I wriggled free of his grasp. Wheeler stroked the bristly hair on his chin, and the way he looked at me was different—not like before. Not the same. My skin crawled as if I’d been exposed to the core and he’d seen every bit of what I’d been hiding from everyone my entire life.

I smoothed out all the rough edges in my voice. “Why can’t I go home?”

“Home isn’t safe.”

“Since when?”

His brows sloped down as he lowered his chin. Wheeler seemed to have mastered the stern face. “Since thirty seconds ago when you said someone attacked you.” His gaze flicked behind me and his lip twitched. “I see you found something to snack on.”

I whirled around and looked at the coffee table with embarrassment. My panther had not just gnawed on one leg but chewed off another. It’s one reason I’d switched my furniture to glass tables instead of wood.

“I’m sorry about that. I’ll have it replaced,” I said absently.

Something made me turn around and look at Wheeler—a small detail I had initially disregarded, but now it became a niggling question in my head. “What happened to your eye?”

He touched the dark bruise on his left eye. “That all you plan on wearing?”

“I need to speak to someone who will give me answers.”

“As you wish, Diva.”

“Have a good evening, Grumpy.”

When he closed the door behind him, I sat on the sofa and huffed out a breath. Had he seen my panther? My God, he must have. But how did I get here? Maybe I’d blacked out in human form, and when he put me in here, I’d shifted back to my panther. I wasn’t sure what aftereffects the strobe device had, but it left me disoriented.

A rapid series of knocks sounded on the door. Before I could answer, the door opened.

“Naya, are you okay?” Lexi slammed the door behind her and ran toward the sofa where I was sitting. Then she hissed and lifted up her bare foot. “Dammit! I got a splinter.”

“Oh, honey…”

“No, I’m fine.” She sat to my left and looked me over. “Seriously. What’s going on?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. One second I’m onstage during a performance, and the next, a man came up and forced me to shift.”

She grimaced. “In front of everyone? You’re kidding me. What the hell kind of lunatic would make someone shift in a Breed club without knowing what their animal was?”

“A fool who knew exactly what my animal was.”

“Come again?”

I sighed and brushed back my unkempt hair. “The reason I came to speak with Austin privately was to ask for protection. I paid for a bodyguard. Remember the girl at the club who went missing? It happened again, and then someone came after me. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m frightened. This just doesn’t feel like my life anymore. I want to go home and sleep in my bed, cuddle with Misha, and not feel this rising sense of dread that others have me figured out.”