"Well, I'm in, but I need to bring my beta in. If shifters are coming out of the closet, Carissa needs to be involved."
I looked at Cassie. "Now we have a Cathy, a Cassie, and a Carissa. We're going to need nicknames."
Reynard grinned at me. "She sometimes goes by Halo, if that helps?"
"It might. But if her name is Carissa, we'll call her Carissa." I shrugged. "Whatever she likes."
"Well, you may not be so accommodating when you meet her." Rey gave me a sympathetic smile. "Carissa doesn't want us to do this. She's a cat shifter who can shift into any feline."
He tapped away on his phone. "She's on her way up."
"She was with you?" I asked.
"Yeah, we were taking care of some pack business when Bran told me he needed to see me."
"Why didn't she come in with you?" Roma asked.
Reynard smiled. "She's shy, and she doesn't trust anyone outside our pack." He stood up to greet Carissa, who had just stepped into the office.
She was a petite woman with bright eyes and black hair pulled back in a braid that fell below her waist. She moved- no she flowed- with a grace that made me wish I had a quarter as much. "Hello," she said softly, glaring at each of us in turn.
Oh, geez. This woman was angry. And we hadn’t even said anything yet.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Carissa," Reynard said in a placating voice. "The council here has decided I should be the first of us to go public, which means the shifters will be the first."
"No." She crossed her arms and her glare turned into a full-blown scowl. Her green eyes were as chilly as the jade they resembled. As the second in command, no doubt she was used to being able to speak her mind to Reynard, especially in private like this. Still, I was surprised that she was so immediately and vehemently against it. "Absolutely not."
"Reynard is perfectly placed to be the first," Roma said, clearly used to dealing with difficult people. She worked with celebrities day in and out, so it made sense she'd jump right into the role of handling Carissa. Shifter or movie star, they were both used to getting their way, and Roma knew how to handle that. I let her do her thing. "Unfortunately, that means it won't be goblins who go first."
"Look." Carissa pulled out a chair beside Reynard. "I get that shifters have a better reputation than goblins in the human world currently. All those romance books. And the movies with the weird vampires. But that's just reputation, based on fiction. Your average shifter is far more bloodthirsty than a goblin. The goblins just look uglier and scarier. But they can control their worst impulses much better than most shifters. We can look pretty while we rip your heart out." She shrugged and looked at Bran. "Am I wrong?"
But before he could try to argue his point, she continued. "Do you want a shifter to come out on camera picking their teeth with someone's whittled-down femur?"
"Uh, what, now?" What was she talking about? Also, femurs were very large. It would have to be very whittled down, but that was the least of the issues I had with that sentence.
"If my vote gets any weight, I vote a resounding no." She stood. "Is that all?"
Roma nodded wordlessly. "Thank you for coming in."
Carissa swept from the office without saying goodbye. Nor did she look back.
"Whew," I said with a breath out. "She's an angry woman."
"You would be too if you had to deal with Reynard day in and out for the better part of forever," Bran said in a teasing tone, but then he seemed to remember Reynard was still trying to date me. They were friends, and he was probably trying not to shoot Reynard in the foot, metaphorically speaking. "Uh, I mean, uh—"
"It's okay." I laughed. "I get your point. But what about hers?"
"As with many species, the virus that causes goblins to mutate causes physical changes more than mental. Not so with shifters. Most shifters don't become disfigured. Our corruption is internal. They go animalistic. Cruel, even." Reynard looked incredibly sad as he said this. "I hope we can stop this with help from Roma's friend, but if we can't Halo- Carissa- does have a point. Shifters can be horrible."
Well, wasn't that great news? Not just for my dating life, but also for our plans.
5
REYNARD
"We can go somewhere secludedthis time, and I'll make sure nobody follows us. I won't let alchemists ruin our next date." I was pulling out every idea I could think of, hoping one would stick, and making sure my voice was as smooth as silk while on the phone with Cathy as I strolled through my backyard. I would do whatever I had to in order to convince her to go on another date with me.
