“Hey!”
"Sorry, thislovingly cared forhome and the people in it will take good care of you."
“Thanks, it’s great.” I summoned a smile for my welcoming host. “Really.”
The bag Dad packed for me hung around my shoulder, ready for me to unpack while settling into my temporary shelter. My feet stayed rooted to the spot.
"Even without the fancy warding, you’d be safe here,” Aaron confided when noticing my hesitation. “Not many people are stupid enough to try invading a wolf’s den, especially when the wolf runs a powerful supernatural law enforcement agency."
“Huh?” I blinked, surely he didn’t mean himself.
"The director you met, Merritt? He lives here.” Chase nodded to the shorter man. “This is his mate."
Oh. Those dots were easy enough to connect, yet the obvious conclusion had escaped me. The sunny, accommodating man with the ‘mi casa es su casa’ attitude just seemed unsuited to such a stern-faced, rigid detective who could send a chill down your spine even in the Sarah Desert at noon.
…Other questions were also cleared up. Director Slate was Chase’s brother, and this was his brother’s mate. They were family. Not that it mattered to me.
After moving in and unpacking, the exhaustion of a long day filled with huge upheavals and family secrets caught up with me. I went right to bed.
Time to get down to business the next morning.
Chase, Temple, and I gathered in the living room. They stopped their hushed conversation to stare at me when I joined them.
Had they been discussing—or even arguing—about how to proceed? The thought rattled my already uneasy stomach, and their attention caused me to fidget, er, fidget more. "Do we really have to do this so fast?"
"It’s actually a long time coming," Temple pointed out gently.
"You’re somewhat unbalanced,” Chase added. Not something a guy loves to hear.
"Remember the magic concealing your shifter side weakened after your accident, but hasn’t fully faded, so you’re sorta stuck in a place between human and shifter. You can’t go back and you can’t stay trapped while foreign magic and your shifter genes battle inside you. We need to move forward.”
Right. The chaos inside me was hardly pleasant. There was no other choice but to move forward.
Chase stepped forward. “Trust us, okay?”
Oh god, what hell awaited—
He held up a book and an MP3 player. “Which one do you prefer?”
Part of me expected strange rituals and chanting or a foul smelling and worse tasting magic potion to drink. Instead we went about a normal day. Reading the paper, brushing my teeth, watching TV, and several other regular activities. The only difference was that it suddenly took three people to accomplish tasks I’d managed on my own just fine before.
All activities included choices posed to me: eat this or that, sit here or there, watch this program or that. Tests? I’d hesitate. What was the right answer? What answer would stimulate a fox’s interest?
There were also other challenges.
“Think fast.” Chase tossed a small stress ball at me. I narrowly batted it away.
"Okay, what’s going on?" I demanded. “Am I passing or failing?”
"Nobody’s testing you. Just observing your reactions. Some choices require thought and others don’t. We’re looking at what triggers your gut reactions and instincts."
"Because instincts are connected to the animal side?” I guessed.
"Both animals and humans share instincts,” Chase said. “Best to meet on common ground."
“Did you learn anything?” I asked.
“Well—"
