by Megan Derr
Table of Contents
Title Page
Book Details
Dedication
Rabbit Season
About the Author
Rabbit Season
Megan Derr
Sidney has quietly loved twin brothers Brook and Colby for years, watching and pining as they came to his house for the summer every year. Painfully aware that they have each other, have no reason to notice the unremarkable duck they grew up babysitting.
Then the twins and their mother are attacked days before an important meeting that will change the shifter world forever. When the twins come to stay with Sidney's family until the attackers are caught, Sidney learns that all things have their season, and even violent protests will not keep two rabbits from the man for whom they've been patiently waiting...
Book Details
Rabbit Season
Lost Shifters 2
By Megan Derr
Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Samantha M. Derr
Cover designed by London Burden
This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition February 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Megan Derr
Printed in the United States of America
Digital ISBN 9781620044346
For Alex
Rabbit Season
Sidney groaned as his alarm went off. Stupid mornings. He killed the alarm, then dragged himself up and stretched, joints cracking and popping. He yawned as he climbed out of bed and stretched some more, scratching sleepily at his stomach as he reluctantly left the warmth of his bedroom and trudged downstairs, turning left at the bottom to go straight into the kitchen.
Coffee. He wanted. Needed.
Laughter made him stop. It was familiar, but he had to be wrong…
He squeaked in dismay when he saw he was not wrong, not even a little. The Hot Twins were sitting at the breakfast nook with his dad. Oh, god, what the hell were they doing there? At nine in the morning? While his hair was standing on end and he was wearing Spiderman pajama pants?
Coffee. Focus on the coffee, and then he could go throw himself into traffic or off a cliff, whichever one Google said was closest. Scurrying to the coffee pot, Sidney pulled out a mug, filled it, and then fled the kitchen to hide in the sunroom at the back of the house.
He settled into his favorite seat, a wicker chaise covered with the world's softest cushions—although the sunflower and bees pattern was the ugliest thing in the existence.
What were Brook and Colby doing at his house? Why hadn't someone warned him they were coming? He was going to kill his dads. Last he'd heard anything about the twins, they were busy working for their local branch of the Lost Shifters Foundation. They'd been so busy with it Sidney hadn't seen them for like two years. Were they visiting to see if any of the duck families in Sidney's flock would be willing to take in an orphan?
Birds were some of the hardest shifters to place, after some of the more dangerous ones like snakes, alligators, all the bitey and venomous shifters. Birds were difficult because they were elitist snobs, traditionally. Sidney's flock was a rare exception, mostly thanks to his dads and the friends who had stood by them, but even they still had some disgruntled families who didn't like the upset to years of history, of tried and true blah blah blah.
They still weren't recovered from the scandal of his dad marrying Troy, a non-shifter. Even after two and a half decades of his dad and pop being together, people still weren't entirely certain what to do with a regular old human. On top of that, his fathers' best friend was a rabbit, and her sons came to stay at Sidney's house all the time. He'd been awed by Brook and Colby as a little boy, two beautiful, bold rabbits who didn't seem afraid of anyone or anything.
Awe and wonder had turned into a quiet protectiveness when he was about twelve and had caught them hiding in the boathouse, Brook crying and nursing a black and split lip, Colby tending him and muttering angrily about plucking stupid ducks and setting them on fire.
It hadn't been hard for Sidney to figure out who was responsible for hurting them. He wasn't the type to pick a fight in the schoolyard, as much as he daydreamed about being the big, brave hero sometimes… but he was perfectly capable of tattling because sometimes the most direct route was the best, and nobody was going to fuck with the only son of James Robinson, the flock leader. Of course, that often meant nobody invited him out to have any fun, either, but Sidney preferred to stay at home with his books and games anyway.
Unfortunately, the whole tattling thing hadn't endeared him to the twins, either, but it wasn't like they ever noticed him anyway. They were six years older than him, why would they? But he wished they hadn't pulled away and stopped being friendly after he ratted out George and his crew for hurting them.
On the other hand, awe had turned to protectiveness had turned into an incredibly awkward crush because apparently he wanted to go all the way past hopeless and straight on to completely-removed-from-reality.
That was their fault, though, one hundred percent. After the second time he'd caught them in the boathouse, he'd sworn off ever again going near the damn thing. Bad enough they'd stolen his hideout for peace and quiet, but that they'd also stolen it to… well, fuck like bunnies? Jackasses. Until he'd seen that, his crush had been vague and largely aesthetic. After the boathouse, it had been very specific and highly graphic. He'd never been more grateful, or more annoyed by, the flexible personal boundaries that rabbits lived by.
It was a contentious issue, the 'depravity' and 'loose morals' of rabbits. If and when shifters made themselves known to ordinary humans, there were a whole bunch of shifters that the rest of the community was going to try and shove in a dark hole so they wouldn't ruin it for everyone else. Rabbits would be one of the first shoved down it, and most ducks would be more than happy to start the shoving.
Sidney finished his coffee and left the mug on the table in the middle of the room and used the back stairs to sneak up to his room. Stripping off his stupid pajamas, he darted into his shower and washed up quickly, though he was tempted to stay there all day, work or no work.
Back in his room, he pulled on jeans and a green t-shirt with Robinson Landscaping written across it in white with a little yellow flower and duck logo in the bottom right corner. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he worked at the landscaping place. Tuesday and Thursday he worked the bakery. Saturday and Sunday he slept or otherwise avoided his dads because damn it, heir to the kingdom or not, he needed some downtime.
Ready as he was ever going to be, he grabbed his ball cap and wallet then headed down the front stairs to put on his boots. He was just sneaking out the front door when he heard his dad call from the kitchen. "Get in here, Sid."
"Damn." Closing the door again, Sidney slunk into the kitchen, looked warily around—and nearly sighed in relief when he saw it was just his dad. "What's up?"
James gave him an amused look. "Aren't you going to say hello to Brook and Colby?"
"I'm going to be late for work?" Sidney tried.
"Yeah, pity your boss is such a stickler about that," James replied dryly.
Sidney rolled his eyes. "Dude, I doubt they care. Why are they here anyway?"
James's levity faded off to a look of worry and anger. "You know their mother is pretty big in the whole shifters coming out thing, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, a group of protestors attacked their house last night. Vandalized it, broke all the
windows, busted in the doors, even got in briefly and trashed a lot of the inside. They fled when the cops showed up. Thankfully, Nancy and her sons weren't hurt. There was a note left, though, warning her that if she showed up at that conference in California happening this week a whole hell of a lot worse would happen. I told them the twins could stay here while she went to California."
Sidney frowned. "Will she be okay?"
James smiled faintly. "Yeah, Nancy will be okay. That woman has a lot of enemies, but she's also got a lot of friends—including some high-placed wolves. Nobody will get to her unless they go through a lot of other people, and Brook and Colby should be safe laying low here for a couple of weeks. You should go say hello, though. They've been kind of down and shaky since it happened, and you're good at cheering them up."
"Me? Since when? Have you been drinking pond water again, Dad? I'll tell Pop."
"Shut up," James replied, still smiling. Pushing away from the counter he'd been leaning against, he ruffled Sidney's hair and shoved him back toward the open doorway leading into the hall. "There's not much going on at work today, just lawns to mow and a rose garden to touch up. Take the day off, go spend it with Brook and Colby. If you think you don't cheer them up, then you're the one drinking pond water. Get, or I'll start in with threats."
"I'm going, I'm going. Go to work or something, ugh." He paused to grab a pack of pop-tarts from the pantry, snitched a soda from the fridge, and then headed through the house to where he was pretty sure Brook and Colby would be hanging out: the patio.
His dads' house was a large, sprawling, three story monstrosity of styles. Sidney hadn't existed when it was built, but he'd be willing to bet his inheritance that they had made the architect cry. It was, in theory, a farmhouse style, but it had a whole bunch of other stuff piled on and around it. The wraparound porch, for instance, was huge, all columns and fancy tile , large enough on the south side of the house that there was an enormous veranda that looked like it had fallen out of some trendy magazine special on backyard garden parties with a manly touch. Or something. And it had been built so it could support a huge balcony thing on the second floor with more couches and chairs and a bar and TV. Granted, the house was perpetually filled with ducks getting together for Excuse to Drink Number Five Thousand and Twelve, but still.
Everyone called it the patio, and it had always been catnip for a certain pair of rabbits. When they weren't going to bed or forced to be somewhere else in the house, the patio was their spot. Sidney was pretty certain on the nice nights they slept out there. Possibly did other things he tried not to think about. Usually he failed hard. So to speak.
Dragging himself out there, he hovered just past the open French doors, pop-tarts and soda dangling forgotten in his fingers.
Stupid twins. Stupid, hot, awesome twins who were completely ruining his life. Two years they'd been vanished, off doing important grown up things. Sidney had finished school, started working hard to learn the ropes of his fathers' evil empire, and had been sort-of-maybe (half-heartedly) flirting with a guy at the restaurant next to the bakery. He had totally convinced himself he was over Brook and Colby.
Lies. All terrible, tragic, going-to-hell lies.
Brook sat on the stone railing that wrapped around the whole patio, staring out over the yard and the scrubby woods beyond. Just past those trees was the duck pond (the ordinary human realtor, apparently, had been so proud that the property included a quaint duck pond, and she had promised the ducks were no bother at all. His dads were jerks).
On the east end of the house, way at the edge of the property behind lots more trees, where non-shifters were probably never going to go, was the much larger artificial lake his dads' had had put in—at great expense, several spats with the local government that had turned relations between them and his dads into a Shakespeare-type drama, and a few threats of divorce—for when the flock gathered together for big events, which were every other week because apparently living together in the same city limits was not good enough for their busybody issues.
Anyway, Brook liked to flirt with death by sitting on the railing with his legs on the 'this might hurt if you fall' side. Colby, the quieter and slightly saner twin, was at the glass table nearby, rapidly typing away on the laptop that still was apparently never far from his fingers.
They both had the white-blond hair typical to cottontails, and gray-brown eyes. Colby's were, as usual, framed by reading glasses. Brook's hair fell to around his ears, probably still got in his eyes all the time, and looked like he was always running his hands through it, which was true. He was the loud, outgoing, friendly one. If Sidney recalled correctly, he was the one who met with families and the rescued shifters and matched them up.
Colby was the quiet one, plenty friendly in his own way, but next to Brook he often could seem cold. If anyone came down on them, however, it was Colby who started swinging, and nobody could stop him except Brook. Both had ridiculous, enthralling amounts of freckles and they hated them.
Sidney stepped further out onto the patio, and both twins froze. Colby did the nose-wrinkling thing Sidney loved, like he thought he was in rabbit form. Brook turned on the railing and grinned. "Hey, stranger."
"Hey, losers," Sidney replied, relaxing slightly. They might have been more distant since that night he'd ratted out George and the Assholes, but they weren't mean. "Finally came back, huh? Decided we were good enough for you again?"
Colby rolled his eyes. Brook just grinned. "Now, now, duckling. You know we would have returned for you sooner if we could have. Life gets in the way and all that."
"Ha ha," Sidney said faintly, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt because what what what. Brook had just—that was definitely flirty. Since when? The last time he'd seen them, he'd just turned eighteen and they'd stopped off for a couple of days that had turned into a week. They'd said maybe ten words to him the entire time. He knew because he'd kept waiting for two of them to be Happy Birthday and they never said it. Nothing. It was like they'd had no clue, even though they'd always remembered it the other times they'd been around.
Whatever.
Padding across the patio, he sat opposite Colby at the table. "I'm glad you guys are okay."
The twins grimaced in unison, then Colby said, "I'll be happier when the assholes responsible are locked up. Or dead. Preferably dead."
"Mm," Brook agreed and turned around again.
Colby shot Brook a look that was gone in a moment, then buried himself in his computer again.
Ah, yes, there was the familiar pretend Sidney didn't exist status. Though, no, that wasn't really fair. They must be worried sick about their mom, never mind their house. Anything could happen to it while they were gone.
He ate half a chocolate pop-tart and chased it with rootbeer. "I'll have you losers know I am giving up an entire day of mowing lawns to hang out with you, so you should probably show a little gratitude or something."
They turned to look at him again, Colby's mouth tipped up at one corner in that partial smile that said he refused to be amused. Brook just went for full on grin, nose doing the wrinkling thing. "Gratitude, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"
"Shut up." Sidney rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the way his face was heating again, the way they both laughed a little bit. "So how goes the Lost Shifter business? Anything exciting?"
The way they both started glowing almost made him drop his pop-tart. Colby typed something on his laptop then turned it around, displaying some ridiculously adorable dude holding a couple of babies. They looked like something that should be on a Christmas card. The headline below the picture was: Cottonmouth Adopts Wolves, DPRS Furious.
"I don't think you're supposed to be happy about sentences that include the word furious. But wow, who let a cottonmouth adopts wolves? He must have some hella connections."
"It's a long story," Brook said. "Like something on TV, let me tell you. But this is good news because it means there's precedence for thi
s kind of adoption. Until now, the most adventurous adoption the DPRS would permit is like, ducks adopting a pigeon or something. But a snake adopting wolves is a game changer. Lost Shifters has always said it's bunk that you have to match exactly, or even closely. A happy home is far preferable to a nicely matched set and all that."
Sidney nodded. His pop had donated to the Lost Shifters for as long as he'd known about it. He pulled the laptop closer and skimmed the article. "Oh, my god, the snake was feral?"
"Was," Brook and Colby snapped in chorus.
"Hey, not judging." Sidney held up his hands. "Surprised. This must be a crazy special snake."
"He's exactly as cute and sweet as he looks," Brook said. "I met him like two months ago, when they were finalizing the adoption and doing a bunch of interviews and stuff. He's dating a wolf from the Tethers pack; they're a stupid cute couple. The DPRS is frothing at the mouth, they're so pissed."
Sidney rolled his eyes. "The DPRS isn't happy unless they're frothing." The Department for the Protection and Regulation of Shifters was exactly like any other government agency: decades behind the times, clogged with red tape, and vehemently opposed to change, especially when change meant progress. They were the mortal enemy of the Lost Shifters, whose primary function was to rescue feral shifters and find homes for them, but they were also a major player in breaking down a lot of the harmful barriers shifters had kept erected for years: like to like, long-standing feuding between species, lots of other old-world crap.
"This is part of the reason people are getting more hostile," Brook said as Colby took his laptop back and resumed typing. "Our mom pushes hard for this stuff and for more shifter-human relations like your dads. The more of those we have to start with, the easier it'll go someday when shifters are allowed to go public. Mom is slowly chipping away at resistance, one shifter at a time. The old-schoolers are starting to freak."
"Good," Sidney said and finished off his pop-tarts in a few quick bites. "Seriously, I have the whole day off. That never happens. You're not going to make me sit here all day having grown-up discussions. I spent all of last week learning how to budget. You have to save me."
