The Skin She's In by Margo Collins (online e book reader .txt) 📕

order, but I was still tired from the battle we’d just fought. “I need to call Janice and get the Council in on this. I guess maybe retreat to some place more defensible?”

I glanced around at the shifters crowded into the room with me.

I don’t know how to fight a war.

I had my tiny little ragtag army, but wolves were used to working together, fighting in packs. We would have to come up with a plan on the fly, exhausted, several of us hurt.

Fear spun in my belly, making me dizzy.

But I didn’t have time for anxiety.

I glanced at Jeremiah. “Will the hyenas help us?”

He turned one hand out in a kind of half shrug. “I do not know for certain. We are still fragile.” He shot a look at Shadow. “I’m uncertain what they will say. Keeya has not even made its final determination about whether she will accept Shadow. But I will ask if she will fight for you.”

“Thanks. That’s all anyone could expect.”

I shifted my attention to Eduardo.

“You know the Shields have your back,” he said. “I will begin contacting them.”

“I can call some people in, too,” Tomás said. His mouth slanted up in a slight grin. “Actually, I already have. My crew should hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area sometime in the next two hours or so.”

“Your crew?” I asked.

From her seat in the chair where Kade had put her, the raven shifter spoke up. “Tomás runs a security firm. He’s got all kinds of connections.”

Eduardo spoke up for the first time. “Tomás Nahual?” When Tomás nodded, he continued, “I’ve heard of you. You and your guys do good work.”

“I know you have no real reason to trust us,” Bron said. “But we want to help.” It was difficult for her to speak as Kade manipulated her arm, which I now saw was broken in at least two places. Her face was white and sweat beaded along her hairline. As Kade moved his hand down her arm a little further, I saw that it also had a horrible wound, loosely bandaged and still seeping, almost sullenly.

“I need to take both Jeff and you into the hospital,” Kade announced.

“Take Jeff,” Bron said, her voice still breathless with pain. “I’m fine.”

“You have to go, too. I need to set this arm, get stitches into you, and run some antibiotics through your system.” Kade’s voice had taken on that brusque, authoritative tone he used when dealing with recalcitrant patients. “You need rest and you need to shift. Those are the only things that are going to fully heal this wing of yours.”

“I don’t have time,” Bron said, the fist of her other hand tightening.

“Do you want to be able to fly again?” Kade asked bluntly.

Her face paled even further, if possible, and she turned stricken eyes up to him. “I want to. But I’ll deal with whatever comes.”

Kade softened a bit at the panic in Bron’s voice. “You got the message to us here. You did what needed to be done. Now let me fix this for you.”

Tomás stiffened at the shift in Kade’s tone, and his eyes narrowed as he watched the doctor.

I leaned forward over my desk. “He’s a very good doctor. And he’s very loyal to me.” I couldn’t help the slight emphasis I put on the last two words, but they seemed to calm Tomás.

“I’m going to get them over to the hospital,” Kade said. “Eduardo, stay here with Lindi and Serena?”

The coyote shifter nodded once as Kade helped Bron stand up again.

“I need to put in a call to Janice and get her over here,” I said, staring at my phone in dismay. “Is my cell phone okay?” I asked Tomás.

He shook his head and handed me his phone. “Probably not. But mine’s clean.”

I nodded and took it, then glanced around. “Will the rest of you stay with me in case the wolves arrive before she does?”

Shadow reached into the corner and took out her battle ax, leaning on it and narrowing her eyes. “I wouldn’t agree to be anywhere else.”

Jeremiah stepped up to stand just behind her—the appropriate place for a protective male in hyena culture. He didn’t have to say aloud that he wouldn’t leave her side under any circumstances.

Tomás gave one quick, short nod. His phone rang, and I gave it back. The jaguar shifter held up one finger as he answered. “Hey, Louis. Good to hear from you. What’s the word?”

I found myself tapping my foot anxiously as I waited to hear what news he’d gotten. I couldn’t tell anything more from his conversation, though, as it was mostly made up of sounds of encouragement.

“What your ETA?” Silence. “Okay. See you then.” He disconnected the call and stood staring at his phone.

“Well?” I asked when Tomás didn’t immediately start talking.

Kade, in the midst of gathering up Jeff and Bron, had paused at the door, waiting to hear the answer, too.

“At least one contingent of the wolves hit the outskirts of Dallas coming from the east on I-30 about fifteen minutes ago. Traffic is light, so we’re looking at a  lead time of a little more than an hour.”

I nodded. Suddenly all my uncertainty drained away. “Kade, get them out of here to the hospital. Go now.”

I took Tomás’s phone back from him and began inputting Janice’s number as Kade left with his new patients.

A phone rang at the other end and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to get in touch with Janice at all. She was the only one of us who had any political savvy at all, much less political power. I was still too new to the wider world of shifters to have any real sense of everything at play.

Janice, on the other hand, had been dealing with shifter politics for years. When she finally answered, I blew out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I didn’t think I’d catch you.”

“Lindi? What’s going on?”

I gave her the brief synopsis—which really, was all I had