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

Chase. He waits patiently as Tyler’s mouth opens, then closes. He shakes his head.

“Ty, you’re reading Spanish poetry and you haven’t flipped the page in ten minutes. You’re upset and distracted. And we’re alone for the first time since before I got snatched, but you aren’t touching me. What’s wrong?”

Tyler looks faintly sick, but he licks his lips and says, “Do you think we’re making a mistake? Being together?”

The world drops out from under Chase. He pales so fast he actually sways. Tyler jerks forward, catching his shoulders and drawing him close.

“Chase, breathe. I’m not—we’re together. I’m not changing that. I’m not letting you go, sweetheart. I’m asking a question.”

Chase gasps, and it sounds panicked, even to himself. The noise he makes is vulpine and small, foreign, and he burrows into Tyler’s chest.

“She did this to you because she wants me back, because you matter to me.”

“It’s not your fault,” Chase mumbles into his chest, and Tyler shrugs around him. “It’s not, Ty. She’s feral. She’s not gonna make sane decisions.”

“You’re paying for her bad decisions.”

Chase nods. “I am, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay.” He digs the tips of his black claws into Tyler’s skin and it drags the werewolf’s gaze down. “If it keeps us safe and together, I’m more than willing to pay.”

~*~

He doesn’t want to leave Chase.

Lucas doesn’t know what’s happening to him, and none of Tyler’s many books shed any light.

“Kitsunes don’t Shift,” Lucas bitches, glaring at the latest book that has turned up exactly nothing.

Chase taps his sharp black claws on the table and drawls, “I would have to disagree.”

Lucas snarls, and Chase gives him an unimpressed look.

“He’s healing faster than he should,” Tyler says abruptly.

It’s true. It’s been three days since they found him and the bruises on his face are almost gone. His ribs still ache and the burns on his legs aren’t fully healed, but he’s in much better shape than he should be.

“But not as fast as a werewolf,” Chase points out.

“You said the Standing Stones chose this,” Lucas says slowly. He makes a noise, frustrated. “Kitsune are elemental spirits, and the Standing Stones are raw, elemental magic.” Chase makes a protesting sound and Lucas waves it aside. “It’s complicated, yes, I know, but it’s closer to elemental than anything else, right?”

“Yeah,” Chase admits begrudgingly.

“And a kitsune is the elemental closest to a werewolf,” Lucas continues.

Chase straightens. “You think it made me a kitsune because of the Pack?”

“I think it got you as close to being a shifter as it could while weaving its own magic deeper. You aren’t a werefox—you don’t heal or have the superior senses—but you aren’t a kitsune, either. You Shift, you have accelerated healing, and your magic isn’t bound to one element.”

“So what the hell am I?” Chase demands, gaze flickering blue.

“You’re a bridge,” Lucas says, “Not human or mage or shifter, but a little bit of all of them, which is exactly what you need to be, given the Bite and your place in the Pack.”

“But why the hell do the Standing Stones care?” Tyler snaps, “Why didn’t they burn the Bite out?”

“It hid,” Chase says softly, “Until the creature—my fox?—came near my Pack bonds, my magic wasn’t going to interfere. It was waiting, watching... But then it did, and my magic attacked it. It would have killed me.”

“It should have killed you,” Lucas contributes helpfully.

“But instead—” Chase sits up. “I need to go to it. I need to see it.”

“Absolutely not,” Lucas says, tone pleasant.

Chase growls and the werewolf leans forward, still smiling, his eyes the only clue that he’s furious. “You forbade me from killing her, and I haven’t, but I will not let you put yourself in her path just to satisfy your curiosity.”

Chase cocks his head, studying Lucas, then he nods. “Ok. Tyler?”

Tyler startles, blinking at him. “Yes?”

“I think it’s time you go find your sister.”

~*~

He goes back to the old Reid House.

Chelsea might be feral, might be dangerous, might even need to be put down—after everything she’s done to Chase and how she’s abandoned them, he’s not arguing any of that, would happily stand aside and let Lucas kill her—but she’s still his sister, and he knows her. When Chelsea was upset, she always went home, into the tunnels where it was dark and cozy and quiet.

He finds her there in the decrepit ruins of the once great house, curled up around her phone and a tiny black bear. It smells of rot and rain, years of decay from it’s abandonment after the car accident, and under it all is the barest trace of Brittney, baby soft and innocent. It makes his heart clench in pain, the reminder of his late baby sister.

“Where did you find it?”

“In the corner, behind a couple loose bricks. She liked to hide things there.”

He blinks back tears and moves to sit across from her.

“I thought it’d be Lucas,” she says, and Tyler stares at her. “I hoped, you know? I didn’t want you to be the one I have to fight.”

“You don’t have to fight at all,” he says.

“So you’ll let me walk away after I tortured your mate? After I bit him?” She frowns.

“No,” Tyler says softly.

She hums and tilts her head back, staring at the rotted wooden walls, the mold growing black through the flaking white paint. “I feel empty. He did that. I don’t know how, but he took my bonds. I can’t feel any of my Pack bonds.”

“Chelsea,” Tyler sighs, “Why did you do it?”

She blinks at him. “For you. I did it for you.”

~*~

Chase stirs on the couch, and Aurora makes an anxious noise in the back of her throat that makes Lucas stiffen. His gaze flicks to the shaman, and Chase smiles, sharp and predatory.

“The Cahil Pack just entered our territory.”

~*~

“You bit and tortured the man I love, the man who cared for me and Lucas when you couldn’t be bothered, who built us into a Pack when we had nothing—and you want to tell