Free Shifting Magic (Shifted) by Lynn Leite

on the off chance you and I were noticed at the clinic, we need to do some damage control.”
    “ Damage?” Ranger snarled.
    “It was an expression. Guys, how well do you trust this Faith? If someone is following my father from a meeting that was only arranged hours before, we have to assume someone at the clinic tipped them off.” Rory raised an eyebrow, holding back a snicker. She saw where this was going, but the men were not going to like it.
    “ If the leak is at the clinic. It wasn’t Faith,” Willow answered.
    “ You sure babe?”
    “ Yes,” Willow assured the group.
    Ranger still wasn’t following. “Nina, what does Faith have to do with this?”
    “W ell, if we are going to try and convince whoever is watching that I’m just some human that has been befriended by the pack, we have to assure they don’t think you and I are mated.”
    “Nina dear,” Malcolm questioned.” How do you propose to do that?”
    “ By assuring that whoever is watching sees Ranger with his new girlfriend, Faith.”
    “ Faith?” Ranger exclaimed.
    “I saw the way she looked at you. I don’t think she’d mind.”
    “ You want me to go out with Faith?”
    “ No, but it would dispel any rumors. Mated weres don’t date … right?”
    “Mated w eres have no desire to date.”
    “That is my point Ranger. There is no way they would think we were anything but friends if you are seen with another woman.”
    “She’s right Ranger,” Willow lay a hand on her best friend’s shoulder. The man was practically vibrating.
    “You are my mate Nina. I don’t like this. I will not have you living somewhere else unprotected.”
    “ As we have just proven, I am far from unprotected. I don’t want to live apart but...”
    “I don’t think that’s necessary. She could still move in with us. We could make it look like she’s just moving in with me. If you’re not there hovering like a mate Ranger, then it would just look like she is moving in with a girlfriend.
    “That could work,” Nina looked at Ranger. The thought of sleeping anywhere but where she was for the past two days was uncomfortable. Who knew that a man she had met just days ago could mean everything to her in only moments after the time they met?
    “Willow!” Ranger groaned. He looked at his best friend trying to ascertain if there was more to this than she was letting on. He had lived with her long enough to know the signs, and he could practically see the thoughts churning in the girl’s head.
    “Ranger , do you trust me?”
    “ You know I do Willow, but you’re asking a lot here.”
    Emory stepped forward addressing the group “Has anyone thought of Faith in this little plan. It’s no secret that she has been interested in Ranger for years. Now we are asking her to pretend the mated wolf she has been interested in is her boyfriend?”
    “I can’t say that I’m clear on why, but I am sure Faith is supposed to be a part of this.” Willow assured the group.
    “ You saw something babe?” Ryder asked sliding in beside his mate.
    “Faith is con nected to the family,” was all Willow could say.”
    “Xavier ?” Ranger assumed perhaps that she was meant for his bother the way Willow was talking.
    “ Hell no. Don’t get me wrong, the girl is beautiful and smart, but I’m pretty sure she’s not my mate.”
    “What then?” Ranger asked Willow .
    “Not sure, ” Willow shrugged.
    “ If Willow sees her as part of this, I say we speak to her. The worse she could say is no. I don’t love the idea of Ranger and another woman, but if we are going to determine who tipped Howland off, we need someone the family trusts from the outside to do it. If someone at the clinic told Howland we were meeting, then the sooner we find out who that was the better.”
    “I agree,” Royal ’s decree sounded more like an order than an opinion. “Malcolm?”
    “It would seem the logical step. Nina, I have every confidence in you. It is clear that the weres that