Free Tempted by the Jaguar #1: Transformation (Riverford Shifters) by Cristina Rayne Page B

and forth with no problem with the elders
yesterday,” Hunter reminded her.
    Kylie smiled sheepishly. “I know. I keep telling myself that over and
over, but—I guess it’s because all of this shifter business still doesn’t feel
natural to me.”
    “With a few more shifts under your belt, it’ll literally become your
second nature,” he assured her. “Now, we’d better head out. I’d like you to
meet a good friend of mine who co-owns a local nightclub nearby, and I think, given
your problems yesterday with your sense of smell, it would probably be better
to see him now before it gets too crowded.”
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
     
    “Your friend owns Southern Glacier !” Kylie exclaimed as Hunter
drove around to the back of the large, illuminated building and entered the
club’s VIP parking garage.
    She had expected Hunter to take her to one of the many small clubs
along the edges of downtown that she and her friends often frequented, not the hottest club in Riverford.
    “Co-owns,” Hunter corrected with a grin.
    “My friends and I have always wanted to come here,” Kylie admitted,
“but I always thought there was no way a bunch of lowly college students like
us would stand a chance of getting in so we never tried.”
    “You’d be surprised,” Hunter said. “The owners aren’t as fussy about
their patrons as you might think. It’s all just the luck of the draw as long as
you’re willing to wait in line long enough since people are selected randomly.
Really, the owners would let everyone in if they had the room so long as you
could pay the cover.”
    “Even alligator and bear shifters?” Kylie asked shrewdly.
    Hunter smiled wryly. “You got me there. No, anyone from the alligator
clan are most definitely not welcome. They’re naturally—forgive the pun— snappish .
They can’t be trusted to not start trouble. Their tempers are always on a
hair-trigger. That’s one of the many reasons why they are always at odds with
most of the other shifter clans.”
    “And the bears?”
    “They can be aggressive when provoked just like their wild
counterparts, but for the most part, as long as their boundaries are respected,
they won’t cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble like the
alligators. You might see a bear or two in the club, but they tend to not like
crowds. Maybe a few Jaguars will also show while we’re here and I can introduce
you.”
    “A lot of people at the university were staring at me today,” Kylie
said. “I’m not sure how many of them were jaguars, but I imagine they were
shocked that someone that had been human a couple of days ago suddenly smelled
like a jaguar.”
    “I don’t think the elders have gotten around to telling everyone in the
clan about you. We don’t gather very often, so that’s what this little tour of
introductions I’m taking you on is all about.”
    Kylie snorted. “Sounds to me like they’re just dumping me on you. I
mean, how hard can it be to rent a large hall and just call everyone up and say
‘come meet the clan’s new member’?”
    Hunter chuckled. “Normally I would agree with you, but you’re a special
case. It’s very unusual for a shifter to leave their clan for another, so new
additions are pretty rare. It’s tradition that they introduce themselves to key
members of the clan, but since you’re new to all of shifter society in general,
it’s only logical that they ask me, the only jaguar you’re somewhat familiar
with, to help you with the introductions.”
    “So one of the owners of this club is a key member of your clan?” she
asked. Knowing just who filled the upper echelons of the jaguar clan could
prove useful to her and Paul’s search.
    “Oh, no. Maxim—that’s my friend—heard about you from a family member
who’s an elder and wanted to meet you.”
    There was something about the way Hunter grinned at her as he replied
that immediately set Kylie on edge, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure
out why