Page 239 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

Chapter 3

Bailey enjoyed catching the trains, and not just because he became lost in the crowd. He sat next to Matt, his best friend since he’d started school, watching people get on and off at each station.

They were busy going places. Some were heading to work, and Bailey envied them. He wanted a legit job. As much as he hated the construction vocation training, Gran’sfriendshad forced him to do, it had given him a taste of the outside world.

He’d get the damn certificate, and he’d be able to find a job anywhere.

Only a few exams and he was done.

The idea thrilled and terrified him. He was running out of time to get enough money together that he could escape. He should’ve saved every dollar from his first nightclub card run the day after he’d turned seventeen. But it had been the first time in his life that he’d had money to spend on himself.

Matt elbowed him. “You’re quiet…extra quiet today.”

“Yeah. Thinking. You still applying for the navy?”

“I think so. If I get in, it’s a guaranteed job. Have you changed your mind? Want to come with me?” Matt grinned.

They’d had this conversation more than once. Matt hadn’t wanted to stay in school, but his dad had insisted, wanting his son to have a better education and chance than he’d had. Bailey liked Matt’s dad and there’d been a few times when he’d been tempted to say something about his situation, but the fear of punishment kept him silent.

“Maybe.” Would the military keep him safe from Gran’s men? Or would they take it out on Gran until he caved?

He doubted the defense force would even take people like him. He needed space to shift every so often, and he shed if he did it inside—though sometimes he didn’t have a choice, and neither did Gran. His magic wasn’t neat like a witch’s.

“I thought you’d got something lined up for next year.”

Bailey gazed out the window, the suburbs flicking by. Working in the construction business that formed the legitimate part of the men’s business wasn’t a plan, it was an order even though it had been made with smiles and the promise of taking care of him and Gran for a few favors.

“It’s the fallback.” He didn’t know what he wanted to do.

He should know. All his other friends knew. They were going to university or getting apprenticeships. A restlessness burned in his blood, and he kept feeling for the bond, half hoping, half fearing that it was gone. The bond vibrated and hummed in his bones. Kass only a thought away.

The trained stopped and Bailey’s cheeks pulled tight. If he’d been in his snow leopard form his whiskers would’ve been twitching. A woman stepped onto the train; backpack slung over one shoulder.

The other reason he liked trains and heading into the city was that sometimes he smelled other shifters. And they smelled him, and he knew he and Gran weren’t the only ones. There were others out there and he was willing to bet they lived proper lives like regular people.

The woman tilted her head, and then turned slightly to glance at him.

Bailey lifted his chin then let his gaze slide away even though he wanted to walkover and ask her a hundred questions. Who protected her from the government? What animal was she? A lion? There was something about the way she stood—or did he know that because some part of him recognized a fellow shifter?

Matt leaned in. “Do you know her?”

“Don’t think so.” He turned his back on her, wishing he was alone so he could talk to her. There were no shifters where he lived except for snow leopards, and they were all in the same situation. He didn’t dare ask them anything.

“She’s checking you out.”

Bailey rolled his eyes. “Not my type.”

She was only looking because of what he was. Had Kass searched for a shifter hoping to drain his life? To turn his bones into charms and make his pelt into a coat to become invisible? Maybe if they’d been living in Russia. Maybe when Gran had been a child witches had done that. But in Sydney? He’d never heard of any suspicious kill on the news. But maybe there were witches that made all of that disappear.

The train stopped, and he stood.

Matt shoulder checked him as they exited the train. “And what is your type?”

He’d told no one he wanted a boyfriend, not a girlfriend.

“Pretty and totally out of my league.” He’d never even had a boyfriend, and now he had a mate.

What the hell was he supposed to do?

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