White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel) by Jennifer Ashley Page B

end of the house.”
    Addie’s need to gaze at him hungrily kept her nervous questions coming. “What were you doing out until o’dark thirty in the morning?”
    His quizzical expression told her he didn’t know what her idiom meant, but he answered. “Walking the bounds, making sure all was safe. The one horse in the barn wasn’t happy with a visit from a tiger, but otherwise, we’re alone here.”
    “Good. I like that.” Addie folded her arms, cold. She’d put on one of the shirts he’d offered, a big T-shirt, faded from washing, with an INXS logo on it. She wondered how long he’d had it—Shifters, it was rumored, lived for several hundred years.
    Kendrick’s gaze was steady. “You like being alone?”
    Addie hugged herself tighter. His shirt was roomy on her, which was a nice change. Usually clothes hugged her too much, revealing more of her plumpness than she was comfortable with.
    “I’m by myself a lot,” she said. “When I’m not at work. Sometimes it’s refreshing.”
    “I hate it.” The words were vehement, Kendrick’s eyes burning.
    “I thought tigers were solitary,” Addie ventured.
    “I’m Shifter. It’s different. We’re not meant to be alone. I surrounded myself with Shifters to take care of them. Their bodies, their souls. I’m not only Shifter, I’m Guardian.”
    Kendrick’s muscles were tight in the dim lamplight, his fists curled.
    “You’re the protector,” Addie said, trying to understand. “Of other Shifters.”
    Kendrick shook his head, his look still savage. “I stand between them and terrifying darkness. I don’t let their souls be enslaved. Ever. But they are scattered from me, gone. If they die . . . I can’t help them.”
    And that was hurting him. Addie didn’t really understandwhat he was talking about, but she threw back the covers and slid from the bed. She managed to remember at the last minute to use the steps and made it to the braided carpet without mishap.
    “We’ll find them.” Addie went to him, stopping a foot or so away. If she got too close, she might not be able to talk. “Tomorrow, we’ll go out and start looking for them.”
    Addie had no idea who
they
were or how to find them, but Kendrick’s expression was so bleak she felt the need to comfort him.
    Kendrick didn’t soften. “No, I will stay here. This is a good place. But I will look for them all the same.”
    Addie stared—he made no sense. “You know, you are seriously confusing.”
    “I know that. I confuse myself. What the hell? I’ve learned to live with it.”
    The spark of humor in his eyes was self-deprecating. Addie drew a breath and jammed her arms over her chest again, mostly to keep from reaching for him.
    “Who are these Shifters you need to find? Maybe I can help.”
    “They are very good at hiding. I doubt you’d know where to start looking.” Kendrick let out a breath, a sound much like his tiger had made. “Twenty years ago, when humans began rounding up Shifters, I escaped them.” He pitched his voice very low, so that anyone listening at the door or through the fireplace would hear only sound not words. “I found others like me, and we came together for protection. We stayed hidden, surviving, and I became their leader. We moved to Texas several years ago. Last year, we were found by other Shifters, who destroyed our place of hiding. We ran, breaking into small groups, to hide until I find a new place to gather again. But it has been some time—six months or so—since we scattered. I might never find some of them again.”
    He finished and closed his mouth with a sudden snap, as though he’d not meant to say so much.
    Well, that explained a bit—why he didn’t wear a Collar, why he wasn’t in a Shiftertown. She was still unclear on afew things, but she realized this close-mouthed man telling her even that much was a victory.
    Her urge to comfort him rose strongly once more, and she took the last step between them and touched his