Free Fever Claim (The Sigma Menace) by Marie Johnston Page B

heard her history. Then came the nod of understanding, as if they just put together why she was such a problem child.
    “One more question, if you will?” He sensed her growing unwillingness to continue this line of discussion. “Can you recall any sort of physical transformation happening at the time you were going through puberty?”
    The blood drained from her face as she began to wring her hands together, those pictures and screams streaming through her mind. “I don’t … I don’t remember anything about that night.”
    “That night?”
    Her foot tapped the floor and her breathing quickened. Her hands turned white from the force of her grip on herself. Her vision blurred at the edges, going black like she wanted to pass out.
    “Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn!”
    Her head snapped over to look at him. He was her anchor to consciousness.
    “Let’s move on to the other reason you’re here.”
    She nodded numbly.
    “You’re here for answers, but clearly you’re not quite ready to go down that road. We’d like you here to train you. To join our team.”
    Puzzled, she questioned, “Team?”
    “We’re the law enforcement for our species. We’ll explain to you our world, our history, and more specifically what the Guardians do.”
    “And you’re a Guardian?”
    “Yes, and you are, too. Look, Kaitlyn, Mercury and Bennett told me about your night together,” he paused.
    “And what did they tell you?” she asked tersely.
    “They sensed you were one of us, which isn’t easy with you. It’s more obvious, we just know our kind, but you’d been in the club before and they only sensed you as human. But the night you all were together, that changed. And the fact that you could keep up with them suggests you are more like us than other shifters.”
    She wanted to yell, “Fuck off, old man!” storm away and die of embarrassment. But the curiosity of where he was going with this subject made her keep her ass planted and she forced herself to look him squarely in the face as he talked. She was a grown woman and what she decided to do with her body was her business.
    “You see, Kaitlyn, we have two types of Guardians. We have ‘normal’ shifters because our population is growing and spreading out as technology advances, and we can hide in plain sight easier. But historically, some shifters are born to be Guardians. They are more aggressive, more powerful, have intense protective instincts for those they’re in charge of.”
    “And what does my sex life have to do with the Guardians?”
    “Guardians don’t mate as easily as others of our kind. We don’t know if it’s to keep us on edge physically since our mating pool is low, or if it’s the nature of the job that we don’t come across our mates as readily. With no mate to mellow out our aggressive nature, we need to expend that energy every so often, especially during a full moon. We fight often enough, working out is part of our everyday life, so that leaves…”
    “Shopping ’til you drop?” she asked dryly.
    Master Bellamy chuckled. “Some Guardians fare better than others. Some turn wolf and run all night in the woods. Some have demons chasing them so hard, it’s easier to fuck themselves into oblivion.
    “Anyway, we started checking on you. You have black belts in at least three different martial arts and your previous employment shows that you are drawn to security and protection services.”
    That was a nice way of saying, “you can’t hold a job, you irresponsible little girl.” Her only steady income was assisting her tae kwon do, judo, and Krav Maga gyms. She was past her first-degree black belt in each one and working her way up Muay Thai.
    “So you’re investigating me thinking I’m the next new Guardian?”
    “Exactly.”
    She turned to stare at the lockers along the wall. Her world had turned completely upside down. Today, she found out she wasn’t human, she was suffering from PTSD she hadn’t experienced in over a decade, and the