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Chapter Sixteen
Druscilla
If I kept having these heart rate spikes, I was going to end up in the ICU. Or the bathroom, where I ran whenever one of them touched me. Somehow, I’d have expected to be more mature about these things just by virtue of being in my twenties. But, apparently, having skipped most of the crushes and broken hearts of my teens, I still had to go through all the immaturity before I could see men through the eyes of a grown-ass woman.
And this wanna-be grown-ass woman was heading outside with two very grown-ass men to see what kind of unique shifters I’d be writing my book about.
“Can I take pictures?” I wasn’t sure if I should even ask, but what could they say but no?
Orion glanced at Koa then shook his head. “Not this time, okay? I don’t want to sound trite, but maybe just be in the moment and not hide behind a lens. Later on, we can talk about it. But none of our people have ever been captured in a clear photograph, and I’m not sure I want to be the first.”
“Or me.” Koa pulled his T-shirt over his head. “But mostly, as my brother said, be in the moment. We don’t show ourselves lightly, as you know.”
It was hard to listen when I was looking at abs like that… But I managed to nod.
“Sit right here.” Orion pulled a wooden rocking chair, beautifully carved like everything of wood here, into the center of the back porch. “And just watch.”
Once I was settled, they both hopped off the edge of the porch to the sloped backyard below. I’d heard from Anais and some of the other people I knew who had spent time with shifters that nudity while shifting was a necessity to keep from destroying clothing, and that it was not considered courteous to make a big deal or stare at them, but dang, if they were all as hot as these two? Orion removed his shirt as well then unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down the finest behind I’d ever seen. Not that I’d seen many; only in the movies really, if you discounted the ones that were covered by bathing suits. Then Koa did the same. They were already barefoot, and neither wore underwear, but they were also facing away from me, so I didn’t get a look at their male bits. Their cocks, as a mature woman might say.
But that was okay. I was already ogling and embarrassed and so wet, I was probably going to leave a stain on the rocking chair. Their thighs were like tree trunks, their biceps bulged, and their trim waists served to enhance their hips and broad shoulders. I might have drooled a little. Then I saw them start to change and went from lust to fascination in the blink of an eye. They were already very tall but they grew even taller, hair growing so fast that it seemed to have just appeared from nowhere. They still hadn’t turned toward me, but I had a good idea of how they’d look from the front.
Because I had seen one or maybe two just like them before.
These unique shifters who had made their change with none of the writhing and struggle I understood was common among more…common shifters. They had transitioned smoothly from handsome tall muscular men to Bigfoots.
My head spun. All the searching and dreaming and doubting myself. And they were right here all along. And probably somewhere near the spot where I’d seen them nearly two decades before. They ambled around, playing in the small amount of snow that lay on the ground and tumbling like puppies. But these were no puppies.
These were one of the most sought-after creatures on the face of the Earth. If I took a picture right now, I could sell it to a tabloid for a ton of money. Enough to allow me to continue my research for a lifetime. I could hop in the van and travel and…and what? I’d been looking for Bigfoot this whole time, wanting to confirm in my mind that an experience I had as a small child was valid. That I remembered it correctly.
As the two of them finally turned to face me directly, I suddenly recognized that I no longer had a reason to search. At least not for Bigfoots. It wasn’t as if I wanted to do a head count or anything. It had been a personal quest that in the blink of an eye, the shift of a man to another type of creature had come to an end.
I’d won, sort of. Proven that little Druscilla had truly let a Bigfoot take her hand and lead her back to the campsite. That creature had possibly saved my life, although I supposed the point could be made that I’d only gone out into the forest alone because they were there making noise. Of course, six-year-old me could have encountered something much less likely to save me. But I felt a little hollow inside as my entire life’s purpose was fulfilled. Somehow, somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d never really believed it would happen. And although I’d tried to convince myself I’d stop it and focus on something more productive, I didn’t really believe it.
But, there was something so much more filling that hollow, and I couldn’t put a name to it. It was warm and sweet and I—
Suddenly the two Bigfoots were gone again, replaced by two naked and very hot men. They donned their jeans and came up to sit on the porch steps in front of me.
“Well?” Orion tipped his head back to look up at me. “Surprised?”
“You’re real.”
Chapter Seventeen
Koa
She said she was fine and, on the outside, she was somewhat. But as I shifted back to human and put on a pair of pants, I could hear her rapid heartbeat—her shallow breaths. She could pretend all she wanted, but she was not okay. The tangy scent of stress filled my nose but she wasn’t scared of me. She was overthinking the repercussions.
“Tell the truth,” I said with a wink. We stood in front of our mate. She hadn’t run screaming, and I counted that as a win.
“I can’t believe you two are Bigfoots. No wonder you’ve been so secretive.”
Now to tell her the other secret. The one that had been harder to keep than even the fact that we were Bigfoots.
“Let’s go inside. You’re cold, and there’s more we need to tell you. Something even more important than our species, Druscilla.”
A gasp from her lovely mouth came before we escorted her inside. We insisted that she sit down because what we had to tell her might be even more jarring than what she just saw.
“We have something else to tell you,” Orion said, pulling up a chair in front of her and taking her hands in his.
