“Yes. What do I need to do?”
She faced Gage. “First, I need Gage to be out of sight. See that tree over there?” He nodded. “Stand on the other side so you can’t see me or Will. And Will, do the same with that tree.”
She’d angled the men closer to the shifters, hoping the mental messages would be clearer.
“Then what?” Will asked.
“Like before, picture yourself becoming a lion. Feel your body expanding and your muscles getting stronger. The mental image is important. If there was a physical threat nearby, both of you probably would be able to shift without a problem. But to change for no reason is more difficult. If you were in Anterra where the energy is significantly stronger, shifting would be easier.”
“Maybe we should go to Anterra.”
She chuckled. “Maybe someday.” Going there and being able to come back in a reasonable time could never be assured. Besides, the physical toll on her body would be quite severe.
Gage’s jaw tightened. “What’s different about this time over the last time? Will told me you’d figured out something different to do.”
She didn’t want to give away the fact that two shifters were nearby. “It’s a secret.”
His expression didn’t change. “If it’s a secret, we won’t know any difference, and this whole experience will be another fiasco.”
She didn’t know why he had to be so difficult. “Fine. I’m going to jump out at you and scare you into shifting.”
She expected Gage to laugh at her preposterous comment, but he shook his head and walked toward the tree she’d asked him to stand by.
She turned to ask Will to do the same, but he’d already left.
Only the pine trees had any green on them, so she wasn’t sure where Malik and Cavon were hiding unless they’d climbed one of the thicker-branched trees.
She prayed this worked. It had to. She knew in her heart that Will and Gage were shifters whether they believed or not. Gage groaned almost as if he were in pain. She started to go toward him then stopped. He stepped away from the tree, holding his hands over his ears.
Her mouth opened to ask him what was wrong when a huge flash of light stunned her. Her heart jumped to her throat, and she had to stifle the squeal. Behind her came another flash of light. Two lions ambled toward her. As soon as one caught sight of the other, they both halted as if they were trying to process what was happening. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to see another lion. She prayed they’d each recognize what had occurred.
Uh-oh. Did they have any idea how to transform back? Her stomach tumbled. What had she done? Malik and Cavon had to be near. Surely they’d intervene if something went wrong. The path she was on had foot traffic, if the lack of snow on the path were any indication.
“Maybe you should shift back now.” She tried not to shout, knowing that voices traveled far in the woods.
The one she guessed was Gage roared. From behind a large bush came Malik and Cavon in their lion form. There better not be a skirmish. All four faced off, and she eased forward.
“Cavon, can you tell the men how to change back? We don’t want anyone happening upon us.”
As if they sensed something she didn’t, all of them scattered and scurried up different trees. She spun around, waiting for a group of people to come upon them, but no one showed. Her heart lodged in her chest as the minutes ticked by. “This isn’t funny, guys. Please change back.”
Now she was worried, not for Malik and Cavon, but for Gage and Will. Two of the lions returned to the ground and scurried back to their respective trees. Two bursts of light happened almost simultaneously, and Will and Gage emerged.
Will raced up to her. “Holy, shit, holy shit. That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life.” He grabbed her to his chest and hugged her tight. He leaned her back and held out his hand. “I’m still shaking.”
Gage moved next to her but said nothing. Something was wrong. “Are you okay?”
“The voices in my head creeped me out more than shifting, I think.”
Will nudged him. “Don’t analyze it. Enjoy it. Did you see how easy it was to climb a tree?”
“That part was awesome.”
Cavon and Malik emerged as men with big grins on their faces. They said nothing, but both Will and Gage spun around.
Gage looked between her and her friends. “You’re putting thoughts in my head, aren’t you?”
Cavon answered. “It’s telepathy. We know what symbols to send. Your brain automatically translates them into words. I know you had some thoughts, but they came out jumbled. With a little practice, you’ll get it.”
Will moved closer. “Are you saying that Will and I can communicate completely without talking?”
Cavon inhaled a deep breath. “Yes and no. If you’re near the alignment point, yes, but the farther away you get, the less likely you’ll be successful. Besides, you two are new at it, but even when we’re at the hotel I have some static, so to speak, in the transmission.”
Will shifted his gaze to her. “That’s incredible.”
Gage spread his feet wide, looking like he was ready to do battle. “So now what?”
“It’s up to you,” Malik said. “Take your time. Come out here and run around. Enjoy yourself. Learn what you’re capable of doing. You’ll figure it out.” He nodded to her and both of the men before Cavon and Malik slipped back into the forest.
Gage shot a glance at both of them. “We need to go.”
“No fucking way, bro. You heard that dude. We should try that again. I bet it will easier the second time.”
Gage moved within a foot of his brother, and Sella had the sense they might get into a fight, so she stepped back.
“Don’t do anything stupid. What if someone sees us?”
“So? They’d think we’re mountain lions. They have them in Colorado.”
She was glad that was true. She couldn’t imagine if an elephant shifter or monkey shifter existed. Seeing one of those would make one doubt one’s sanity. Keeping her mouth shut for a change, she wanted to see what Gage’s reaction would be.
“You act like you’re considering staying here and playing Mr. Lion.”
“Would that be so bad?”
Gage shook his head, turned around, and hiked back down the trail. Will stood there. She expected him to either run after his brother or pound something. Instead he laughed.
“Can you believe my brother? You give us this incredible gift of having some superpower, and Gage walks off.”
“Being a shifter is a big responsibility, even if you stay in Spirit and don’t come over to Anterra.”
“How?”
“I’ve heard it told that over the years there have been a lot of robberies, attacks, and other terrible crimes committed in Spirit. When the cops go after these men, the perpetrators seem to disappear into thin air. A few times a blast of light has appeared. What does that tell you?”
“There are shifters who live in Spirit?”
“Precisely. For the most part, they’re wolf shifters.”
His jaw moved as if he were chewing and digesting what she’d said. “Why doesn’t someone go after them?”
“Only another shifter would be able to recognize whether a person was a shifter or not.”
“So the hair on the back of my neck that prickles would feel different if a wolf shifter came around rather than a lion shifter?”
Cavon should be here to help. “I can’t say how it happens with another shifter, but I personally can tell the difference. You learn the feeling. My stomach gets queasy, but I know for Henla, my younger sister, her jaw tingles. It’s different for different people.” She knew he wanted to learn more about the wolves. “Even if you could walk into a bar and point a finger and say that’s a wolf shifter, you couldn’t prove anything. You’d have to give away that you shifted, too.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms to get warm then shoved them in her pockets.
“Why doesn’t the sh
eriff’s department or police department employ a few lion shifters on their staff?”
The idea was so preposterous she had to laugh. “You are kidding, right?”
“No.”
“No shifter has ever appeared in public. Suppose, for example, an alien landed on the White House lawn. What would happen?”
His lips pressed together. “I would guess he’d be captured and studied.”
“The press would deny it, just like they denied Roswell.” He cocked a brow. “Yes, I did study Earth history.”
Will wrapped an arm around her waist. “Come on. Let’s head back before you freeze to death. We can talk about this later. We aren’t leaving any time soon.”
They hiked in silence for a while. From the way he was looking at the ground, Will’s mind was speeding, though she couldn’t blame him. “What are you thinking?”
“That maybe we don’t belong here. Being able to be so powerful is amazing, but if we can’t belong to the police force, what good can we do?”
She wished she had an answer to his questions. “I’d love to take you to Anterra. You should see it at least once since it’s where your ancestors were born.”
He stopped and clasped her shoulders. “Seriously? We can go over there?”
Her pulse sped up. “Yes. It’s beautiful and warm. Sure, there are dangers if the wolves act up, but it’s an amazing place. I’d love for you to meet my brothers. They run the security force for all of Anterra. You’d have a lot in common.”
He took a moment, as if he weren’t sure if he wanted to be tempted. “I’ll get back to you about your offer.”
She hooked an arm through his. “I totally get it. You and Gage come as a team.”
“Yeah. A team.”
* * * *
Gage couldn’t wrap his head around what had happened. He increased his pace toward the lift as if going faster would clear his head. One minute he was leaning against a tree, and the next these voices were softly prodding him to concentrate. It was the weirdest thing. Then, it was as if a force more powerful than a hurricane swooped down and took him out of his body. The sensation wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t like anything he’d experienced before. He was blind for a moment, and then he was about a foot off the ground. At first, he thought he’d fallen, but when he lifted his arm, he spotted the fur and then the paw. He remembered freezing and his mind blanking. Then came the smell of pine mixed with loam that was intensely stimulating his nostrils. The odor wasn’t unpleasant as much as it was stronger than he ever remembered. Only when he looked up and saw a similar beast in front of him did the whole event register. He’d shifted.
The hair on his back had rippled and the cold had seeped into his body, but he liked the cooling process. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for those other two other lions, Malik and Cavon, talking calmly to him, he would have freaked. Though how lions acted when they freaked out, he had no idea. Then without saying a word, the two men urged him to move and to run up a tree. He let instinct take over, and he’d be the first to admit that being able to keep going straight up the trunk was amazing and thrilling.
Once the man commanded him to change back to being a human right away, he obeyed. The other shifter said someone might come down the path. That made sense to him. That was a shame, because he might have enjoyed being a lion for a while longer.
He probably shouldn’t have stalked off, especially since everything Sella had told him had been true, but he wasn’t ready to commit to anything. He was more confused now than before he’d shifted.
The lift emerged through the trees, and Gage hurried to get away from the unsettling event. He jumped on the ski lift to ride it down to the bottom. He had mentioned something about skiing to Will, but even something as simple as staying upright would be a challenge right now. He kept losing his focus, which would signal disaster if he were to ski.
Sella, Will, and possibly those other two shifters would be down shortly, so he decided to wait for them. Being rude twice in one day wasn’t his style. Still, Sella had to understand why he’d run off. It wasn’t every day that a person learned they could do something as spectacular as change into a lion.
In a way, if he and Will could shift while in Miami, he bet he’d be quite the sensation. If a robber tried to escape, Gage could turn into a lion and outrun him. Taking him down would be simple, assuming he didn’t get shot in the process. Though once the world caught on to their talent, they’d be mocked as freaks and tossed in a zoo. Damn. Nothing was easy.
He shook his head, trying to dislodge that thought. Sella had said his “powers” didn’t exist outside of Spirit. In the end, that might be a good thing. A person couldn’t just decide to be a lion shifter without considering all of the consequences to both his family and his work.
He could see it now. He’d fall in a love with a woman, and right before he asked her to marry him, he’d say, “Oh, hon, in case I forget to tell you later, I can change into a lion if I’m near an alignment point.” At which point, she’d either pass out or walk away. No, thank you. Either his existing clients would fire him or they would commit him to a mental institution.
The wait wasn’t long before Will and Sella descended from the mountain. He looked around for the other two lion shifters, but he figured they probably were in their shifter form and out of sight.
Sella smiled. “Hey, you waited for us.”
He had a hard time meeting her gaze. “Yeah. Sorry about running off.”
“I understand. It had to be unsettling.”
That was an understatement, yet Will didn’t seem to have the lingering effects of the change. “Yeah.”
“You want to get something to eat?” Sella asked. Her chest inflated as if she were waiting to see if he’d bite her head off.
He rubbed a hand down her arm to show he wasn’t mad at her. “Would you be upset if I asked for a rain check?”
She looked up at the sky, and only then did he remember that she truly was from another reality where they probably didn’t use the American idioms, despite her claim that she watched their television. He had yet to understand how the television connection worked. Then again, he couldn’t understand how he’d turned into a lion either.
Will wrapped an arm around her waist. “I think what my brother is trying to say is that he’d like to perhaps have dinner tomorrow night. Right now, he wants to sit and meditate about what happened. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” Her disappointment soured his stomach, but he wasn’t fit company for anyone, especially someone as special as Sella.
Will pulled her close. “Tell you what. How about if you and I walk around Spirit and pick a place to eat? We’ll explore. It will be just the two of us.”
She twisted in his arms and bounced up and down. “I’d love to explore.”
“Done.” Will looked over at Gage. “You ready to head back? I could use a shower.”
“Sure.”
Will leaned over Sella and kissed her. Gage’s cock jumped just thinking about kissing her, too.
Chapter Seven
Gage decided just to order room service for dinner, as his head was in a tailspin, and he wasn’t in the mood to be with a roomful of people. Since Will had gone out to dinner with Sella, he didn’t expect to see him until late in the evening. So when the door opened and Will walked in, he was surprised.
“Everything go okay with Sella?”
“Yes. We had a great time.”
“You aren’t with her because?”
“She suggested that you and I go for an evening run. There’s a gondola that goes up to the top, too, that’s for foot passengers. I doubt anyone will be hiking on the path at night.”
When they’d shifted into lions, their clothes seemed to disappear, yet when they returned to their human form, they had on the same set. He still didn’t understand that dynamic. He imagined it would be the same with a flashlight. “Why did she think we needed to go out again?” Even after pondering this whole shifting thing for the
last few hours, he didn’t have any clearer idea of what happened than when he started.
“Why? Are you kidding me? This may be the only time in our lives that we can be superheroes.”
That did make him laugh. “Superheroes?”
“Semantics. This will be the only time in our lives we can have powers other humans don’t have. Come on. It’s one time.”
As long as his brother wasn’t trying to convince him to stay in Spirit, he’d go along, if nothing else than to make sure Will didn’t do anything stupid, like wanting to take the gondola back to town as a lion. “Okay.”
Will grinned. “This is going to be so much fun.”
“As long as we’re careful, I’ll be happy.”
Will shook his head. “Live a little, bro.”
“Let’s go.”
Gage should have been excited, but uncertainty was eating away at him. What if he loved running in the forest? What if this was the best adrenaline rush in the world? Then what? He knew. He’d be fucked.
“I wish you’d be more excited. I’m excited.” Will stopped and faced him. “You know what your problem is?”
He looked off to the side. “Do tell.”
“For some reason you refuse to share in my excitement.”
“I can’t fake being happy when I see the roadblocks.”
“That’s another one of your problems. You don’t live in the moment.”
Gage was not in the mood to listen to his brother pontificate on the definition of emotional closeness. “Are you going or not?” At the last second, he grabbed his backpack and pulled out a flashlight.
“After you.”
They were the only ones at 9:00 p.m. to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain. Even he had to admit that as they got closer, the urge to shift surged through in his blood. He’d always been competitive, and the desire to outrun Will was getting to him. They’d walked only half an hour when Will stopped.
“Let’s see if we can shift this far from that alignment point.”
“Didn’t Sella say we could shift anywhere as long as we stayed in Spirit?”
Stray Cats [High-Country Shifters 2] Page 7
