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All the air left my lungs. I stared at him.
"Female ..." I choked around the word. "Werewolf?"
"They're insane," he agreed, looking stressed. He ran a hand down his face and seemed suddenly very tired. "As if we'd hide a female werewolf from them."
Oh, God, this just got worse and worse. I forced a sympathetic look to my face, though I wanted to scream in terror. "Can you talk about it?"
Please, please talk about it. Tell me everything you know.
Beau gestured at the park bench on the far side of the sidewalk, across from the parking lot. On sunny days, Sara and I ate lunch and chatted there. Tonight, I stared at that bench as if it had been my enemy.
As I sank down on one end of it, Beau sat on the other side of me. His hand reached for mine and I let him take it, too numb to do anything but stare blankly at him. He seemed to need to touch me, his fingers playing with mine, stroking along the inside of my palm.
"The wolves have more females than the Alliance does," he said. "It's one reason why the wolves rarely using the dating service, I imagine. Between the pack hierarchy rules and the fact that they have more females than the other shifter clans, there isn't as much of a need. But what they don't tolerate is a runaway."
I swallowed hard. "Are ... are they looking for a runaway?"
"If they are, I don't know of any." His fingers played with mine, his gaze not meeting my eyes. "The wolf packs don't like it when someone leaves the pack. They expect the pack to rule everyone's lives-even the ones who don't want to be ruled. They're judge, jury, and executioner. And since I haven't helped them in their search, they now think we're harboring a fugitive female." His mouth grew hard. "They took Savannah yesterday. Left a note with her abandoned car and said that if we didn't have the other female back to them by this time next week, they were going to kill her."
And Savannah was going to go into heat on Saturday. This just got better and better.
"What are you going to do?" I asked softly.
Beau's mouth gave a wry twist. "I haven't decided yet. I'm not keen on the thought of handing over some young girl to the wolves, especially since I know what they're like."
I knew what they were like, too. My hand trembled in his.
He mistook it for cold and pulled me against him, tucking me under his arm. "But I don't know what to do about Savannah, either. Ramsey's out looking for her trail, but it's cold by now. So we're waiting ... and we'll see what happens."
I pulled away from him. "Beau," I began. It was time to break it off, as much as I liked him and wanted to kiss him again. "I don't think this is a good time for us to see each other-"
His eyes gleamed in the darkness, his face showing a flash of haggard emotion. "Bathsheba, don't say that. I need you. Please."
I could tell he wasn't used to asking for things, and I hesitated-then stood up. "I'm sorry, Beau. But I can't."
Sara was busy with a project, her headphones on, when I went inside. She looked up as I passed. "Hi. How were your dates?"
I waved her off, not wanting to talk about it, especially in front of the others. Marie and Ryder sat at their desks, chatting and waiting for the phones to ring. They glanced over at me but didn't approach, as if sensing I needed space. Giselle wasn't in, at least.
