Free Enemies in Love [High-Country Shifters 4] by Melody Snow Monroe Page B

handsome as her brothers, and looked rather similar, except for their darker hair, everyone would know they were enemies, or at least think they were.
    Thank goodness her brothers didn’t seem to care they were about to take two wolves into a hostile environment. Kranor at least had been to the underground as a kid. He was probably one of the few wolves who even know how to access the outer door. If he let that information slip, there would be trouble.
    Cool air met them as soon as they descended to the tram platform. There were three people waiting to get on. The two women kept their gazes averted, but the tension rolling off the male’s shoulders was significant. She glanced at Jude, who seemed oblivious to what was going on. He was looking at everything, from the walls to the tracks on the ground.
    “This is really cool—literally and figuratively. I wish we had something like this.”
    She had to pull on his arm to get him to stop looking around and get in the tram. She thought one of her brothers would have insisted they sit at the end of the car, but neither one did. Instead, he motioned she sit across from the door. It was almost as if he was daring someone to challenge Kranor’s and Jude’s presence in the lions’ sacred underground.
    With each stop, the tram became more crowded. If they’d had more time, she would have loved to show them the shop, but that would only prolong the pain of separation. More people glanced their way. The expression of concern on each of their faces pained her. She wanted to shout at all the lions and tell them to mind their own business. At least no one dared to make a scene. While she’d never heard of a fight breaking out on the tram, there always was a first time. Despite Kranor still not back to one-hundred-percent strength, if any of the lion shifters took on these four, someone would die.
    Mercifully, their stop appeared, and she couldn’t wait to get off and into her home. The reception would be a good one, she was sure.
    “Wow. This is amazing.” Jude wasn’t able to walk in a straight line for all his gazing.
    She tugged on his arm again. “Can’t you feel the need to hurry?” He couldn’t be oblivious to the fact this was hostile territory for him.
    He smiled down at her. “The only time to worry is when there is cause. Look for trouble and it will find you.”
    “Like in that wolf bar? Were you looking for trouble then?”
    Kranor must have been listening for he looked back and lowered his gaze. She figured that was a yes.
    They rushed up the steps to her house and went in.
    “Mom? Dad?” Taryn tore through the house.
    Noise came from the living room. They had company. A loud roar reverberated off the walls. Skelak . One of her two brothers must have silenced the person because when they stepped into the room, all were in their human form.
    She recognized two men from the government who most certainly wouldn’t understand that these men were friends. The silence that greeted them chilled her. Fortunately, her experienced mother strode over to Kranor and gave him a hug.
    She then held him out at arm’s length. “Let me take a good look at you, boy.” Somehow he let her mother examine him. “I’d say my daughter patched you up real good.”
    She was about to say it was the doctor’s medicine that had done the trick, but Jude warned her to keep quiet. How he’d warned her had scared her even more. She’d read his mind.
    The two elders stood. “We need to go.”
    A low sound came out of her father’s chest as a warning to the men. “Stay and share a drink. These men saved Cavon and Malik from certain death.”
    The two men stood and pulled back their shoulders, but even with the added inch that caused, they were a good five inches shorter than either her brothers or Kranor and Jude. Saying nothing, they stomped out and left, their disgust clear. The dismissal hurt. The testimony of how her men had saved two lions should have swayed them, as well as