“You know what, Cela?” he said as he pulled in behind Derek’s mud-splashed truck. “You’re right.”
“About what?”
“About being myself.” He grinned at her. “I don’t know if I can break the habit of a lifetime, but I’m going to try.”
Gaby and Derek’s farm was the usual go-to location for their circle of shifter friends and family to have get-togethers. It was bigger than the greenhouse grounds, a sweeping expanse of partly fenced pasture with a number of outbuildings, a rambling farmhouse, and a barn with a chicken coop and a corral containing a black and white spotted pony belonging to Derek and Gaby’s son Sandy.
There was already a portable sun shelter set up on the lawn, the smell of barbecue smoke in the air, and kids yelling and running around.
As Tyr and Cela got the twins out of their car seats, Lissy came galloping up. “Hi, Dad!” she cried, throwing her arms around his waist. “Hi, Cela! You brought the babies! Sandy, come see the babies!”
Sandy Ruger was a dark-haired kid about Lissy’s age who was clearly a lot less interested in looking at babies.
“Here, you can carry these,” Tyr told him, handing him a tray of cupcakes.
They were still warm from the oven, fresh baked as the only thing that was relatively easy to whip together in a couple of hours from a box mix and a muffin pan Tyr found at the back of a cabinet.
He realized as soon as he saw the food that, between Gaby’s bakery and Paula’s diner, it looked like they’d brought cupcakes to Dessertcastle. There were two long tables groaning with food, a lot of it presumably day-old baked goods that were still perfectly tasty.
Sandy held the tray while Tyr carefully moved a heaped plate of donuts to make room. Lissy loyally took a cupcake.
“Where’s your brother?” Tyr asked her.
“Around,” Lissy said vaguely. She licked frosting off her fingers. “Did you know Sandy’s parents have a trampoline? Do you want to go on it, Dad?”
“No adults on the trampoline,” said Dan, Paula’s mate, coming up with a smile and a beer in one hand.
Dan was a big guy with a military background, and Tyr braced himself. However, all Dan did was set down his beer and hold out his hand to shake Tyr’s. He couldn’t easily transfer the bottle to his other hand; his left was a metal pair of hooks. He was wearing a T-shirt that clearly showed off the prosthesis as well as his approximately 20,000 muscles.
“Glad you came,” Dan said, and he didn’t even sound like he was faking enthusiasm. “The kids were asking about you guys earlier.” He turned to Cela. “And you’re Cela, right? Paula’s told me about you.”
Cela shook his hand, to her credit not doing more than giving the prosthesis a curious look. “Is Paula your—um, wife? Tyr—that is, Terry said you remarried.”
“Mate yes, wife, not quite yet, at least not officially. We’re planning a big to-do for later this summer.”
“Congratulations, man.” Tyr didn’t ask if they were invited. Being friendly with his ex’s new mate was one thing, but he had a feeling that all the friendliness in the world wouldn’t extend to Dan inviting him to the wedding unless Paula wanted him there. Tyr wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t.
“And these are the kids, right?” Dan turned his attention to the twins just as Ayra woke up, sneezed, and shifted into an owlet. He jumped. “Whoa, they’re shifting already!”
Tyr had to resist the urge to bundle the kids immediately back into the car seats they had just vacated, hiding them. But he reminded himself that every person at Derek and Gaby’s barbecue was either a shifter or knew about them. In fact, he caught a glimpse of a grizzly bear gamboling on the back lawn with a kid clinging to his back. That was probably Derek.
“They’ve been shifting for months,” Cela said. “Is that unusual here?”
“It depends on the family. Some yes, some no. Anyway, grab a beer or whatever else you want.” Dan gestured them onward, and Tyr gave one last glance at the car (with a last thought of escape) before bracing himself for whatever was to come. Dan’s friendliness seemed genuine, however. “Help yourself to anything on the table or in the coolers. The grill’s still warming up, but we’ll have plenty of charred meat later.”
“Cela!” Gaby descended on them and hugged her. “I’m so glad you came.”
Cela was soon drawn into the circle of shifters’ mates who wanted to coo over the babies, including Ben’s mate Tessa, and a slim, elegant woman with a toddler in her arms, who Tyr vaguely recognized as Ben’s sister Melody. Actually ... Melody might not be a bad person to talk to about thecurse situation. Tyr knew she knew about griffins; she had been part of Paula’s bodyguard reception committee for him when he first came to town, so she’d seen him shift, and he had seen her as a platinum-colored dragon. They’d barely passed two words to each other, but no time like the present to put his new resolve to the test. He approached her and held out a hand.
“Hi,” he said. “Melody, right?”
“And you’re Terry. Yes, I remember you.” She had a shifter-strong grip, although she was slight and pale, with glasses that gave her a librarian-ish look.
“Did Ben tell you that we’ve been looking around for a cure for a magic problem?”
“Yes, he did. Actually, I’m glad you’re here, I wanted to look at—Gunnar! Could you take Daria for a minute?”
Melody’s mate Gunnar, blond and huge, came over to take the little girl from Melody’s arms. He gave Tyr a sharp nod that clearly saidYou’d better not try anything, and kissed his mate on the cheek.
