Free First Love by J.E. Clymer Page A

shook her head no.  He could not give up his life to protect her secret.  Truthfully the cat was out of the bag the moment he found out.  She took a step closer to him and leaned up on her toes and kissed him gently on the mouth.  Taking a deep breath she turned around and held out her hand to David.
    “Mr. Maurison, I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced since I moved back to the area.  I’m Tamika Lisa Brokefang,” she said without pausing.
    David’s eyes went wide for a moment before he shook his head.  He started to reach out to touch her when Jared grabbed her around the waist from behind.  Jared pulled her back out of his father’s reach.
    “I saw her body,” he said quietly.
    “There were a lot of bodies,” she said simply. 
    Tamika felt Jared’s hand squeeze lightly on her stomach as if trying to comfort her.  David noticed the small gesture and took a step back.  Jared just held her tighter as her fingers settled on top of his and laced through them.
    “If we had any idea anyone might of have survived, we would have looked for you.  On behalf of the council I sincerely apologize.  Son, I don’t even know where to begin,” he said with a lost look lingering in his eyes.
    “You can start by protecting her.  Tamika took it upon herself to satisfy her family’s blood debt,” Jared said with a subtle reprimand in his voice.
    “I was within my rights,” Tamika reminded him.
    “If she wasn’t exposed, she is right.  She was within her rights,” David said with a slight cringe.  The idea of her taking on any hunter by herself bothered him.
    “One of the hunters found me in her bar to negotiate a truce.  He thinks it’s us killing his people,” Jared pushed.
    “Hunters don’t ask for truces, Jared,” David said in disbelief.
    “They do when over a hundred of their people have been picked off,” Jared countered.
    David’s eyes landed on Tamika and she could see the fear in them.  Jared may have treated her like a gift from the universe, but all his father saw was a killer in place of the little girl that would play with Jared at his feet.  Tamika felt the need to get out of the room, but Jared held her in place.  He wasn’t going to allow her to run, which scared the hell out of her because running had been the one thing in life she was truly good at.

Chapter 7
     
                  Tamika stepped into the bright summer son and stretched her sleek black body.  In four years her wolf form had grown.  She was less a black fluff ball and more a black lab.  In another decade she would be larger than a mastiff, but for now she could pass as a normal black lab.
                  She wasn’t a little girl anymore and she knew the risks of staying shifted for as long as she had, but she felt she had no choice.  A thirteen year old girl had no chance of taking revenge for her family.  While not full grown her wolf form was still a formidable enemy.
                  Tamika moved quietly throughout the woodlands of what used to be her family’s territory.  With the family dead most of the wolves that had lived under the protection of the Brokefang pack had dispersed into the surrounding packs.  Pack protection is what kept their kind alive.
                  She ran at a lazy pace along the tree lines back to an old hunting cabin her father had maintained.  It was off grid and power still ran to the freezers.  Stepping inside the rickety structure she stopped dead in her tracks.  It was always kind of her prey to find her.
                  Tamika waited until she heard the faint click of the trigger to move.  She darted out of the way of the crossbow.  She stalked the man who fumbled to place another arrow in the corner.  The young wolf had a mean streak.  Oh, she would allow him to fumble and just about the time the man believed that he had a chance, she would strike.
                  “Damn