Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(13)

“Just sit here and wait for the healer,” he said. “Unless you want your arm to fall off.”

Tamsin shook her head with emphasis. “I’m not staying while you call in Shifter after Shifter to keep me prisoner. I’m outta here, wolf-boy.”

Angus snapped the cuff around her good arm, the steel cold. “No. You’re sticking with me, sweetheart.”

The other cuff didn’t go around the staircase this time but around Angus’s broad wrist.

Tamsin glared at him. She focused her energy, partly shifted to fox again, and slid her hand from the cuff. Angus blinked at having a fox face so close to his, and then Tamsin was human again, darting into the nearest room and to its long window.

Angus followed Tamsin, unlocking the manacle from his wrist as he went. He’d pretty much figured she’d be able to get out of the cuffs, but he’d had to try. Cuffs were psychologically subduing, he’d learned in his bouncer work. Even the drunkest, most obnoxious human could fall down in a blubbering mess once he was cuffed.

Tamsin moved on light feet across the house’s drawing room, dragged back the draperies, and tried to open a window.

It wouldn’t budge. Tamsin screamed between her teeth. Instead of beating on the window as she had the door, she glanced around, grabbed the nearest chair she could lift with one hand, and drew it back, ready to throw it at the window.

Angus wrenched the chair out of her grasp and set it back down. He didn’t think the window would break if the house didn’t want it to, but she could wreck the chair trying.

“Be careful,” he said. “I told you, the house belongs to a friend of mine. She won’t be happy if you destroy the furniture.”

Strictly speaking, Angus had met Jasmine, the young human woman who owned the house, exactly once, when she and her Shifter mate had come out to spend some time in it together last month. Ben was more or less the house’s caretaker in Jazz’s absence, but she’d made it clear it was open to Shifters who needed to use it as a getaway as long as they didn’t damage anything.

Tamsin glared at Angus with wide amber eyes. He saw bald fear in those eyes, her defiant spark fading.

Did Haider know she was a fox Shifter? Was that why he wanted her? Besides the fact that she was a rogue, un-Collared, and had caused a lot of trouble?

Angus would love to shake out of her exactly what was going on, and why Haider was so interested in her. Shifter Bureau kept an eye out for those Shifters they’d missed catching and Collaring, but they didn’t usually single one out to go after with such zeal. And why choose Angus for the job?

Conclusion—Tamsin Calloway knew more than she was telling.

Angus took hold of her uninjured hand in a firm grip, but he tossed the cuffs to a table and left them there.

“You hungry?” he asked. “There’s always plenty to eat in this house. Might be a while before Zander can get here.”

Tamsin tried to hide her flicker of interest. “Zander? Who’s that?”

“A healer.” Interesting that she’d never heard of him, because Zander was Collarless as well. But then, he was a healer, and healers were elusive, reclusive, and sometimes downright crabby. Zander had a mate now, and being asked to leave her side made him even more irritable. “Come on—let’s see what’s in the fridge.”

Tamsin didn’t fight as Angus led her out of the drawing room and down the hall. Only when he started up the stairs did she hang back.

“Why are we going up there?”

“That’s where the kitchen is. Ground floor is for tourists.”

Tamsin drew in a breath as though she’d argue, then she gave Angus a nod and started with him up the stairs.

He didn’t turn her loose until they walked into the big room that was a modern, airy kitchen with retro-looking appliances, a large kitchen table, and a giant walk-in pantry.

“Sweet!” Tamsin exclaimed. She went to the refrigerator and opened it, bending to stick her head in. “Oh, nice. Who lives here? They know how to keep the place stocked.”

She backed out with packaged meat and cheese. She dropped that to the counter, then went back for a bag of lettuce and a large tomato. “All we need is bread . . . Ah, here we go.”

She opened a bin on the counter and pulled out a loaf, set it on a wooden cutting board, and started rummaging in the drawers. Angus put his hand on her wrist before she could pull out a hefty knife. He twisted the knife away from her while she stared at him in surprise.

“How am I supposed to cut up my tomato?”

“I’ll do it.” He pointed at a chair with the tip of the knife. “You sit.”

“Let a hot guy make dinner for me? Sure thing.” Tamsin sauntered to the table and sat down, leaning back in the wooden chair to cross her ankles.

Angus had to turn away from her to start laying out the bread for sandwiches, but Ben had followed them in and now seated himself at the table with her.

Angus had felt Tamsin shaking when he’d taken the knife from her. He suspected that was not only from the pain of her injury, but exhaustion and probably hunger. She had the pinched look of a person who hadn’t had a full meal in a while.

“Don’t let her get up and run around,” Angus told Ben. “She’s hurt more than she lets on. Zander on his way?”

“Yep,” Ben said. “He’s not happy about it, but he contacted Marlo, and Zander will be here soon.” Marlo was a private cargo pilot who covertly flew Shifters around the country. “I told Zander it was your fault—I was just the messenger. Why are you talking about Tamsin like she’s not in the room?”