Free Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) by Jennifer Ashley Page B

fingers.
    "Doesn't matter. I am. Elizabeth Chapman, I
mate-claim you, witnessed by Liam the leader of the Austin
Shiftertown, Sean the Guardian, Kim the leader's mate, and
Katriona, the leader's firstborn."
    As Elizabeth stared at him over his blunt
fingers, Ronan sensed a click inside himself, as though
something that had long been unresolved had at last completed.
    Elizabeth was a survivor. Ronan saw that in
her. She was a survivor as much as he was, as much as the cubs in
his house were, as much as Liam and his family were.
    Elizabeth drew a breath. "All right. For now,
I won't reject it."
    Ronan relaxed, feeling a tightness in him
loosen and flow away. Elizabeth held his gaze, her chin lifted.
Nothing submissive about her.
    "But that doesn't mean I'll do everything you
say," Elizabeth said.
    Ronan growled, feeling suddenly playful. Wait
until he got her home and she looked at him with that challenge in
her eyes. He'd never mate-claimed anyone before. Was this how it
felt, an unexpected lightness, sudden joy? An excitement,
anticipation of the next moment, of every moment? Ronan no longer
wanted to work his shift. He wanted to take Elizabeth home and
simply be with her.
    Liam looked past Ronan to his brother. "Sean?
You've not said a word. What do you think?"
    Sean came out of his relaxed stance,
unstrapped his sword, and tossed it to the battered sofa. "I'm
thinking you brought me back here, away from my mate, for nothing,"
he said, moving to the door. "Elizabeth knows what she's doing, and
you don't need me."
    Without another word, the quiet Morrissey
opened the door wide and walked out into the noise. Ronan watched
him make straight for Andrea, and Andrea smile up at him in her
warm way, welcoming him back.
    *** *** ***
    Elizabeth sensed the change in Ronan as he
led her out of the office again. He guided her with his hand on the
small of her back, gentle pressure, but one she couldn't
ignore.
    She noticed that every Shifter outside the
office looked at Elizabeth in open curiosity as they emerged, then
they glanced at Ronan, then again at Elizabeth, then their
expressions blanked, and they looked away or backed off. They did
it subtly, pretending they didn't, but they did it. How they knew
Ronan had made this "mate-claim," Elizabeth didn't know, but it
didn't matter. They knew.
    Sean was now sitting in the booth with Mabel
and the dark-haired, pregnant woman, and Elizabeth headed that way,
Ronan tightly beside her. Scott had vacated one place, though Mabel
and Connor remained, sitting firmly together.
    Before Elizabeth and Ronan made it across the
floor, a tall, blond man in cowboy boots and a button-down shirt,
sleeves rolled up to expose brawny forearms, walked right in front
of them, longneck in hand. The jukebox had started up with a
country tune that was part gritty rock.
    "Hey, there," the Shifter said. "I'm Ellison,
and I need someone to dance with. Someone female. That lets you
out, Ronan."
    He hadn't looked at Ronan, keeping Elizabeth
pinned with his gaze. His gray eyes held the predatory tinge of a
wolf's.
    Elizabeth shrugged, feeling itchy. The music
had a good beat, and she liked the song. "Sure, I'd love to."
    Ellison started to reach for her, then he
inhaled sharply and looked at Ronan. Ronan never moved, never said
a word, but Ellison's face fell. "Aw, hell, Ronan. Why does every
pretty woman who comes near Shiftertown get grabbed before I even
meet her? You all could save one for me."
    "You snooze, you lose," Ronan said.
    "You can reject it, you know," Ellison said
to Elizabeth. "The mate-claim."
    "So I've been told." Elizabeth was suddenly
fed up with everything. She'd been anxious about Mabel and about
her store, which one of Marquez's men could be torching even at
this moment. Now she had to add Shifters, mate-claims, and macho
males who passed females around like pieces of meat. All right, so
maybe the last thought was unjust, but they seemed to regard women
as things to protect from each other and