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Chapter Ten
Livvy
Koby destroyed the smoothie bowl while I thought over and read the instructions. I wondered who had gone to the trouble of making a document this size? Was it Justice or Sloan? Or maybe Koby’s mom? Either way, it was impressive and a bit scary.
“Are you ready to go to the park?” I asked. Of course he was. Shifter kids had an abundance of energy to burn off, more than human children by a landslide, or so I’d been told.
“Park!” Koby yelled out and raised his hands, ready to be released from the high chair.
“First, we have to get cleaned up and get you out of these jammies. And you probably need to go potty.”
The kid had demolished his water as well.
While I cleaned him up, I took the opportunity to get to know him beyond the schedule. He liked the color blue and apparently wanted to be a bulldozer guy. Sound plans.
The park wasn’t far, so, hand in hand, we walked that way. I packed him some fruit, since the regular toddler snacks of animal crackers and goldfish were nonexistent.
Last night, Sloan and Justice told me they would be setting up an account for me. There would also be another one for house expenses and my expenses. The money they would put in the first account would be for my personal use. They were explicit about not using it for necessities. I would save every penny of that money, just in case this didn’t work out.
Justice was aloof, almost cold toward me. Not mean, not by a long shot, but purposefully keeping his distance. Sloan was friendlier, but they made great strides not to touch me or laugh too hard. I hadn’t known them for more than a day, but I knew when someone was restraining himself. They were probably still mourning.
I knew what that felt like, all the stages of grief.
“There’s the park!” I said, and Koby did a bit of a booty dance, which made me laugh. He was quite a character. “I bet you come here all the time.”
He stopped and nailed me in place with those big brown eyes. “No. No park.”
Shit. I was already breaking the rules. I’d rather ask forgiveness than permission. What kind of people didn’t allow a kid to go to the park?
“Well, here we are. Be sweet to the other kids, okay? I’ve got your water here.”
I watched Koby like a hawk. He kept his distance from the human kids, and I detected no other shifters around. Not even the faintest scent.
The sun beat down on me, and I moved to sit on the bench. The other mothers and fathers moved over, even though I sat on an empty one. Humans could sense predators. They probably didn’t recognize me or would think their instinct was because of stranger danger, but I knew the truth. Something inside them knew that I was a panther who could eat them alive.
Koby ran and jumped. The kid must’ve slid down the big slide a thousand times. In and out of tunnels.
He got a kick out of opening and shutting the door and shutters on the playhouse.
I stood as he fell once, on both of his knees, but he stood, dusted them off, and went about his business.
Tough guy.
As the sun reached its peak, Koby went into one of the tunnels, but he didn’t come out. My heart dropped right into my stomach. I tried not to sprint over and failed. I called his name, but all I heard was a squeak.
“Koby?” I called out. The response was a huff.
Not the huff of a human, either.
I crawled into the tunnel and got to the middle and barely held in my gasp. Koby had shifted. Right there. In the damned park. The very human park.
“Okay, buddy.” I had to stay calm even though my innards were shaking from fear. Fear for him. If someone saw him, his dads would have more trouble than his scheduling. “Have you shifted before?”
A nod. A damned nod. They knew he was an early shifter. That little detail was certainly left out of their novella.
“You can shift back to human? We have to be human to get out of here.”
His little paws clenched as a human would ball their fists and, in seconds, he was back to Koby. I let out a long exhale of relief.
