Jared (River Pack Wolves 3)(7)

And, the truth was, she couldn’t really argue with that. Her beast had always felt like a wild part of her, one she had a hard time controlling. It was easy to believe that shifters—other shifters, the ones who let their animal side loose—could be a danger to others.

Only Jared hadn’t done anything to hurt her. In fact, he’d watched over her, escorting her back to her house and making sure she was safe, even though she’d run through those woods a hundred times. Her father’s idea of shifters seemed wildly at odds with the strong, silent man she’d seen in the meadow. Maybe that was why she was drawn to him… she pictured him naked again, and heat flushed through her lady parts.

No, it was definitely the raw, masculine hotness.

But her father’s hatred of Jared’s kind was real. Grace had been tempted, so many times, to tell her father what she was, but she had always held her back. Something about shifters repulsed him. Angered him. Maybe because he was such an alpha male himself, he couldn’t stand the idea that men like Jared—physically superior with obvious sexual prowess, reeking of masculinity—were out there.

Maybe it was simple jealousy.

She didn’t know why her father hated shifters quite so much, but all her entreaties to put off this legislation had been for nothing. In a week, he was sponsoring the bill.

One week. She had one week to figure this out. Then her days would be numbered.

She may have even less time than that, if this hot shifter, now in possession of very valuable information he could use against her father, went public. The campaign manager part of her was already calculating all the ways to minimize the damage, but there was no escaping it—the PR would be devastating. She couldn’t even wrap her head around what would happen to her, personally. If her mom were still alive, this would kill her.

She had one week to figure out how to avoid this Armageddon.

With interviews to schedule and a campaign kick-off tour to set up, she should just bury herself in work, like she usually did, and pray that an answer would come. Maybe the shifter in the woods would have an answer for her tonight. Or just a kiss. She would definitely settle for a kiss. More if he was willing.

Grace was shuffling through the paper disaster on her desk, trying to find her tablet, when her best friend and PR manager for the campaign, Kylie Anderson, burst into her office.

“All right, what are you hiding?” Kylie loomed over her desk, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently.

Grace’s heart lurched. “What do you mean?” Jesus, had the shifter already exposed her?

“You’re hiding in your office, Grace. You’re never in here. In fact, I was thinking about moving my crap in here and seeing how long it would take for you to notice. So what the hell is going on?”

Her best friend was short and roundish in a compact, sexy kind of way, with bouncy red curls and a personality the size of Montana. She took no nonsense from anyone, including Grace, yet could smooth-talk a Saudi Arabian prince out of oil rights. Grace had seen it happen.

But apparently, Grace’s secret was still that. She sighed in relief, then tried to cover it.

Kylie just narrowed her eyes. “Grace Elizabeth, don’t you dare try to hide something from me. How am I going to do my job if I don’t know what’s going on?”

She had a point. This PR nightmare would land squarely in Kylie’s lap. Her best friend would loathe Grace at the level she reserved for polluters and child pornographers. And Grace normally told her every detail of everything… with this singular exception. Now she needed a lie to cover her current funk, and fast. Except Kylie could sniff out lies like bloodhound after a serial killer. So it needed to be damn close to the truth.

“I met a guy last night.” Grace bit her lip because Jared was hardly just a guy and thinking about him genuinely got her hot and flustered. Her wolf whined. “A really hot guy. Only I don’t know if I’m going to see him again.”

Kylie sprouted a grin as she hurried around the desk to sidle up to Grace. “What the… when did this happen? And why are you meeting guys without me? I thought we had a pact!”

Grace smirked. Neither of them had time for boyfriends—at least that was the excuse Grace gave every time it came up. Kylie was just as married to the campaign as she was. The truth was that Grace couldn’t let herself get close to anyone—eventually, they would discover her secret. So she and Kylie had vowed that they were all about hot men and one night stands and that they would be each other’s wing woman.

Only Grace never followed through—one night stands meant a very high risk of accidentally revealing herself. Then Jared came along and… he already knew her secret. There was nothing to lose.