Page 39 of Shifters Awakening

I leaned against the four-wheeler as they closed the distance. “How did it go?”

Olivia gave a satisfied nod and kicked a rock back toward the drive. “She managed another shift, and we figured out something else about her.”

“What’s that?”

Olivia didn’t answer until they stopped in front of me. “She’s a healer.”

“How do you know?”

“Relic.”

My choice for a teacher for Emma had paid off. Olivia’s special skill was investigation, and she was always having gut feelings about people, putting things together that no one else saw.

I held up one finger and then two. “How many shifts?”

Emma’s bright expression dimmed slightly. “Only one,” she whispered. “Olivia thought trying for another form would be too much for my first twenty-four hours.”

“Good call,” I said. “It’s incredible she’s still upright, taking everything in stride.”

Olivia grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s incredible that she shifted after two tries. Got the wind magic on her first real attempt.”

A low whistle was myonly response. Too much external expectation could interfere with Emma’s remarkable progress, so I didn’t add anything else. “Ready to meet Dr. Wise?”

“Who is this again?”

“Dr. Wise it the human who’s compiling information about the shifters. She’s interested in the multimorph, and she’s been compiling information about other multimorph emergences.”

“Other emergences?”

“Other iterations of who and what you are. Any time we have a looming threat, a multimorph emerges to help battle it. You’re the answer to the Acheron question.”

“And I’ve been prophesied?”

“Yes,” I said.

Her face twisted in shock. “And you just believe it?”

“Yes, because my father believed the multimorph would emerge any day, and I’ve seen you shift into multiple forms. I’ve grown up with the idea that when things were growing bigger than we could handle, all of the shifter magic collects in one shifter, and our kind would welcome a multimorph.”

Her shoulders drooped. “I don’t get any of this at all.”

“Maybe Dr. Wise will help. Ready to meet her?”

“Okay,” she said. “Sure. Why not?”

“Olivia, grab somebody to put the four-wheeler away and then join us in the study.”

“You got it.” Though, instead of getting anybody else, she slid onto the four-wheeler, started it up, and zipped away.

Emma turned toward me as we made our way up thefront steps. “She said Dr. Wise embedded with your pack.”

“Embedded? Like a reporter on the front line? Figures she’d call it that. She’s never been a fan of Dr. Wise’s involvement in our magical histories, and she’s always treated Dr. Wise as though she doesn’t belong.” I reached around Emma and tugged the front door open, resisting the urge to take a deep breath as I moved closer to her.Fuck.The position was too much like hugging, and I already wanted it—her—bad, though my nearness didn’t seem to impact her at all. “Nervous?”

“I guess. She said Dr. Wise’s interest was?—”

“Because of the relics,” I finished. “It’s true. We have more than any other clan, and we have oral traditions about each one. Dr. Wise is a human historian, not a reporter. She’s compiling as much of our lore as she’s able. Much of it consists of oral retellings passed down, but we have about two hundred documents and about one hundred relics.”

“How did she learn about shifters?” she asked.

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