Page 5 of Shifter's Dream

Timber hopped out of the passenger seat and levered open the back door. Troy’s door. He bowed. “Get the fuck out, your highness. Tell Trevor he owes us ten dollars.”

Each, Canyon said to them both inruhi.

“Each,” Timber nodded, winking at Troy. “And tell him we’re taking tomorrow off. He needs to find some other Brittneys to keep you from humping the neighbor’s cat.”

Troy didn’t even flip him off. He just snarled a thank you and good-bye and headed up the porch steps, through the front door. It was late, the digital clock on the oven showing 2:30 in the morning. Troy closed the door behind him and stood still for a moment, taking the time to let all the scents of the house filter in to him. Four people were at home, all of them in the same bed upstairs. His brother, Trevor, was awake. Trevor’s mate Ella, was mostly asleep, Treena their two-month-oldwolfenchild, was asleep curled close to daddy, and Track, her twin brother, was awake and probably nursing. The sweet scent of the milk reached him last. Yes, Track was definitely nursing.

Ella’s cat Chelsea was in the basement, hunting bugs. Her other cat, Smokey was still gone somewhere in the wilderness with Trent. Troy shifted through old scents, gauging time and distance fade, deciding on who had been in the house that evening, besides the family. Rogue and Mac, no surprise, Heather, that was a surprise, Eventine and Harlan, no surprise, and Dahlia. Dahlia had cried. Troy frowned and wondered if this had anything to do with the ‘secret everyone knew and no one was mentioning’ and Troy didn’t quite know why. The secret was that Cerise was pregnant, almost four weeks pregnant, in fact. Troy had scented it on her right away, within a week, and if he’d known her better he would have scented it earlier. Eventine had also known then, but hadn’t wanted to speak about it. No one else had figured it out for a few more weeks, except Harlan, of course. Eventine told him almost everything. But then Trevor had figured it out and he and Ella had whispered about it for days before settling on pretending they didn’t know.

Troy followed Chelsea’s scent from downstairs as she stalked a spider into a corner, wondering why it mattered if Dahlia knew that Cerise was pregnant? Why did Dahlia think it was possibly her fault that she wasn’t with young yet? Troy knew what it all was about, but he didn’t getwhy. He loved it, though. He loved it even if he didn’t always know the part he was supposed to play, or why. He tried. It was fun, this social interaction thing.

It had been different when he’d been a wolf masquerading as a police dog. Humans had expected him to behave like a mean dog, and so had mostshiften. If he really admitted it to himself, there were very fewwolvenwho had treated him like a normal person, and almost nobearenorfelen. He and Trent had always been outcasts to everyone except for Trevor and Trevor’s closest friends Everyone else had treated them like they didn’t exist, or like children, seen but never heard.

Troy crossed the room to the sliding glass door, slid it open, and scented the small cabins lined up like camping tents on the farm’s back acreage. He wanted to know who was on-site, who was missing, and if anything was out of place.

Cerise and Beckett were sleeping in their cabin, Crew and Dahlia were sleeping in theirs. Mac and Rogue weren’t in their cabin, they were probably out at Mac’s place, or maybe Rogue’s. The only time they slept at VF was when Bruin and Willow were home and staying in their cabin on VF. Village Fucktastic, or VF for short, was coined by Rogue when she first saw the rows of cute little cabins, behind Trevor and Ella’s farmhouse. Every time a new mate was found, at least one more cabin went up.

Troy did not scent Bruin and Willow because they were still gone, still returningrenqua, the mark on ashiften’s shoulder that connected them to the goddess Rhen, tobearenall over the world. Burton, Eventine, Harlan, Leilani, and Jaggar all lived in Burton’s rickety farmhouse on the Old Highway, and that’s probably where they were at 2:30 in the morning, so he didn’t scent them either. Angel the bobcat was curled up with Zeus the horse in the pasture. Heather and Graeme and Kendra’s cabin was in the woods, not visible to Troy, but he could scent it, with them inside. Wade and Lorna lived somewhere in Serenity, and had not been to the farm in days. Canyon and Timber lived in a cabin behind Burton’s farmhouse, and Sebastian, shit, no one knew where he lived, or wanted to see him much. Lillian, a quarter-wolfen female adolescent also lived on the property with her family, and they were all home and sleeping.

Troy slid the door closed again.I’m home, he told Trevor.

Trevor yawned in his mind.Track is teething, and he won’t sleep. You want him?

Definitely.

Shower first, or Ella will have both our tails.

Already on it.

Troy’s destination was his bathroom on the first floor, to the right of the living room and the stairs, opposite of the hallway his brother, Trent’s, room was down. Troy gathered clean clothes and towels and headed into the bathroom, shooting one last look across the house toward his brother’s room. Trent had been gone for a month, almost as long as Troy had been shifted. At night, when the bars were closed and everyone was asleep, Troy went and sat on his brother’s couch just to feel close to him. He’d never been separated from his brother for so long, and he felt guilty as hell for refusing to go with Trent to find the beast. Jaggar had returned, as the beast, but Trent had not. Last they’d seen, Trent had intervened in a fight between a small town and a wild wolf pack that was too used to humans. He’d led the wolves north with Smokey the cat following, and the KSRT had followed the journey via trail cam, until they’d gone so deep into no man’s land that there were no more cams.

Troy stripped quickly, hopped in a steaming hot shower, soaped from top to toe, rinsed and dried and put on clean clothes. When he emerged from the bathroom, Trevor was sitting in Troy’s sparsely-decorated room, in Troy’s recliner, whispering to dark-haired, pudgy-baby Track on his chest. Track was almost two months old, but looked and acted almost a year old, even crawling already. He wore a white onesie with cartoon wolves on it.

Troy went straight to the chair.Gimme, he told his brother, reaching for his nephew. Trevor gave him up willingly enough and Troy sighed happily as heavy baby weight transferred to him. Track felt thick and solid in his arms and he babbled to Troy then snuggled into his neck. Troy snuggled back, swaying around the room with him, murmuring words he’d heard Burton sing to the young.

Track giggled and snuggled and sighed and yawned.I got him, Troy told Trevor.

“I know,” Trevor said softly, into the darkened room. “You’re a good uncle, you know that?”

Troy squeezed Track lightly. How could he not be? The young made him want to slay every demon in the world, every bully, too. Every misstep or possible mistake needed to be cleared from this little guys’ path, and his sister’s too, so that they could lead full lives without regret or heartache. Troy didn’t know how to make that happen, but he knew that was what his life was for. Family was the most importantF,hisfavoriteF.

“You’re a good example,” he told Trevor deliberately, every syllable crisp, the moment with his brother feeling different, special, like something he’d never had before.

Trevor cleared his throat. “Thanks.” He cleared his throat again, almost coughing. “Hey, I found you a speech therapist to help you with yourWs. Your appointment is on Friday. I would take you but the young have a checkup that day. I’ll find someone.”

“Cool,” Troy grunted, then he coo’ed a little to Track, cradling him, bouncing him. Troy noticed a Band-Aid on his fat thigh and dread filled Troy, a slow deflating he’d rarely felt as a wolf.What happened? he asked his brother, already knowing the answer.

“He got his vaccine.”

And Treena?Troy asked, knowing the answer was no. There were a few common food ingredients that were deadly in certain combinations to allshiften. Maleshiftenyoung had been “vaccinated” against this genetic weakness since the 1800s, but the concoction that protected the males universally, killed and injured allshiftenfemales who got it.

Trevor shook his head, staring at the floor, his expression dark, obviously thinking of his daughter. There’d been some talk of attempting to give it to her, that her status of one-quarter angel would protect her from the vaccination, or even from the spice combination in the first place. In the end, Ella and Trevor had decided by not deciding. Treena wouldn’t be getting the vaccination, and no one had any way of knowing if this was the right or wrong call.

Troy didn’t know what to think about it. He left that up toshiftensmarter than him, like his brothers, and Wade and Eventine.What about that earthquake?he asked Trevor.Was it Khain?

“Crew says yes.”

Blake acted funny. Passed out, maybe.Troy knew one more thing about Blake that Trevor did not, but he did not share it. Not yet.

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