Page 53 of Shifter's Homecoming

She snuggled into the pillow, letting the soft beeps and clicks of her equipment lull her into a quick and easy sleep, and almost immediately, she was dreaming.

She was a wolf stalking through the forest in search of prey. More wolves surrounded her, dark wolves and light wolves and grey wolves, some bigger than her, some smaller. They jostled her with their shoulders, they nipped and bit and growled at her, but it was all communication… only communication, and when they ran, she ran with them. They streamed through deep forest around trees, jumping over fallen logs, winding through forest underbrush, crossing prey trails and scent lines. This was the part of the dream she loved best, and she always wanted it to last forever… she wanted to run with the wolves forever, reveling in her place in the wild civilization called nature…

For the first time ever, the dream took a different turn. The rest of the wolves ran to the lake like always. They jumped in. They swam to the other side, and when they came out they were people. But Rowan did not jump into the lake and she did not know why.

Instead, she stopped at the edge of the water. She was a lone wolf, about to howl one long and low note… until she heard something. She shape-shifted in her dream for the first time ever, and she was no longer a wolf. She was a human, a naked human female. She was herself. She turned to the forest, trying to figure out what she had heard. A man emerged from a trail, wild-looking, with long hair and longer beard, like he had never cut either in his life. It was not a look that she normally found attractive, but in this dream, she could not turn away from this man. He looked her in her eyes, not seeming to notice or care that she was naked. He wanted… her. He wanted her, and he wanted all of her, and in that moment, she was helpless not to hand herself over to him. She belonged to him. He belonged to her.

He walked toward her on booted feet, not smiling, but his expression was warm. His eyes bore into hers. He said her name. She could not speak. He came closer to her, closer and closer still, and when he reached her, he took her hand. Although she did not know his name, she raised her face to his, anticipating what was coming next.

He twined his fingers with hers and pulled her against him, his other hand around her waist, and then he kissed her, firmly but softly, and oh he smelled so good, like aged wood and warm pipe tobacco and strong, virile, sexy man. The kiss spelled out exactly who they were to each other, they were—

Rowan gasped awake, one hand to her mouth, delicious chills running through her body. She had never been kissed like that. She had never met a man like that, beard or no beard. Already, her head was relaxing on the pillow again. Already, her eyes were closing again, and already, she was falling back asleep, but she kept her hand pressed to her mouth as if she could contain that kiss, as if she could keep it, as if she could make herself dream it again and again and again.

37 - His Rowan

Trent turned onto Blue River Way. Reality doubled over on itself for a short moment as his memories of Tranquility came to him. He shook his head like he could make his ears fly and watched for the wolf statue, too stunned by what Troy was telling him to interrupt.

Troy was nodding in the back seat, repeating all his main points. He spoke out loud for his mate’s benefit. His speech was much better than when Trent had left to follow the beast. He pronounced every word almost perfectly. Trent was impressed. He shot Reed a grateful look, thinking she was good for Troy in every way.

“I know it sounds crazy,” Troy was saying. “For decades now, almost daily, a drop of Khain’s poison has crossed from the Pravus to here. Crew says Khain doesn’t know he’s doing it, it’s an unconscious act, and that’s why Wade’s never told anyone, so Khain or his spies don’t discover it. There’s even one of those 777 demon signs about a second poisoning. Wade’s had an environmental cleanup crew working out there for years. It’s all very secret. They even drained the reservoir and dynamited the spot where the poison falls but that made the poison eat away at the bedrock and get into the groundwater, which threatened everything, so they let it refill. They have it contained in one spot and they drain the water once a month and treat it like hazardous waste.”

“And my mate? What is her connection?”

Troy shook his head. “Wade doesn’t know anything about your mate. He normally inspects the reservoir every two weeks, but he’s never seen any females up there.”

They followed the river. They crossed the bridge. The wolf statue came up quickly and Troy fell silent. Trent locked eyes with it as they passed.

On their left, the blue of the reservoir had come into view. Trent’s body went battle-ready at the same time as his heart did a little jog in his chest.

He hung a left on the correct road, then another left into the drive of the Harlem Pumping Station. He killed the engine and stared at the building, not knowing what he was about to find. Anticipation made his lip curl, and he growled a bit before he caught himself.

The building looked much like it had in Tranquility, a medium-sized house up on stilts with forest lining both sides, but here it was two stories high and he could see the old reservoir stretching out behind it. He could even see some of the crane and the dam that had been built when this reservoir had been cut off from Serenity’s water supply. He also saw some of the fenced-in pool of water separate from the reservoir, which must be where the poison collected.

Trent opened his door and let the scents of the area come to him. This time, he could not stop his growl if he wanted to. The scent of meadow flowers bordering a raging river came to him, thick and strong. He had thought the scent of the other Rowan beautiful and strong, but this Rowan’s scent was ten times stronger and a hundred times more beautiful.

Mine!shot through his head and his body, but the pull of this Rowan was a thousand times stronger than it had been in Tranquility. He would not have believed such a thing possible.

She was here.

“What?” Troy said, lifting his nose, scenting the air.

“My mate,” he managed to say.

“I only scent peppermint,” Troy said, leaning forward and running his fingers down Reed’s arm. She shivered and smiled at him. “Andfelen.” Troy said.

That got Trent moving. There werefelenin this forest always, according to Troy, a small hand-picked group of mountain lion shifters that watched the reservoir day and night. They better not come close to his mate, or he would make purses for her from their hides. Purses, shoes, backpacks, yoga pants, he didn't care. Leopard-skin everything, he'd do that shit.

“Stay here,” he told his brother.

He got out of the truck and made it to the porch, then to the door. He raised his hand to knock, when he thought better of it, and stepped around the side to look in the window instead.

Inside looked much like the lab of the Rowan in the other world, except in the corner where the room he had slept in had been, there were stairs instead.

Rowan.

He saw his mate sleeping on the couch, a light blanket pulled up to her chin, her blonde hair spilling across the pillow.

She was beautiful. She looked exactly like the other Rowan from the other world, except there was somethingmoreabout her. More special, more beautiful, more lovely, more sweet, morehis.

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