Edged Blade by J.C. Daniels Read Free Book Online Page B

know that Chang would talk to me. I think he would if he could .
    Justin, though, was shit out of luck. Chang would toy with him the same way he’d toy with any other outsider.

 
     
     
Chapter Four
     
     
    Chang had a last name but nobody used it.
    Although, to be honest, not that many people used his name at all. Chang was one of those men who got yes, sir’ed and no, sir’ed unto death. Half the people who talked to him met his eyes for all of five seconds before looking deferentially down at the floor, hands folded meekly in front, or tucked away behind in a military fashion.
    He was a shapeshifter, but I’d yet to figure out what.
    That was one thing that drove me insane.
    I could usually peg a shifter’s animal within minutes—sometimes within seconds—but Chang had me stumped. He was some sort of cat because he was one of Damon’s lieutenants, but I had absolutely no idea what kind and it both annoyed and intrigued me.
    I was pretty sure he knew this—and I was equally sure it amused him.
    At any given time, Chang could be found at the rec center. When I pulled up in front of the place, one of his men was already moving to meet me. I didn’t bother asking if Chang was around. Of course he was.
    I don’t think he slept here, but any time I’d come looking for him, he was here. It wasn’t really a picture that fit, this elegant man presiding over the rough and rowdy lot of shapeshifter children, but over time, I’d come to realize why.
    Chang was the self-appointed guardian of the reckless shapeshifter youth in the city. The rec center was a place where both the wolves and the cats hung out, although there were more cats than wolves. The cat clan outnumbered the wolves almost two to one here, but the relationship between the two factions was guardedly friendly, more so in the past year and a half since the previous cat Alpha had died.
    Most shifter parents kept their youngest close to home—close and protected—but as they got older, the youth became…restless. It wasn’t just the hormones that any teenager would face—they had those hormones, plus the hormonal surges that would eventually precipitate the change that led to their first shift between their human forms and their animal one.
    The aggression would come spilling out, but it rarely came coupled with common sense.
    The club was a safe place for them to let all of that aggression out, without getting into trouble.
    It was also a place where they would be protected.
    I’d never seen less than fifteen dominant shifters on guard here. That was practically a platoon in human terms.
    One of those guards had escorted me to Chang’s office—I’d been surprised when I’d seen her. I’d been here too often and in all my visits, I’d never seen a wolf standing guard at the gate. It was unusual enough to have me questioning Chang about it—or I would as soon as he got off the phone.
    His conversation was inaudible, which told me he was speaking to a shifter.
    He had yet to give anything other than a polite nod and smile when I came inside, but that didn’t mean anything. I’d like to think it meant he wasn’t talking to Damon and saying something like: Oh, shit, she’s here and asking questions, what do I do? Actually, I was almost positive Chang wouldn’t ask anything like that, but something more…urbane? Kit is here. If she starts asking questions we don’t want to answer, do I stonewall her or just wait for you to arrive?
    Another three minutes passed before he wrapped up the conversation, but I didn’t let it get to me. He was the second in command of one monster group of shapeshifters. Clan business would always come before anything else. He tugged the earpiece out and gave it a distasteful look before putting it away and rising from the desk. I rose to meet him as he came to stand in front of me.
    “Hello, Kit.”
    “Chang.” I cocked my head. “Sorry to crash in like this…sounded like serious stuff. Am I