Slow Shift by Nazarea Andrews (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📗

Tyler is quiet for a long time, and Chase squirms, staring almost defiantly at the last knife, the one he is still stubbornly drying.

Tyler takes it from him, his hands big on Chase, warm and surprisingly soft, and it’s so strange for Tyler to touch him like this, so gently that it snaps his gaze up.

He shivers at what he sees there, shining in Tyler’s eyes. It’s awe and pride and affection that drags an involuntary noise from the boy.

“You’re a good friend,” Tyler murmurs. “I hope Ben knows that.”

He releases Chase then and steps away, and Chase—

Chase tucks the moment away with all the other memories of Tyler and Lucas that he hoards like a precious treasure.

~*~

The two days a week limit John imposed during the summer felt like hell then, but as the school year begins and Chase is drawn into studying and practice, he’s almost relieved that he isn’t expected there any more often.

He feels guilty.

“I know Tyler probably doesn’t care,” he murmurs to Lucas, “But I feel guilty that I can’t be here more. I miss you guys when I’m gone, even when I’m too busy to think about what I’m missing. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Lucas stares, blank as ever. It’s been over a year that he’s spent with the Reids, and he doesn’t expect anything else from Lucas—but he wishes there was.

He never stops wishing.

~*~

In October, while he carves a pumpkin and Tyler watches with patient amusement, Chase pauses and wipes his face, smearing pumpkin guts across it in the process. “What’s your birthday?”

Tyler lifts an eyebrow. “What’s yours?” he says, a grin tugging at his lips.

“April 1st,” Chase says promptly and Tyler feels a pang. He missed Chase turning fifteen and didn’t even realize it. Chase grins and his eyes are more amused than hurt when he says, “Mom loved that.”

Tyler is silent, then offers, “November 3rd. I’ll be twenty-five.” Chase stares at him and Tyler shrugs. “Lucas’s is December 15th.”

The boy looks at Lucas and grins. “We’re totally getting you a party hat,” he says.

Tyler’s eyes sparkle at the promise and Chase hands him the hollowed-out pumpkin. They aren’t working on the house today, and there’s a lazy indulgence about the place as Tyler carefully carves the Spiderman face Chase had excitedly picked out when Tyler announced they were carving pumpkins.

“What are you going to do for Halloween?” Tyler asks. Chase squirms, color high in his cheeks, and for a moment, Tyler is painfully aware of how very young Chase is.

“I’m not. Dad’s gonna have me help hand out candy at the station. Ben is going out with his new girlfriend, so it’s better this way.”

Tyler nods even though something in his expression makes Chase wonder if he actually agrees.

~*~

When Tyler walks him home, Chase stares up at the dark sky and says, bemused, “It’s the new moon tonight.”

Tyler huffs and bumps his shoulder, grinning when Chase squawks and stumbles into the trees.

~*~

Ben promises to come by the station, but Chase doesn’t put a lot of stock in it. They see each other in class and practice, but in the two weeks since Brielle moved to town and Ben breathlessly offered to show her around, they haven’t hung out after school, have barely talked outside of it.

“I think he’s forgetting me,” Chase tells Lucas. The kitchen is quiet except for the low sizzle of meat browning in the pan and he feels uncomfortably exposed, vulnerable and laid bare. “I know it doesn’t matter—I have you and Tyler. And I’ve never told Ben about you. So maybe this is fair, right? But... He’s been part of my life since I was three. I don’t—I don’t want to lose him.” Quietly, so quietly he isn’t sure Lucas can hear, he says, “I think I already have.”

He glances at Lucas, and for a moment, it feels like Lucas is staring back.

Then he blinks, and Lucas is the same as he has ever been—blank and unresponsive. Chase blinks back tears.

“I wish you’d wake up,” he says, and that feels like even more of a secret than losing Ben.

~*~

On Halloween, Tyler wheels Lucas into the police station while kids crowd the streets in costumes and the air rings with their shrieks of laughter. Chase is crouching in the holding cells, wearing a deputy uniform that fits a little big, his face painted like a clown, with devil horns on his head, like no one was really sure what he was going to be so they threw it all together and hoped for the best. He grins at a group of kids, a princess hanging from his back as he hands out candy and soccer moms coo.

Tyler grins even though he knows Chief DeWitt is watching. He can’t keep the smile off his face, seeing Chase so happy.

The kids scamper out and Chase straightens, his smile brightening when he sees Tyler and Lucas. “What are you doing here?” he asks, delighted.

“Came for the candy,” Tyler answers, dry as a bone. Chase snorts but produces two Reese’s cups that he presents with a flourish and a flush high in his cheeks.

The door behind them opens asd someone young and exuberant shouts Chase’s name. Then three things happen at once.

Chase waves at the two people entering behind Tyler.

Tyler’s blood freezes as he looks at the girl entering the room.

And Lucas goes into seizures.

Chapter 6

Tyler isn’t really sure what happens. He’s staring in shock as Lucas convulses, but his attention is on the girl clinging to Ben, the girl he can smell is a Drake, can smell is an enemy and wrong. He wants to scream and he wants to run.

“Tyler,” Chase is shouting and it jerks him out of his shock, yanks his eyes away from the young girl who looks scared but still so dangerous it makes his wolf whine in distress to put his back to her.

He wants to shift into his wolfskin and he wants to run, force Chase to run with him until the scent of