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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

emma

B ut nothing happened, and I didn’t change.

When I opened my eyes, Olivia looked surprised.

“What?” I asked.

“Most people don’t get the gust on their first try.”

“But I didn’t change.”

“We call it ‘failed forward.’ Which isn’t exactly failing at all.”

“Oh.” I’d heard that somewhere before…

Abruptly, she lifted her staff, spun around, and brought the end sailing toward the side of my head as hard as she could.

“Shit!”

A gust of wind slammed down into me and colors swirled around me as my line of sight dropped by several feet.

Tiny, red-pawed feet pranced beneath me as the bo staff swooshed over the spot where my human head had been.

My clothes were big on me now, wrapped around me, and I shook as the sensation of them tickled my fur.

Fur? Yes, my fur. I yelled, but it came out an excited yip.

Olivia grimaced, her face far above me now. The muscles in her jaw clenched as she bit down. She lowered her weapon and beamed down at me, panting for some reason. “There she is!”

I sat back on my haunches, pleased by my shift. Understanding how it happened or what part of my subconscious was in control of it was still a long way off.

“Sometimes, when you’re in immediate danger, your shifter will take control. As the danger fades…”

A rumble rolled through me, like a growl from a place deep inside of me. The contortions took hold, and my paws turned back into hands. My clothes were no longer straight, and both my thighs were now in one leg of my shorts.

“What a freaking rush,” I said, tugging at my clothes. “I can see how clothing becomes a problem, though. How did you know I’d shift?”

She was still breathing hard as though she’d been the one to shift. “I didn’t know, but I guessed as much.”

“Bit of a risky bet, wasn’t it?”

Her expression turned somber. “It was a risk I was willing to take. Logan wasn’t wrong about the amount of magic in you. I’m surprised you’ve gone so long without shifting.” She paused. “Can I ask a personal question?”

“Sure,” I said, straightening my clothes. The tattoo on my hip tingled as though the magic had collected there and was slowly dissipating.

“Why did you become a vet?”

“To help animals.”

“What about your family?”

“Since I was adopted as an infant, I don’t know anything about my birth family.”

“Oh,” Olivia said. “I guess that makes things a little harder. I wonder…” She darted off toward the door which led to the bathrooms.

“Should I come with you?” I called after her.

“One sec.” She reappeared with a vase and skidded to a stop beside me. “Maybe you still have enough magic in you…” She threw the pottery down at the space between us, and it broke in two. “Grab it.”

“What?”

“Now. Grab the pieces.”

I scooped them up in my hands, and the edges immediately began glowing as though they’d been tossed into a fire.

Each half had been intricately decorated in stylized animal figures like the Paleolithic figures at Lascaux in France.

She whooped so loudly I dropped them again, shattering them into twice as many.

“What the hell, Olivia.”

“I thought as much,” she crooned, clearly pleased with herself.

“Wanna clue me in?”

“We have relics left over from the first shifter age. When your magic is strongest, right after you shift back into a human, we can use them to categorize shifters for their extra abilities, their talents, if they have them. Not all shifters do. We’re unique because we have the relics.

It’s part of why Dr. Wise chose to embed with us. ”

It was a lot of information to unpack, but I decided to focus on what directly impacted me. “So… I’m not just a shifter-into-all-things?”

She shook her head. “No, you’re a healer too. If you’d had control of your skills, you’d have been able to put it back together good as new. Once you’re better at shifting, we’ll work on healing. It’s all related to how shifting can heal your wounds.”

“Is that why I’m here?” I asked. “To heal?”

“You’re here to help save the clans from evil. Whenever the multimorph emerges, the shifters band together against a threat and share in her strength. Nothing like a common enemy to draw everyone together. Right now, we think the threat is Acheron, a dark mage we haven’t yet beaten.”

“Acheron?”

“For now, that’s our best guess, and you’ll learn more about him as we move forward,” she said.

“The specific tasks of the multimorph change from emergence to emergence, but she heals the divides between the clans, and she unites us. If you are the multimorph, what does that mean for you?” She paused.

“Well, we must discover that together, as uncomfortable as it may be.”

“Uncomfortable?”

“The different kinds of shifters revert to separate lives and motives in between emergences. There are rules about how alphas can’t challenge each other and shifters of one clan can’t go into the territories of other shifters without permission.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Rules get way looser since you’re the supposed and prophesied multimorph. ”

It was a lot to take in, and I stooped to pick up the pieces of the ancient relic once more. They didn’t glow this time.

“When I was out in the woods, I remember the mountain lion clawing me, biting me. I should have had bruises and wounds all over me.”

“When you shifted, those wounds healed, and I’d be willing to bet that’s also why you decided to become a vet. On a subconscious level, you knew what you were, and you chose the profession closest to animals and closest to healing.”

“I just wanted to help animals,” I murmured.

“You did, and you will.”

The fragments chinked against each other as I held them out to her. “How did you get these?”

“Some of our ancestors brought them over when they immigrated up through Natchitoches and New Port Orleans. We have more, but that room is for another day.”

“Should I try to fix them?” Leaving the priceless pot broken made me uncomfortable. “I could try.”

“Not today. You’re worn out. Three shifts in twenty-four hours should have knocked you on your ass, and we must be careful not to overtax you. This can be a dangerous time for newbie shifters.”

My stomach growled. “Well, I’m not out for the count yet.” I paused a moment, trying to decide whether to ask the question in my mind. Finally, I blurted it out. “Does Logan have a talent?”

“Well, he has the ability to delve.”

“Delve?”

“It’s related to healing, but it means he can push his magic into other shifters to check them over. Sometimes, they can communicate, inner shifter to inner shifter… Sort of soul to soul.”

I scrunched my nose. “Soul to soul? That sounds pretty woo-woo.”

She chuckled, jogged back toward the door at the back of the warehouse, and reappeared a few minutes later. “Raise your staff.”

As I did, the keypad at the entrance chimed.

Olivia froze as the door swung open. A breeze stirred the room. Goose bumps broke out over my skin, and her eyes turned brighter.

A red-haired man sauntered into the training area with a shit-eating grin on his ginger-bearded face. He had a dusting of freckles all over him, and his beard seemed as chaotic as the man. “Well, now,” he said. “What do we have here?”

I lowered the stick I’d used to badly defend myself. “Hello.”

He strode toward us. “Who’s she?”

Olivia jerked her thumb toward me. “She’s new. How did you get in here?”

“I’ll give you one guess.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Jasper Sionnach, friend to the Six-Mile Pack, often in them but not of them.”

My hand fit nicely in Jasper’s, and I shook his hand firmly. “What does that mean?”

He winked and held onto me a moment longer than he needed to before he released my fingers. “It means I’m a wily fox shifter complete with skills generally of interest to some of the she-wolves around here.” He paused. “In fact, I’d be willing to share some of those skills with ye.”

Olivia cleared her throat and stepped closer to me, angling herself slightly between us. “None of that, Jasper, if you know what’s good for you.”

He nodded to me. “Are you a fox?”

“Foxy,” I said, “but not a fox.”

“Ye are that, foxy girl. Nice hair. What was yer name?”

“Emma.” I kept the Carter bit to myself, so he wouldn’t have an easy time Googling me. Not that I’d be hard to find in Willow Creek.

He tugged on his reddish beard. “Could have sworn I picked up on some fox shifter energy in here.”

Olivia said nothing.

I only shrugged, feeling more out of place than I’d ever felt in my life.

“What do you need, Jasper?” Olivia asked.

“I have news from the other clans,” he said. “Couldn’t get into the manor for some reason, so I came to find ye. ”

“What’s your news?”

“Unrest. Seems everybody decided to test territory borders at the same time. Ravens are scuffling with bears, and Rachel said ye had the mountain lion alpha camped out. Must be something in the air.”

“None of us know where or why Acheron disappeared. It’s got us all on edge.” Olivia leaned on her bo staff. “What about your clan?”

“Ye know us foxies. We dart from place to place, but direct assault isn’t our preference.” Jasper’s gaze flicked to me and back to Olivia. “Do ye know anything about what’s going on?”

“Haven’t got a clue,” she said.

We all knew Jasper didn’t believe her. Even as he stood there, blatantly evaluating us both, he was assembling details into his own version of what was really going on. It took every bit of my vet training to keep my emotions from my face.

“Is Rachel here?” Olivia asked, and her eyes narrowed.

“No, I left her curled up in my bed,” he said.

“And invited yourself out to our place in the meantime?”

He tipped his head to the side, his attention drawn to me once more. “Ah, well, turnabout is fair play, and Six-Mile is usually in the know.” His voice trailed away, leaving silence in its place.

Olivia sighed. “If you want to know anything else, you’ll have to talk to Logan. You know I can’t divulge anything. ”

“So I do. So I do. Good day to ye, Olivia.” He whistled softly and doffed an imaginary hat. “Emma.”

After he’d gone, Olivia cursed under her breath. “He knows.”

“Knows?”

“About you.”

“How could he possibly know about me?”

“He’s the most cunning of the fox shifters, and he puts two and two together faster than anybody else realizes there’s a problem to be solved.

That’s part of why he’s useful and why we let him come and go.

” She took my stick from me, jogged toward the wall, and replaced both weapons.

“Come on. We’d better touch base with Logan. ”

“How’d he get in here?” I asked, slipping my feet back into my shoes.

“He used my code.”

Her code. Maybe Queen Olivia wasn’t as infallible as she liked to make-believe.

“Is he always like that?” I asked.

“Jasper?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, he’s a gossip and a man-slut.” Her face split in the biggest, widest grin I’d seen on her. “But his skills in bed are as good as he brags.”