Shifter's Claim (The Shadow Shifters) by A. C. Arthur Read Free Book Online Page B

to your friend and go,” Sebastian told her, his voice taking on an urgent tinge. “Go or I’ll have you physically removed. I don’t think that’s what you want.”
    “I want you to stop thinking you can tell me what to do, Mr. Perry,” she said, squaring her shoulders and taking a step forward. There was no way she was letting him or anyone else stop her, no matter how big they were.
    He reached out then, grabbing her by both shoulders. “Go. Home. This is not a game.”
    “We’re going,” Lolo said, pulling Priya so that Perry was no longer touching her.
    She might have felt like a limp rag being tugged from one opponent to the next, but the warmth that had moved through her like a fine wine at Perry’s touch was instantly missed and she almost called out for him to touch her again. She actually considered jerking away from Lolo to run back to him, back to the man she barely knew, but had dreamed about, in full-blown touch-a-vision color.
    “Look, there’s another one,” Lolo yelled in her ear when she was still staring at Perry. She looked to her left, to the street where another black SUV was completing a quick U-turn, tires screeching. In seconds there were more men filing out of the Reynolds Building, all of them built like super-soldiers, moving quickly to create some type of formation surrounding the parked SUV. At the door stood four men, covering the entrance, each of them holding big black guns down at their sides. Another one came up behind Perry, touching a shoulder to his arm. Perry didn’t move, didn’t even turn in the other man’s direction, but kept staring at Priya.
    Lolo continued to pull her, but she never turned around. She did the backward walk thing while keeping her gaze locked on Perry. To her surprise and stroking her female ego slightly, he held her gaze as well. Even when he finally did move to the truck, he kept staring at her before mouthing the words, “This is not a game” once more.
    *   *   *
    Bas thought about her while he was on the plane. Staring out the window to the soft white stretch of clouds he let his mind drift. To her.
    He had seen many women before, had even slept with his fair share, but none had ever been human. Not since Mariah. And none had ever been one bit like Priya Drake. She was sassy and bold and brash and clever and absolutely clueless to what would happen if she pursued this story. Rubbing a hand over his chin, Bas thought of how many times he’d considered letting Jace and Cole go ahead to the airport and going back to her apartment. He would tell her again to stay away from Rome and anything that involved him. He’d wanted to tell her to be safe, to keep living her life the way she had been before that night in the alley behind that club. But somehow he knew she wouldn’t be able to do that. He’d sensed that urgency last night at the hotel and again earlier today on the street. This was something she had to do, he only wondered why.
    Then Bas willed himself to stop wondering. It wasn’t his concern, she wasn’t his concern. She couldn’t be and to some that might be a shame. To him, it was his life, his world, the one he’d decided to live in after Mariah’s brutal murder, the only one that allowed him any semblance of peace.
    If Priya Drake didn’t have the sense to heed his warnings, then so be it. Rome would deal with whatever came next where the tenacious reporter was concerned. He was the head of the Stateside Assembly for a reason. And Bas, well, he had enough to deal with when he returned home—a shipment of drugs to possibly intercept and the carriers to question. He did not have time to wonder about a female, about what it might have been like to sink his length into her warm flesh, to feel her clutching him tightly, whispering his name, needing him on a level he’d never thought possible.
    And that was for the best, he reminded himself. Shifters remaining separate, but still a part, of the human world had long since