Page 35 of Shifters Unifying (Shifters Destiny: Willow Creek Shifters #2)
His words and the image of him enjoying my ass walking away from him flashed in my head and nearly took my legs out from under me. But I kept on. When I reached the bottom, I turned to face the chaotic crowd.
I raised my hands, and Torbin lifted a heavy rock beside him and banged it twice on the front row where he sat beside Salali. Silence took the place of the voices, and I caught Marcus’s gaze. His expression didn’t change, but something I didn’t recognize flickered in his eyes.
Waving for the younglings to come down to the front, I pointed to an empty spot on the front row, across the center aisle from where Torbin sat.
Others scooted aside, and they squished together in the spot where I’d pointed.
Blaze settled on the farthest end, her face lit with excitement.
Izzie sat next to her with Oliver on her other side and John on the interior, next to some big burly shifter with a scowl nearly hidden by bushy eyebrows.
Logan made his way toward the front of the gathering and took a position to my right, choosing to stand rather than sit. He leaned against a small tree on the perimeter of the conclave. After the quartet of my volunteers settled, Torbin nodded to me as though encouraging me to speak.
“Hello, my friends,” I said, my voice quivering slightly. Clearing my throat didn’t help much, but it gave me time to form my next words. “You’ve been looking for me.”
The murmur of descent rippled through the crowd. “Where have you been?” someone yelled. “Yeah, where? Acheron’s still out there!”
“I’ve been in East Nuttal, training shifters with Salali.”
Salali stepped forward. “Training with the multimorph was productive, and it was everything we’d desired in personal attention from our new leader.”
“What about the rest of us?” the same voice called out. “We should attack our enemies, not hide from them.”
“We have no reason to rush into a war without a plan. I’ve been working on the plan.” I glared at no one and everyone all at the same time. “How many of you sent warriors to Six-Mile?”
Twenty hands went up.
“Then Logan and Olivia have been tracking the arrivals, and that’s the order I’ll visit your clans, training you all and preparing for what comes next.” I hope you’ve been tracking that, Logan.
He didn’t answer. So, probably not Logan, but Olivia most likely had.
“Why should we trust you?”
Torbin glanced over his shoulder and crossed his arms. I couldn’t tell if he was irritated at the unidentified heckler or if he agreed with them.
“Because I’m the embodiment of unity between our clans, the way we link together and beat Acheron.”
“Prove it,” the voice called.
Prove it echoed through the assembled group, and as much as I hated the heckler, at least they’d done away with the wait, pushing my demonstration to the forefront of every shifter’s mind.
I nodded to the younglings and quirked my finger toward them.
They stood as one, already holding hands, and they stepped into the space in front of the cavea.
Blaze grinned and flashed me a thumbs up with her free hand.
The others looked less certain of what I intended to do.
A breeze filled the gathering place, and someone whined, the sound of a wolf ready to shift.
Thunder rolled through the conclave, and large droplets began falling, faster and faster. More lightning zigzagged overhead. I couldn’t stop the rain, but maybe…
Carefully, I drew a rush of shifter energy and sent a stream of magic through the air toward Blaze.
It circled her and the other three, dancing over their shoulders, down their arms, and around them.
It connected them to me and me to them. Their linked hands glowed as I increased the amount of magic, and their eyes turned bright.
Whines, growls, yips increased as more of the other shifters vocalized in response to the amount of power coursing through the gathering place.
The rainbow tattoo on my hip tingled, and I drew a larger rush of energy through them and beams of magic, each a different color, streaked out of me into the air above us, following the contours of the earth beneath the gathering place.
More threads joined the first. Not lightning, but strands of balefire woven together, crocheted to form a latticework ceiling of pure energy, pure destruction.
Or protection…
The silence deepened. The collected shifters seemed to hold their breath in awe.
Little by little, the rain stopped falling, beading and rolling off.
I tied each thread, every strand together, faster and faster, drawing the weave tighter and tighter until it unified and formed an almost solid dome overhead.
Even as I worked the magic, I understood that the arched covering could be impervious to attack, so long as more shifters linked with us, and we could use the dome to protect ourselves from Acheron.
We could make an incurious into his territory…
maybe attack him instead of always being on the defensive.
Linking might change everything for us, make us stronger. If we could find the relic Dr. Wise had discovered, it might add more amplification and increase our combined abilities tenfold. What could we do in a world without Acheron in it?
“We are stronger when we’re together,” I said. “This has always been true.” Raising my voice wasn’t necessary in the blanket of quiet, and the lack of yelling made it easier to keep my tone steady. “Now imagine what we can do if we all link with one another and share our energies freely.”
A ripple of agreement spread through the crowd like an encouraging breeze.
With a wave of my hands, I released the energy I’d been controlling above us, and the roof made of light and magic flickered, then disappeared completely, allowing the deluge in once more.
But I didn’t let go of the magic completely, instead, determined to attempt something new.
Surely, the flow could work the other direction, too, and it was time to try.
At the edge of my vision, a wet Logan straightened and took a concerned step toward me, but I shook my head at him. He pressed his lips into a tight line, yet he didn’t come any closer. Then I drew a large swell of magic into myself and pushed the energy back through the link, into Blaze.
She gasped. Her eyes widened, and her hair lifted around her in a cobalt cloud, punctuated by her glowing irises. She met my gaze and held it, her expression peaceful as the rain no longer touched her. She stepped into the perimeter aisle, allowing more room for her shift.
Slowly, she morphed from her human self to her horse self, but it wasn’t the contorted, abrupt, bone-crunching change that most experienced.
Instead, it rolled through her in a gentle wave.
Finally, she stood on all fours, a majestic horse with regal bearing and a blaze on her dappled forehead beneath her blue-slashed forelock.
Then I turned my attention to John. His change was as easy to trigger as Blaze’s had been. One minute, he was John, the next he was a lanky wolf. Oliver and Izzie followed.
“As you share your energy with me, I can share mine with you,” I pronounced, keeping my tone even.
“As I grow in skill and ability so will you. I am the multimorph, and I have been sent to unify the clans, protect each of you. However, there’s a day coming when I will need each one of you and the energy inside of you.
Joining together is the only way we can overcome this threat. ”
Carefully, I trigged the change for each of the young shifters, and they switched from their animal forms to their human forms without any of the violence. Finally, they stood in the order they’d been seated, chests heaving and holding hands once more.
I beamed at them, nodding. “Thank you for your help. You can sit now.”
They dropped to their bottoms on the granite row of seating.
It had grown so quiet that I could hear my heartbeat pulsing in my ears. I could even hear Logan’s stomach growling to my right, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in hours either.
“Our time is running short, and I need each of you, every one of you. The only way we beat Acheron is together.”
A dozen shifters crossed their arms, but the rest nodded or smiled in my direction. Progress might be slow, but I was beginning to draw others to my cause. The rest would come later, I was certain of it.
At the rear of the gathering place, a bear burst into the conclave, tossing her head, snuffing, and flinging saliva all over her snout.
She roared and lumbered to her hind legs, the slash of red unmistakable over her chest, pouring down her fur in rivulets.
She transformed into a wild-haired brunette, her wound grew smaller, but crimson still streaked across her dark chest.
“There’s been an attack!” Her shout brought the assembled shifters to their feet. “On the far side of Bear Trees.”
A hundred wild sounds filled the gathering place, and a blast of magic rushed in as every alpha and shifter in attendance prepared for battle.
I cupped my hands around my mouth, inhaled, and yelled. “Who is it?”
“It’s Acheron,” she roared. “And he’s taken hostages.”