All the men behind the counter were as enamored of her as Shane was. She moved easily

in her skin, her hands graceful and yet very sure as she signed the forms and took her driver’s license back.

“You sure you don’t want to shoot with me?” She turned to him, holding a plastic container with a black matte handgun inside. She’d surprised him when she’d pulled that out of her suitcase.

“Um, not this time. I’ll just watch.” He indicated the tables set up in front of the clear glass separating the shooting area from the counter space.

She shrugged and went through the first set of doors, put on sound deadening headphones and then through the second set. Confidently she moved to the space directly in front of where he sat and placed her things down.

Was he wrong to find the eye protection she wore hot? They weren’t just utilitarian but had a streamlined, sexy style to them. No one else looked so good. Her ass looked really tasty, high and tight in the jeans she wore. Her legs just went on and on as she moved to stand with her feet braced, slightly apart the muscles in her upper arms bunched when she aimed and began to fire.

She was beautiful in her strength. In her agility and the way she wore her violence so casually. Not as a threat. He didn’t see that she scared anyone, or that she used her ability and feral nature to bully. But it was clearly part of her in a way she considered just as normal as the color of her hair or the set of her eyes.

Every moment he spent with her, every new thing they did other than sex—although the sex was amazing—drew him into her more. Two days after they’d arrived in Las Vegas and had bonded, and he found himself really liking Megan. Not just as a woman he was chemically bonded to, but as the person he could begin to see spending his life with.

She had this way of scrunching up her face when she was describing to him that made him want to kiss her. He found himself waking up early to watch her work out. He wasn’t

even annoyed with the way she tossed her stuff around the house, filling everything with her presence.

Which scared him. Even as he was mesmerized by the way she calmly shot the target in the heart and in between the eyes over and over with deadly accuracy, he felt as though he was drowning in her.

He didn’t know if it was her, the bond, how he really felt or what. He felt it, that was true, but the human part of him approached the bond warily. Yes, he’d Claimed her without a second thought. Believed in the bond as he sat there and watched this woman who’d weaved herself into his world in so short a time. At the same time, resentment lingered.

Was it real? This other person was suddenly everything to him in a way he’d never experienced, not even with Layla.

It was as if his wolf had surfaced and wouldn’t cede any space to the human part of him when it came to this woman, when it came to this part of his life. Never had any woman, anyone for that matter, been so all important to him.

The sharp scent of cordite had kept Megan centered on the task. Squeeze. Bam. Squeeze.

Bam. Over and over. Each physical action on her part created a bigger hole in the target.

She liked it. The result before her eyes. She could control it, knowing the outcome each time because she’d practiced over and over until she mastered it.

It wasn’t the same with him. She didn’t try to control her world with hyper-organized living space like he did. But both control freaks just the same. Shane was someone who set her totally off balance and she did not like to be unsure and uneasy. She had a life where things mattered. Where what she did made a difference. That was her control. Here she felt as if she were spinning her wheels, just waiting for him to make a decision.

Tension hung in the air. Expectancy, hesitation. It was ridiculous. She knew had to move, be dealt with. Something. How long she’d wait wasn’t a decision she’d come to yet.

The next day, as they ate lunch on the terrace of a fashionable restaurant in an area of the

city away from the Strip, she felt his hesitation like a physical thing.

He didn’t hold back in bed. He loved every inch of her body with no reservation at all.

But away from bed it was a different story. Despite his telling her she should feel at home in the house, it was his house still. He didn’t want to speak of the future, only asking that they take it day by day.

At first, it was she did albeit with reservations but now it felt different. She felt with him at times in a way she hadn’t felt with anyone in her life. This was her mate! Another wolf who was meant to make her feel whole and cherished and instead, a sense of anxiety set in and hadn’t left.

As they sat, pretending nothing was wrong, a group of people approached the table.

“Shane! How are you?”

A tall bottle-blonde leaned down and kissed him square on the mouth.

Calmly, Megan took the woman’s arm and yanked her back. “He’s fine but his mouth is off limits to you for anything but speaking.”

Shane laughed but discomfort threaded the sound. It was all so fake, his world and Megan hated it.

“This is Cynthia, an old friend. Cynthia, this is Megan, the woman I told you about.”

The blonde looked Megan over. Megan knew what friend meant in that context but it didn’t matter then. What she found interesting was his comment about him telling Cynthia about her. When had that happened?

“Oh, well then. Shane you know everyone.” She indicated the people with her with a lazy wave. Cynthia didn’t bother introducing them to Megan and apparently it wasn’t important to Shane either.