I thought about the voice I heard the night before. It was sophisticated and authoritative, nothing like the chipper chatter coming from the girl in the chair across from me.

“You talked to me last night?”

“I asked who you were like three times before you pushed me out of your head.” She stopped eating to look at me, her fork posed in mid-air. “How did you shut me out like that, by the way? I’ve only known one other Shifter who could do that.”

I pushed her out? Huh. Maybe the head shake thing worked. “I don’t know. I just didn’t want someone talking in my head, and then they weren’t.” I scrapped the last bite off of my plate. “Who was the other Shifter?”

Talley shoved the rest of her food over to me before knotting her fingers into her hair. After her rather dramatic pause she practically whispered, “Liam Cole.”

Of course Alex’s brother could shut out a Seer. If a Shifter could do it, Liam could. He even managed a few things that were supposed to be impossible, like Shifting back human during a full moon. He was a super-werewolf, as dominant as Dominants came.

“But not Alex? You could talk to him?”

“Only when he would stop talking long enough for me to get a word in.” She smiled at the memory. “It was mostly all ‘Scout this’ and ‘Scout that’.” Her smile was small and sad. “He was so in love with you.”

I felt a familiar knot in my throat. “I loved him, too.” I scraped up a rogue bit of cheese off the plate. “Tal, has anyone ever, I don’t know, stayed a wolf? Like they got stuck in their animal form?”

Talley looked confused by the sudden change in topic. “I don’t think so. Most Shifters can’t manage to be in animal form more than a couple of hours a month, no matter how hard they try to Change. I can’t imagine anyone being able to maintain their animal form permanently.”

“But what if there was an accident? Something that made it impossible for them to survive in their human form?”

A frown tugged on the corners of Talley’s mouth as she realized what I was asking. “I told you, Scout. That wasn’t Alex you saw at the cemetery.”

“That’s not —”

“He’s dead, Scout. You know that, right?” Her bright blue eyes bore into mine. “Tell me that you understand that Alex is gone and never coming back.”

“I was there when he died. I watched them put his coffin into the ground.”

“And you still believed you saw him at his own funeral. Now, tell me you know that he’s dead.”

I thought again about the wolf in the woods, the one I saw on the day of the funeral. “Alex is dead,” I said. “He’s gone and never coming back.”

Chapter 7

The remainder of my afternoon passed fairly peacefully. I spent most of my time with Angel, who wasn’t quite sold on the “I took a special pill and it made me all better” story. She felt a full physical was in order. It turns out that a seven-year old’s version of a physical is a lot of finger poking and trying to pull your scars open. I was fairly certain my entire body would be covered with tiny, finger-tip sized bruises the next day.

When I wasn’t being poked and prodded, I reread Dr. Smith’s book on Shifters. I had the thing practically memorized, but I held onto a sliver of hope it would explain how a non-Shifter girl was able to Change. Sadly, no new chapters magically appeared to offer up some answers.

I drove my new car down to the Base that night. I was fully prepared to hate it because of where it came from, but it was just too cool. After an hour of being on the road together we had completely bonded, and I was more than a little in love. I named him George and promised to take care of him - keep the gas tank full, have the oil changed, check the air pressure in the tires monthly and to never, ever let Jase leave his sweaty gym clothes in the back seat for a month during the hottest part of the summer. I knew from experience that a car would never be the same again after facing such abuse.

The entire Pack was already at Gramma’s when I arrived. They milled around the back yard where Grampa had constructed a fire pit decades ago. I always thought it was a rather elaborate set up for a place to roast marshmallows and hotdogs. The pit was surrounded by beautifully handcrafted benches made from entire halves of oak trees, each large enough to sit four adults comfortably. They were arranged into three rows of five that semi-circled the pit. Fifteen benches for a small family was excessive, but it suited the needs of a large Pack of Shifters nicely.

I made my way towards the fire pit where some of the younger Shifters roasted hotdogs while the older ones manned the three grills loaded down with hamburgers, chicken, and pork chops. I had stopped by McDonald’s for a super-sized Big Mac meal on the way down, but my stomach growled at the smell wafting through the air. I hoped my new Shifter metabolism was doing its thing, because otherwise I was going to weigh three hundred pounds by the end of the week.

“You came.” Makya stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “You do have brass ones, don’t you?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t have any at all, Makya. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a girl. Now, for the second time today, could you please get out of my way?”

Makya’s eyes took their time traveling up and down my body, finally affixing his leer on my chest. I felt more naked in my jeans and the faded Journey T-Shirt I stole from Dad’s closet than I had in Talley’s swimsuit cover-up. “I think you’ve moved well beyond girl, Scout.” He reached out and grabbed a strand of my hair, brushing his thumb over the tips.

“If you don’t take your hands off me I’m going to break every single one of your fingers.”

“Oh, you like it rough, do you?”

Shifters are not preternaturally strong or fast. Instead, their muscles are simply in the best condition possible. Could I bench-press a Humvee or run so quickly human eye couldn’t detect me? No. Could I pin Makya’s hand behind his back so quickly ninja would be jealous? Damn straight I could.

“That’s it, baby. Hurt me good.”

Was he serious? How was I suppose to deal with an idiot who wanted me to hurt him?

“You do understand I can and will break your arm, right?”

He laughed. “I’m getting turned on just thinking about it.”

Ewwww.