Page 50 of Shifter's Homecoming

“I know, Mom,” Rowan said, and her voice was soft and child-like, even to her own ears. Her mom had been telling her this story long as she could remember, and when she was young, she had believed it completely. It had terrified her for years. When she was young, the silver bottle around her neck had always held liquid silver, and her mom probably thought it still did.

“Rowan, I have to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Her mom hung up, leaving Rowan to stare at the phone in her hand and fervently wish her mom would take her medication.

The doorbell rang, startling her. Rowan took a deep, shaky breath, then went to answer it.

It was a delivery man in a brown uniform with a box under one arm. He held out a digital tablet to her. “Sign here.”

Rowan took the tablet and signed it, frowning as she did so, hoping this delivery was not what she thought it was.

By the time she closed her door, box in hand, she knew it was exactly what she had thought it was. She could tell by all the tiny squeaks she heard and the LIVE ANIMALS stamped on the side.

It was her first shipment of live mice.

Rowan sank down on the floor with the box in her lap. She opened it carefully, her heart in her throat. She had told Mr. Danark she would not need to test any neutralizer she created on animals but he hadn’t believed her. Now that she had been working for a week, and had actually seen the poison and worked with it, she realized that he had been right, not her, but… could she do it? She’d been able to make her way through school and even pass her final tests without once running one invasive experiment on one animal, but this was the real world, and the only way she was going to know if anything she created worked, really and truly worked, was if she gave the poison to an animal and gave her neutralizer to an animal, and the animal did not die.

A tiny mouse poked a tiny nose out of a tiny air hole and sniffed at her finger. She touched a whisker. The mouse poked its nose out farther and let her pet its soft fur. Rowan looked across the open laboratory at her desk. She looked down at the box of mice again. She looked across at her desk again, thinking hard about the principles of concentration and response she’d utilized so much in school, the ones that had gotten her through to graduation without ever having to give anything to an animal that she wasn’tcertainwhat it would do. She looked down at the box again, listening to the tiny squeaks and chirps.

She stood quickly. She crossed the room with the box and put it next to what she’d been working on all night and looked at her results. She poked a finger at the final note she had written.

It told her that if she could just increase the potency of the poison, she could use her system of checks and balances that she had developed to know when and if she had a true neutralizer. The problem was, she would have to increase the potency by … she grabbed a calculator and did the math quickly … by six hundred percent.

Rowan chewed on her lower lip. Six hundred percent was a lot. Six hundred percent could make the poison deadly to humans.

Was she certain she could make a neutralizer if she did that? If it was possible, yes, she knew she could do it.

And if it wasn’t possible? Rowan didn’t want to think about that.

35 - Heading Out

Trent grabbed a pair of keys from a hook in the kitchen and went straight out the front door, hearing Troy and his mate following behind. He liked Reed already. She was no-nonsense, no-frills, no-bullshit, he could tell. If anyone could keep Troy straight, that female could.

Just like his own female would keep him straight, as soon as he found her and told her who she really was.

Out in the early-morning sunshine of his very own world, he stopped for just a moment to scent the breeze.

It was good to be home. He felt whole and healthy and complete and he and his wolf would run soon.

As he stood there, he felt a weight drop into his pocket. He reached his hand in… and pulled out the vial and paper Rowan had given him in the other world. He nodded to himself, thinking that made perfect sense, and then he stuck it back in his pocket. He would know what to do with it when the time was right.

Moment over, he went straight for the row of work trucks, finding the one he had the keys to by matching the little tag on the key with the little tag on the license plate. When he reached it, he faltered for a moment, wondering if his female already knew he was coming. Was she a traveler? Or was she like Troy and Mac, someone who had counterparts in both worlds, but no cross-knowledge between them.

He decided there was no sense in worrying about it until he got to her. He opened the door and swung himself up into the driver’s seat while Troy helped Reed into the passenger side, then climbed into the back.

Troy slid right behind him. “Can you drive?” he asked, fascination in his voice. Reed didn’t say a word, but she looked a little green at the question.

“Probably,” Trent answered. He eyed his brother in the rearview mirror while he jammed the keys in the ignition and twisted them, relishing the feel of the big truck coming to life under him.

Troy laughed heartily and got comfortable, spreading his arms across the back of his bench seat. “It ain’t as easy as it looks.”

Trent let his body do the driving, not thinking about anything too much. He shifted into reverse and stepped on the gas lightly, easing the truck out of its parking spot. It all came easy to him, just like walking, talking, writing, and kissing had.

Trent growled involuntarily as thoughts of kissing his mate filled his mind, noticing right away how his growl sounded different with his wolf with him. He knew what he would find when he made it to the reservoir, and yet, as much as he knew his Rowan would prove to be like the Rowan he already met and already loved as much as she would let him, he knew she would be different, too. He could not wait to find her.

Out of the parking stall, he shifted into drive and got serious, speeding down the long driveway. Reed put on her seatbelt. Troy only grinned at him from the backseat.

“We’re headed to the Harlem reservoir, right?” Troy said.

---