Chosen Mate (Catamount Lion Shifters #2) by J.H. Croix Page A

lot. “Forgot to mention that Dane told me he arranged for two guards to follow us. Some friend who works in private security lives here.”
    Phoebe groaned. “Seriously? Dane and Jake are going all out with the alpha mode bullshit. I get they’re worried with everything’s that’s happened, but it’s damn annoying that they want to keep tabs on us.” As soon as she spoke, she realized she’d essentially done the same to Shana by accompanying her out here. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but somehow Jake’s overprotectiveness was annoying her more than she’d have guessed under the circumstances. She could only assume her feelings were gnarled with the uncertainty she felt about what was happening between them.
    Shana shrugged. “I’ll admit I think we can handle ourselves, but I’ll take some backup. We’re not exactly on our home turf here.”

    ***
    Jake tossed his suitcase in the trunk with Dane’s thudding beside his seconds later. He started the car and cranked the heat before stepping back out to help Dane brush the snow off the car. It was December in Montana, and it had snowed the night before with roughly six inches of snow coating the cars in the airport parking lot. They climbed back into the car, doors slamming simultaneously.
    Jake leaned his head back and sighed. “Please tell me Shana told you where they’re staying,” he said, rolling his head to the side to glance at Dane.
    Dane chuckled and nodded. “Yup. They booked a room at a place just down the highway from here.”
    “Okay, tell me where to go.”
    Moments later, they were driving down the highway. Jake took in the view as he drove along. Bozeman was situated in the Gallatin Valley, a beautiful valley with views of six stunning mountain ranges. Snow capped the mountain ranges and hillsides. With winter solstice still ahead, winter had a few weeks before its official appearance, but for all intents and purposes, it was winter in Bozeman. The mountains out West felt different than those in the East. In Maine, it felt as if one was part of the nooks and crannies of the mountains. Here, the mountains held themselves at more of a distance, their greater size dominating the landscape. The breadth and spread of the view was immense.
    Jake could see why wild mountain lions flourished out here. The logistical realities of more space had afforded them more capacity to elude the press of human expansion that had decimated eastern mountain lions before they evolved the ability to shift. The mere thought of what it would feel like to run wild and free here in lion form rippled under his skin. He had to fight the urge to shift. Shifters hadn’t kept themselves safe for centuries by shifting in plain sight.
    He glanced at Dane. “Any word from Shana?”
    Dane shook his head, lines bracketing his mouth. “Aside from her call earlier, no. She worries me. Ever since she got it in her head that she needed to help with the investigation, she’s been brushing me off. She’s so devastated about what Callen did, it’s like she’s trying to make amends for him by somehow fixing this. I know she knows it intellectually, but she’s not grasping how far this could go. If only we were dealing with one or two people, or shifters, but my gut tells me we’re dealing with far more than that.”
    Jake had been battling his fear and frustration with Phoebe ever since he’d learned she’d left with Shana yesterday. Unlike Shana, he didn’t think she was being buffeted by grief and the array of emotions connected to Callen’s betrayal of Catamount shifters and everyone close to him. He understood why she hadn’t wanted Shana to go alone, but he somehow wished she’d waited to talk to him first. He didn’t want to be angry with her, but he was. Behind that anger laid intense fear. Before he’d finally given into his feelings for her, he would have been worried and scared if she’d taken off like this. He’d have been doing precisely as he