Page 30 of Scout’s Honor

He took a knee on the floor right up close to her and stared into her eyes.

They looked at each other, until finally she was able to speak. “Jameson…?”

He nodded. “Jameson is a shifter, he shifts into a white wolf.”

Bonhi touched her hand to her mouth. “How?” she gasped out. “Are there more of you?”

Dallas nodded. “My dad said it’s a natural thing and something like 2% of the population can shift into an animal.”

Bonhi did the math in her head. “That’s 150 million people.”

He nodded somberly.

“You’re telling me there’s enough people in the world who can shift to fill a small country, and yet no one knows?”

Dallas shrugged. “We have good reason to keep it secret.”

“Why does that jaguar have a prosthesis, and you don’t?”

Dallas raised his eyebrows. He lifted his pant leg and showed her that his right lower leg below the knee was gone. “I do.”

Bonhi couldn’t believe it. He really was a superhero.

“And you still beat that sweaty kidnapper’s ass,” she said.

He laughed out loud. “It was a close call.”

She shook her head, her voice soft. “Not from where I was standing.”

Dallas grinned but shook his head, saying “I have something kinda crazy to tell you.”

Bonhi stood and Dallas did, too. Bonhi cocked her hip. “Kinda crazy, or full on crazy?”

Dallas grinned. “Full-on, I guess. I'm a shifter,” he said, “And you're a…”

“…Lawyer,” she finished.

“Yes. And a…”

“…Woman,” she said, her voice low.

The room felt smaller and hotter. “A witch,” he said.

She laughed. He didn’t.

“A savage witch,” he said, “Or at least that’s what they call you.”

Bonhi turned her chin sharply. “Who calls me that?”

He shook his head. “I mean… I mean the other shifters, they call the witches that—savage witches—or switches for short.”

Bonhi’s brain wasn’t working. She put a hand to her head. She sat down on the couch, and then she laid down, exhaustion making her heavy.

She put her hand up. Dallas crossed the room quickly and took it. Her eyes closed and her head drooped and she drifted into a strange sleep, glad when Dallas sat down near her and continued to hold her hand.

Dallas let the sound of the rain on the roof keep him awake, while Bonhi slept. He held her hand and wished for some backup. He wasn’t enough of a guard for Bonhi, and he could only hope the police kept the kidnapper behind bars.

He wanted to get his phone, but he didn’t want Bonhi to be scared, and so he held her hand and he pulled out all the tricks he knew to stay awake.