Page 16

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

emma

“ E verybody out!” Logan barked, startling me so hard a piece of pineapple slid off my fork. “Breakfast is over.”

Every shifter in the dining room hustled toward the exit as I stabbed the pineapple again and crammed it in my mouth. Only cantaloupe remained on my plate. Even the guard Logan had posted outside the bedroom scurried out.

When I stood to follow the others, Logan pointed at me. “Not you. You wait.”

For a tiny sliver of a second, I considered defying him and taking myself back to bed for a nap. Instead, I ducked my head the way all the others had done.

Logan marched the trio of shifters into the hall, and Olivia followed. In the now empty dining room, I was left with my own thoughts as I pushed a piece of cantaloupe back and forth across my plate .

How the hell had I landed right in the middle of a pack of wolf shifters in the middle of Louisiana? My camping trip had turned into something completely unexpected.

No, that wasn’t the question at all.

My mouth twisted in a wry grin as I stacked my used silverware and napkin on my plate and stood to locate the bin to place each used item.

More to the point, how the hell had I turned into a shifter on a random September midnight? The attack of the mountain lion had scared me shitless, and it had been enough to launch me into some kind of special, latent multi-shifting ability.

Whatever that meant.

My plate clinked against the others in the bin, and the silver knife clattered in the stainless-steel pan, splashing cleansing solution over the side onto the pushcart.

These shifters were clearly more civilized than beasty werewolves in comics or on television.

Who knew there was a kernel of truth in all of it?

A handful of used plates rested where they’d been abandoned when each attendee had left.

Logan had given the impression my shifting ability was something to keep secret from the rest of the pack, and I didn’t understand why. Next time I cornered Logan, it would be the first question I asked.

In no time, I had the dining room cleaned up, and I plopped back down in my seat. None of this mattered since I had to get back to Willow Creek. Sully-Boy would be coming in for his check-up, and maybe I’d get a chance to chat with Sheila about everything.

Suddenly, Logan marched back in with Olivia cursing behind him. He whirled, hooked his hand in the crook of her elbow, and dragged her into the corner of the dining room, whispering furiously at her.

If that asshole thought I was going to put up with being treated like that… With as many shifters as he had in his pack, I’d have to be careful about telling him off, but they would all probably enjoy the explosions.

From the corner, Olivia groaned, and her gaze cut to me. “You can’t be serious. Stop fucking with me, Logan.”

He shook his head, turned her away from me, and whispered adamantly some more. Something about training and being taught and a magnetic pull.

She cursed his stupid dick, and I bit back a rush of laughter as I busied myself with picking at my fingernails. Eavesdropping wasn’t my forte, but Olivia was a riot when her bullying wasn’t directed at me.

It was good to feel more like myself again.

The only moment I’d been about to break down had been when I had brought up talking to my mom.

After the last twenty-four overwhelming hours, my response hadn’t been much like me, and I’d had a few minutes to process the reality of not sharing with her.

How could I be this new version of me and not tell her?

Unless I just never shifted again…

I frowned. Would that be possible? Could I just not shift anymore? Go back to my old life and pretend nothing had ever happened ?

Impossible.

Which meant I had to figure out how to live with my new powers, the results of genetic gifts from one or both of my birth parents.

No way my adoptive parents had known I had shifter genes in me when they had adopted me.

I was a baby without much history. It had taken being attacked by a mountain lion for me to figure it out.

Then I’d been kidnapped by a contractor and decided to hang out to eat breakfast at my kidnapper’s house.

Sophia Carter wouldn’t be able to process my last twenty-four hours on any level at all.

I would bet money Logan hadn’t told any of his pack I hadn’t shifted into any kind of canine, and a band of worry wrapped around my stomach. What would they do when they figured out I’d been a bear and a fox but not a wolf? Did it matter?

Olivia marched toward me with a determined look on her face. “Come on. I’ve got to start teaching you about your powers.”

My powers … I’d wanted to leave after breakfast, but the idea of learning something about my powers intrigued me, and I wasn’t needed in Willow Creek until tomorrow.

Could I shift again? The previous night seemed more like a fading dream than fact.

Still, the bossy tone Olivia used didn’t sit well with me.

Logan remained in the corner, not speaking.

“I think I’d rather take a nap,” I said without moving from my spot at the table.

Her eyes bulged, and she shot Logan a dark glare. “ Doesn’t matter. You’ll get a nap, but we’ve got to see if we can condense your training. Get your shoes.”

“What if I say no?”

Olivia crossed her arms and leaned back to consider me. “You won’t get your way.”

I flashed a brazen smile. “Maybe not today,” I countered, “but I’m not into obedience training, so you pin that in your brain for when I’m strong enough to refuse.”

At that, Logan’s laughter echoed through the dining hall.

Olivia’s sullen face was her only response.

O livia led me to a large, refurbished building about one hundred yards behind the manor.

She punched in a code, and the fortified metal door swung open.

“This used to be for warehousing and drying tobacco before shipment. After the farm here closed permanently, Logan’s father added temperature control and turned it into our training room.

Bathrooms are through the door at the back. ”

Sticks, knives, and swords of varying lengths surrounded us, neatly arranged on the walls by length. Guns filled the illuminated glass case at the end of the warehouse, and thick mats covered the floor. The hum of an air conditioner kept the temperature inside cooler than it was outside.

“We have the place to ourselves for the day. Nobody else’s code will work. Only mine. Shoes over there.” She waved toward a nearby shoe cubby. “Since you’re a prude, we’ll train with our clothes on.”

Ignoring her jab, I slid out of my hiking shoes. At least they’d come along with the rest of the stuff from my campsite. Then I tucked my cell phone inside them. “Since I’m a shifter now, will I get a code?”

“Eventually.” She tapped something on her phone. “Dr. Wise says she’ll be here this afternoon.”

“Who’s that?”

“A human, like Sheila, who’s been compiling shifter lore for decades. She’s knowledgeable about the multimorph prophecies, so Logan asked her to come by to meet you.”

“There’s more than one prophecy?”

She shrugged. “Different iterations to go with different emergences.”

“Then I’m not the first one.”

She typed something out on her phone screen. “No.”

I bit back a sigh that turned into a yawn. “What time?”

“What time?”

“What time will Dr. Wise be here?” I asked.

She placed her phone and shoes on top of the cubby. “Just after lunch.”

After a few mental calculations, I said, “That should give me enough time to get back to town.”

Olivia whirled. “Back to town?”

I crossed my arms and squared off with her, ready to stand my ground. “Logan said I could leave whenever I wanted to leave, and I have patients tomorrow. We’re not all rich shifters.”

Her sigh-groan cut through the silence. “You can’t really think Willow Creek is the safest place for you.”

“Safe has nothing to do with it. Until I decide to make a change, it’s my home, and I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight.”

“Fine.” She marched toward the section of sticks hanging on the wall and gestured toward them.

“These are bo staffs. We’ll start your training with these since they’re safer than swords, and bullets are always our last resort.

At some point, you’ll use shifter skills far more often than weapons anyway. ”

“We’re not going to try shifting?”

She put her hands on her hips and stared past me as though carefully searching for her next words.

“We must assume that being under attack is a part of what triggered your shifting ability the first time. Maybe it had something to do with how fast your heart was pumping. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was the fear.”

“So, maybe fighting you will trigger it again?”

She gave me a sly look. “Possibly. Are you scared of me?”

“Not at all.”

“So, maybe I have to run you around the room and beat the shit out of you first.”

My thoughts ground to a halt, and I stared at her, mouth agape. “Did you really just say that?”

She snickered. “Did you really tell me you’re not into obedience training? ”

“Touché.”

Despite my initial dislike of her, Olivia was growing on me.

She crossed the mats. “Once you’ve managed to summon the shift once or twice, we can forego the fighting and only work on your magical abilities.

” She took a short stick from the wall, flicked her wrist, and extended it to three times its initial length.

“Collapsable graphite,” she said. “You can grab whichever one.”

“Does it matter?”

“Have you ever had marital arts training before?”

I shook my head.

“Then, no, it doesn’t matter. You’ll be bad with all of them.”

“Understood.” I selected a multi-colored one, painted in intricate gold pinstriping, and turned to face my opponent.

“Hold the stick up, suspended between two hands.”

The moment I did so, she brought hers down on mine. Hard. It immediately fell from my grip. “Shit.”

“Hold it up again.”

I raised the staff, and she repeated her actions. My weapon slammed into the mat and smashed into my toe. I hissed in pain. “What are you doing?”

“Again,” she said.

By the fifth time, the impact didn’t make the stick slip from my grip. though the sensation jarred my arms, and I’d grown irritated enough to hear my pulse pounding in my eardrums.

“Now think about shifting,” she said .

“Into what?”

“Whatever you want.”

I bit my bottom lip and closed my eyes, thinking of the bear I’d been, the fur on my arms, the giant paw, and defending myself from attack. When I thought about sending Olivia tumbling over the mats, a breeze burst into the training gym, lifting my hair from my neck.