“No.But…” He ducked his head and kissed her with a ghost’s caress on her crown.“You looked so sad.”
She was sad.
That was definitely the word for it.
She was and felt sad.
Why?
Because, for close to ten weeks now, she’d had these men at her back.Hell, at her front and sides too.Sometimes even inside, she thought wryly.There had been no distance between them.Nothing separating them.
But this?
It put space between them.Space she couldn’t stand, space she abhorred.
El gulped and whispered, “What’s wrong with me, Trip?Why are all these strange things happening to me?”
He sighed, and she felt the tension in him at her question which he released in that gentle gust of breath.“We have a supposition for that.”
“Guesswork,” she retorted dryly.“Nothing concrete.”
“No.But this heat just confirms it.”
“Okay, so hit me with it.”
“So, you seem to think that when there’s a cross species mating, the children of that bond are some kind of freaks?”
“How can they be anything but?In the animal kingdom, they are.Ligers and the like aside, they don’t cross a Panther with a Lion, do they?”
“No,” he conceded.“But it’s different in our kinds.It’s also extremely rare.In fact, we don’t even know how rare it is because people don’t admit to it.They hide it for fear of being cast out.”
“You’re filling me with the warm fuzzies here, Trip.”
Her rueful retort had him chuckling.“I can imagine,” he stated gruffly.“But, there’s no need for them to hide aside from the fact they’re a little unusual.Especially as, for all intents and purposes, when they’re mature, they can choose between the creatures they are.”
She stiffened.“So, you mean they can shift between a Lion and a Bear, let’s say.”She’d already learned there were far more species than the humans would ever believe possible.
Bears were common to Russia, Tigers in Asia.
Wherever the animal itself was commonly found, there were people there who could shift into the species.
Only modern times had changed that.
Even Shifters immigrated.
“Yeah.That’s right.They’d have to choose between their species and essentially if they belonged to a Den or a Pride.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad.Why do they hide it?”
“Because when they’re young, they’d present both sides of their nature and that would make them…” He hesitated, but she blurted:
“Freaks.It’s okay.You can say the word.”
“I was trying to avoid it,” he snarled a little.“But yeah.Okay.They’re freaks but without the meanness inherent in that word, okay?They’re not Shifters to throw goddamn stones at… just, they’d garner a lot of attention, and people would be watching them, you know?Trying to see how they manifested.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
He nodded, and she felt his chin brush the crown of her head.“Exactly.But, because they’re hidden by their parents, I guess they grow up used to hiding in plain sight.That’s got to be a hard habit to break.”
