Page 56 of Shifter's Homecoming

But Troy wasn’t looking at him or speaking to him. Troy had his mate bent over backwards and he was kissing her like Trent wanted to be kissing Rowan at that moment.

What in the hell, asshole?Trent said inruhi.

All he got in response was the sound of Troy laughing in his head.

39 - Cats Aren’t for Killing

Trent followed his mate. She was headed inside, paying no attention to Troy and Reed. She only had eyes for the pendant in her hand. She went in the door and he followed. She ended up at a counter filled with machinery, all of it lit up, moving, or making noises.

Trent looked around and scented deeply. The scent that was strongest in the room was the meadow-flower scent of his mate. He scented no recent men, human or otherwise. Nofelenhad been stupid enough to get close, Khain had never been in this room, and Grey neither. Now that he was there, his mate was safe from all of that.

He sat down at her desk to watch her work, wondering at the similarities and differences between what she was doing in this world, and what her counterpart had been doing in the other world. She looked exactly the same as the other Rowan, except prettier. She even wore the same silver ribbon around her neck, with the same tiny silver bottle hanging from it.

She seemed to have forgotten that he was there. She put her pendant into a large stainless steel container. She pressed some buttons on a machine, making it open its lid. She used tongs to pull out what looked like a test tube filled with fire, placing it in a stand. She put on gloves and a mask, then unstoppered the test tube and took out no more than a drop or two with a pipette. She held it over the pendant and squeezed out one tiny fiery drop.

Trent could scent Khain in that drop for a moment and it made him hold in a growl. He could only see his mate’s eyes, but he could tell immediately that what she had thought was going to happen did not happen. She pulled out more liquid fire and repeated the procedure, and again, she seemed disappointed.

Rowan turned to him, pipette with liquid fire in hand. She held up the pendant in her other hand. “What kind of metal is this?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Where did it come from?”

Trent leaned back in his chair and thought about how to answer that one. But before he could, he scentedfelen. The scent came in an open window at the front of the building. Trent growled involuntarily.

Rowan startled at the noise and her elbow caught a row of beakers, crashing a few to the counter and one to the floor. It broke, spraying glass on her feet. She jerked her arm, revealing some skin, and a drop of the liquid fire squirted out and landed on her.

Red mist swirled around her head. She dropped the pendant and the pipette into the container and wiped the drop off of herself quickly.

Trent was on his feet immediately, moving toward her. “Are you ok?” he asked. “Was that the poison?”

She eyed him warily as she took off her gloves and mask and inspected her arm.

“I’m fine,” she said. “See.” She held out her arm and he saw no mark.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Without thinking, he took that hand and pressed it to his lips, kissing the back of it, then the palm, then the fingertips. She gave him a suspicious look, then pulled her hand away from him and began to clean up the glass.

He helped her clean up, trying to think of how to tell her who and what she was. He didn’t even know how to start the conversation. He decided to let it come up naturally. She wasn’t telling him to get out, so he was content to go slow.

She kept giving him side-long glances and he could not read much from her. He could not tell what she was thinking. They finished cleaning up in silence, and then he returned to the chair at her desk, giving her space.

Rowan took the pendant out of the container and cleaned it. She examined the wolf closely.

That’s me, Trent told her inruhi.

She didn’t respond. She flipped it over and examined the other side.

That’s you,he said.

She still didn’t respond or act like she had heard him. Maybe she could not hearruhi.

She took the pendant and a notebook to the couch and sat down heavily, a beautiful frown on her face. She eyed him for a long minute, then said, “Are you a cop, too?”

Trent weighed his words carefully, instinct telling him that she needed him to ease in to the truth. Before he could say a word though, she yawned, then held up a hand.

“Wait, let me write my notes first, before I forget the details.”

She yawned again, covering her mouth with one pretty hand.

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