Page 63 of Shifters Unifying
Everything gleamed, and I took a quick look around the kitchen before I opened each screened window to let the night sounds in. Bugs collected on the outside of the screens, attracted by the dim light.
After I had rummaged through the cabinets, I tugged on an especially tall door, exposing shelves upon shelves of canned food in old-fashioned jars. Had the shifters grown the food themselves, too? Made the broth from bones simmered for days on end?
Shaking my head, I released a long breath. Who had taken the time to do all this? Nobody prepped food like this without a lot of love in them. Life as a part of a shifter family was always surprising me in unexpected ways.
Generally stocked, she’d said.
The cabin wasn’t just “generally stocked.” It waswell-stocked with homemade food which meant that someone kept an eye on it and multiple someones probably stocked it. Probably anotherof Olivia’s take care of everybody work she did behind-the-scenes.
I settled on an old-fashioned jar of veggie soup in a golden broth. A search of one of the drawers produced bottle opener. The jar’s metal top hissed as I used a bottle opener to break the seal. I could have dumped the contents into a bowl and tossed it in the microwave, but someone went to the trouble to can real food with wholesome ingredients. Nuking it felt almost disrespectful somehow. So, I placed a stainless-steel pot on one of the burners, poured the soup into it, and lit the gas burner, placing it on low.
While I waited for my food to heat, I decided to have a poke around the place. In two steps, I found the liquor cabinet, also stocked with good booze. After I grabbed a highball glass from the kitchen, I filled it with ice from the freezer before I poured top shelf Vodka, some lemon juice, and finished it with club soda. The Chilton hit the spot before I moved on, and my toes warmed. Then I continued my exploration.
Bookshelves lined the walls of the corridor which led to the only bedroom. At least half the shelves were dedicated to Louisiana history. One shelf held about ten shifter lore books. One caught my eye…
Bonding & Mating Practices of Feline Shifters.
When I opened the cover, I gasped at the scrawl inside.This Book Belongs to Marcus Steelehad been inked into the first page. When I snapped the book closed, a burst of dust filled the air. I shoved it back onto the shelf, wondering absently if there was a version for canine shifters which might clue me in on ways to make Logan beg and howl in bed.
Back in the human world, I would have used a little Google-Fu or buy an issue of Cosmo from the check-out lines at the supermarket. My stomach growled, a strange sensation afterdays and days of being so obsessed with Logan that I only ate when I had been forced to eat.
Was the obsession diminishing? No, I didn’t think so.
The distance between us probably had more to do with it than anything. The smell of carrots and onions soon permeated the air, and I grabbed a potholder to take the soup from the burner. I didn’t bother with a bowl. Instead, I grabbed a spoon and placed the soup on one of the woven placemats.
Then I swiped the mating practices book from the shelf and took a seat at the small table, set with only two places. It was a little odd to be reading a shifter sex book previously owned by Marcus, but it was more interesting than anything else I’d found on the shelves, and I hadn’t been able to find anything about shaking my booty for my wolf shifter mate. Maybe some of the information would be universal.
Soon, I’d had another Chilton, my supper had disappeared, and my head nodded over the book and the empty bowl. Reading the same page over and over wasn’t worth my time. So, I placed the dirty dishes in the sink and wandered toward the bedroom, glad for the high thread count sheets instead of a cheap sleeping bag on the ground back at Site 52. With the windows open on the cabin, the effect on my soul was the same, and the comfortable bed would make my back hurt a hell of a lot less.
Before I fell asleep, I tested the fated mate bond. Logan was as far away as he’d been all day, and I sighed, realizing that as much as I wanted to be alone, I also wanted Logan to come after me, to join me and make love to me in the quiet, away from the chaos of leading shifters.
All those shifters depended on me.On us.
My thoughts threatened to spiral in reaction to the weight and responsibility of the gargantuan task ahead of us.
Not matter how hard I tried to push the heavy, intrusive thoughts away, I couldn’t shake the knowledge that this wasthe lull before the storm, and I was resting in the stillness of borrowed time.
Acheron’s coming…and my choice was clearer than it had ever been.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
logan
No Man’s Land
After Midnight
Blueberries and sage…
The scent ofherperfumed the air around me, and my mouth watered for want of the taste of her. How long had it been since I’d buried my tongue between her legs?
As far as I was concerned, two minutes was too long to be away from her. Even as the responsibilities of protecting shifters and all of shifter-kind pulled at me, burying myself inside her was the culmination of everything I’d ever wanted, the sum of the alpha I’d become. I whined as I anticipated our meeting.
Moonlight poured from the sky, and a thunderstorm built in the distance, the clouds churned on the horizon. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I scented the breeze, recognizing two differing scents almost immediately. Another had been here. Emma and…
I squinted, sorting the scents in the air… It had been…
An armadillo.
