Chapter 15

 

Was it a bad thing when you didn’t like being right?

Kelsey sat on the boulder staring off at the rocks and trees. “Why didn’t anyone tell me all of this, Coop?” She batted at the tears on her face with her knuckles.

Cooper was squatted down beside her, also focused on the view of the trees. “We planned to, wanted to. The more time that passed, the harder it got.”

“I’d like a do-over,” she whispered.

“A what?”

“I’d like to do the last two days over again. All of this…” she lifted her hands and then dropped them back into her lap. “All of this is just too much to process.”

He was silent. Turning, she watched him study the patch of grass sticking out of the rocks beside his boots.

“There’s still more isn’t there?”

Lifting his eyes, he met hers. She felt like she could see right into his soul, the look he gave her answered the question.

Taking a deep breath, she looked away. “I just need a minute to process, Coop. It’s—it’s a lot to swallow in such a short time.” She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears from starting again.

“I’ll just go give Gage a call and let him know where we wandered to. He’ll be worried by now.”

Nodding in agreement, even though what he’d said didn’t really register. After he left, she shifted on the rock, her shoulders drooped down. It felt like an enormous weight sat on them. Picking at the moss on the surface of the stone, she tried to sort through all the information that had been dumped on her.

She hadn’t meant to bombard Cooper with questions, but as they’d walked away she’d been so agitated with Gage’s behavior she’d lost it and asked why the hell her parents, Gage’s parents or even he hadn’t told her, long before now, what she was.

One question led to another, and the answers got longer and bled into things she wouldn’t ever have been able to imagine, even on her most bizarre day.

Her parents hadn’t died in a freak car accident as she had always believed. They’d been killed, or as far as Cooper knew, were being chased at the time of the accident. Why hadn’t anyone told her? Why hadn’t they told her that this organization that targeted her kind had been after her parents? The same one that had held Noah for fifteen years. Fifteen years.

She was quite possibly feeling every emotion, good and bad, known to man right now.

All. At. Once.

Now she understood, or as much as she ever would, why no one rushed to tell her what she was. The tears ran down her cheeks, she ignored them.

What was she?

She was a shifter from a long line of non-diluted shifters. What did that mean? She didn’t know exactly, but did know it meant the simple black and white world she thought she knew was as colorful as a bag of skittles. Cooper had briefly explained the workings of the clan and the alliance. God, to suddenly know there were normal-looking people that were really wolves, cat, bears and too many other species to name was inane.

Ed was an alpha and leader of this clan, and she was just finding out now. Well, she was finding out so much; Gage was one of Devin’s two seconds, and apparently some kind of shifter equivalent to royalty. So, what did that mean for Gage? Would he be going off to be with Devin, wherever that was, when he took over?

Clutching her head, she closed her eyes, maybe she was just going insane and none of this was real. Would it be too much to ask to go back to her not knowing any of it?

“Kelsey.”

Every muscle in her body tensed, he was still using her given name. “Is the rest going to be as bad, Coop?”

“Worse than finding out about your parents? No, it’s nothing like that, I promise.”

Exhaling loudly, she lifted her head and turned on the rock so she could look at him. “Okay, good, because I don’t know how much more I can take. Really.”

“When I said we would talk, I had meant about the changes you’re going to go through. I hadn’t intended to tell you everything just yet.”

She looked at his amber eyes that were filled with so much sadness. Nodding, she exhaled slowly. “I’m glad you did, well, as much as I can be. All these secrets are things I should have known years ago…”

“But you do understand now why we didn’t tell you right away?”

She didn’t want to, but did. “Yeah, I do. I guess.”

Cooper sat on a rock a few feet from her. “What I really wanted to talk to you about was how the changes you’re going through affects the boys…”

She rolled her eyes, “God forbid they should be a little uncomfortable.”

He gave her a look, if she didn’t know him as well as she did, it would have been scary being on the other end. “That’s why we’re having this talk. It goes beyond just being uncomfortable. You’re lucky they think of you like a sister.”

She looked down at the blade of grass in her fingers, avoiding his eyes.

Letting out a low sound that was close to a growl, he started talking again, his voice low and serious. “When they’re this close to a female that’s going into the change, or even after during her cycle, every instinct in them tells them to, uh, well, the end result is to mark you…”

Her head came up with a jerk. “Mark me?”

He nodded. “It’s a natural thing.” He rubbed the back of his neck like he was uncomfortable talking to her about this. “It doesn’t happen often now, unless there’s a mutual attraction and consent, but in the past…” he blew out a breath, “let’s just say many couples found themselves stuck with each other for not ignoring the signs.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it for a moment. “So, even though they think of me like a sister…”

“But that’s just it, you’re not a sister and their cats know that.”

“Am I supposed to just stay at the house then? To make it easier for them until this passes?”

Taking off his hat, he rubbed a hand vigorously over his stubbly hair. Placing the cap back on, he adjusted it a few times before looking back at her. “You could, but you’d be there a long while.”

“I don’t understand, Coop. Maybe my brain is on overload. Just break it down for me.”

He ran his hand over the back of his neck again. She had never seen him so fidgety before, it made her more worried about what he was trying to tell her.

“Your body would have changed gradually in the next few years, if you’d stayed in the city.” He shrugged. “It may have been a few years before you felt it, but…” Blowing out a breath, he shook his head like he was waging some kind of internal argument.

“But…” she prompted.

“It is changing, and now that you’re around six males it will be fast and furious and nothing you can do will stop it. Staying shut up in the house might drag it out some, but it’s still going to happen…”

“Do you think I’ll shift fully?” She interrupted and was rewarded with an annoyed look.

“That’s the least of your worries, sweetheart,” he said softly.

Sweetheart? It had been years since Cooper had called her that. Not since just after her parents died. “Okay,” she swallowed the lump in her throat, “what is my biggest worry?”

“Mating.” He huffed out a breath like he was relieved he’d finally said it.