“Really? Huh. Nila is the same. We thought it was just because she was human that we couldn’t sense her. Zoe is most definitely a tiger shifter. The fact that we can’t sense her either is…interesting.”
“Vlad seemed to think so, too. Why?”
“It means there could be a lot more people like Zoe and Nila out there, and we wouldn’t necessarily ever know.” Alexis turned away from Zoe and very quietly said, “Our males don’t bother using birth control with human women because we don’t pick up the same diseases and we thought there was no possibility of a pregnancy. But now… Well, how many accidental pregnancies might have occurred from those couplings? How many children could have been born to shifter fathers without them even realizing?”
“Vlad thought I’d cheated on him when he found out I was pregnant,” she murmured as quietly as she could, hoping Zoe was too distracted by her new shape to pay attention.
“That’s probably not the first time that conversation has happened.”
“So…there could be others like Zoe, in pain and not understanding why?”
Alexis sighed. “Hell. I hate that idea.”
“Would some of them just…shift? Not fight it the way Zoe was?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. This is all hypothetical. It’s possible more humans than shifters have been born. Or it could still be Zoe and Nila are incredibly rare instances and there just aren’t any others like them.”
Rose watched her daughter roll around on the carpet, wiggling her back as if itching. “To be honest,” she murmured, “I hope they are rare because I hate the thought of other children, children you’d never be able to identify, going through what Zoe has been through for the last year.”
Alexis reached out and patted her hand where it rested on the couch. Both of them watched Zoe in silence after that. And Rose realized just how lucky they were Vlad had returned to them, even if his return heralded the start of a new and dangerous journey. The thought of how much worse things could have been for Zoe closed Rose’s throat. She didn’t want to even think about it. She might not completely trust Vlad, but she was extremely grateful he’d cared enough to come back.
Chapter Ten
The process of Zoe returning to human form went smoothly, though once she was human again, she wanted to go instantly back to her tiger form and go outside to play.
Rose put a stop to that thinking immediately. “You are only allowed to turn tiger when I say so, never in front of someone you don’t know, and never outside unless we’re well away from other people. Do you understand? This is a secret and you have to be careful to keep it.”
“But Vlad and Alexis know,” she whined.
“Because they’re tigers, too. They understand. Not everyone will. Okay? You have to mind Mommy in this.”
“Fine. When I go outside and play tiger?”
“We’ll find someplace, maybe go for a hike, and if I think it’s safe, you can change. But,” she said, interrupting Zoe’s bounce of excitement with a raised finger, “you have to listen to all the rules and when I say you change back, you change back. No arguing. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mommy,” she said, trying to hide her pout behind a “good girl” expression.
Rose wasn’t fooled for an instant.
Vlad returned just before lunch, his expression serious and contemplative.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked.
“My brothers have been…talking to other tigers, those sympathetic with my father’s anti-hybrid stance.”
“What does that mean to Zoe?”
“It means we’ll have to be very careful with her, even at the elders’ compound, even with the deal I’m working out with Elizaveta.”
Alexis came out of the kitchen with Zoe trailing behind her carrying a plate with a peanut butter sandwich on it. “I’ll talk to Victor," Alexis said. "I’m sure Elizaveta is already organizing things with him, but I’ll make sure he sets stuff up even she doesn’t know about." To Rose, she added, “My husband is in charge of the compound’s security systems. He’s a tech fanatic, so he’s got bugs and cameras all over the place as it is. I’ll make sure he’s got Zoe under surveillance at all times so we make sure she’s safe.”
“I’m not leaving her side, so that won’t be a problem.”
The lunch dishes were barely cleaned up when Zoe started pestering them to let her go tiger again. After some discussion, they decided a hike in the woods, somewhere relatively private, would give Zoe a chance to test out her tiger form in the open.