Daniel looked at the men in the office. He was the only human, and that fact gave him a thrill. He should have been scared, but as much as he tried to convince himself he was, that really wasn’t true.

Knowing there was something else out there, something that wasn’t just boring old humans, made it worth getting up in the morning. It was the only good thing in Daniel’s life—that, and Anthony. He needed both.

The sexy shifter leaned forward, looking at Kameron. Daniel wished he knew the guy’s name, but Clea obviously hadn’t thought he needed to know. The bastard.

Daniel leaned closer too, wondering if the sexy shifter smelled good and how his chest would feel under Daniel’s palms. Hard, probably. He wanted to find out. Would it be weird if he just got up and went to cop a feel? Probably. Did he care? In part. He didn’t want to lose his new job before even signing the contract, so he folded his hands in his lap and stayed where he was.

“So how are you going to come out to the town?” Sexy Shifter asked. “Because you’re going to do it here first, right? Before it goes national.”

Daniel was curious about that as well. He knew Kameron wanted the town to know first, and that he hoped the Gillham people would take it well. That was one of the reasons Daniel had been allowed to stick around Kameron instead of being killed or lobotomized. He was supposed to help ease things, and he really hoped he’d be able to. Most people in Gillham were nice, and they wouldn’t care about it, but there were assholes everywhere. Daniel knew that from personal experience.

Kameron linked his fingers together on top of his desk. “I’m going to answer their questions.”

The guy who’d come in with Sexy Shifter snorted. “Answer their questions? Are you crazy?”

“Probably.”

“Look, you can still keep it hidden. You didn’t shift on camera. If someone does find you and asks questions, you can say you don’t know anything about it, that you were just trying to stop Tom from hurting someone. That you were as surprised as anyone else about the fact that he became a wolf.”

Daniel cleared his throat, and everyone looked at him. He squirmed in his chair, but this was what he’d been hired to do. Well, he hadn’t been hired just yet, but it was one of the reasons he was there today, so he might as well start doing his job. “You could deny it, but most people in town know about it, or at least suspect. People talk, and I know for sure at least two guys saw someone shift and have been talking about it. Some kind of dog shifter, I think. Plus, people aren’t stupid, or at least most aren’t. If one guy can become a wolf, then it’s obvious there are others like him out there.”

The guy looked like he wanted to shoot Daniel, and Daniel scooted backward in his chair. He couldn’t go anywhere, but hopefully Kameron would protect him if this guy tried to hurt him for what he’d said.

“Can you say the video was made up?” Sexy Shifter asked.

“I’d have to ask my computer guy if it’s possible,” Kameron told him. “But like Daniel said, people in town have seen some of us shift. We can’t do anything about that.”

“So tell the town people. If most of them already know or suspect, you’ll probably be able to keep it under wraps. You’ll need to take care of those who don’t want to keep their mouths shut, but paying them will probably help, and we can take care of those for whom it’s not enough.”

“What do you mean, take care of them?” Daniel asked, because it sounded like they wanted to kill whoever wasn’t all right with keeping everything a secret. No matter how much he wanted to be around shifters, he couldn’t allow people to die. “Are you going to kill them?”

Daniel knew Kameron didn’t normally hurt people. He could have killed Daniel and Anthony—especially Anthony, since he’d threatened people with a gun, the idiot—or at least kicked their asses, but instead he’d offered Daniel a job. He was a nice guy as far as Daniel could tell, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“We don’t kill people without reason,” Kameron said. “But if we decide to keep things hidden, then we can’t afford people running their mouths.”

“You can’t keep things hidden. It’s a stupid idea.”

“Why do you say that?”

The asshole looked like he didn’t want to listen to Daniel, but Kameron and Sexy Shifter were looking at him with interest. Clea looked bored, but then he didn’t like Daniel much, so Daniel wasn’t surprised. “Well, if people in town know, then it’s kind of obvious that other people in other towns do, too. I mean, we can’t be the only ones who have noticed something. That, and some people won’t believe the video was a prank. They’ll start digging, and something will come up sooner or later. You might be able to hide the pack, because you’re good at what you do, but I’m sure not all alphas are. Some are probably reckless, or maybe they don’t care. Whatever the reason, now that some people know, they won’t leave it alone, and it’ll explode in your face.”

“What do you suggest?”

Daniel was stunned that Kameron actually wanted to hear what he thought, but he wasn’t going to back down. “Talking to the town people is a good idea, because they can help you keep the people who’ll want to kick your ass away and under control, but you really need to know what the government wants to do about you before making any other decision.”