Page 67 of Shifter's Homecoming

The mountain lion jumped into a tree, but just when it was about to pounce on Troy below, the tree branch just … bent toward the ground, and another branch came from behind and pushed the feline off. It flew toward the ground, ears and tail and body twisting desperately. It landing mostly on its feet, then paced around in a circle for a second, throwing confused looks up at the tree.

The wolf sat on its haunches and bobbed its head up and down. Rowan could swear it was laughing.

Trent laughed, too. “Pussy cat just got his first lesson, courtesy of your sister.”

“Sister,” Rowan breathed. Shit, there was a lot to this that she was going to have to figure out. She wanted a hair tie. She wanted a pen and paper. She wanted to take notes and write up a report.

Troy-the-wolf waited for the mountain lion to be ready again, like all he wanted was a fair fight, but the mountain lion looked like it might be ready to give up. Until a second cat showed up, leaving the tree line at a run. The second cat leapt, heading straight for Troy. The other mountain lion leapt at the same time. They were ganging up on him!

Troy-the-wolf moved quicker than Rowan would have thought possible, launching himself from his spot, then circling around and biting the second cat on the side the moment it landed. Rowan covered her eyes before blood could fly.

Trent moved almost as quickly, sliding the door open. “I’ll be back,” he told her. “Shut this door and don’t come out. The only person you should let in here is Reed.”

Before she could say a word, heshiftedinto a big, huge, black wolf, his body straining forward, his face elongating, his ears perking, fur growing over every inch of him, his clothes ripping off of him. It happened so quick she couldn’t even play it back in her own mind, but there he was, with teeth that looked a foot long and a muscular body that moved quickly and powerfully, and that figure-8 on his left shoulder in white. He also had a bit of white on his chest and tail. Rowan’s heart pounded in her chest as the confirmation of every crazy word he had said leapt over the porch railing and landed on the ground below, then raced for the fight.

She ran to the door and slid it closed, then locked it, then she unscrewed the tiny bottle at her neck, and tipped her serum into her mouth, swishing it around her cheeks and under her tongue, then drinking it down. Only then did she dare to press herself against the glass door and watch, her heart in her throat.

45 - Inside the Tree House

Rowan plastered herself to the sliding glass door, standing on tiptoes and moving around, trying to get a good view past the porch railing. The black wolf that was Trent barreled in from the side and leapt, sailing clean over a mountain lion that was stalking Troy. Mid-leap, he reached down and caught the animal by the neck, using his body weight to pull the feline off its feet into a spectacular aerial somersault. They went down in a tangle on the far side of Troy and when they came back up there was blood, lots of it. Rowan could not tell who was bleeding; both animals were still fighting hard. The other two joined and it was a free-for-all for a good thirty seconds, the snarling and growling filling the night.

One wolf got one cat on the ground, and the other wolf grabbed at its hindquarters and yanked it, tearing at its flesh, then whirled to fight off the other cat. The cats seemed to give up at the same moment. They turned and fled into the forest, and the wolves followed.

Rowan stayed where she was for a moment, then ran to a window and slid it open, trying to hear what was going on, since she could no longer see them. She heard nothing for the moment. She held her hands to her chest and prayed silently that Trent was not hurt, and that he would come back to her. She barely knew the man, but her heart tore at the thought of him being hurt… or worse.

A female voice called her name. “Rowan!”

Rowan spotted who was calling her immediately. It was Reed, standing at the door of the tree house. She waved.

“Hi,” Rowan called, waving back.

Reed dropped her hand and they only stared for a few short moments.

“That was surreal,” Reed said.

Rowan nodded, thinking that was a good descriptor of their exact moment. Surreal.

“Will they be gone for long?” Rowan called to her.

“I don’t know,” Reed said. “I’m pretty new to all of this, too.”

“Really?” Rowan was suddenly fascinated. “How new?”

Reed thought for a moment. “Ah, I guess it’s been less than two weeks since Troy bit—” She stopped talking abruptly and looked around. “Maybe I should come over there.”

Rowan nodded. “Ok, but be careful.”

Reed took the steps carefully. Rowan was gratified and doubly fascinated when she saw two tree branches follow Reed down the steps, one on either side of her, like a railing… or a guard.

The branches followed her all the way across the yard to the back porch steps. When she got there, branches came from the forest on the other side, the now-closer side, while the first ones retracted back into the forest.

“Amazing,” Rowan whispered to herself. She’d never seen anything like it, even in a movie.

Reed made it to the door and came inside. The tree branches held themselves in place just outside.

“That’s cool as hell,” Rowan said.

Reed looked back at them, nodding, a slight smile on her face. “It is kind of cool,” she said.

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