Animal Attraction by Charlene Teglia

missing pieces of the big picture. For instance, those panthers I met at the mall. Am I right in guessing that they are actual panthers? Cat people?”
    “Yes.”
    With that one word my world expanded even further past the borders of the mental map I’d always known. I’d voyaged well off the charts and into dragon territory. Not just werewolves but other shape-shifters existed.
    “Are they a problem?”
    “They’ve been increasingly aggressive,” David said. “More incidents of individual and small-group conflicts. Maneuvering against our territory. I think they’re positioned to challenge us in an organized attack if they perceive a weakness.”
    “As in, a change of leadership.” I kicked at the ground, hating the feeling of being pushed into a corner. Not that I had anything against Zach. Just the opposite, the more I saw of him the more he impressed me. His pack trusted him and respected him. That alone spoke volumes. Then there was the state of the estate we were on. If Zach was in charge of the money, appearances said he was very smart about managing it.
    David gave a noncommittal grunt but didn’t disagree.
    “Do you think Zach is the best leader?” I asked for his opinion not sure he’d give it.
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “He thinks first, acts second. Looks at the big picture. Acts for the good of the pack.” We walked on in silence before David added, “That’s not an endorsement of him as a mate. I’m not qualified to judge.”
    “Didn’t ask you to.” We wound through the maze, and David took a subtle lead, directing us along the right route. We took a final turn and then we were in the center, a circle inside the hedges with a bench under a rose arbor facing a small fountain. The fountain had two levels, an upper level filled by a figure of a maiden pouring water from a pitcher, and the lower filled from a wolf’s head with an open mouth. How appropriate.
    Between the height of the hedges and the arbor, this spot would provide an oasis of shade in the summer, when the humidity pressed down and turned the air into hot molasses. “Pretty,” I said out loud.
    I contemplated the peaceful scene while I digested David’s statements. If I chose Zach, the general order of things in the pack would be sustained. That was probably best for all concerned, no matter how I might feel about it personally. And how I felt about it wasn’t really possible to gauge just now. Too many shocks, too many revelations, too much to process.
    “Will I be expected to live here?” I crossed over and took a seat on the bench, drew my feet up on the stone platform, and rested my chin on my knees.
    “Do you have to be told it’s the safest option?” David sat beside me, his gaze level and his face serious.
    “No. I get that.” Not that I expected waking up to coffee in the solarium to be a hardship. And given my intense reaction to perfumes and colognes and chemical smells, life on an estate with extensive private grounds inhabited by people who wouldn’t assault my airways was a real bonus.
    Luxury aside, safety came first. If I was the lone female werewolf in the area, I wasn’t just a target to prospective mates. I was also a target for pack enemies, and that included the rogue wolves who’d split off. Even if I knew how to handle the transition of shifting from human to wolf form and mastered the instincts and abilities that went along with that, even if I could trust myself not to hurt somebody, it would be dumb to rob myself of twelve devoted bodyguards.
    My life as I’d known it was well and truly over. My plans for the future, well, at least I’d achieved one goal. I knew who my real parents were.
    I absorbed that while my stomach sank and my head went light. “You know, I had that whole secret-princess fantasy as a kid,” I told David. “That someday my real family would show up and I’d be some sort of princess. My fantasy did not include growing fangs and fur under the full moon.”
    I