Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Chris stood from the armchair. “This is a lot. We don’t all have to be here.”
“It is true,” Soren said. Dried blood streaked across the Bobcats logo on his jersey from when he helped get Gabe back to his car. “We can go.”
This was all so fucking insane. It didn’t make absolutely any sense, and yet I had seen it happen with my own eyes. I watched Gabe transform from a wounded wolf to a wounded man. And I saw that gruesome injury heal to a tiny crescent-shaped patch of discoloration against his tan skin within minutes.
This morning, I had woken up in one world, and tonight, I would be going to sleep in another.
I just had to accept that as fact.
And yet… I was the only non-supernatural in this room.
“No,” I said, forcing myself to say something. “Stay. Please.” My voice was shaky. I could hardly look around at the gathered group. Gabe didn’t scare me, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with everyone else.
Not yet.
Gabe continued to rub my back. It was a soothing, grounding touch. He looked over at Emmy, who was already grabbing his coat. “You guys go. We’ll be okay. I’ll give him a crash course in shifters.”
“Call us if you need anything,” Emmy said. I lifted my gaze from the floor. Emmy smiled at me as he opened the door. “And Eli, welcome to the pack.”
Before I could refute anything—Pack? Welcome? I’m not one of you—he had left, the rest of the group following behind him.
The door closed with a quiet click. Gabe and I were alone.
“So,” he said. “What do you want to do now?”
I gave him a deadpan stare. He chuckled and bumped me with his shoulder.
“Let me refill your drink.” Gabe grabbed my glass and stood. “Tonight’s probably going to be a long one.”
I rubbed my face again and stretched, already feeling the stress of the day catching up to me. “You mentioned something about a hot tub?”
Chapter Nineteen
Vocabulary Lesson
GABE
Steam rose in thick plumes from the bubbling water. Eli propped his elbows on the rim of the hot tub, sipping his fourth vodka soda of the night. He set it back down on the edge and tilted his head back, looking up at the stars.
He looked pretty chill for someone who’d just had their entire lives turned upside down only a couple of hours before.
“What are you thinking?” I asked. There was still so much to explain to him, so many questions he likely wanted answered. I had barely scratched the surface about shifters and hadn’t even broached the topic of druids yet. What was Eli going to do when he found out there were people out there who could manipulate plants with their minds and control the natural energies that flow over the earth like invisible currents?
Yeah, no, that would have to be a topic for another day.
“What am I thinking? That maybe I wasn’t actually cross-faded and hallucinating that one time I thought I saw an alien run down my dorm hallway.”
“You were definitely hallucinating. Aliens don’t exist.”
Eli scoffed at that. “You’re telling me werewolves are real, but aliens aren’t?”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “We don’t use the term ‘werewolf.’ We go with were.”
“Why’s that?”
“Were is more all-encompassing. There aren’t just wolf shifters, and every shifter has a were form. It sounds weird when there’s a weresloth or a weresquirrel. Just a little clunky.”
Eli rubbed circles into the sides of his temple. “Is there a shifter for every type of animal?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “There are definitely some that are more common, though: hawks, horses, bears, wolves, panthers, and squirrels. There’s a huge squirrel shifter population on the West Coast, actually.”
“Is there, like, I don’t know, a secret online forum you guys congregate on or something?”
A jet of bubbles massaged my lower back. Eli sat directly across from me, his feet occasionally brushing against mine. My entire body thrummed and throbbed every time our feet touched. I may have been calm and cool above the water, but my throbbing, hard cock was telling a different story under the surface. “There’s ways to keep in touch and spread news, yes.”
“And how has no one been discovered yet? There’s a camera in literally every single person’s pocket nowadays.”
“A shift is impossible to photograph. No matter what lens or camera you’re using, no matter the aperture or the technique.”
“What about video?”
“Same,” I answered. “You aim a camera at someone shifting, and the entire memory card erases. The only vulnerability would be if we’re in our were forms. This happens every full moon and lasts the entire night. Most weres have bunkers and other secure locations they could go and lock themselves in to keep out of the public’s eye.”
“So… am I the only, um, human who knows about this?”
I shook my head. Our feet brushed together under the water. I didn’t move away, and neither did Eli. My ankle crossed his and stayed there. My stiff cock ached. I subtly massaged it under the bubbles. “There are people who know. Close family members, some select friends. Coach Julian knows, Emmy deciding to tell him after he noticed the lack of injuries and was beginning to question things. It’s not against the law to tell people if you think you can trust them and they could handle it. There are some in the government who also know and who help cover up anything that might cause issues.”