Page 47 of Shifters Reckoning

“I count,” I said.

“We know that, Multimorph. They’re learning it.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Also, the alpha sends a message.”

“Say it the way he said it.”

Phil cleared his throat, and his impression of Logan’s growl was frankly disrespectful in its accuracy. “‘Tell my mate her social experiment has turned my compound into a middle school, and if she’s not home by the Beaver Moon, I’m coming to get her. This time, I’m bringing the Tahoe with a fucking mattress in the back. Literally.’”

Marcus snorted.

Phil dug in his jacket and passed me a folded scrap of paper, and he returned to his own voice. “He also wrote this. Wouldn’t tell me what it says.”

Two words, in Logan’s aggressive handwriting, pressed hard enough to deboss the paper. Race ya.

I laughed until my chest unknotted.

“There’s more,” Phil said, and the last of the ease went out of him. “Jace flew his drones south, down over the parishes past Ville Platte, tracing the heat signatures like you asked. He found where Acheron’s been.” He met my gaze. “There’s a dead zone, Emma. Miles of it. The trees have gone gray. No obvious birds, no deer, no heat, nothing moving. It’s like the land’s been strip-mined, completely ruined. In the middle of it, the scans just… stop. Static. Jace lost two drones trying to scan his way in.”

The silence settled heavily then. Beyond the tree line, a bear called low to another bear, and the sound rolled away between the trunks.

“He’s not retreating,” Marcus said. His blind eyes were fixed on the southern dark like they could see all the way to it. “He’s digging in. Feeding.”

“Or building something,” I said. The words tasted bitter, like blood. Every hour I had spent teaching bears to watch the sky, fuckwad Acheron had spent turning Louisiana gray.

Torbin stirred. “Bear Trees relinquishes the remainder of its claim to the multimorph’s time.”

I turned. “Torbin⁠—”

“You came, as you promised. You trained us, as you promised. You stood in my clearing and bled with my people. My warriors will follow you now for reasons that have nothing to do with prophecy.” He raised one massive hand before I could argue. “Honor is not measured in days, Emma. You are needed in Six-Mile, where all the clans are gathering, and the war will not wait for the rest of your visits. Red Tail will understand. Flynn, of all alphas, understands what it is to wait for someone. I will send word.”

My throat tightened, and I had to swallow the lump before I could speak. “Thank you.”

“Also,” he said, reaching into the pocket of his enormous coat, “I have made you a gift to remember your time here.” He opened his large hand to show a bit of white in his palm.

It was a doily, an intricate, snowflake-patterned round of white cotton, crocheted by fingers the size of bratwursts.

“For your mate’s desk,” Torbin said solemnly. “I will quilt the banner next.”

“We’ll treasure it until the day I die.” The choking sound I made was not, technically, a laugh or a cry.

Marcus’s eyebrows climbed toward his hairline, and Phil suddenly needed to inspect the four-wheeler. Torbin sniffed the air once and folded the doily into my hands.

“I’ll make sure it gets a place of pride,” I managed.

Levi materialized out of the dark at the foot of the mound. Privacy was a concept squirrels had rejected long ago. “So we’re going to Six-Mile,” he said. “Great. I’m coming.”

“You’re supposed to be one of my exchange warriors in Bear Trees.”

“I’m exchanging myself. It’s in the name.” He shrugged. “East Nuttal votes on a new alpha at the Cold Moon. It’ll be the twins, both of them or neither, so we don’t split the set. Until then, home is…” He let it go. “I train better where the war is, boss. Put me to work.”

“Fine,” I said, “but Otis rides with us as far as the border, and you’re fixing his pivot the whole way.”

“Cruel,” Levi said, delighted.

“I’ll be coming along as well,” Marcus announced from the doorway of Torbin’s den. “Ville Platte can enjoy missing me a while longer, and you shouldn’t travel undefended.”

“You’re blind, Marcus.”

“Which is why you will watch the road,” he said, “and I’ll watch your blind side.”