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“Apologies.” He looked away for a moment. “It’s a habit.” When he looked at her again, Elliott’s gaze wasn’t nearly so intense. “So, your father found two different shifter women and had children with them, producing children who could shiftandhad abilities. Now,thatis not something that happens often.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Ah,” he sat back and nodded. “You’re a cat shifter. Interesting.”

“What? How did you…” She cleared his throat and narrowed her eyes as Elliott maintained eye contact. “What makes you say that?”

“You mean besides the fact that you just confirmed it?”

“Dammit,” she muttered. “Yeah, before I confirmed it.”

“Just a few tells. Over the last few years, I spent a lot of time with cat shifters. Perhaps a little too much time.” The last part was said a little under his breath. “And a lot of them are from the south like you.”

This came as a shock. “What? Really? I – I never encountered any.”

“If it helps, they are usually based out of Florida and the nearby states. I don’t know any from Louisiana. Do you know where your mother was from?”

“I never met her.”

“Oh.” He looked down and tapped his fingers on the table. “Again, if it helps, that’s not entirely uncommon with cat shifters. They tend to be restless and far too unconcerned with most things.”

She scowled. “Are you saying that you think I don’t take things seriously?”

“I haven’t observed you, so I couldn’t say. Just some of your mannerisms are reminiscent of some other shifters I’ve met.”

“Oh.” Astrid looked to the side, watching the wind blowing in the breeze. Her mind was racing. Elliott wasn’t a cat shifter, but he knew plenty of them. “Do you…?” She flinched. “Never mind.”

It almost seemed like he was trying to guess what she was thinking. Elliott offered her a little bit of hope. “You aren’t likely to encounter many of your kind up here. Cat shifters don’t usually come this far north, at least not to live. They don’t tend to like the rain. Then again, that wouldn’t be a problem for you.” He gave her a faint smile.

Something that Phoenix had said earlier finally caught her attention. “Wait, Phoenix said that he’s older than you and someone else. But you are older than his brothers. They must be really young.”

His eyebrow rose. “I dare say they are a bit older than you.”

She waved a fork with a bit of salmon on it. “I’m almost 30. I just look young.”

“Yeah, and his brothers are both older than you.”

Astrid nearly spit out her fish; then she started to choke on it. Hammering on her chest, she caught her breath. “You’re older than me?”

He blinked. “We age slower than any other type of shifter.”

“What kind of shifter are you?”

“I already told you.”

“What? No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. I’m the same kind of shifter as Phoenix despite the different eye color.” He then started eating as she sat there processing that information.

“Are there a lot of dragon shifters?”

“We are among the rarest, probably because we live a long time, and there are a rare number of women since they were treated so badly over the millennia.”

“You know, I’ve never encountered any shifters outside of this town, and on my first day, I encounter two of the rarest type.”

He nodded as he swallowed a mouthful of food. “That’s because of the military base. We have to get rid of the problem there before anyone else gets hurt. They’ve realized over the years that there’s a higher population of people with abilities up here, so they keep popping up around here.”

That’s when something else that Phoenix said started to bother her. “Did you know Evander?”