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If everyone returned e in additional help

That wasn’t an easy thing for Danyon to ad an alpha, and never once had he ever considered his role as leader, protector, defender a burden

It was his purpose in life

Pride would have to take a backseat The only thing that ainst the psychopath who had already killed three of their own

If it took a boatload of vampires, a battalion of shifters and every breed of were in North Aain, then bring them on

Since the final directive to call in additional, outside help had to coust, Danyon planned to speak to hiain And they were scheduled to gather in August’s conference roo he could wipe away the fatigue that weighed him down, and the sense of defeat that wanted to drown hiently on his arh she had heard his every thought

Danyon closed his eyes, and allowed hiet lost in her touch And in that one blissful moment, he found absolute peace

Chapter 20

After quietly slipping back into her clothes, Shauna grabbed her sneakers and snuck out of Danyon’s bedroo, then out of the penthouse She rode the private elevator down to the back entrance, then put on her sneakers and headed outside

It was a little after 4:00 am, the only time of day when New Orleans’ streets were relatively quiet Thisshe heard a chorus of hydraulic hisses fro the streets down in the Quarter She certainly didn’t envy their job thisNo doubt the mountain of trash left over froe would rival Mt Everest

Shauna glanced up at the dark, clear sky and saw that theits apex She didn’t worry about Danyon’s wolven during a full moon because they were a breed of olves whose transforer wasn’t dependent on the moon But she did worry about humans, because their emotions seemed to be at the mercy of any full-faced moon Any police a full h the roof, and eency roounshot wounds, stabbings, cuts and broken bones frohts, and a e

A full moon always made Shauna restless Add to that restlessness her worry about aher weres, and she wound up with a bad case of inso to Danyon, Shauna feared he was right They had been running after shadows and were ress Even worse, she had an unsettling feeling that all hell was about to break loose She had turned all the few, ragged pieces of information they had collected over the last two days over and over in her mind until they made even less sense than they did before The only way she knew to clear her head was to --run

The predawn air was crisp, and the huan to stretch her back, arundy, almost non-existent when compared to the heart of the Quarter, but, with the help of the ht her way

After a fewShe quickened her pace after two blocks, then broke into a full run after four The wind in her face, heart rate rising, the sound of her sneakers thu rhythmically on the sidewalk--this was her safe haven The rest of the world elco of choice

Soon, the worries that clogged her an to slip away

Shauna was only a few blocks from Esplanade, which she planned to take south to the French Market, when she caught sudden movement off to her left, out of the corner of her eye It barely had tiister in her brain before she found herself abruptly sla tackle

In a flash, a hand cla into her back Shock kept Shauna i, tried to scream, flailed her ar cold and htened and clicked

Handcuffs?

In a full blown panic now, Shauna screaht arle proved futile, however Her attacker pinned her arht as well have been paralyzed

Shauna kicked out with both feet, jerked her body frorabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked hard, forcing her to her feet She had yet to catch even a glimpse of her attacker

With one hand clahtly in her hair, Shauna was shoved into ht foot, then with her left, wanting to connect with a knee, a shin, testicles When that failed, she tried to run, but was immediately jerked back by the hair, then shoved forward faster

Soon she was forced into an alley on the right, then left, behind a building--left again into another alley Tears strea she needed to do right noas cry With a hand over her ot stuffed up, she wouldn’t be able to breathe And what good would crying do anyway? She had to keep her head clear and figure out a way to break free

The hand over her ed to open her h to bite down on a small pad of flesh She bit hard into the pal with a bone

It was then that so hard and heavy slammed down on Shauna’s head And the moon went from full…to black