Page 51 of Found in Obscurity

He inched closer and Lorin peeked at him between his fingers before reaching out to pet him. He caught himself halfway with wide eyes, seeming unsure on how to handle this now.

Kit huffed in amusement, pushing his head under Lorin’s hand forcefully before continuing his slink up Lorin’s body to lick at his neck, then his chin, then his—

“Okay! No more of that!” Lorin said, averting his mouth from Kit’s tongue.

Which was mean. And rude. And entirely not at all what should be happening right now.

He followed Lorin’s face, only to be thwarted time and again.

“I didn’t know you were fox making out with me this whole time!” Lorin exclaimed shrilly, clearly overwhelmed. “We need to reset our boundaries here now that you’re actually naked and pretty—I mean, um, have opposable thumbs.”

We’re mates!Kit growled, frustrated and pouty.

But he settled back onto Lorin’s lap, sulking but mollified by the fact that Lorin thought he was pretty. He’d always tried his best to maintain himself in both forms. Except for when the seasons changed and his winter coat grew out.

No one talked about those times. When his hair was an unsightly mess of white and brown.

Lorin stared down at him in consternation, a flush barely visible on his cheeks in the darkness, but Kit could sense the heat coming from them.

“So I guess we need to add this to the list of things to figure out, huh?”

Kit almost fell over in relief.

Yes! Finally!

Chapter twelve

Lorin

Right.

Okay.

So, his fox familiar was a fox shifter.

Nothing to freak out about.

Only he was on the verge of hyperventilating as the news sank in, his whole world rearranging itself around the idea. Was this some kind of cosmic fuck you? Fate making him walk in his parents’ footsteps?

He let out a shuddering breath, not wanting to think about it lest he become paralyzed.

Instead, he turned his mind to Kit himself, who wasn’t an animal. He was able to change back into a human. And that human was…beyond pretty. Now that he wasn’t a ghost murderer out to get him, Lorin’s brain could process the input it was getting. Hair so light it was almost white, a compact body that was too distracting. Skin pale but so radiant. Amber eyes that had reflected the candlelight in the room.

Okay. That road in his mind wasn’t safe either.

Lorin lay in the dark, Kit blissfully settled next to him, curled up and back to sleep, clearly exhausted by the turmoil of the day.

Lorin was too. The fatigue was creeping into his bones, settling deep. He needed sleep. Now that he knew he wasn’t being killed, probably, he just needed to sleep for a bit and then in the morning, he’d find a way to figure everything out.

But his mind wouldn’t turn off. It was on the verge of imploding.

He’d tried to call his grandma again, multiple times, in his panic, but after the midnight wake-up call, he assumed she was either ignoring him purposefully or had switched her phone off…also purposefully to ignore him. He had no idea where else to turn to for answers. He couldn’t remember much about shifters. How they worked. His grandma had told him stories when he was really little, of men turning into animals. They were substitutes for his father, and as soon as he’d been old enough to realize that he’d asked her to stop. It hurt too much.

But he didn’t know how much of those stories had been fiction and how much was truth.

He needed resources. Information.

Kit seemed to have no control over his shift. Now he could look back on it through clear eyes, he could see that Kit had been trying to tell him since they’d bonded.