Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series) (4 page)

Checking out the hot guy had suddenly lost its appeal. I clenched my fists in annoyan
ce and scowled. “I—I’m not a shifter. I’m not going to be changing into anything.” I brushed my hair out of my face and frowned at him. He continued to smirk.

Just my luck, an arrogant asshole is the other prisoner. Well, he looks strong at least. Maybe he can be useful. Or maybe I should just leave him here chained up. He’s probably more trouble than he’s worth.

“Oh you’re not a shifter, huh?” Ethan laughed softly. “A few hours ago those hands of yours were lethal weapons. You’re some kind of big cat like me and Rob. Jaguar maybe?" He turned to Rob who shrugged, “Although your coloring may be too light.” He looked me up and down as he smiled again. "You're body is typical female feline."

“Ethan, stop making her uncomfortable. I just might unlock the chain tomorrow m
orning if you can behave." Jackie, come with me. It’s very late and you need some sleep."

“G’n
ight, Jackie.” Ethan called after me. “Grrrrrrr”. I heard him laughing as Rob closed the door.

What a jerk that guy is. A gorgeous jerk
. I smiled to myself.

Lost in my thoughts I almost ran into
Rob who was standing in the hallway holding a water bottle. “Take this; you’ll probably be thirsty again later. I’m sleeping on the couch tonight. Get some rest, you’ll be busy tomorrow.“

“Aren’t you worried that I’ll run off?” I as
ked, frowning, but still accepting the bottle.

“Nope. I'd hear if you tried.
Excellent hearing.” He pointed to an ear and smiled.

Lucky me. Two arrogant jerks
in one house
. “I still have a lot of questions.“ I yawned and then turned away, embarrassed.

“We hav
e plenty of time to answer them tomorrow. Try to get some rest.” He smiled and walked away toward the couch, his strong body moving silently down the hallway.

I
flicked on the light, then closed and locked the door behind me. The room was small, but clean and smelled of fresh lavender, probably because there were a few sprigs in a vase on the dresser. The walls were cream colored and the curtains on the two small windows were a pale blue cotton. There was a simple wooden dresser and a comfortable looking chair near the window. I thought about running for maybe ten seconds. I might be faster, but this guy was a freakin’ black leopard and if he caught me he might be hungry.

I crawled under the covers, intending
to spend time sorting through the mess of jumbled information dished out along with my steak,

Instead,
I couldn’t stop thinking about Justin and Maggie and everything I was being forced to leave behind. Much of it I’d be grateful to turn my back on, but Justin and Maggie had been real parents to me. I’d finally felt like I had a home and a family. And now everything had been wrenched away just when I was beginning to feel somewhat normal.

The real kicker was that the couple who I
'd thought loved me and wanted me in their lives, had handed me over to Rob and then just left town. They might have thought they were helping me, but they could have handled it a lot better. They could have sat me down and explained the situation rather than agreeing to have me kidnapped, waking up on the cold ground, scared and miserable.

I wasn’t surprised to feel a tear run down my cheek and then another. Soon I was crying steadily, my head buried in the pillow in an effort not to wake anyone up. I curled up tightly on the bed and tried to squash the sadness and the anger by thinking about running through the woods, feeling the wind in my hair and the
ground racing by under my feet.

I heard a soft knock on my door, and I knew it was Rob before he spoke.
“Are you alright, Jackie? Can I get you anything?”

“Yeah, just,
just get the hell away from me.” I managed to gasp out between sobs. Rob had no other questions for me that night.

Chapter Five

I dreamt
.

It was the last few minutes of dusk and I was on a darkening forest trail running very fast. Giant tree branches loomed overhead casting sinister shadows across my path. I was barefoot, but the carpet of sorrel plants cushioned my feet as I sped along past fallen branches and fragrant shrubs. I saw movement up ahead so I ran toward it, curious, but also afraid. There were three men, one of them had a gun, and they were arguing about something. Suddenly I realized that I was no longer on the trail, but looking down on them from a great height, safe for the moment, yet still exposed if the man with the gun decided to take a shot at me. I looked across to the next tree where a beautiful male cougar lounged on a thick branch. I think he winked at me. I slowly licked my spotted paw in response .When I looked down again, a brown bear lumbered down the same path where the men had stood only seconds before.

Suddenly I was awake. What kind of crazy dream was that?  I shook my head to clear it, which only brought me quickly back to reality. Remembering where I was and what had happened last night, I sat up in the bed and looked once more toward the window. I could see a trail leading off to the right, but I didn’t have a clue where it led and to be honest, I still felt a little weak from last night’s adventures. The rumbling noises coming from my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten much yesterday, maybe only a third of the steak and a few fries. I stood and stretched, deciding to see if there was any cereal or toast.

I was surprised to see that my backpack was on the small chair by the window.
Apparently, locking the door didn’t make any difference around here. I scowled and looked for my cell phone in its usual slot. Big surprise, it wasn't there. At least my Mp3 player was still in its pocket. I made use of the bathroom and then unlocked the bedroom door and peeked out. Taking a deep breath to bolster my courage, I walked down the short hallway.

As I entered the combination living room/kitchenette, Rob was typing on a laptop at the table and Ethan was stretched out on the couch with a book. Both of them looked up when I entered the room.  Rob had a concerned expression but I stubbornly refused to meet his eyes.

Ethan closed his book and smiled charmingly. “So, Cinderella, what are you cooking us for breakfast? “

I sat at the table across from Rob and snapped back, “Didn't you get your cat food this morning, Garfield?”

“Garfield?” He scoffed. “I’m definitely more like the Cheshire Cat.” To prove his point he grinned widely and then disappeared behind his book.

Rob smiled. “He’s kidding; He ate six eggs, eight slices of bacon and four pieces of toast an hour ago. He definitely eats like Garfield. ”

Ethan groaned in protest, raising his hand and waving it around. "Growing cougar here."

“There are leftovers in the oven. Help yourself." Rob went back to
working at his laptop.

I didn’t want to cooperate with Rob, but the smell was making my mouth water. Hey, I could always eat first and then try to sneak away afterward
. Deciding that this was an extremely intelligent plan, I opened the oven door and breathed in the heavenly smell. Eggs and bacon, yum. I scooped a mound onto a plate and sat down to eat.

Ethan closed his book, stood
, pulled a chair over to the table and sat down next to me, watching me eat.  He was wearing jeans and a navy blue sleeveless tee, his hair still a messy jumble and his golden brown eyes shining with curiosity. I was still in the sweats I’d slept in, feeling kind of grungy. I ignored him and kept on eating.  Ethan reached out hesitantly to brush a strand of my hair out of my face, watching me for any hint of a violent reaction, and then instead, started gently twisting the long lock in his fingers. He leaned in to sniff it and I quickly pushed him away with a firm, ”Down boy.”

He sighed. “How old are you?
“

“Seventeen on Wednesday.”
Not wanting him to catch me smiling, I stuffed a piece of bacon in my mouth He was really kind of cute.

“Hmm. Y
ou seem older.” He stood up and plopped himself back on the couch, humming, ‘A Very Merry Unbirthday to you, to you'.”

Rob looked up from his laptop smiling. “You can’t take him too seriously. He’s a young male sha
peshifter and he just turned eighteen. They’re always on the prowl. He’s relatively harmless.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I’d actually had plenty of experience discouraging healthy young human males. How different would a shifter be? I’d been the “New Girl” in three different high schools, always attracting the attention of the guys who were lookin
g for something fast and easy. The key was to let them keep their pride intact while you backed away gracefully. Otherwise it could get ugly.

I looked at my hands as I scooped up another forkful of eggs. Had
they really changed into paws? “How did I hurt you and Ethan the other night? If you’re both shifters then I’m not stronger than you are. Was it the drug? Not that you didn’t deserve to bleed a little.” I glared at Rob, who raised an eyebrow and answered.

“Yes, the first dose of the drug, which was only supposed to balance your body chemistry for the next dose, caused your hands to shift. You were upset and disoriented and flailed about in panic. I tried to calm you down so you wo
uldn’t hurt yourself and finally managed to get you to fall asleep on the couch.

"
But while I was with you, Ethan decided it was the perfect opportunity to make a run for it. I figured that you were out for the night, so I ran off to look for Ethan. You woke up, ran into Ethan before I did and sliced him up a little. I discovered him passed out in the woods, apparently he’d hit his head on a rock when he fell. He’d definitely had an unpleasant altercation with your long claws. Ethan, what happened exactly?”

“I’m too much of a gentleman to kiss and tell,” he said beaming at me. His gorgeous eyes sparkled with humor, but I pretended not to notice, going back to concentrating on eating my breakfast.

Rob continued to tell his story, shaking his head at Ethan’s joke. “When I went back for you, you were nowhere to be seen. I searched around and finally heard you call out for help.”

I frowned at him, feeling tension growing
inside me. “I saw the blood all over me and hoped that my attacker had left thinking I was dead and that some nice hiker or hunter might find me.” Rob looked a little guilty.

“I know you think that I’m going to be a good little house pet and go along with all this shit, but that’s not going to happen. You can chain me up and throw away the key. I’m not going to change into an animal for your messed up idea of entertainment.”

No one spoke for awhile. I chewed my food, Ethan turned the pages of his book and Rob tapped away on his lap top.

Ethan
finally broke the silence. “Rob’s a good guy. He’s trying to help us out ‘cause he had a bad experience when he first shifted.”

I scowled and
ignored Ethan’s accolade. “Why couldn’t you just come to Maggie and Justin’s house and tell me all of this without drugging me? You say they knew what I was.”

“Think about it. Y
ou probably wouldn’t have believed me and because of your history, we figured that your reaction would have been extreme. You do have a temper and you tend to run when you get upset. Being in the center of a human community is not a good place for a shapeshifter to flip out. If you’d told a human cop or neighbor, we’d have had a real problem on our hands. We would've been forced to go around scrubbing memories.”

“You can do that?”

“Not me, but my associate can.”

I saw Ethan scowl. “Garrett, he’s a vampire.”

“Are you saying that the one who watched me when I was younger was a vampire?” Rob nodded.
Okay, that was kind of creepy
. I stared at my hands twisted together in my lap. “How is it that every scar I ever had has disappeared?”

“Shifters have an amazing ability to heal. I’m fairly sure your older scars went away because of the strength of this particular serum. I hope you weren’t too attached to them,” He tried to sou
nd lighthearted, but I could tell by his expression that he was worried.

“No, Rob. I wasn't.” My sharp
tone jarred them into silence. I'd never be dredging up that experience again, having buried in hell where it belonged. I walked to the window and looked out at the dreary day. This part of the country was prone to a lot of rain and fog, which matched my current mood just fine.

Rob spoke.
“Look, I don’t want you to go through what a lot of other rogue shifters have experienced. Ethan can tell you that shifting isn't so bad. In fact changing into your animal form can be liberating.”

“What's a r
ogue shifter?” I asked.

“A rogue is a shifter who doesn’t grow up with a family of shifters: one who doesn’t expect the change and has no suppo
rt system in place.” I caught a quick wince, maybe from a remembered experience of his own, before he continued, “I’ll be giving you another dose of the meds tomorrow. Today we need to do some preliminary blood tests and physical agility tests.“

That was so not happening. “You can test my blood and my physical abilities, but you’re not giving me another dose of that
crap.” I walked outside, fuming, giving in to the familiar tightness that usually had me running as fast as I could.
I’m getting out of here. I’ll swim if I have to, or float on a tree branch until some boat comes along.