Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

could
not. Elizabeth's look softened, and she let Olaf lead her into the
house.
    *** *** ***
    Elizabeth followed Olaf, whose little hand
had a surprisingly strong grip. Kids were very good at giving off
danger signals, but Olaf radiated confidence that Elizabeth would
be all right in Ronan's house.
    Behind her, Rebecca herded the rest of them,
including Ronan, inside. She had to let Olaf help her lead Mabel
and Elizabeth upstairs to her small bedroom on the second floor;
Olaf would not relinquish Elizabeth's hand until she was safely
inside the room.
    The bedroom was neat and spare, without many
personal possessions. Rebecca took some extra blankets out of a
closet and spread them across the double bed. She shook her head
when Elizabeth tried to thank her, then grabbed some clothes and
headed out.
    "Ronan's in the next room," Rebecca said in
the doorway. "If his snoring gets too loud, bang on the wall.
Sometimes that works." She flipped her spare shirt over her
shoulder and disappeared.
    The door closed. Through it Elizabeth could
hear the three younger ones going back downstairs, all talking to
Ronan and Rebecca at once, and Ronan's rumbling bass answering
them.
    "Isn't this cool?" Mabel pulled up the blinds
and looked out at the dark street below. "I always wanted to come
to Shiftertown. I think Connor Morrissey lives over there." She
pointed.
    Elizabeth sat down on the bed, her legs
giving out. Everything from staring at the black opening of the
gun, to trying to remember what had happened for Ronan's hearing,
to the shock of being brought to Shiftertown to meet
Ronan's--family?--was taking its toll.
    "Are the kids his?" she asked Mabel. "And
Rebecca, is she his wife? Or mate, I mean?"
    "Nope." Mabel finally let down the blind and
turned away from the window. "None of the kids are related to each
other or to Ronan or Rebecca. Rebecca says she's Ronan's cousin or
something, distant. They're not mated, and they can't mate, because
they're in the same clan. Otherwise, this is like a foster home for
Bear Shifters, but way better than a human one."
    That was for sure.
    Mabel, always resilient, stripped off her
clothes and got into bed in her underwear. Mabel usually slept in
the nude, so Elizabeth supposed she was keeping herself covered to
be courteous to Elizabeth. She'd brought Elizabeth's nightshirt and
a change of clothes in a shoulder bag, and Elizabeth pulled on the
nightshirt and snuggled down against Mabel. She closed her eyes
but, as she'd guessed it would, sleep evaded her.
    But it wasn't the kid with the gun Elizabeth
kept seeing as she lay, restless and awake. It was Ronan, first
charging in to her rescue, then rising into a perfectly
proportioned, hard-bodied man with muscles everywhere. He had one
tatt, a Celtic interlocking pattern that laced across the small of
his back. His buzzed short hair was dark brown, almost black, but
with highlights of lighter brown. His bear's fur had the same
rippling, rich brown color.
    Tonight Elizabeth had seen him range from
enraged and ready to kill, to annoyed, to resigned, to worried, to
reassuring, to affectionate. Ronan might be gruff with the kids who
lived with him, but she could tell he was fond of them.
    Elizabeth had always had a problem with
trust. For good reason--some of the people she'd ended up living
with as a kid had been horrible, some dangerous. She'd done
everything in her power to protect Mabel from them, which meant
she'd had to make some tough choices.
    The lesson Elizabeth had learned early in
life was that you didn't trust anyone. For any reason. People who
acted as though you could rely on them would turn on you the second
they were no longer interested in your problems. You couldn't count
on even the nicest people in a pinch.
    So she didn't know what to make of Ronan
offering her and Mabel a place to sleep, or the Shifters surging
across town to get Mabel out of danger. She didn't know anything
about Shifters or what drove them--or what they'd expect