Page 49 of Shifter's Dream

But he didn’t.

“My brother told me where you’d be in a dream.”

“Oh,” she said, wanting to shoot to her feet, wanting to run screaming from him, wanting to stand up and shout, “Don’t lie you creeper, you looked me up in the police department computer,” but she couldn’t because she believed him and it was spinning her batshit crazy meter just a little too much. “Your brother does a lot for you.”

Troy nodded. “Different brother.”

“How many brothers do you have?” Reed whispered. This was it. The next crazy thing he said, she was ordering him off her porch.

“Two,” he said, “And a sister, but she died at birth.”

“I’m an only child,” Reed whispered. Next crazy thing he said, he wasgone.

Troy leaned forward. “Tell me everything,” he said.

“Everything…?” she asked, not sure what else there was to say about being an only child.

He nodded. “Where you were born.” He struggled with theWs, looking like he was forcing himself to say them and still they weren’t quite right. “Your favorite food and color and smell and place to visit. Your life’s story, from birth to now.” He dropped his eyes to the table, then looked up at her again quickly, handsome face set in worried lines. “And your name.”

Reed only stared at him, thinking he couldn’t possibly want to know all that. He had to be trying to get her into bed again. Except the look on his face was as sincere as she’d ever seen. Either he was a flawless actor… or he meant it.

“You first,” she said, her voice shaking. “If I’m half-angel, what are you?”

His dark eyes searched hers. When he spoke, his voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. He didn’t stumble over one word. “I don’t want to say, because your scent says you already know, and that you are terrified of it.” His jawline stiffened, like he was holding himself together, tightly, waiting for her response.

A wolf.He was going to tell her he was a wolf. Was she dreaming this? Had she finally gone all the way off her rocker, and he’d really said, “Half-angel, what are you talking about? I said, ‘Do you want to watch Charlie’s Angels’?”

“Let’s see it,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself, terrified of what she was about to see, him changing, himshiftingright in front of her, like the wolf from her dream had, but still having toknow.

Troy rubbed the back of his neck. Looked away. Looked at the forest. “Ah, see, the thing is…”

Reed shot to her feet, suddenly livid. She’d almost believed it. She’d almost been duped into eating the whole fucking enchilada. He’d almost made a fool out of her. New fucking rule. She didn’t know what it was, yet, but it had something to do with sexy stalkers at dusk and fireflies and porch railings. She would work on it. She clawed at the door, sliding it open, then turning to order him out, when he said the one thing that could possibly slow her down.

“You have a pendant,” he said carefully, but quickly, leaning into the words like they were the most important words ever said, “A wolf on one side and an angel on the other, your name is a plant name, and when I bit you, wings came out of your back for just a second. And,” he added. “You have a power. I don’t know what it is, but all your half-sisters have one, so you must, too.” He pushed the last few words out like he had no air left in his lungs and he wasn’t quite sure how to breathe and talk at the same time, even though that was something you learned when you were like… three.

Reed stiffened.Game over, Reed. Your marbles? Gone, baby, gone.Wings. Sisters. Wolf. Angel. Power. Not true. Not true. He was still crazy,he was still crazy.

But when she spoke, still facing the building with her head down, her voice was normal again, her anger was gone, and what she said was, “Did you know I grew up in this building?”

“No.”

She turned. She sat back down. “Not in this apartment. In one on the first floor, and we moved away when I was four, after… something bad happened.” She watched him. He settled into his chair like he was ready to listen to her all night. The word, ‘mate,’ pinged around in her brain as she spoke. “I used to play in that forest all the time.” She indicated behind him. He nodded, hanging on her every word.

She didn’t have any more words. She gestured behind her. “Would you like to come in?”

29 – Fated

Troy followed his mate eagerly into her apartment, overjoyed that she’d invited him in.Thiswas it, the first day of their lives together. He would never leave. The apartment was dark. She snapped on lights, moving slowly, not looking at him, revealing an open living and kitchen area, with a hallway off to the right.

He touched everything, her counters, the walls, her paintings, the salt and pepper shakers, a damp towel hanging on a chair, the back of her couch, all the pillows on the couch, then across the room to the other shelf, picking up and putting down her little picture frames and travel mementoes one at a time.

When he turned around, she was watching him, arms folded over her chest. He could not read the look on her face, but her scent said she was overwhelmed and nervous.

Your place is so cozy, he told her inruhi. I love it.She didn’t respond. Should he tell her aboutruhi?No, he decided. She seemed dazed, like she was having a hard time accepting everything else he’d told her.

“Sit down,” he said, leading her to the dark couch. He grabbed a pillow and propped it behind her back, then another. He threw a pillow on the coffee table, picked her bare feet up from the floor, and put them on the pillow, plumping it under her pretty pink toenails. “Drink?” he said.

She didn’t respond to that either, only staring straight ahead. Thinking hard, maybe. He went to the kitchen and got her water, putting it down next to her, then he looked around for a blanket. He found none so he went down the hallway, finding her bedroom. Her sleep scent was strong in the room, and Troy caught an undercurrent that made his heart leap. His female was three days pregnant.

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