Page 61 of Shifter's Homecoming

Destiny. Destiny. Destiny.The word pulsed inside her head and each time, she denied it… because … because it made her nervous. The wolf and the angel on the necklace? They scared her badly. They made her think of her mother and her mother’s disastrous relationships.

Rowan had been with men. She’d had a few boyfriends, but she’d never met a man who could compete with the pull of the lab for her, or the pull of her work, and somehow, she’d always taken comfort in that. Somehow, she’d always thought that meant she would escape ending up like her mother. Sometimes, when she was completely honestly with herself, she knew that she was avoiding men, avoiding relationships, so that she didn’t end up like her mother, but she was young, she had time to avoid men.

This guy though? Him showing up seemed bigger than her, and bigger than her mother, and bigger than her past and even her work. She didn’t know whohewas and she didn’t know what he wanted from her, and she didn’t know why she had such a strong magnetic reaction to him but she knew she could not deny it.

She got up and went to the window again, and this time she noticed Troy and Reed. Reed was sitting in a chair in the shade but Troy was… Troy had a post hole digger and he was digging a hole near the fence around the pool of poison. There were rolls of fence laid out around the fence that was already there. Were they actually putting up a second fence around the first one?

Rowan sat there for a few moments thinking, as fatigue settled in on her again. She would sleep on it, that was what she would do. She couldn’t make any decisions at that very moment.

She took one last look out the window.Hewas still digging.

She laid back down in the bed, thinking she would lay there for a long time, thinking that maybe she was done with sleep for a while.

But she fell asleep quickly… and she dreamed.

She was a wolf, running in the forest, winding her way through the trees, following the scent of prey, running, running, running. She was alone this time, no wolves were with her, and when the trail she was on dumped her out at water she stopped. She shape-shifted—no longer a wolf, now she was a human, a naked human—herself. She walked on bare feet over mud and leaves, not sure where she was going.

Her own self came out of the bushes, seeming to have just materialized there. She stared at herself. She was still naked, but the Rowan she stared at was clothed like she was working, wearing a white lab coat, comfortable shoes, and simple black pants.

“It doesn’t matter if you believe in destiny or not,” the other Rowan said. “When your destiny finds you, you must go with it, or suffer.”

“I’m scared,” Rowan said.

“You’re scared of…” her other self prompted her.

“I’m scared because my whole life is about to change.”

The other Rowan nodded once but did not say anything. She seemed to be waiting for more. The forest was silent, like they were the only two in it.

“I’m scared that I’ll have to give up everything,” Rowan added.

“You have to give up nothing that is truly important to you, that’s not how destiny works.”

The other Rowan leaned in close, her features sharp and focused, her hands up and gesturing to emphasize what she said next.

“There will never be a better time than now, and there will never be any male other than him. Go to him.”

Rowan woke up again, only for a moment, and this time her hand wasn’t on her lips, it was over her heart.

42 - More Destiny

Trent fastened the last wire on the fence and stood back to look at their work.

“Good job,” he told Troy. “Nothing will get through that.” They’d reinforced the original fence and put up another one outside of it, then they’d even put on a second wire roof.

A strange popping noise echoed down the length of the water, bouncing off the forest on both sides. The water inside the pool oozed like liquid fire, more potent than lava, for just a moment, and the scent of Khain and the Pravus hit him in the face.

Trent growled and looked around. Troy did the same.

“That must have been the poison,” Troy said. “Spooky.”

The scent of Khain dissipated quickly. Trent felt jumpy as hell, anyway. He and Troy watched the water swirl red for another moment, then return to its normal oily look, with only a hint of red.

Trevor called inruhiwhile they were staring.Status report.

We are here,Trent told him.My mate is here, but she doesn’t know who she is yet. We’re busy, but I plan on telling her everything soon. I still think we’ll be here for a while though. She’s right in the middle of something important, something that has to do with the drop we aren’t talking about.

Do you need backup?

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