Page 32 of Shifters Awakening

It was good to feel more like myself again. The only moment I’d been about to break down had been when I had brought up talking to my mom. After the last twenty-four overwhelming hours, my response hadn’t been much like me, and I’d had a few minutes to process the reality of not sharing with her. How could I be this new version of me andnottell her?

Unless I just never shifted again…

I frowned. Would that be possible? Could I just not shift anymore? Go back to my old life and pretend nothing had ever happened?

Impossible.

Which meant I had to figure out how to live with my new powers, the results of genetic gifts from one or both of my birth parents.

No way my adoptive parents had known I had shifter genes in me when they had adopted me. I was a baby without much history. It had taken being attacked by a mountain lion for me to figure it out. Then I’d been kidnapped by a contractor and decided to hang out to eat breakfast at my kidnapper’s house. Sophia Carter wouldn’t be able to process my last twenty-four hours on any level at all.

I would bet money Logan hadn’t told any of his pack I hadn’t shifted into any kind of canine, and a band of worry wrapped around my stomach. What would they do when they figured out I’d been a bear and a fox but not a wolf? Did it matter?

Olivia marched toward me with a determined look on her face. “Come on. I’ve got to start teaching you about your powers.”

My powers… I’d wanted to leave after breakfast, but the idea of learning something about my powers intrigued me, and I wasn’t needed in Willow Creek until tomorrow. Could I shift again? The previous night seemed more like a fading dream than fact. Still, the bossy tone Olivia used didn’t sit well with me.

Logan remained in the corner, not speaking.

“I think I’d rather take a nap,” I said without moving from my spot at the table.

Her eyes bulged, and she shot Logan a dark glare. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll get a nap, but we’ve got to see if we can condense your training. Get your shoes.”

“What if I say no?”

Olivia crossed her arms and leaned back to consider me. “You won’t get your way.”

I flashed a brazen smile. “Maybe not today,” I countered, “but I’m not into obedience training, so you pin that in your brain for when I’m strong enough to refuse.”

At that, Logan’s laughter echoed through the dining hall.

Olivia’s sullen face was her only response.

Olivia led me to a large, refurbished building about one hundred yards behind the manor. She punched in a code, and the fortified metal door swung open. “This used to be for warehousing and drying tobacco before shipment. After the farm here closed permanently, Logan’s father added temperature control and turned it into our training room. Bathrooms are through the door at the back.”

Sticks, knives, and swords of varying lengths surrounded us, neatly arranged on the walls by length. Guns filled the illuminated glass case at the end of the warehouse, and thick mats covered the floor. The hum of an air conditioner kept the temperature inside cooler than it was outside.

“We have the place to ourselves for the day. Nobody else’s code will work. Only mine. Shoes over there.” Shewaved toward a nearby shoe cubby. “Since you’re a prude, we’ll train with our clothes on.”

Ignoring her jab, I slid out of my hiking shoes. At least they’d come along with the rest of the stuff from my campsite. Then I tucked my cell phone inside them. “Since I’m a shifter now, will I get a code?”

“Eventually.” She tapped something on her phone. “Dr. Wise says she’ll be here this afternoon.”

“Who’s that?”

“A human, like Sheila, who’s been compiling shifter lore for decades. She’s knowledgeable about the multimorph prophecies, so Logan asked her to come by to meet you.”

“There’s more than one prophecy?”

She shrugged. “Different iterations to go with different emergences.”

“Then I’m not the first one.”

She typed something out on her phone screen. “No.”

I bit back a sigh that turned into a yawn. “What time?”

“What time?”

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