Free Dangerous by D.L. Jackson

the first time in years, Xan felt peace. He soaked it in, the healing only she could give him. Hell, he didn’t want to let go. He patted her shoulder, unable to do what he really wanted with his hand.
    “I don’t. I admire you. When you’re in a situation as ugly as what you survived, you don’t ever know what you’ll do—how you’ll react. You were so brave.”
    Xan pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “Now I told you what happened to me. It’s time you come clean about your past and the secret you’re hiding.”
    She blinked, and tears filled her eyes.
    “Liv?”
    She sucked in a deep breath and pulled away, stepping back. Her hands went to her blouse and she began to unbutton it, stopping when she reached her belly button. Slowly, she pulled the fabric and the top of her bra aside to reveal a long white scar. “You might want to sit down. This will take a while. I’d just finished my internship, had been practicing for a couple months when I met him.”
    Xan sank onto a stool by the island and listened. With each word past her lips, his feelings for her grew, along with anger in his gut. While he’d gone off to save the world, his mate struggled to survive a brutal attack from a man like him.
    He could not stay here. Not with her, not when he didn’t trust himself.
    “Well?”
    “I think I should move on. Leave Los Lobos and the Black Hills.”
    “You gave your word. Did what I tell you change your mind? Do you hate me now because I had a relationship with a former patient?”
    “Doc, I don’t hate you. I’m no good for you. I’m unstable. I black out.” He’d never hurt her, but he wasn’t about to tell her and give her a reason to cling to saving him. She didn’t deserve an unhinged mate. Maybe as a human she can find someone else, move on with her life? The thought made him all kinds of ill, a sickening twist in the guts, the inability to breath and the lack of caring if he drew another lungful of oxygen.
    “Please. Don’t go.” She leaped into his arms, her hips between his thighs, her arms wrapped around him, and her breasts pressed tight to his chest. Her lips crashed onto his, and it took all his strength not to lose it there.
    The woman, the tiny coyote belonged to him. Even though he knew he should, he could not walk away. He hadn’t scented the animal before, but now he could. He could taste her, sense her, feel her shyness as she crept out of hiding. Liv never stopped being a coyote and her animal just recognized its mate, even if her human side didn’t. God, he wanted to tip his head back and howl, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t frighten her, not when he’d just found her.
    His hunger grew, Xan returned the feverish kiss, taking everything she offered, losing his heart to her. He rose from his seat, scooped her into his arms, and carried her back to the room. She didn’t speak when he laid her on the bed and stepped back, yanking his shirt over his head. If he couldn’t walk away, then he better show her who and what she was to him, the only way he knew how.
    He dropped his hands to his pants and unbuttoned. Liv reached to pull her leggings down and he growled. “No.” He wanted to be the one to strip her bare. He eyed her hands as she dropped them to her sides.
    “Okay.”
    He nodded and continued to strip, dropping his jeans and shorts. Since he liked to walk around barefoot, he didn’t need to remove his boots. It worked in his favor, since he didn’t have the patience to untie his laces. A deep need to kiss and touch her had taken over. She belonged to him, and by God, before the day ended, she’d know it.
    His skin tingled as he stared at her. A feeling he got only before he’d shift. He rubbed along his forearm where it began to burn. Could her coyote bring his Wolf out? Could she be the cure he’d sought?
    “You’re so beautiful,” she whispered.
    Xan smiled. No one could really call him beautiful. Nobody but her. He had sharp edges like flint, and an