“Maybe not – but we should get some for you,” Zina said. “Maybe get you a new look, since you stick out quite a bit.”
Ain’t that the truth,she mentally added, resisting the urge to look him over. He wasstartlinglytall, over six foot six, and withthatface andthatbody, Zina was pretty sure people were going to remember him. Changing his hair might not do that much, but at least it’d be something.
“Well sure, I don’t mind making myself pretty,” Trent said, flashing her a grin. “There’s a chemist across the street, I’m sure they’ll have some For Men or something like that. And sunnies too, hats, maybe even some undies and t-shirts.”
“Next thing is, we’ll need our own car, like you said,” Zina went on. “Just for the sake of being more mobile. Even if therewasa bus we could catch, being beholden to a bus schedule doesn’t seem like a great idea right now.”
“Yeah. Pretty unfortunate if we got caught because Hargreaves’s guys managed to look at a public transport timetable.”
“Agreed.” Again, Zina felt her lips twitching into a smile. She couldn’t help it – Trent just seemed to have that effect on her. Or maybe she was just going insane after all the stress.
“But Zina, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” Trent said, face turning suddenly serious. “It’s something that came to me last night. Something I think we should dobeforewe head out to Jackson’s Ridge.”
Zina cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I was thinking that if we’re going to be going somewhere Hargreaves has a pretty established presence, it may not be the best idea to take those little guys along with us,” Trent said, nodding down at the bag nestled against the back of Zina’s legs. “If we fail, they’ll just go back to the same situation you worked so hard to get them out of. It’d be best if we took them somewhere safe first.”
Zina bit her lip. She knew Trent was right – butwherewould they be safe? “So is there someone you can trust to take care of them? Someone in your agency?”
“Not exactly,” Trent said. “It’s not that I can’t trust them – there’s some guys there I’d trust with my life. But it’d be putting them in a pretty tricky situation, and I’d rather not make them make that kind of choice.”
The same kind of choice you made,Zina thought, with a renewed stab of regret at the situation she’d caused. But she’d never intended for Trent to join her – she still wasn’t entirely sure why hehad.
“So… it’s a third party then?” Zina asked, a little warily.
“Yeah.” Trent nodded. “But don’t worry – she’s solid. I’d bet my life on her, every time. She’s utterly dedicated to the work she does.”
“Which is?” Zina asked.
“She runs a rare shifter sanctuary,” Trent said. “Nottoofar from where we’re headed, relatively speaking. Same general direction, anyway. By which I mean, north of here.”
“A rare shifter sanctuary?” Zina had heard about things like that, but she’d never visited one.
Trent nodded. “Yeah – she designed and built it as a safe haven for shifters whose shifter forms are extinct animals, or really rare, or mythical. The kind of shifters who can’t freely shift anywhere they like, and need somewhere they know they can go to just be themselves, away from prying eyes. So it’s pretty isolated, and there’s a strict code of absolute silence about what you see there.”
“That sounds… pretty wonderful, to be honest,” Zina said, after she’d swallowed her huge mouthful of sausage and eggs. “And you’re sure this would be a safe place for them?”
“Sure as eggs,” Trent said, as he reached for some more toast. “Tahnee is the lady who runs it, and she makes sure no one steps out of line. My mate Hector has been going up there for a while with his daughter Ruby.”
Zina blinked, her mouth dropping open slightly at the wordmate.For some reason, Trent saying the word made her heart speed up, shock rippling through her.
“Oh… I… um. I see,” she said, looking down. Really, her sense of surprise and disappointment made no sense. It wasn’t that Trent was gay – she had no issue with that. It was just that –
“Oh, wait, no!” Trent said, holding up his hands suddenly. “No, I meant – not mymatemate. I mean mymate.”
Zina stared at him, wondering what exactlythatwas supposed to clarify.
“Myfriend,” Trent said, shaking his head. “Hec’s a good-lookin’ guy and all, but I don’t like him likethat. And hisactualmate might have something to say about it if I did.”
“Oh… right,” Zina stuttered, her pounding heart still trying to catch up to her brain. “I guess I got a little ahead of myself there.”
“Haha, yeah.” There was something strange and artificial in the way Trent laughed, and when she looked up at him, he seemed to be trying to evade her eyes. “No, believe me, Hec’sveryhappy with his mate Myrtle. I couldn’t get a look in there even if I wanted to.”
“So, uh, what does Hector shift into, then?” Zina asked. With that cleared up, she wanted to know more about this sanctuary – though she found herself curious to know whether Trenthadactually found his mate yet. She assumed not, since he probably would have mentioned it if he had, and he’d only talked about Hector’s mate.
“A griffin,” Trent said. “But really, they go up there for their daughter’s sake. She’s kind of a special case.”
“Oh, really?” Zina asked. “In what sense?”
