Page 43 of Reluctant Rogue

Just as she was about to launch into more questions, Katerina came up to them, towing Liam in her wake.

“Alessandra! Julian!” She beamed at them. “I want you to meet Liam, he’s our new veterinary intern, and…” she paused for dramatic effect. “He’s also a physician.”

“Hey, no kidding?” Julian swung around in his chair to study Liam intently. “That’s a good idea, to have someone who can treat shifters in either form.”

“We sure could have used you a few months ago,” Alessandra said, grimacing.

“Yes, for my sister,” Katerina nodded. “That’s one of the reasons our High Council is going to be setting up a program to have shifters board certified for both.” She grinned, thumping Liam’s shoulder in a friendly fashion. “Liam here is our trial run.”

Julian nodded in approval, and Alessandra looked Liam over curiously.

“You’re the one who found Naomi, if I remember right?”

“That’s me.” Liam gave a short laugh, and dropped into the chair next to Naomi. “I was called to the zoo to examine one of their leopards. I hadn’t the faintest idea that she’d turn out to be a shifter.”

Naomi unexpectedly found herself under close scrutiny by Katerina, the other woman’s golden eyes narrowed in assessment.

“You know,” Katerina mused in a thoughtful voice, “you don’t look anything at all like Beatrice.”

“No, I don’t. Beth, my closest sister, she and I look alike,” Naomi appended. “Our mom looks exactly like Beatrice, though, and so do our other sisters. Beth and I always figured we took after our father.”

“Hmmm.”

Naomi frowned at her. “What?”

“Nothing. Maybe.”

Before Naomi could follow up on that cryptic comment, Troy’s bellow from the grill had everyone turning.

“Food’s up!”

Katerina hurried back to her Chosen’s side. “Let’s get the children settled first,” she said decisively.

“Right,” Jacinth agreed. She waved to Adina, who was already herding the wet, chattering children toward a pair of child-sized picnic tables and benches set up near the pasture fence. Troy handed Jacinth a platter piled high with hot dogs, and Jacinth headed that way, nabbing a couple bags of hot dog buns from the food table as she passed.

Out of nowhere, what seemed to be a warm, gentle wind rushed through the yard, swirling the leaves on the ground like miniature colorful tornadoes. When it died down, she couldn’t help staring, because the children, although still in their swimsuits, were completely dry.

While she was gawking, Adina and a couple of teenagers got the children settled, and began filling plates from a large bowl that Naomi swore hadn’t been there a minute ago.

Beside her, Alessandra nodded. “Mac and cheese. Jacinth had been showing Talya how to make it in the kitchen a little bit ago.”

Naomi stared, entranced. “So she just… just… poofed it onto the table from the kitchen? Like Samantha, but without the nose wiggle?”

Alessandra’s merry laugh rang out. “Exactly. And look… here come the condiments.”

Sure enough, the familiar red and yellow bottles appeared on the table a moment later, along with another bowl.

“Chicken nuggets,” Alessandra explained. “They were in the oven heating while Jacinth and Talya made the mac and cheese.”

“That’s just wild.” Naomi shook her head. She couldn’t disbelieve what she saw with her own eyes, but… “And drying off the kids like that! How do you get used to it? This is so much to take in.”

“At least you knew about shifters,” Alessandra pointed out. “I didn’t know aboutanyof this until the day I found Julian’s Djinn vessel. I was trying to get the stopper out, and then, suddenly, there he was standing the middle of the room.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like,” Naomi confessed.

Liam rapped on the table with his knuckles. “Food!”

“Right!” Naomi jumped up. “Food!”