“I think he’s upset that I can hear your voice inside my head,” Shyla said softly, reaching out to run a hand absently over my fur again, her gaze roaming around the room. “I get the impression that’s not something you do often with others.”
Only Brady.
Shyla smiled sadly, as she walked over to sit on a stool at the bar. “I wish I had your gift. I’d give anything to be able to connect with my sister like you do your brother. Then, maybe I could find her.”
“We’ll find her,” Brady said gruffly, as he stalked back into the room. Tossing a pair of jeans and a shirt in my direction, he shot Shyla a rueful grin. “Sorry. I’m an ass.”
Sighing, she shook her head. “No, you aren’t. You’re just close to your brother. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Are you close to Avery?” he asked, steering the conversation away from us as I shifted back to my human form.
Slipping on the jeans, I slid them up over my thighs, carefully rearranging my hard dick before pulling up the zipper. I looked up just in time to see Shyla licking her lips, her eyes riveted to my aching cock.
“Shyla?”
She tore her gaze from me, leaning back against the bar as she shook her head. “No, I’ve never met her.”
“Never?” I asked in shocked confusion.
“It’s a long story,” she said, pushing herself off the stool and heading toward the front door. “One I don’t feel comfortable talking about here.”
I nodded, scenting that we weren’t alone. There was a coyote cowering in the back room, and he didn’t need to know any more of our personal business. Yanking on my tee shirt, I grabbed my cut from the floor, shrugging into it. I was almost out the door when I heard someone holler, “Hey, aren’t you gonna clean up this mess?”
“Nope,” I replied, not bothering to look back.
145
Shyla
Somehow, I found myself sitting on the back of a Harley, my arms wrapped around the waist of a man who was driving me crazy by his scent alone. My mate. Somehow, in the midst of everything I was going through, I’d found the one man who would eventually become the most important person in my life. My cat purred inside my chest, and I laid my head on his back, rubbing my cheek against the leather of his cut, wanting to snuggle as close to him as I could. I needed him. His strength, his support. Guilt swamped me as I felt a sense of peace and calmness that I couldn’t ever remember feeling before. Tears filled my eyes, one sliding down my cheek. How could I allow myself this sense of serenity when my sister was still out there, somewhere, going through hell?
I stiffened, going to pull away from his warmth and comfort, but then his hand covered mine where I had them clasped on his stomach. He squeezed gently, and I heard his voice in my mind. That low, sexy voice that sent a bolt of desire racing through me. It’s okay to take comfort from your mate, Shyla. You aren’t betraying anyone.
My arms tightened around him as I froze in shock. How had he known what I was thinking? I mean, I knew he had the gift of telepathy, but this was different. I hadn’t spoken to him. At least, I didn’t think I had.
I’m sorry, he said, his hand going back to the handlebars as he flipped on the blinker to turn into the parking lot of a motel in Fort Worth. Sometimes I can’t control my abilities, and you were projecting your thoughts loudly.
I hesitated before asking, So, I sent you my thoughts?
He seemed to hesitate before replying, No, not this time. Telepathy isn’t really my main gift. I think of it more as a dormant one. My brother’s the only one I’ve ever been able to speak to like this. And now you. I thought with Brady that it was because we share the same ability, or maybe because of the bond between us.
What ability? I whispered, unsure I really wanted to know.
We can read minds, he admitted after a moment of silence as he was backing the bike into a parking spot in front of one of the hotel rooms.
Slowly, I let my arms fall from his waist and I slid from the bike as the implications of what he said sank in. All shifters were born with certain abilities, and I’d heard of a few over the years who could read minds, but it seemed so intrusive. We were mates, and there shouldn’t be any secrets between us, but we’d just met. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him floating around in my head, pulling all my thoughts out one by one.
Griff chuckled as he threw his leg over the seat of the Harley and turned to face me. His dark brown eyes were lit with mirth as he undid the buckle below my chin, sliding his helmet from my head. “I won’t always be in your head, sweetheart. It doesn’t work like that. Normally, I have to actually make the effort to connect with someone and pull information from them. With you, it’s different. I think it’s partly because we’re mates, but most of it is because your emotions are so wild and all over the place right now that you are projecting your thoughts a lot louder than a normal person would.”
I thought about that for a moment before nodding. It made sense, in a way. I didn’t have a lot of experience with something like this, but I was going crazy right now with thoughts of my sister and what she was going through.
Griff hooked a finger under my chin and raised my eyes to meet his. A slow smile slid across his face as he said, “It’s going to be okay, Shyla. Let’s get inside so I can call my Pres, and then we can start planning.”
“Planning?”
“On how
