Free Rebel Wolf (Shifter Falls Book 1) by Amy Green

our power to shift, so you can’t even hit us with a car or throw us down the stairs. To kill us takes violence. Blood. Every time. You can break the man’s neck, but you have to do it quick and with a lot of strength in order to kill him. Again, it won’t kill the wolf, but if you’re close enough to the damn wolf, you should put a knife in him quick, or he’ll rip your head off.” He looked at her. “You understand? To kill the wolf, you have to get close enough to look in his eyes, close enough for him to kill you first. There’s no other way.”
    “And this has been scientifically tested?” Anna asked.
    “You think it hasn’t?” Ian said. “Humans have been killing us for centuries, starting with the hunters in the eighteen hundreds. They came across the plains and killed our wolves every way they could think of. In the twentieth century, the scientists got hold of us. There were a lot of tests on shifters who were never seen again. So, yeah, one thing they know for sure about shifters is how the hell we die.” He stood up, crossed the room, and pulled something from a drawer in a table next to the door. “So, since you know what to do now if a shifter attacks you, this is yours.”
    He tossed something long and black at her. Startled, Anna caught it, and realized it was a large hunting knife in a black leather holder. She unsnapped the clasp, tugged the handle, and looked at the lethal blade as it slid from the leather. It was a true hunting knife, one of the best ones she’d ever seen.
    She shouldn’t carry this. She was a university student, not a hunter. She had no need for a weapon like this.
    But she remembered those two grizzly bears last night. Massive, dangerous, out of control. What would she do if one of them—or something else—decided she was a target?
    She looked up to see Ian watching her, assessing her reaction. “This won’t work on a grizzly bear,” she said.
    “No,” Ian agreed. “But it’ll hurt him. That’s the bear shifter’s weakness—he has no tolerance for pain. You stick that in him, especially somewhere sensitive, and ten to one he’ll retreat, maybe long enough for you to make an escape. And if you get close enough, and you need him dead, he’ll bleed out like the rest of us. Or you get him in the eyes.”
    Anna swallowed. “You really think a bear is going to try to kill me?”
    “They usually aren’t hostile,” Ian said. “They’re not pack animals, and they’re not political. They eat fish and berries, and they don’t hunt. They’re dangerous when they’re drunk, like you saw last night. They haven’t taken sides, but Charlie is dead, and I don’t know the terrain here as well as I used to. You need to be ready for anything.”
    Anna looked at the knife again. Then she looked down at her sheets of questions, which looked so silly and useless. “Do you carry one of these?” she asked him.
    “No,” Ian said. “Like I said, no need. A shifter can kill another shifter. My wolf can kill anything. Even one of those grizzlies last night—my wolf could have fought them. That’s why I keep telling you to stay close. Because your best defense against a shifter is me.”
    He was the biggest man she’d ever seen. She’d seen him run, jump into the air and shift. She’d seen the banks of solid muscle on his back and chest, the ropes of muscle on his arms and legs. He was gorgeous and sexy and masculine, but she was starting to understand that his body, his speed and violence, was how he’d stayed alive this long, defending himself on the fringes of his pack.
    Alone. Always alone.
    She opened her mouth to say something, but there was a knock on the door. Ian obviously scented who was on the other side, because he said, “It’s the bears from last night.”
    She remembered him telling the drunk grizzlies to sober up and come see him in the morning. This must be that visit. Anna put down her knife and stood.
    Ian let in two men. They were as big as he