Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

SIGNET ECLIPSE
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    First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library,
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    ISBN: 978-1-101-59961-7
    First Printing, September 2012
    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
    Copyright © Katie Reus, 2012
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    ALWAYS LEARNING
    PEARSON

For Kari Walker, quite possibly my biggest cheerleader:
I cherish our friendship and you. Thank you for always
being in my corner and for loving the Moon Shifter
world as much as I do.

Chapter 1
    D ecember McIntyre managed to smile at her date as he pulled out her chair for her. Her cheeks hurt from all the fake smiles and forced laughter. She should never have agreed to this date when she’d rather be anywhere else. With
someone
else. But she and Liam had no future, and going out with a random guy was the only way to show Liam
and
herself that she was serious about that.
    “Have you been here before?” her date—Mike something—asked. As a tourist from the nearby ski lodge, he wasn’t a local of her smaller mountain community, so it made sense he’d never eaten at the cozy Italian restaurant.
    She nodded. “The
bucatini puttanesca
is really good. So is the
pollo caprese
. Actually, everything on the menu is good.” The Russo family had settled in Fontana, North Carolina, decades ago, many years before she’d been born, and Russo Ristorante had become a staple in the mountain community. The locals loved it and so did the tourists. Occasionally they even got tourists from not justFontana Mountain but their neighbors, Beech and Sugar mountains.
    Almost immediately after they ordered drinks, her date excused himself. He was a broker or something and had to take an important call. Normally that would have bothered her in a date, but she didn’t really care about this one. The brief reprieve was fine with her. She wanted to get through the meal, get home, and just go to bed. Going out with this guy had been a colossal mistake no matter how nice he seemed to be. She’d known it the second after she’d said yes. Regret had surged through her, but it had been too late then.
    All she could think about was Liam. Liam with his broad shoulders, dark hair, and coffee brown, deep, knowing eyes. When that man looked at her, she got shivers. The good kind. Heat bloomed between her legs when he was around. He didn’t have to do
anything
other than train that heated gaze on her and she wanted to melt into his arms. He might be