Page 68 of Shifter's Homecoming

Rowan looked around the lab with all the windows and thought quickly. “Maybe we should talk in your tree house. It seems like it would be safest.”

Reed nodded. “Good idea. I’ll wait for you to get dressed.”

Rowan realized she was still wearing only a towel. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and rushed for the stairs.

Once in her apartment, she grabbed some clothes, got dressed, and ran a brush through her almost-dry hair. She looked around, thinking the moment called for something. Wine! She could really use some wine, at least a little. She grabbed a sweet merlot from the fridge, plus two glasses, then she found a spare key to the lab to give to Reed, and rushed back down the steps.

She handed over the key, telling Reed to come in and use the bathroom or sink anytime she wanted, then they headed outside. Right away, the tree branches followed them, guarding them on both sides, and when they’d made it a ways, the branches came from the other side to escort them the rest of the way.

“How do you do that?” Rowan asked, mystified, and enthralled.

Reed shook her head. “I don’t entirely know,” she said.

Rowan was impressed as hell, but she couldn’t for the life of her think of anything that she could do that would qualify as a power like that. Her life had been mostly unremarkable, except for her lack of a solid childhood home, and the stories her mother told.

They made it to the tree house and went up the log stairs, still with their living wooden escorts. As soon as they made it to the top and went inside, the branches sealed over the entrance to the point that there was only a small window they could see out of.

Rowan looked around quickly. There was a bed in the corner. The base seemed to be living logs, while the mattress itself seemed to be tightly woven vines.Fascinating.

The howl of a wolf in the forest pulled her back to the opening where she could see out. She grasped the cool bark of the living logs protecting them and stuck her face outside, trying to see something, anything, a sick fear in her heart.

The reservoir stretched far into the distance, quiet and silent, the water not moving inside it. The forest lined it, also quiet and silent and not moving. Somewhere, a mountain lion screamed, making Rowan shiver.

“Do you think they are ok?” Rowan asked Reed, suddenly feeling terrified.

Reed looked at her sideways. “Can’t you talk to him telepathically.”

“Telepathically? What? No. I can’t do that.”

Reed shook her head. “Me neither, but most of them can. It’s been a bitch being the only one who can’t.”

Reed came next to her at the opening and put her hand on a log. After a moment she said, “They’re fine. I can… I can tell they are running through the forest and they are fine.”

Rowan’s mother’s story pulsed in her head like neon. “Were those mountain lions… were they people, too?”

“Yeah, in fact, that first one was watching you and Trent through the window and Troy caught him. He waspissed. He said he was going to snatch the kitty’s purr out and shove it up his ass.” Reed grinned at her. “You really don’t know anything yet, do you? Trent didn’t tell you any of it?”

Rowan looked to the side. She grinned sheepishly. She shrugged. “We’ve been… busy.”

Reed grinned back. “I know that kind of busy. If he’s like his brother, he’s insatiable.”

Reed looked for confirmation in Rowan’s face. Rowan hadn’t had enough experience with Trent to know if he was insatiable or not, but when she thought of his voice and the way he had mastered her body so far, she could imagine it, she couldfeelit. She shivered, yearning for him.

Reed nodded knowingly, and in that moment, they became friends. They smiled like confidants at each other until a mountain lion screamed outside, sounding far away, breaking the spell.

Reed took the wine from her hands and pulled her to the bed. They both sat down. Reed poured two glasses, then turned to her and held up her glass. “Cheers,” she said. “Here’s to your life never being the same again.”

Rowan clinked her glass to the other. “Tell me everything,” she said, then threw back her wine, draining the glass. It had never tasted quite so good before.

Reed took a tiny sip of hers. “I’m not sure if I’m the best person to do that,” she said. “Like I said, I haven’t been with Troy for long.”

“He bit you,” Rowan prompted.

“He did.”

“Did it hurt?”

Reed shook her head, a wicked smile on her face. “If it hurt, I wouldn’t keep asking him to do it.”

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