Page 30 of Shifters Awakening

Pressed against the back of her chair, Emma made no sound. She placed her hands, palm down, on the table as though bracing herself for an explosion. Her chin quivered, but nothing could drag her eyes away now. Her face stretched into the rapturous look roller-coaster addicts always got right before the first drop. She had no idea.

Olivia dropped to all fours, fully formed in a shaggy blond wolf with steely gray eyes. She peered at Emma a moment before nuzzling the vet’s hand, a toothy smile stretched on her jaws.

Emma whimpered, but she didn’t pull away. “She-She… shifted.”

“Yes, that’s what it looks like. That’s why you’re exhausted. That’s why you’re hungry. That’s why it’s so hard on your body until you get used to it. The shift is literally rearranging your cells into something else, held together by magic and willpower.”

She studied the people in the room. “You can all do that?”

Each attendee nodded.

“And I can do that?”

“Yes, after some practice,” I said. “They all shift into wolves. Our pack is all wolf shifters. As wolf shifters, we have animal-specific skills, like a great sense of smell, night vision, pack hierarchy, and so on.”

The corners of her mouth turned down, and she swallowed. “But… I… Didn’t I…”

Olivia loped around the table, and her furred earsswiveled back and forth. She darted out of the dining room, her claws clicking on the floor as she circled the house and returned.

Gently, I laid my hand on Emma’s arm and jerked my head toward the room which was emptying out. “That’s the other big thing we need to talk about. There’s more to what happened to you, but we should talk about it in private.”

“Okay.” She tugged her cell phone from the pocket of her shorts and studied the screen. Her eyes turned glassy with unshed tears. “I’d like to tell my mother. Is that acceptable to the pack?”

I pushed my plate away and crossed my arms on top of the table. “Don’t you think she’d believe you? You must have shifters in your family.”

Her chin quivered, and when she blinked, tears fell over her cheeks, but she dashed them away with more force than necessary. “My mother wouldn’t know.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m adopted, and I never knew my birth mom.”

“Ah.” The news surprised me.

“So, I-I don’t know anything about my birth parents, and neither does she, but I’ve never kept anything important from her. She’s been there for me through a lot of shit, and this qualifies as a lot of shit.”

“The pack won’t have any say in whether you tell your mother. However, the general population of humans doesn’t know about shifters, but all of us probably have one or two trustworthy people who knowabout our abilities.” The chair squeaked as I leaned back. “In fact, you’ve met one of mine.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Sheila. She’s my cousin.”

Olivia sat back on her haunches and observed our conversation.

Emma’s expression turned thoughtful. “Callie’s mom?”

“Only one of her parents was a shifter, and she didn’t wind up with the genetics for it, though we all like to drink at Vixen’s when we’re in Willow Creek,” I said.

“Your cousin can’t shift?” Emma asked.

“So far as we know,” I answered. “Shifting usually happens sometime after puberty, but it can happen at any time. The stronger the shifter magic, the sooner the first shift… usually.”

“Does that mean my magic isn’t strong?” she asked.

“No. In your case, that’s clearly not what that means,” I said. “There’s much more going on with you, and we’ll figure it out together. It’s likely that you suppressed your ability until your life depended on it.”

Another burst of wind flooded the room as Olivia morphed back into a human who was wearing nothing but a gigantic smile. She redressed herself and took a seat at the table once more.

Olivia’s eyebrow arched. “Believe shifting is a thing now?”

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