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“I’m not sure I know how to be good.”

“I know.”

“Do I stay? Decide now, Anita, because once the pride is mine, the choice is gone.”

I thought about it. I’d have been fine with him coming in as the new Rex, but coming in as a new boyfriend, well, that just had disaster written all over it. I opened my mouth to say go, but my lioness swiped a claw up inside me, like she was playing with my liver. It made me writhe on the bed and not in a good way.

I was suddenly getting asked by a lot of people, “Anita, are you all right?”

I nodded. I had more control over my beasts, I really did. But apparently, I didn’t have complete control. Would the lioness let me send Haven back to Chicago, or would she tear me apart?

I don’t know what I would have said to Haven, because I didn’t get a chance. The door opened, and it was Dolph again, but with more police at his back.

“Everybody in here carrying a weapon, but not carrying a badge, out.”

Since that was everybody but Graham, they went. Dolph was pissed that they’d managed to get past everyone in the first place. Apparently, heads were going to fly, at least figuratively.

Edward came back into the room while Dolph was giving each of the armed “guards” a police escort off hospital grounds. Dolph decided that Ted Forrester and his German friend in the hallway were enough muscle to keep me safe, so Graham didn’t need to be here either.

“Dolph, Graham isn’t even armed.”

“You’ve got Forrester and Otto Jeffries to guard your back, or is there something going on in our city so dangerous that you need all this firepower?” He gave me those searching cop eyes that always seemed to see everything.

I shook my head. I told Truth, Wicked, Haven, and Graham to go with the nice police officers. They went. Because Dolph was right with Edward and Olaf, I was safe enough, at least from our enemies. I’d seen Olaf use a gun. I knew he was a good man in a fight, but somehow I just never felt entirely safe from Olaf with Olaf nearby. Funny, that.

39

THE DOCTOR TOLD me I could go. That if I exercised and didn’t let the scar tissue harden up on me, I’d be fine. He also assumed I was a shapeshifter, a new kind of shapeshifter that could do different animals. He actually used the term panwere. It was the first time I’d heard anyone but a shapeshifter say it. The doctor had never actually seen one, until me. I told him he still hadn’t seen one, but nothing I said persuaded him different, so I gave up. If people won’t believe the truth, and you don’t want to lie, then you’re out of options. Chimera had been the real deal, a true panwere, and one of the scariest beings I’d ever met. I wondered what the doctor would have made of him?

I walked down the hall to Peter’s room with Edward leading the way. Olaf brought up the rear. I didn’t like him behind me, but he wasn’t doing anything wrong. For him, he was positively being a good boy. The fact that I could feel the weight of his gaze on my back almost like a hand pressing between my shoulder blades wasn’t something I could really bitch about. I mean, what was I supposed to say, Stop looking at me? It was a little too childish for me to say it out loud, no matter how true it felt.

It didn’t help that Olaf and I were dressed alike, sort of. Edward was in his white button-down shirt and jeans, and cowboy boots. Ted Forrester dressed to be comfortable; Olaf dressed either to intimidate or because he liked the Goth assassin look. I hadn’t picked my clothes, Nathaniel had. Black jeans tight enough that the inner pants holster dug in a little, but they tucked nicely into the lace-up boots. The black T-shirt was scoop-necked and the push-up bra that was under it made sure I had plenty of scoop to show. My cross sat on my breasts, rather than hanging in front of them. How did I know Nathaniel had packed the bag and not Micah? First, the panties and bra matched, and the panties were perfect for the lower waistline of the jeans; second, the shirt