Page 19 of Blood Magic

“You know,” I murmured.

She took my hand, squeezing gently. “It’s my dreams, Kait. When I’m around someone long enough, I…absorb them, sort of. And everything I don’t see when I’m awake is there waiting for me when I go to sleep. Your mother, too?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Wolf shifters,” she said. “That’s so…amazing.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the emotions swirling inside me. I’d admitted to a human that I was a wolf. From birth, it was drilled into a shifter’s head what a forbidden thing that was to do.

And then there was the shame. I’d grown up knowing that we hid what we were because it was such a shameful thing to be. Why else would we be forced to hide it? When I’d matured, I’d understood that it wasn’t really about being a shameful creature who was inferior to humans. It was about keeping safe. If the humans found out about us, there would be only chaos, and the world would change. But that deep-seated shame remained.

I grabbed my clothes and headed for the bathroom, unsettled. I’d seen pack members severely punished because they’d been accused of sharing our secret. A person didn’t just get over shit like that.

“So can I come with you guys?” Lucy asked.

“You can. Ash can’t.”

“Thanks, Kait.” There was a little concern in her voice. She wasn’t sure if I was mad, upset, hurt, or what. I understood, but I couldn’t reassure her right then.

I spent the next three hours playing with my dog, catching up on laundry, watching TV, eating whatever Lucy set before me, and doing some online shopping. Normal things. Relaxing things.

But when five p.m. finally rolled around, I was more than ready to go. I figured we’d head to Long Shadow around eight, because it had to be dark before we could dig up the vampire, and that’d give me a couple of hours to spend with my mother.

Half an hour later we were on our way to Huntersville. Lucy rode shotgun and Max, with many complaints and much eye-rolling, ended up in the back seat. “Just so you know,” he said, “I do not do well out of the city.”

“You’re not a country boy?” I asked. “I never would’ve guessed.”

Lucy snickered.

My mother was going to love Max Pepper.

Once we got out of the car, Max stood with his hand pressed against his stomach, eyeing the various “wild animals” as he called them—the barn cats, the hens, and the hound dogs that came out of the house to sprawl in the dirt.

My mother rushed off the porch, arms open. “My babies,” she called, though I was her only “baby.” Lucy ran to meet her and giggled as my mother pulled her into a bear hug. Then she came at me and Max with the same enthusiasm, and I leaned down to hug her as Max shrank away, uncertain.

“Okay, then,” he said, as Mom ignored him and yanked him into her embrace. He held his arms in the air and looked at me with an expression that bordered on panic, and I’m sure he wondered if she were quite sane.

I could only laugh.

"It's a farm," Max said, when he finally extricated himself.

"It's not a farm. She has a couple of chickens and some tomato plants in the summer."

"I gathered fresh eggs this morning," my mother said cheerfully. "I'll make egg salad sandwiches for lunch. Come in," she urged, then linked arms with Lucy.

They hurried away and Max watched them go with a worried frown.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just...I mean, look at those chickens."

I lifted my eyebrows. "Yes?"

"They're in their little house, all happy and innocent, then they lay their eggs and some giant…monster invades their home, steals their babies, and then cooks and eats them. I don't know." He shook his head. "It just seems wrong."

"You eat eggs all the time, Max. And chickens."

"It's different buying them from the supermarket. I wouldn't go into the chicken's house and steal its children and eat them."