Page 94 of Dream Weaver

The rumble changed to a hum, and she chuckled.

“Whoa. You’re a bear.”

Well, obviously. And she was a witch. But, hey. Once again, we’d proven ourselves a good team.

I flopped back, exposing my belly.

She laughed and scratched there next. “If you were human, this would be totally inappropriate.”

My gut warmed. We’d spent a hot, sizzling night together. Did appropriate even apply any more?

Abby’s eyes sparkled, and I was sure she was thinking the same thing.

A bird darted by, making Abby glance around.

The storm had faded to nothing, but the landscape was still in a hushed, batten-down-the-hatches mode.

“We ought to get out of here,” she whispered.

I looked around, then dipped my head in a nod. Still, I couldn’t help giving Abby a quizzical look.

“What the hell happened?” she echoed the question my expression had asked. Then she gritted her teeth and took a step toward the trail. “I don’t know. But I intend to find out.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

ABBY

We were both silent on the hike back to the car. Not that I’d expected Cooper to be chatty in bear form.

I wedged his boots under one arm and shook out his shirt, releasing a cloud of orange dust. We’d found his jeans — or what was left of them after his rapid shift — tangled in a bush, and I carried those scraps too.

So, it was a damn good thing we didn’t meet anyone else on the trail. What would they think of a woman and a bear toddling along?

And, wow. It wasn’t often a girl got an escort likethat. Cooper’s massive shoulders swung as he walked, and his fur glinted under the sun. The upper half of his body was golden-brown, his legs tree-trunk brown — and about as thick. His paw prints were the size of plates, and where they overlapped with my footprints, well…goodbye footprint.

Whoever came along the trail next would have a field day withthat.

But that was the thing — we didn’t meet a soul, despite the popularity of this trail. A few hardy souls usually trekked out to Devil’s Rock for sunset, and by noon, dozens of visitors crowded the place. Had Liselle — if she was the one responsible for the storm — spelled the area in a way to keep people away too?

I sniffed the air. Cooper kept his nose to the ground, vacuuming up scents.

“Anyone you recognize?” I asked.

I took his grumble as a yes.

“Liselle — or Lisa, I mean?”

Another grumble.

“Jay too?” I asked.

Cooper’s eyes shone with pure hate, and he showed his teeth.

Yep. Jay had been here, all right. But what the hell was he doing with Liselle?

Back at the car, I fished the car key out of Cooper’s jeans pocket. Then he shifted, and I froze, mesmerized by the sight.

My mother was a dragon shifter, and watching her shift — the few times I had — was mind-blowing, to say the least. Because, well… Wings. Leathery hide. Sharp teeth. In comparison, Cooper’s shift — from one type of mammal to another — was less abrupt. More…natural, if that was the word. The air around him shimmered, his fur thinned, and his body morphed gracefully. One minute, he was down on all fours, and the next, he was human and rising up to two feet.

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