Shifters Unbound 02.5 - Bodyguard by Jennifer Ashley

Author:Jennifer Ashley [Ashley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Paranormal, werewolf, kodiak bear, shape shifter, romance paranormal, fantasy romance, shape shifter romance
Amazon: B0069ZBY3C
Publisher: Jennifer Ashley
Published: 2011-12-02T18:36:12+00:00

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Chapter Eleven

The bar Liam managed opened for business that night, but none of the Shifters went to work. Ronan explained that the human government had ruled that Shifters did not have to work on Sundays, a concession to the Shifters' request that they be able to continue their religious observances after taking the Collars. Ronan related this with a laugh, because, he said, Shifters didn't have a designated religious day or a set time for prayer. All days were religious to them; any time and place fine for meditation and prayer.

An interesting take on the matter, Elizabeth thought.

Apparently Shifters used the day off to build bonfires in the common land between the backs of their houses, cook out, and let the kids run around in both human and animal form.

Sean Morrissey, minus sword and in a plain T-shirt, was grilling alongside his brother Liam, the two of them arguing about how best to cook the steaks. Ellison and the trackers lounged nearby, beers in hand, though Spike with his black eye wasn't getting too close to Liam.

Cherie and Mabel were laughing together in the age-old manner of twenty-something girls aware that men eyed them, but not deigning to notice. Olaf romped around in his bear cub form with wolf cubs and wildcat cubs.

The tall, blonde Glory sat on her porch, long legs crossed, in a tight, leopard-print pantsuit, not far from Dylan, who quietly drank beer from a dark bottle. With them were Kim and little Katriona and the pregnant Andrea.

Elizabeth eyed them a little shyly. They were all so comfortable with each other, including Kim, who was human, an outsider. Mabel carried on as though she'd lived here all her life, but then, that was Mabel. Elizabeth had always been the cautious one.

Ronan moved close to her. "I know."

Elizabeth looked up in surprise. "Know what?"

He motioned to the scene around them. "It's overwhelming. You don't know who to get close to, who to talk to. You want to be accepted, but it's a little scary with all those eyes looking at you. You don't want to say the wrong thing to the wrong person."

"Exactly. Are you reading my mind or something?"

"Your body language." Ronan's warm hand rested on the small of her back. "And it's how I felt when I first moved in."

"You?" Elizabeth studied the towering man, with his round, tight shoulders in his T-shirt. "You were shy?"

"I'd lived by myself in the Alaskan woods all my life. Most of my life, anyway. Then I was shoved into a Shiftertown with all these wolves and wildcats who stared at me all the time. I'm a big guy, and that makes it worse."

"You stand out." Elizabeth snaked her arm around his waist. "Hard to miss."

"You got that right."

"And then you adopted a bunch of cubs." She shook her head in mock dismay as they strolled away from Glory's house. "What were you thinking?"

"I ask myself that sometimes."

Elizabeth hooked her fingers through his belt loop, liking how the loop seemed to be made for her fingers.

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