Surrounded by Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

shirt. “I’ll just have to show you.”
    “Freeze, Batman. You aren’t showing me a damn thing. I saw plenty last night.”
    He frowned, but dropped his hands. “Fine. When I bit you, I took you as my mate. It was an accident, I assure you. But the damage is done. We are a family of mountain lion shifters. We have a feral need to mate with any available female, and the consequences for taking an unwilling woman are dire, deadly. But last night I claimed you.”
    She laughed. Hysterically. Tears streamed down her face. “Oh, that’s good, Count Dracula. You didn’t claim a damn thing last night. And if you did and it was sooo deadly, then why are you still breathing?”
    “Ariel had developed a drug to help with the lethal aggression. The need is still always there, but the drugs were supposed to help suppress it enough to avoid taking a woman unwillingly. If I hadn’t been taking the medication, I wouldn’t have been able to be around you at all.”
    “But you just said you took me last night? So you’re not making any sense whatsoever. But nice try, space boy. Time for someone to beam you up and out of here.”
    He roared, and the blood drained from her face. That was a totally animalistic sound.
    “Fuck it. I’ll just ruin my clothes.”
    In the next instant, sounds of ripping material rent the air, and Lillian was staring at a cougar right where Jack had been standing. She’d watched as he literally morphed before her eyes.
    “No,” she breathed, her brain refusing to work.
    “Yes, Lilly . ”
    “Lilli an .”
    He growled. “You are so fucking stubborn. Here I am telling you about my life—about your life—and you’re seriously bitching at me about your name?”
    “Guess this explains the whole mind-reading trick.”
    “It’s speaking telepathically. My family and I can all do it. Mikaela and Krista can, too, since they are mated to my brothers.”
    “And you think I can do this because you and I are mated?” “Well, you’re doing it, aren’t you?”
    The little prick had a point.
    He shifted back into all his naked glory. “I have to admit, you’re taking this better than I expected.”
    “So you’re a freak of nature. Not my fucking problem. Have a nice life, kitty. Oh, and I quit.”
    She turned. She was getting the heck out of Dodge while the getting was good. From what she remembered of last night, the sex had rocked her, but if she had to face the unexplainable, then she’d rather be with someone like David.
    “Whoever the fuck David is, you can forget it,” Jack barked behind her.
    She gasped and whirled. “Stay out of my head, Houdini.”
    “You’re practically screaming it at me, Lilli an .”
    “So what, Jack son ? This doesn’t have anything to do with me. Go back to your catnip and mouse toys, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
    He growled and headed toward her. She started shaking. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to antagonize the beast. She needed to just make nice and get away.
    “Sweet, sweet, Lilly. You seem to misunderstand. This is your life, too. Once I bit you, I made you a part of it. Welcome home, honey.”
    “Oh, hell to the no. You don’t own me. It was just sex!” Okay, so making nice wasn’t her forte.
    “Only it wasn’t, darlin’. Remember the noise you made when I snuggled up against you this morning?”
    He took her wrist into his hand and put her palm against his face. Under his ministrations, she stroked his cheek, and that odd gurgling sound bubbled up from somewhere deep within him. It was similar to what she’d done this morning, but much deeper.
    “What are you doing?” She barely breathed out the words because she had a sinking feeling she knew. She just couldn’t say it.
    “I think you know.” He shut his eyes as he leaned into her hand, rubbing his cheek against her. The noise got louder.
    If she wasn’t so freaked out, she might actually get turned on by being this close to him, but her brain could barely process what