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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

emma

W ell, crap.

That was not what I meant to think, and none of it was helpful in the current situation.

Staying mad at him was the only way I was going to get out of this unscathed.

I didn’t have to know Logan well to know a relationship with him would be all-consuming.

He would demand it. I shivered, biting back a little whimper.

If I hadn’t been convinced that I needed to stay at Red Tail before, I surely was now. If I took up residence at Six-Mile, I wouldn’t be able to push Logan away for long. Even now, I wanted to drag him somewhere private and fuck away our differences.

Maybe that was all we needed….

Logan’s gaze cut to me, and his eyes darkened as though he heard my thoughts. “What do you think about that, Emma? ”

“I’m sorry. What?”

Flynn blinked as though he was surprised I hadn’t been paying attention.

They were probably all surprised. I was, too.

Logan’s upper lip curled, and he enunciated carefully. “You may stay here until we figure out who sent the rogue shifters who attacked you and who has been feeding them information.”

You may.

He spoke as if he was allowing me to be here, but I couldn’t get hung up on the language. I had to maintain focus for the goal. Logan was going to give up his ridiculous idea to force me back to Six-Mile, and that was what I wanted.

“In exchange, we will have open communication between our clans as well as a sharing of all relevant information,” Logan continued. “This is the treaty. Is this agreeable to you, as the multimorph?”

My gaze drifted over him. This was what had to happen, so I could be free to train in my abilities without all his… distraction.

“It’s agreeable,” I said. “I will remain here while you go back to Six-Mile and clean house.”

His nostrils flared, and the corner of my mouth twitched. He hadn’t liked my assertion, and it gave me a twinge of satisfaction.

Jasper clapped his hands. “That settles it. Ye’ll stay in my den, and we’ll get started right away.”

Flynn escorted Logan from the council den. Logan was probably seething over the unintended consequence of my new, volunteer roomie, but his paws were tied. He had to abide by the decision, and my laughter didn’t help at all.

Tuesday Morning

“ G et up. Get up.” Jasper poked at me for the third time.

I grumbled curse words at him from the antique bed in the spare room of his underground den. The whole inside had been finished out like an aboveground home, including a hardwood floor.

“I don’t fucking want to,” I said, pulling the patchwork quilt over my head. It had probably been made by Jasper’s grandmother. “I’m tired.”

More tired than at least Sunday night.

“Yeah, and if ya’d wake up, ya’d be hungry. We’ve got to get started on yer training, or good ol’ Giselda will cause trouble in the pack.”

My stomach grumbled, and I opened one eyeball and moved the blanket out of the way of my face. “I am hungry. What do you have? Wheaties or something to start my day of training?”

He chuckled. “A hearty Irish stew.”

“For breakfast?” I made a face and rolled over, pulling the cover over myself once more. “Don’t you have waffles or donuts or pancakes or something more… breakfast-y?”

“Bone broth, vegetables, meat. It’s the best short-notice meal I have to get ye started today,” he said. “All that sugary shite won’t give you the energy or the balance you need. When I have more time, I’ll make champ or boxty.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically. “That. Sounds. Great.”

He tugged the corner of the cover but left it in place. “Next time I come in here, I’ll have a bucket of ice water to toss on yer head. It’s time for shifter boot camp.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me, lass.” He marched out as though he didn’t have any doubt I’d be out of the bed ASAP.

Dammit. Shifter boot camp ?

A tortured groan slipped from me, and I pressed my face into the pillow under my head, squeezing my eyes closed and trying to go back to sleep. Jasper was going to make me regret thinking Red Tail was the better place to be. He probably had a list of exercises and an eating schedule.

It all sounded like hard work, and I’d spent all night dreaming sexy fantasies about the broad-shouldered alpha of Six-Mile and wishing I could conjure him in my room for an overnight tryst with no strings and no prophecies.

No strings… My mouth twisted into a grin. Unless Logan liked strings… ropes… What kind of sex would he like? Would magic be involved? His? Mine? Both? Magic sex or sex magic?

He probably had all kinds of tricks up his sleeves… tricks I wanted to know .

My stomach growled, and I tossed the cover aside to sit on the edge of the creaky bed.

It’d be hard to fuck quietly in this damn bed.

Not that sex with Logan should be any kind of quiet.

When we finally did it. If we spent any time around each other, it’d be a repeat of Vixen’s make-out but a lot less seat buckle in my ass crack.

No freaking way I was going back to sleep now, not with Logan sauntering through my head, smirking like he had incredible ideas for fantastic nights in his head. I shivered and took a deep breath.

Jasper’s heavy steps signaled his return, and he stopped at the threshold of the room with a large, stainless-steel stock pot in his hands. He stopped short, and the ice cubes clinked against the metal. “Ah, good. You’re up.” He lifted the pan. “No need for this.”

“You were really going to do the ice bucket?”

He flashed a smile. “I would never joke about training the multimorph. Plus, maybe I wanted to see if ye’d shift into a polar bear or a penguin.” He turned around and marched back down the hall. “Breakfast is ready.”

A n hour later, we stood in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by dens all around. I held another stick. This one hadn’t been sanded or polished or fashioned into a fancy weapon like Olivia had used from the wall in their gym.

No, this was a stick… from a tree .

I hefted the small branch up and down. “Your whole clan is into primitive, huh?”

Jasper picked one up from the ground. “Ye can’t always have specially made weapons at hand.”

“True, but I’m a shifter and I thought weapons weren’t the first line of defense.”

“They’re not but being wily means using everything around ye to win. This is a trait of all foxes. Besides, wearing ye out first thing in the morning with another shift wasn’t appealing.”

“I’m ready.” I raised the stick and held it up in the same way Olivia had shown me.

With a loud thwack! he brought the end of his stick down in the center of mine. The branch I held snapped in two, and my hands fell to my sides, still holding the pieces.

He gestured to the two ends I held. “In a general sort of way, ye can tell how strong a branch is by how heavy it is. Eventually, ye’ll have a sixth sense about these sorts of things, but right now, I wanted ye to experience the difference.” Then Jasper tossed me his branch. “Try mine.”

I dropped the two ends and caught the branch he tossed, hefting it in my hand. It was significantly heavier than the first, sturdier by feel. “I see what you mean.”

“See deeper,” he said.

“How so?”

“Use yer senses to delve the wood, as though ye can see into the branches.”

I focused on the wood, surprised by the images which bombarded my thoughts. Tree sap, cells, and energy coursed inside the length of wood. I glanced at the pieces I’d dropped. They seemed more dead, emptier somehow.

Jasper retrieved another branch, and we went through several more defense movements and backed around the clearing. A sheen of sweat broke out all over my skin as we moved through the combat exercises. Jasper explained each one and its purpose in low tones. Attack. Defense. Kill. Maim.

Finally, I lowered my hands, huffing from exertion. “Are we not going to do shifting practice?”

Jasper shrugged. “We will, but ye’re tired, and adding more tired on top of tired didn’t seem a good plan for day one.”

“Really, this is day two or three or four since Olivia spent some time training me, and I’ve been shifting each day. Except today. So far.”

He scowled at me. “What’s really going on in your head?”

Searching for words kept me from answering for a long moment. “If it’s real, I need to be ready, right?”

“Aye.”

“Well, it’s still surreal. I’ve been a vet—and wanted to be a vet—for as long as I can remember. How am I this prophesied whatever, and maybe shifting was a dream I had… or a nightmare. It’s confusing, and the more time goes by, I believe I imagined it all.”

He reached for my shoulder and squeezed it. “It’s not a dream. Ye’re here, and ye’re pushing to go faster. That’s not bad, but the adjustment is necessary. Yer cells are learning, and yer mind is struggling to grasp yer new reality. It takes time.”

“But I have to be ready by the time I’m needed,” I said, finally putting words to what had been bothering me since I’d crawled into bed the night before. “What if I’m not ready? What if everyone pins their hopes on me, and I fail?”

“Ye’ll be ready, Emma.” He glanced around. “But we can try shifting if ye prefer. We’ll go over by the council den.”

As we approached the den, Giselda exited the tunnel, and she crossed to where we stood. Though she used a walking cane, she moved with the confidence of youth and knowledge. I didn’t think she needed the stick to get around.

She gestured behind us. “Dr. Wise is at the gate with information,” she said. Then she pointed her walking stick at me. “She wants to give her some special information about being the multimorph, and she’s bringing everything from Six-Mile pack.”

“Thanks, G,” I said, knowing the moniker would annoy the woman.

She grunted. “You are something else, aren’t you?”

I shrugged. “Stands to reason since I’m something unique. Whether I wanted it to be so or not.”

She tipped her head to the side and studied me as I waited for Dr. Wise to make her appearance.

“Being what you are isn’t easy,” she said.

“Your destiny will require you to make difficult decisions. It will require you to push away those you want to draw close and to draw close those who you despise. Do you think it helps you or hinders you if we coddle you?”

She waited as though expecting… something … from her multimorph.

But I had no answer. Dropouts didn’t become vets or doctors, and most success was hard-won. Difficult experiences gave people grit and perseverance, and this universal truth would still be accurate in the shifter world.

I wouldn’t give up, and I wouldn’t give in to defeat. Never.

My heart thumped in my chest. Unexpectedly, the ground called to me, and I crouched low, laying my weapon aside, so I could shove my hands in the dirt.

My actions felt instinctual, and a deep, thudding pulse worked up through my arms and into my chest, echoing the beat of my heart.

My eyes slipped closed, and it was as though I could feel the history of the shifter clans in my bones.

Songs I didn’t know played in my head, and lifetimes of history flooded my mind.

Jasper turned to stare at me too, his eyes widened in shock.

The primal energy of the earth filled me.

A tornado burst of wind tore through the clearing, and a rainbow wind swirled around me. Colors brightened as I sensed the location of each shifter for miles around. They all lifted their heads, reacting, responding to my ability. They would come when I called.

And I knew the prophecy had emerged …

In me….

I am her.

I was the multimorph, the multi-shifter, the summation of magic in the unseen world. How freaking weird.

A second rush of energy filled me.

Jasper gasped, and Giselda cackled, her face stretched in a euphoric grin.

I stood, flushed with power, my hands glowing. When I lifted them high, wind rushed from my hands, and all around us, shifters called, yapping and chuffing.

Then it all faded as quickly as it had come. Colors dulled, and the cyclone disappeared. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the ground, clutching my head as dizziness threatened to send me toppling to my side.

“Well, there’s no hiding ye now. They all would have felt that,” Jasper said, releasing a low whistle.

All around us, shifters came into view, gaping at me. They’d all felt it. They must have, and I couldn’t deny anything.

Giselda came close enough to grasp my chin, turning my face so I could meet her gaze. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “That was primal energy, girl, and you’ll need every drop when the time comes. If I had any doubts, that’s gone now.” She offered her cane and helped me to my feet. “You should rest.”

“I don’t have time for rest,” I panted.

Giselda jerked her head toward the entrance to the camp as Dr. Wise strolled into the clearing, seemingly oblivious to the magic. “Then rest your body and learn whatever Dr. Wise brought for you to read. ”

I nodded. “Maybe some food.”

Jasper bowed. “Yer wish is my command.”

But my body had other plans.

My bones turned to mush.

The earth gave way, and I collapsed.