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to anyone.”
    “They will come looking for her. It would be far safer to
stay here.”
    “I won’t place my family in any kind of danger. If they come
for her I want her away from all of you. I’ll care for her myself until she’s
healed. I brought her here. I will take full responsibility for my actions.”
    She closed her eyes in pleasure at the shiver that his deep
voice sent along her nerves. He would protect her? He would take care of her?
Even though she was not of his species, the golden male would protect her. She
had been right to come here. Her thoughts rushed back to the way he had so
gently picked up the small human she had attempted to snatch. And that thought
made her say in a small voice, “I’ll be no trouble. I hunt for rabbits and
mice. You don’t have to feed me. I don’t make noise. I’m not dangerous. I’m
worthless. But I promise I won’t hurt anyone.”
     
    Her words were barely audible. Gar was enraged by her
statement. No one should feel worthless!
    Gar stared down at her bent head, and his outrage almost
made him snarl. “If we allow you to stay, you won’t have to catch mice to
survive, Jane. We can easily feed another. No one goes hungry in our home.”
    His brother blinked at him, then at the freshly washed,
tangled blonde mane that flowed over those thin shoulders. “Jane? Is that your
name?”
    He watched as the Lykos’ silver eyes lifted to his brother’s
face with an expression that made him groan inside, and the female said
timidly, “The name your Hallie gave me. Omega bitches don’t have names. But she
didn’t want to call me that.”
    Gar’s hackles rose at the thought of the delicate little
female having undergone such privations at the hands of those who should have
been sworn to protect her. Omega, indeed. In his own clan the weak were fed
first. He glanced at his brother, noting the protective glint in the kid’s eye.
He sounded gruff even to himself. “We don’t have omegas in the Seronta Clan,
Jane. We will protect you. You’ll be given decent food. You will not be
expected to scavenge for a meal here.” He drew a deep breath before asking his
next question. “How many more of your pack are there?”
    The female hesitated before responding. “Five hunting males.
Four females. And me. But they don’t let me hunt.” She lifted her eyes to Cal’s
face and whispered sadly, “Except for rodents and insects.”
    “You have never killed?” Gar’s surprise must have startled
her.
    She shook her head and peeped up through her hair at Cal, her
eyes wide and openly worshipful. “Mice…ground squirrels…sometimes I am lucky
enough to catch a rabbit…”
    Gar carefully considered what she said. “We will protect you
on one condition, Jane.”
    She bit her chapped bottom lip and hunched down a bit more.
“Anything…”
    “You will never shift to your wolf form while you are in our
care. Do you understand?”
    She swallowed and raised her eyes to his face. “I tried to
shift when I woke up…but I couldn’t change back. I don’t know why.” She sounded
bereft at not being able to be in her animal form. “I will try hard not to
accidentally shift back.”
    Gar lifted one brow and inhaled deeply. He nodded curtly. Just
what I need—a timid little female Lykos who has to be housebroken, and a
brother with a hard-on from hell.

Chapter Three
     
    Hallie stood just outside the door in the hallway, looking
more than a little concerned. “She’ll need clothes. I’ll get her some of mine.”
She pressed her lips together and started to turn away. Gar caught her face
between his large hands and bent to touch her lips with his own. He savored the
sweet heat of her mouth for a moment before drawing back to gaze down into her
moist eyes.
    “I can feel what he is feeling, and regardless of what you
or I think, he believes that this female is his. I know that he feels
responsible for her, and nothing I do or say will change that. He has to reason
this out on