The Alpha Men's Secret Club 5: Final Capture: A Shockingly Hot BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance by Dawn Steele Page B

him.
    “So you shift into a tiger?”
    “It says so on CNN. So it must be true.”
    “Does it hurt?”
    “Excruciatingly.” When her eyes went round, he added, deadpan. “I have a high pain threshold.”
    “Do you shift into anything else?”
    “Do you have two uteruses?”
    “Do you shift into any other animal besides a tiger?”
    “No. I’m a specialist.”
    So he was antsy and snarky and passively aggressive in his ‘collaboration’ with them. She could live with that. Besides, his snark was sexy.
    The tiger growled menacingly at the tranquilizer snipers but did not move towards any of them. He just stood there – a large, magnificent beast – and turned his vivid green gaze on her. She was certain he could sense her behind the mirror. So far, she had not indicated her presence.
    The tiger waited. He seemed to say:
    “You’ve come, you’ve seen, now what more do you want?”
    She could not take her eyes off him.
    She reached for the microphone.
    “I suppose you can hear me.”
    Silence. Of course. Did she expect a talking tiger?
    “If you understand me, please raise a paw.”
    She hoped she didn’t sound condescending.
    The tiger did nothing. He just went on staring at her. In a manner that seemed almost mocking.
    “Do you understand me?”
    Nothing.
    She wondered if he had truly shifted into something bestial, unable to understand human language.
    Then he shifted back. Effortlessly. Naturally. Back into his impressive and very naked human physique.
    He glowered at her.
    “Did you understand what I was saying when you were in your animal state?” she asked.
    “No. I was mutely disassociated, like the dumb animal I was.”
    She was nonplussed.
    “Why don’t you show yourself behind that obvious two-way mirror?” He crossed his arms. “Or do you think I’m too hot for you to handle without a barrier?”
    Was he flirting with her? No, he couldn’t be.
    Could he?
    Alyssa pressed a button and the two-way mirror dissolved into a glass.
    “I’m here,” she said. “I’m repeating my question.”
    “Yes, I understood you the first time. You said, ‘If you understand me, please raise your hand’.”
    “I didn’t say ‘hand’.”
    “Close.”
    “So you did understand me.”
    “Of course. That’s how it is.”
    “Are you a soul trapped in a tiger’s body when you are in that state?”
    “Define ‘trapped’.”
    She remembered he was a professor of Psychology. So he was playing with her.
    He added, “Provided you actually believe in the concept of a soul. Are you religious, Alyssa Foley?”
    She was trying very hard not to stare at his genitals. “No.”
    Who was the interrogator here?
    “Then why do you use the word ‘trapped’? Is your subconscious trapped in this role of your own making? Does it wear you down to be constantly at the other end of the stick? How many people have you tortured in the name of your country?”
    Unbelievable.
    Well, she was a seasoned interrogator and he was not going to get to her – psychologist or not.
    She said, “I asked you a question. You can interpret it any way you want.”
    “So you’d psychoanalyze everything I said? The short answer to your question is that I’m not ‘trapped’, Alyssa Foley. I’m liberated. Perhaps this body you see right here is the real prison. Perhaps my natural state is the beast.”
    She couldn’t decide if he was pulling her leg.
    “Can you transform at will?” she asked.
    “Or at the behest of others, obviously, even though my subconscious is unwilling.”
    “Good.” No way he was going to get under her skin. “Because we’re going to test how you react to different stimuli.”

3
     
    Kate Penney was a woman with a mission. She stared out of the window – anxiously, purposefully. Her senses were enhanced for some reason or other, and perhaps it had to do with the little entity growing inside her womb.
    “Are you sure you want to do this, Ms. Penney?” asked Hector from upfront.
    “I’m