Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 6

supermarket. I told Jax, who dismissed my concern that she might know something, might be following us.
    The next time I saw the woman, it was at a Changed meeting. The meeting had just started when Dixie stood and walked over to a clump of bushes, growling. The woman sprang up.
    "You're shifters," the woman cried. "I know you are." She pointed at Jax. "That's the one—he changed right in front of me."
    "Leon?" Dixie said quietly.
    The woman screamed as the lynx swiped her calf with his claws. She took off running, Leon on her heels.
    Dixie approached Jax, staring at him with her pale eyes, the short silver fur on her back raised. She growled low in her throat. "You," she said. "You exposed us."
    Jax and I fled, and Dixie gave chase. She got Jax by the back leg and held on for a solid minute before Jax kicked her off. We raced through the woods and out into the bordering cornfields, and kept running even when there was no longer any sign of Dixie.
    We didn't change. We knew we'd travel faster as horses, and stood a better chance of fighting back in larger, more powerful bodies, if Dixie should find us. Anyway, I didn't think Jax had the strength to change. A gash ran from his hock to his ankle, and the leg was dark with blood.
    By the time we found Ottsenmeiser Ranch, Jax was wobbling. I tried to hold him up with my shoulder. It reminded me of the day we'd first met, when I'd helped him to his apartment.
    We only intended to stay the night at the ranch, but with Jax's leg as bad as it was, I didn't see how we'd keep going.
    "Flesh wound," he said nuzzling me.
    "Flesh wound that's gonna turn into a raging infection."
    "You worry too much, James."
    "You don't worry enough."
    Ray found us in the pasture in the morning. We were reluctant to let him near, but he plied us with oats and carrots, and I was so desperate to have Jax looked after that we let him take us to the barn and care for us.
    It might have been our bedraggled appearance and the way we initially shied from him that saved us. Ray thought we'd escaped an abusive home, and while he made some calls to nearby farms, he didn't put up fliers or run found ads in local papers, as far as we knew. I could tell he really wanted to keep us.
    The plan was to flee as soon as Jax's leg was better. But despite being stuck in horse form, it didn't take Jax and me long to get comfortable at the ranch. Ottsenmeiser was pissed at first that Ray had brought in two strays, but when he looked Jax and me over, he seemed to think we'd fetch decent money at auction. He turned our training over to Ray.
    Now here we were three weeks later, still trying to figure out our next step. Ray was awaiting the end of the month, when he'd be out on his ass. Jax was head over all four heels, and while I was a proponent of looking out for ourselves only, I couldn't escape the fact that we owed Ray a huge debt.
    Jax had an uncle down south— a shifter too, thought Jax wasn't terribly close with him. We'd considered going to him and asking to stay for a little while. That would put some more distance between us and Changed for the Better and buy us time to figure out the next step. We were hesitant to go back to our old lives. Our contact info was on the Changed roster, and we didn't want to risk Dixie tracking us down.
    I watched Ray lunge Jax in the small arena. Kingston stood beside me, steadfastly ignoring me. "Hey kibble breath," I said. I didn't know why I persisted in trying to talk to him. But for some reason being around him made me feel calm. After Dixie I'd thought I'd never want to meet a dog shifter again.
    Jax put on a show as usual, but eventually Ray drew him into the center of the circle and stood holding his head for so long I thought they'd both gone to sleep.
    "That's the one won't let you saddle him?" A voice asked.
    I swished my tail.
    Ottsenmeiser leaned on the arena fence, one black booted foot on the lowest rail.
    Ray looked up. "He's coming along," he said stiffly. "Trigger rides beautifully. 'Chester just needs a little more time."
    "The bay'll fetch a decent price at auction. That one already looks like dog food."
    "Name your price," Ray said. "I'll buy him off you."
    Ottsenmeiser laughed. "My price is whatever they'll fetch. Which'd be a whole lot more if you'd get this one saddle broke."
    "He needed time to recover from his injury. I'm working with him."
    "You're coddling him is what you're doing. If I have to break him myself, I will."
    He spit over the fence and