Page 69 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“I think it’s been too long since you did. At this point, waiting another day or two probably won’t make that much of a difference, but I’m not sure you should risk it.”

Bubbles of joy and excitement blossomed within me. I laughed, and the bubbles sprang out of my mouth and filled the space between us. I bounced. “I want to. I want to right now. If I go outside, will you come with me?”

“Of course.” Nelson brushed away one of the bubbles that’d landed on my cheek. “But are you sure you want to go outside? It’s freezing out there.”

“Yes. Outside.” I nodded eagerly. I wanted to lean in to his touch, but my unicorn was bucking at the prison I’d been holding him in. “The cold doesn’t bother me when I’m shifted.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” He smiled at me, and I almost swooned. Or maybe that was just my excitement making me light-headed.

I jumped to my feet, then I grabbed Nelson’s hand to haul him up too. He laughed as I bounded to the door like an excitable puppy. And his laughter made me feel even lighter and happier.

“You need to stay away from the highway. It might still stay closed for the night, but we shouldn’t risk it. Would you be okay with just walking around the loop road through the cabins?”

“Yes. Anything.”

Nelson stopped me before I leaped into the snow. He cupped the side of my face again. “When we get to Willow Lake, there are places where you can shift safely. And there are people who will run with you, if you want. Now that we have an alpha, the pack goes out regularly.”

“That sounds amazing,” I said as I tugged him out the door. “But right now, I just want to prance.”

26

PRANCING GLITTER BOMBS

NELSON

Morgan leaped off the snow-covered step into the snow below, nearly giving me a heart attack.

“For fuck’s sake, Morgan,” I shouted. “You don’t know what’s under the snow. You could break a leg doing that!”

I sounded like a helicopter parent shouting after a busy two-year-old, but I couldn’t help it. If anything happened to him…

“Ready?” He spun around to face me. As a shadow, I could see him perfectly in the darkness. The grin on his face was stunning, as if I’d given him ten birthdays and twenty Christmases all at once.

I didn’t know how to answer. Was I ready to see my mate in his shifted form? Probably not. But I couldn’t deny him this, and maybe I couldn’t deny myself either.

“Are you?” I asked instead.

“Yes!” he shouted.

His shift was unlike anything I’d ever seen. He didn’t shimmer. His body didn’t merely begin to contort and reshape itself. Not at all. His was the most extraordinary and magicalshift I’d ever seen. And considering the supes I knew, that was saying something.

The air surrounding him sparkled in every hue of the rainbow, like he was caught in a giant glitter bomb.

I only knew about glitter bombs because of Mercer, a raven shifter who lived in Willow Lake. The guy was obsessed with glitter, and he used it whenever the opportunity presented itself, including in his revenge plots. A few months ago, Clive, a cat shifter, had re-arranged the figurines in Sparkle and Spice, Mercer’s giftware store, and put them in compromising, not-safe-for-work positions.

Mercer had gotten his revenge by giving the mischievous cat shifter a glitter bomb. The raven had been so pleased with the glittery chaos that he plastered pictures of it around his store. You might think those pictures were to serve as a warning, but that wasn’t it at all. Mercer just loved seeing things coated in glitter.

If Mercer ever saw Morgan shift, he’d want to keep the unicorn for himself. A bit like I wanted to.

I held my breath. I didn’t dare breathe in case the huff of air clouded my vision, and I couldn’t look away in case I missed what was happening.

The glitter dissipated to reveal Morgan in his unicorn form. He was covered in glossy, white hair. His mane and tail were like rainbows. And his horn… It was gorgeous. The long spiral reminded me of polished moonstone, milky in tone with a bluish, silvery sheen that shone, even on this dark, cloudy night. Even his hooves were beautiful, looking like they’d been dipped in silver.

“You’re stunning,” I whispered.

Morgan lifted his head and shook out his mane. His ears pointed back a little, and his mouth opened to show his teeth, and I knew that was his way of smiling. Then he rose up on hishind legs, kicking snow at me. I shouted in protest, making him neigh happily and dance in front of me.

When he’d said he wanted to prance, I immediately thought of that prancing woman who’d hit the internet a decade or more back. But Morgan didn’t prance like that. His movements were fluid, powerful, and controlled. His gait was so graceful and smooth, I couldn’t believe he hadn’t shifted in two fucking years.