Time Mends(13)

My eyes fixed on the Oriental rug that hid a grape juice stain. It had been there so long, I couldn’t remember is Jase or I was the culprit.

“Scout, tell me. Who was it?”

The edge of the carpet was starting to fray, and the colors were looking washed out. I would have to suggest to Dad we buy Mom a new one for her birthday.

“Scout,” Mom chimed in, her voice thick. “Please. It wasn’t…”

Some tears fell, making an ironic smiley face on the pajama bottoms I liberated from Talley’s bedroom.

“No…” She was crying, too. I could hear her sobs, smell the salt of her tears, but I couldn’t bear to look at her. “He’s your brother. He loves you. He would never…”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I bolted from the room and ran up the stairs, away from the truth.

***

The lake’s shore was the same, yet somehow not. The colors were wrong, too… bright? Intense? Green? It reminded me of the way things look right before an epic summer storm.

It was the exact same way things looked last night after the Change.

And Alex wasn’t alone. A puppy with grey human eyes bounced excitedly around his legs.

“Everything is different,” I said as I made my way to the place where Alex skipped stones across the lake’s surface. Or, at least, he was attempting to skip stones across the lake’s surface. In his defense, what he lacked in form he made up in persistence.

“Change does that,” he said, sending another rock to its watery grave. “I think it’s part of the definition. ‘Change. A verb. To make different.’” He flashed a smile, dimples and all, but it was wrong, too.

“Thanks, Obi-Wan. Where would I be without your guidance?” The wolf pup noticed my existence for the first time and bounded up to my side. “Hey there, boy,” I said as I scratched behind its ears. “Aren’t you a handsome fellow?”

Alex laughed and the pup growled. “She is quite cute, but Nicole won’t think twice about biting you if you call her a boy again.”

I looked at the tiny gray wolf who abandoned threatening me for the joy of having her belly scratched by Alex.

“But she’s a Shifter, right?”

“Yes.”

“But girls can’t be Shifters.”

Alex looked up at me through a curtain of bangs in desperate need of a trim. “How did that theory work out for you last night?” I double-checked, just to make sure… Yep. He was smirking.

Asshat.

“What happened to me?”

He leaned back on his heels, wrapping his long arms around his knees. Nicole glared at me, as if it was my fault her belly-scratching came to an end. “Last night you successfully completed your first Change. I thought you would figure that out when you grew a tail.”

“How, Alex? How did I Change? How did I grow a tail?” I screamed. “I’m not a Shifter, so please explain to me how this happened!”

“Of course you’re a Shifter.” He came over to me, cupping my cheek in his hand. It was the first time he had touched me since I arrived, and I nearly collapsed at the warmth and reassurance radiating through me. “This has always been your destiny. It’s who you are.”

“I only think it’s fair to tell you, I don’t believe in destiny.”

“That’s okay,” Alex smiled. “She believes in you.”





Chapter 6





I knew there was someone in my room before I even opened my eyes. I could hear her breathing and smell the scent of her baby shampoo. Of course, even someone without canine senses could’ve achieved the same thing with Talley leaning over them, her face an inch away.

“Are you planning on waking up today or not?”

“Not.” I had no idea what time it was, nor did I care. I was accustomed to twelve to eighteen hours of sleep a day. My all-nighter totally wiped me out.

A tap against my arm. “Scout.”

“I’m sleeping.”

A shake of my shoulder. “Scout.”

“Go away.”

The covers jerked back, exposing my legs to the chill of the room. “Scout.”

“I hate you,” I said, sitting up to retrieve the blankets now pooled below my knees. I was just awake enough to marvel over the ability to do so without pain.

“You love me,” Talley said as she flounced down behind me so I couldn’t lay back down. “You know how I know?”

“Cause you stole it out my head just like you did my graduation speech?”

“Because you’re all growls and no bite. A Shifter attacks anyone who invades their den unless they consider them family.”

“You make me sound like an animal.”