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is
right-handed, so if she married a brown-eyed southpaw, there’s no
guarantee of a blue-eyed lefty spawn.”
    “ And if she mates with a
shifter?”
    Wes tipped the bartender
and they moved away, beers in hand. “Same deal. All of her children
might be able to shift, or none of them. It’s a dice roll.” They
stopped at the edge of the dance floor, and Wes leered at his
friend. “Why are you so interested?”
    Caleb smiled. “What did my
aunt do to persuade you to breach—”
    “ I’m going to go say hello
to Lorraine Winston,” Wes broke in, and hurried away as Caleb
enjoyed a hearty laugh.

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    From where she perched
behind a row of thick shrubbery dividing the hotel from the
shoreline, Calla could not only see the activity on the other side
of the wide glass doors, but she could sense everything. Ice
in rocks tumblers crashed against glass in a cacophonous symphony,
and even the most clandestine whisper between friends sharing a
secret sounded as though people conversed with bullhorns. Yet Calla
gritted her teeth—fangs—and continued her surveillance in her new
form, one she hadn’t realized she was capable of
achieving.
    She looked down once
again, still in disbelief as she lifted a large panther paw and
turned it over and back again. How could she have lived so long
without knowing her true genetic makeup? Her mother, rest her soul,
had mentioned nothing about this, on either side of the family. Her
father had died when she was three, and she knew little of her
paternal heritage. Perhaps her mother had been kept in the dark as
well. For her protection? She’d never know, but at least she had
this truth.
    It still didn’t explain,
though, why she’d just now discovered this ability to shift. Caleb
and other shifter friends had come into their full abilities at
puberty, so it stood to reason she should have as well, regardless
of whether or not she was aware of it. First thing tomorrow, she’d
schedule an appointment with Wes for a checkup, and
answers.
    Hopefully her doctor could
guide her toward a proper orientation of this new form and show her
how to control her senses and prevent overload.
    Caleb could,
too.
    Calla snorted and trotted
a few paces away from the party. From the moment she realized her
ability to shift, her thoughts turned to Caleb and rushing over to
the Houlihan house to reveal herself. Discovering this so late in
her life brought on bittersweet feelings as she realized what might
have been. How much pain could have been avoided were it known
Calla was a panther?
    Of course, would it have
guaranteed that Jim Houlihan and the others would have arranged for
her and Caleb to mate? They may still have paired him off with
Teresa and given her to somebody else—maybe Wes. Calla’s thoughts
drifted to her doctor and good friend, and her heart panged to
recall how his mate had betrayed him.
    Padding back to the
shrubbery, Calla attempted to focus all of her energy on Caleb.
Maybe through this singular thought, she could pinpoint him and
block out the increasing white noise and scents. Crouched low
behind the bushes, she scanned the ballroom through a hole in the
leaves and found him with Wes, chatting.
    Damn it . His voice
jumbled with the rest, and unfortunately this shifting ability did
squat for her lip-reading skills.
    Who the hell are
you?
    Calla snorted again,
surprised by the clarity of the voice in her head. She ungainly
whirled around and tried not to collapse on seeing the wolf staring
back at her. Bent in what Calla assumed was an attack position, the
wolf bared glistening fangs and scruffed one white-socked paw in
the sand.
    White socks?
    Maya, Calla
cautiously called out in her mind, is that you?
    The wolf hesitated, then
relaxed her stance. What the fuck…Calla?
    Yes!
    A low whine emitted from
the wolf. What…what the hell? I didn’t know you were a
panther.
    That makes two of
us, Calla said. I’m guessing this isn’t something that
happens when you