Page 55 of Shifter's Dream

“You didn’t preheat it,” she said, as he came back to her.

He grinned and she couldn’t read it. She had no idea what that grin meant.

“Rrrrrreeeeed,” he said, rolling the R at the beginning, then making a face and nodding like he hadn’t even known he could do that. She clamped down on that thought with her mind. No thinking about that.

“Yes?” she said, her eyes half-shut, her body relaxed. He got all close to her on the couch, tucking her into him. She liked it a lot. She could sleep like this.

“What’s your power?” he asked.

She tensed in his arms and the sexiness in her scent cut off. “The only power I have is being able to find the 90% off items at Bed, Bath, and Beyond,” she said tightly.

He looked at her questioningly, then started moving his hands slightly like he was talking, but he wasn’t talking. He held one hand up and popped out his thumb, his head moving slightly, like he was listing things, buthe wasn’t talking. Then he put out his index finger and did the same, then his middle finger.

She couldn’t take it. “What are you doing?” Reed said, her voice guarded.

His expression went questioning again. “I’m talking to you telepathically,” he said, his hand still up and his fingers still splayed. “We call itruhi. I was telling you about your sisters’ powers…”

Reed shook her head. She put her arms over her chest. What did you evensayto something like that?

“You can’t hear me?” he asked.

“No,” she said, finality in her tone.

“Huh, I guess you’re like Rogue.”

“Rogue,” she said carefully, hoping that was not an ex-girlfriend.

He grinned. “Don’t be jealous of Rogue. She’s not my mate. You are.”

She shook her head and looked at him, mad that he could figure her out so easily. How did he do that?

“She’s one of your sisters.”

“One of. How many sisters do I have?”

Troy shrugged. “I don’t know. Thousands, maybe.”

“Thousands,” she repeated dully.

“Maybe,” he repeated. “You have seven for sure. One of them is mated to my brother, Trevor.”

Seven for sure. Seven sisters. No, not her, she was an only child.

Troy grabbed for his pants on the floor and pulled his phone out of his pocket, flipping through his photo gallery. “They have young. I have pictures. You have to see them.”

Reed was about to protest-too much, too fast-but then she saw them. Two of the most adorable little babies she’d ever seen. Picture after picture of them, eating, smiling, being held, holding toys, chewing on toys, and even pictures of them sleeping.

“Cute,” she said. “They are adorable.”

“That’s Trevor,” he said, stopping on a picture of a handsome man in a bullet-proof vest, holding one of the babies, cell phone to his ear, while the baby played with a badge on a long chain around the man’s neck. “If you’re ever in trouble, Trevor is who you see. He can fix anything,” Troy said, his admiration for his brother obvious in his tone and the look on his face. “He’s the Lieutenant of the team I’m assigned to, and he’s great at his job. The best.”

He flipped through a few more pictures. “That’s Ella,” he said, stopping on a pretty woman with dark hair and light skin, kissing a baby. “Let me see if I have any pictures of your other sisters.” He flipped through what looked like four hundred pictures of the same two babies. “Nope, I guess not. Sorry, but I can take you to see them. They all live in the same place.”

Reed felt sleep overtaking her, and all she could think as she fell into the darkness was,Please don’t let it be a cult.

***

Troy stopped himself, not looking at his female, not wanting to mess up what he was trying to figure out. Her scent had changed and he couldn’t quite get what it was saying. There was too much spinning around in it. He got up to check on the pizza, hoping distance would help.

---