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THIRTY-THREE

Leo hurried out, leaving Lily alone with Alicia.

"I believe congratulations are in order. If my housekeeper were here, she'd have prepared you a proper wedding breakfast, something suitable for the first morning of your honeymoon. Of course, after your first hunt together, most couples rarely want breakfast, but such things are tradition..." Alicia eyed Lily. "What did you catch? I'm grateful you didn't leave the carcass on the lawn. The gardener does hate disposing of bodies."

So Alicia knew what her son was. What she now was. Lily sat down before her knees gave way, but only just. "I only chased Leo, and that was more out of instinct than anything else. He keeps saying I'm his fated mate, like something out of a paranormal romance book, but nothing I've ever read suggested I might turn into a lion. Until yesterday, I thought shapeshifters were only found in fairytales. Or horror movies. Now, I don't know what to believe."

"Coffee?" Alicia asked.

At Lily's nod, Alicia held out a brimming cup. Lily's fingers brushed hers, only to feel...fur. She glanced down and almost dropped the cup as she saw the enormous clawed paw where Alicia's hand should be.

"You're one, too?" Lily squeaked.

"As was my husband, Leo's father. We were fated mates, too, which is as much a fairytale to our kind as it is to humans, you should know. In fact, even I thought that the stories saying a bite between fated mates could turn a human were merely a myth. You proved me wrong, as I saw yesterday." Alicia shook her head, then shook her paw until it turned back into a well-manicured, beringed hand again, before picking up her cup of tea to take a sip. "We'd always hoped for the same thing for Leo, but he was so focussed on his studies and then the business, and when none of the other shifters he'd dated over the years seemed to attract him...well, it's lovely to see him finally happy."

"But what is a fated mate? And how do shifters even work? I mean, the size difference between Leo as a lion and him as a man..."

Alicia took a seat at the kitchen table. "As far as the shapeshifting process goes, I can only tell you what my parents told me when I first shifted. It's magic. No one knows how or why the first shifters came into being. Some say it was a gift from a witch, while others say it was a curse placed on the first shifters' entire bloodlines. What we do know is that the ability to shift is genetic. Not everyone who has the genes can shift, but they have the potential to do so. For example, my husband's brother, Jeremy. He was born of the same two shifter parents as Leo's father was, but it wasn't until he reached adolescence that the difference between the two brothers became apparent. My husband managed to shift into a gangly, juvenile lion on his first try, but Jeremy has never shifted at all, and likely never will. But he does carry shifter genes, which means he or his descendants might still find their fated mate, and if that mate claims them properly, then the shift might be shared. Like you."

Lily still couldn't fathom what Alicia was telling her. "So...you're telling me I was secretly born a shifter, I just didn't know it until I bit Leo?" She shook her head. "No, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, I've seen movies and shows where werewolves turn people into werewolves by biting them, but that's the werewolves doing the biting, not the people..."

Alicia chuckled. "You might have inherited the shifter gene from someone generations back. You can ask the lore keepers when you report your successful mating with Leo. I have no doubt you'll be in their records, seeing as you gained entry to Mirror Academy. As for our bite turning people...yes, a shifter's bite can transfer the curse to another, but if they don't have the right genes, more often than not, it drives them mad. They cannot handle their dual nature, and if they do manage to shift into their animal form, they do not retain enough of themselves to change back. They are little more than a mindless beast, driven by instinct they do not understand, while plagued with the memory of the person they once were. A quick end is a mercy for the bitten, which is why the bite of a shifter is a death sentence to anyone who is not your fated mate."

"And this fated mate thing...Leo said it was something like the human concept of soul mates, two people put together on this Earth who are lucky enough to find one another. But I've never heard about soul mates transforming one another into animals..." Lily could barely believe the words coming out of her own mouth, but she'd seen her own paws, as well as Alicia's and Leo's. Shapeshifters were as real as the coffee cup cradled in her hands.

"Fated mates have taken on an almost mythical allure for shifters, especially among those who lack the ability to shift on their own. Because it is the ultimate fairytale for someone who cannot shift, that if they meet and are claimed by their fated mate, the stories say they will miraculously be able to shift. As you demonstrated, so evidently there is truth to the tales after all."

"So, that's it, is it? Now I'm a lion for the rest of my life, and Leo and I will be together for eternity." Definitely not the future she'd envisioned for herself.

Alicia frowned. "You have a choice, you know. Leo is my son, so of course I'm biased in believing that he'd make a wonderful mate for any woman who truly loved him, but fate sometimes gets things wrong. Or people can change, and what was once perfect can turn to ashes. In those cases, it's better to reject your fated mate than live in a relationship that makes you unhappy. But know that you will never be as happy in a relationship as you will be with your fated mate."

Lily struggled to find the words. "Yes, but...all my life, I knew I'd grow up to be an engineer, like my parents. I'd finish school, graduate, and join their company. It's all I've been working towards since they died. I should be doing the necessary paperwork to get my licence, and to register the company again. Instead, all I can think about is that I have claws and a tail and a husband."

Alicia patted Lily's hand. "It will take your mind some time to adjust, but once you do, you'll realise that being a shifter doesn't change much at all. You're still an engineer, and you can hold down a normal job and live a normal life, just like you'd planned. Just...with a little bit more. Overnight and weekend hunting trips, where the venison is so fresh it's still warm..." Alicia sighed. "Go and do your paperwork. We'll manage without a housekeeper until Mrs Parker returns on Monday. If you have any trouble with the bureaucracy, get Leo to help you. He has contacts everywhere, so if he can't help, he'll know someone who can."