Free Wanted: Wild Thing (Midnight Liaisons) by Jessica Sims Page A

fur covered it. On the nose was a horn three times the size of what I assumed a rhinoceros would have. The horn was larger than I was.
    And it was pointing right at us.
    Involuntarily, I took a step behind Hugh’s broad shoulders, seeking protection. “What do we do now?” I whispered. Somehow the creature that had been following us was now in front of us. How had we not heard this monster tromping around behind us?
    But Hugh only snorted and said, “Change, Artur. You’re frightening my guest.”
    My eyes widened. I looked at the massive creature, then at Hugh. “That’s . . . one of your people?”
    “He is a primordial,” Hugh said, his eyes narrowing as the rhino moved forward. “And he treads on thin ground.”
    My eyes widened as the enormous head—and horn—moved forward, heading straight for me. The creature seemed to be ignoring Hugh, determined to check me out.
    Which frightened the heck out of me. I gave a distressed squeak when it nosed forward, and I moved around Hugh, determined to keep him between me and the monster rhino.
    “Artur!” Hugh snapped, a feline growl in his voice.
    The rhino only made a noise in its throat and continued to move toward me, disregarding Hugh’s warnings.
    The low growl in Hugh’s voice deepened, and he dropped to a crouch, alarming me. I took a step backward. “Hugh?”
    As I watched, fur sprouted along his spine, rippling down his back. The transformation ripped through him, stronger and faster than I’d ever seen with any shifter. Within seconds, Hugh was in complete cat form.
    And I was stunned.
    More than eight feet long and weighing several hundred pounds, his enormous body was knotted with muscle, his chest thick and barrel-like. He had no mane but was covered with more of those strange, bizarre stripes that were evident in human form. Hugh’s animal form looked like a tiger on steroids. Most startling of all were his jaws: his massive head swung, and I caught sight of two foot-long, protruding fangs as he snarled at the rhino and swiped at him with a giant paw.
    I stepped backward, shocked, as things clicked into place. When Hugh had told me he was a primordial, I hadn’t realized what that meant. But looking at his animal form now, I realized . . . he was a saber-toothed tiger. I stared at him, then back at the strange rhino he was herding away from me with irritated swipes of his paw.
    Holy cow.
    Were all the primordials Ice Age shifters? Was that what this place was? Some pocket dimension, where the fae kept supposedly extinct shifters?

Chapter Six
    T he saber-tooth growled low as I stood there in shock, and when the rhino swung that massive horn, Hugh pushed it away with a gigantic paw. I expected the rhino to react badly, but it only gave a humanlike snort and squatted. A moment later, its form morphed—again, so quickly that I could scarcely blink—and a man crouched in its place. He straightened and glared at me from behind craggy, thick brows, a heavy forehead, and an enormous nose that dominated his ugly face.
    If it was possible, he was even bigger than Hugh.
    I crossed my arms over my scaly chest and took another step backward, my tail flicking with anxiety. “Hugh?”
    The saber-tooth crossed in front of me, growling low.
    “I smelled a female,” the rhino-man boomed, his voice incredibly deep and incredibly loud. “You bring one here? Is this—”
    He was interrupted by a ferocious cat-growl from Hugh.
    “I see,” the man said. “Very well.”
    “See what?” I asked.
    Hugh growled at me.
    I frowned at him. “Don’t you growl at me. I’m asking a question. I don’t know what’s going on.”
    “You are changeling,” the rhino boomed.
    “And you’re a freaking rhino.”
    “I am a primordial—” he began.
    I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I know. Hugh, can you please change back so we can have a conversation about this?”
    The saber-tooth’s eyes gleamed, and he hunched his shoulders. Moments later, Hugh was crouching on