Page 6

J ayden lifted the blanket the nurse had brought in and gently covered her grandmother.

Night had fallen outside and only the dim light over her grandfather’s bed illuminated the room.

She smiled down at her grandmother. A nurse had ordered a second bed be brought into the room so her grandmother could rest. The two beds were now pushed up against each other and her grandmother had fallen asleep with her hand wrapped around her grandfather’s.

She didn’t understand the equipment attached to her grandfather, only that whatever they had done over the last few days was working. Her grandfather’s coloring already looked better and he was breathing easier. She wrapped her arms around her waist and walked over to the window to stare out.

The flight here had taken her breath away, giving her the impression they were birds as they soared over the forest. What shook her and her grandmother the most hadn’t been the sensation of flying, it had been the knowledge of how closely they were surrounded by shifter settlements.

Small towns turned to cities with buildings that rose higher than the tallest trees and more massive than any forest. Tiny moving dots traveled along the long and winding roads, while ropes thicker than her arm held up magnificent bridges.

Panic had set in that was hard for her to hide from her grandmother.

Thankfully, her grandmother was more focused on her grandfather than the landscape sweeping below them.

She hadn’t been able to hide her fear completely, though. Conan and the shifter in the red suit kept looking at her. Conan had spoken to her in the black boxes they had placed on her head after she sat down.

“Are you alright?”

She had given Conan a silent, curt nod, realizing deep down she was screaming.

Never in her wildest dreams had she thought the shifters had expanded the way they had.

She always imagined them as the elders had described them from centuries before—living in small isolated villages.

She now realized how na?ve she was to believe that humans could ever survive, much less thrive in this world.

The sound of the door opening behind her made her turn.

Doctor Ben Lyon stepped inside. His glance took in the sleeping couple, noting the tranquility of their intertwined fingers and the soft, steady rhythm of their breathing.

She couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes lingered on the couple’s entwined hands, his compassionate smile reflected in his eyes before he shifted his focus to her.

She bowed her head in silent greeting when he nodded and smiled.

He stepped closer to her grandfather. She watched as he scanned the monitor before gently lifting her grandfather’s wrist and pressing his fingers against it. He tucked her grandfather’s arm back under the covers before he looked up and motioned for her to follow him.

She took a step before she paused and bit her lip. Her eyes flickered from her grandparents, to him, to the door with uncertainty. She had not left this room since they had been escorted to it four days earlier.

“They will be fine. There is a guard outside the door. I can have a nurse sit with them if you’d like,” Ben murmured.

“Annie. Only Annie,” she whispered back.

Ben nodded, turned, opened the door, and spoke to the guard. A minute later, Annie stepped inside with a smile to them both. Annie’s eyes softened when she noticed the two beds pushed together.

“I’ll watch over them,” she promised.

Jayden swallowed and nodded. She walked over to the door and stepped out when Ben opened it for her. She dropped her arms to her sides, clenching her fists when she felt a sense of panic rising inside her again.

The hallway was brightly lit. Two shifters with broad shoulders and weapons stood on either side of the door. They both studied her with curious expressions but didn’t say anything.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

Ben looked down at her with a compassionate expression. “I thought you might like a break and want to grab a bite to eat.”

“No—thank you,” she replied, adding the last two words as an afterthought.

“I would also like to talk to you about your grandfather’s results. I didn’t want to disturb your grandmother. She has been through enough and needs her rest. If you’d prefer I wait?—”

“No! No, I want to know… about my grandfather. He-he will… live?” she asked, her voice huskier as emotion threatened to choke her.

“Yes. Why don’t we go get something to eat? It’s been a long day and I would really love a cup of tea,” he said, motioning toward the end of the hallway.

She glanced back at the door. “My grandparents?—?”

“Annie will protect them. She may look small, but she is a badger-shifter. No one would mess with her,” he replied.

“As long as we are not gone long. I don’t want my grandmother to be… afraid if she wakes up and I’m not there,” she said.

“We won’t be gone long,” he promised.

She nodded and stepped beside him when he turned and began walking.

Glancing around the hallway, she noticed that while the rooms looked similar to her grandparents’, they were empty.

They passed the nurses’ station. A young shifter with dark brown hair looked up and smiled at them before returning her attention to whatever she was working on.

“Do shifters not get sick?” she asked when they stopped outside the metal box that moved. “The rooms… they are all empty.”

Ben looked at her with a confused expression. She waved at the row of rooms behind them. His expression cleared and he grinned.

“Oh, that. Yes, shifters get hurt and sick just the same as humans. This is a military hospital. It’s run a little differently from the civilian ones. This floor has been cleared, so only your grandparents are here. It will be available should any of your clan require medical assistance.”

She thought about what he said. “Military? Like the men who tried to attack us? Tracy didn’t know what type of shifter could kill and carry away so many predators. Do you know?”

Ben cleared his throat. “Whoever those men were are not quite the same as the men and women here. They may have been ex-military. Until the DNA tests come back, I really can’t comment.

As far as any shifters strong enough to lift another, unless the shifter was a small child or person being carried, I really can’t think of any capable of doing that. ”

“Then what could?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Hopefully, there will be some additional evidence that will help us discover what happened. I’m just the doctor assigned to help your people. I’m not in the military myself.”

“Why did they bring you in? How do you know how to care for humans?”

The ping of the elevator distracted them. Ben stepped inside and waited for her. She didn’t like the box. It made her stomach feel funny when it went up and down. The flying bird had done the same thing.

She huffed out a breath, stepped forward, and turned. Ben pressed the button with a star on it and the doors closed. She clenched her fists and breathed through her nose when the box moved. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds before it reached the star floor and the doors opened.

She stepped out and looked around the lobby.

There were more shifters here, even though it was in the middle of the night.

She followed Ben, feeling out of place in her clothing compared to many of those walking around.

She did like some of the clothing. The fabric had multiple colors that looked like the leaves and branches of the trees in the forest. If she wore something like what they had on during the summer, it would be difficult to see her.

Several shifters paused and did a double-take when they walked by her and Ben.

She glared at them and they turned away.

They entered a large room filled with tables.

Most of the tables were empty. She noticed one shifter sitting in the corner with his head down on the table, obviously asleep.

There were two other tables with shifters.

Those shifters were quietly conversing, but fell silent when they noticed her.

“Ignore them. They’ll get bored soon enough,” Ben murmured.

“What are they?” she asked.

He looked back at the staff members on their break.

“Mm, I’m not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say the one sleeping in the corner is a sloth.

They can sleep just about anywhere. The two at the table over there to the right are a coyote and a water buffalo.

The other two are a gazelle and a red panda. ”

“Tracy said that one of the dead was a coyote shifter. They are mean?” she asked.

He frowned as he studied the shifter before he looked down at her. “Are all humans mean?”

She thought about what he said and shook her head. “No. Dennis was, but he is no longer with us.”

“What happened to him?”

She shrugged. “No one knows.”

“That isn’t good. Didn’t anyone from your clan try to find out what happened to him?” he asked.

“No. He was bad. He beat Janna. Why would we care what happened to him?” she said.

“Didn’t anyone try to stop him?” he asked in a shocked voice.

She scowled at him. “Of course. The elders forbade him to talk to or approach any of the females in the village, especially Janna and her children. He disappeared shortly after that. We all slept better when he didn’t return. He was a bad person.”

“What would you like to eat?”

“Food,” she replied, not sure what he meant.

He chuckled and motioned for her to follow him. A plump shifter with curious eyes and a pleasant smile greeted them. Jayden’s mouth watered at all the food on display behind the transparent barrier. She had never seen so much food all in one place in her life.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing to a yellowish-orange food.

“That’s macaroni and cheese,” the woman replied.

“And that?” she asked, pointing to another dish.