Page 15 of Shifters Unifying

“It’s what I imagine having a bunch of toddlers, arguing about who’s going to get the best chip in a bag of chips,” she answered.

“We could see about that someday,” I commented, keeping my voice low enough that only she heard me.

She elbowed my side. “Acheron, first.”

Olivia shifted to her human self, and she put her hands on her hips as Jasper shifted forms beside her. “You two might ought to warn us before you take off to fuck in the woods.”

Emma shrugged. “We didn’t know it was going to happen.”

Jasper guffawed, rolled his eyes, and tugged on his beard. “Aye, two fated shifters alone in the woods.Nobodyknew it was going to happen. Amiright, lass.”

“It’s a little awkward to explain we’ve lost the multimorph, and then to have to explain the primal energy reverberating through everybody at the new gathering place. ‘No, don’t worry.It’s normal,’” Olivia mimicked. “I wouldn’t have believed me either.”

“Guess you can explain Logan’s doing his job,” she countered, wholly unrepentant.

Olivia’s mouth quirked into a sly smile. “You two are going to have to explain that you’re fated mates at some point.”

I sighed. “That’ll open all kinds of worm cans.”

Olivia snorted. “Worm cans? You mean cans of worms? More like cans of octopus tentacles that won’t stay contained, but we have to tell them sometime. You two can’t take off and shake all of Louisiana with Emma’s orgasms without at least some kind of explanation. They already know you share a bed.”

Emma turned to me. “And that fact is a part of the reason you can’t have a seat on the council, Logan. Someday, if you must choose between saving me and saving the clans, what will you choose?”

My muscles clenched, turning my hands to fists, and I had to consciously loosen my jaw to answer her. “You, Emma. I’ll always choose you.”

“I know,” she whispered, placing her hand in the center of my chest and moving closer. Her scent threatened to cloud my sense once more. “It’s as though we’re becoming two parts of the same whole, and I only hope I can do what needs to be done when the time comes.”

Her sentiment was the right one, words every multimorphshouldutter. Yet they impacted my heart, sending tiny cracks spidering through it. Her duty was already breaking my heart, and I winced before pushing away the worry for another day.

“Let’s get back and glad-hand the alphas who’re left,” Olivia said. Then she dropped to all fours, shifting to her light gray-blonde-furred wolf form. She reminded me of the bright side of the moon, every time she shifted. Beside her, Jasper dropped into his darker red fox form.

I followed suit, contorting, stretching, and crunching into a my dark-furred form, peering up at Emma as she watched me.What are you thinking?

How fantastically incredible you are.

My ears twitched, swiveling toward her.Is that so?

Yeah, you’re fantastically incredible at being incredibly frustrating.

Her teasing laughter echoed in my head, and I whined, already desiring her again.

She shivered and quick-shifted into a wolf—the first I’d seen of her for more than an instant when she had been quick-shifting through forms to prove to another group of doubting shifters.

Here, in the light of day, her turns a blue brindle with hints of rainbow colors across, as though her hair follicles refract the light differently than any other shifter. Was it this way for all of her forms? Or was the wolf version special because she was fated to me?

I still had so many things to discover about my mate.

If we’re granted enough time…

CHAPTER SIX

emma

The Gathering Place

Between Bear Trees & Red Tail Territories

Near Twilight