Page 11 of Pretty Kitten

He’d said the affliction wasn’t lethal. He’d lied. If she did turn, she would be killed. Perhaps not by the change itself - although not many were strong enough to survive it, according to what he knew about it - but she’d be hunted and killed by the Shifter Council. That was what they did to the children who could turn humans, that was what they did to the witnesses, and the proofs. Their secrets kept the bulk of their race safe from humanity’s paranoia, and they’d do anything to ensure it was never revealed.

They needed to tell her, although she’d freak out. If she didn’t know, she might do something stupid - like talk about it on social media. Daunte opened his mouth, and closed it.

Not yet. They would have to tell her soon - before she left the pride house - but he couldn’t tell her yet.

“When will I know?” she asked in a whisper.

It was impossible to tell how she took the news by just looking at her. Clari’s expression hadn’t changed: she’d blanked out any feelings from her face.

“Within three to five days. We might be able to see some signs earlier.”

Not even a week. In less than a week, they’d know.

Chapter 8

Plan of Action

You’re kidding me.”

They were joking, right? That wasn’t possible. Humans were humans, and that was that. They could be turned into vampires, they could even learn to use magic if they had a drop of witch blood… but they couldn’t be turned into a shifter.

Pop culture had shown plenty of humans changed after a werewolf bite, but when they’d come out of the shadows thirty years ago, shifters had laughed at it. Since, they had seen plenty of proof that it was nothing but a myth, when stupid humans who’d provoked shifters into a fight had ended up with bite marks that hadn’t changed anything about them.

“Do you really think any of us would joke about that?” Ace asked softly.

She got up from the sofa with some difficulty, and walked to her; Clari moved to reluctantly give Zack back, but she shook her head.

“It’s not like a second bite would make any difference. He either is a Turner, or he isn’t. Let me just have a look.” Her hand touched Clari’s neck, and retreated just as quickly. “It’s not very deep, but he broke the skin.”

Most members of the pride cursed at that.

“A Turner?” Clari repeated the unfamiliar term, trying to wrap her head around what was happening.

The tension was palpable and she could almost feel everyone exchanging glances, murmuring around her. Shit. Okay, so, maybe they weren’t kidding. Maybe it was possible. That meant she needed to ask questions - a fair bunch of them. Like, what sort of odds were they talking about? What would happen to her if she did, in fact, turn, would she be accepted in their pride? Clari knew just how selective they were - they’d spent the last few months reviewing applications and didn’t seem any closer to including even one new member. From what she’d learned about it from Ace, she knew she didn’t want to be a loner; Ace had survived it, but Clari had no clue how to do the shifter thing.

Suddenly, she froze, one resounding question muting everything else. She’d never heard of a human turned by a shifter. Ever. That meant…

“That’s a secret, right? The fact that you can turn us. You keep it secret.”

Rye was the one who answered.

“Yes. The Shifter Council has unanimously opted to keep the matter under wraps. One of the only things every race has agreed on.”

She bit her lip, pretty certain they hadn’t just done a pinky swear.

“What’s going to happen to me?”

It came out as something close to a whisper, and she hated it. She didn’t think she’d ever sounded as weak, or as frightened.

Rye and Ace looked at her with pity, and she could guess what the silence meant.

“Oh, god. I’m going to die. You’re going to have to kill me.”

All of a sudden, she remembered a funny thing; almost ten years back, she and her cousin had been on vacation at the beach. They’d met a few shifters, and she could hear Lana’s voice saying, “One day you’ll get yourself in trouble if you don’t stop mingling with their kind, Clarissa.”

Funny how she’d felt like her cousin was just a silly privileged girl, at the time. Someone who never had to work for acceptance, and refused to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone who wasn’t exactly like her.

She could almost hear Lana laughing at her now.

---