fluent in sign language.”
    Johnny tried to imagine what Mac had over her to make her agree to this. She’d been right the first time. Better to run and take the consequences. He didn’t want a teacher, especially one who smelled like rose petals.
    Sonia Touma stood at attention like a good little soldier. Johnny eyed her. She was short, curvy, from what he could see beyond her uniform. Slender wrists showed she was on the thin side. He studied her heart-shaped face finding her eyes angled and set wide beyond a nose that was slightly hooked, bringing an ethnic flare to her features. When he’d chased her, her hair had come loose from its moorings, but now it was all tucked up beneath her cap again. Certainly she had a lovely mouth, full and pink. As he stared, her mouth quirked and Johnny’s pulse kicked like a jackrabbit. Oh, hell, this little female was trouble. Their eyes met and she held his stare, issuing an unspoken challenge. That glimmer of determination and the flaring of her nostrils intrigued the hell out of him.
    Brave, stupid or suicidal?
he wondered. But, of course, he couldn’t ask.
    “I’ve got supplies in the truck. I’ll set them up on the porch,” said Mac, just plowing forward like always.
    Mac was so sure that this was what he needed. If she tried to teach him one thing he’d chase her down the mountain because he was not learning to sign. But still Mac kept pushing.
    Johnny glared as his captain returned.
    “I’ll just put the easel up.” Mac walked around the house and paused at the fire pit to take in the number of discarded and crushed beer cans. They both knew that alcohol didn’t affect him. Mac must have realized that drinking beer on the mountain was a nice perk for his new buddies. Only they weren’t buddies. You didn’t have to assign buddies or pay them. But that’s what Mac had done and then he couldn’t figure why Johnny wouldn’t hang with them. The only one he even liked was Zeno because he could tell a story complete with punch line. He made everything seem funny. Only sometimes they weren’t.
    The easel creaked as Mac placed it in the shade on the right side of the porch. He pulled two markers from his pocket. One red and one black. The eraser came from the opposite pocket. Then he dragged a single chair before the large, blank dry-erase board and dusted off his hands. Did he have a pointer for his new teacher? Johnny folded his arms and lifted a brow at Mac who ignored him. The woman had already stayed longer than the last two combined and Mac obviously took that as some kind of encouragement.
    “I’m leaving the Jeep and walking down to see Bri. I’ll be back in an hour.” Mac pointed at his Jeep and then shook his finger at him issuing a silent warning to Johnny not to mess with his ride.
    Johnny still considered rolling his Jeep again.
    Mac handed over a phone to the woman. “Private Touma, if you need help just press dial. It calls the MPs directly. Otherwise, I’ll see you in sixty.”
    The MPs?
Johnny stared from one to the other as questions rose in his mind. Was this some trick, some setup to get him so curious he wrote on that damned whiteboard?
    He glanced at Touma and decided that no one was that good an actor. Something was going on because the woman was shaking now, shaking like she was scared and not of him. What