Dreya was so busy trying to figure out how the scars had gotten there that she almost missed the scent rolling off Lucy. It reminded Dreya of the woman who’d come to her apartment a couple of months ago, saying she could protect her from Thorn.
“So, you’re a thief?” Lucy asked.
Dreya’s first instinct was to deny it, but then she changed her mind. “I steal stuff, yeah. How did you know?”
“I heard John talking to Kendra about you.” Lucy smiled. “I’ve stolen a few things in my life. There are worse ways to make a living.”
Dreya couldn’t help returning the smile. “Kendra says you’re like me.”
Lucy lifted a brow. “Like you?”
Dreya felt her face color. She was so embarrassed, she felt like curling up into a ball like some kind of armadillo shifter, if such a thing existed. “You know—a freak. I mean, a feline shifter.”
Lucy laughed. “Oh. Well, then yes, I’m very much like you. After I first went through my change, I considered myself a freak, too. It took me a long time to accept that I wasn’t.”
Dreya hesitated, then took the plunge. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but could you show me?”
“Show you?”
“Yeah. I don’t mean to be rude, but I never knew there was anyone else like me until today.”
Lucy smiled again. “Ah.”
Lifting one of her small, delicate hands, she held it up, palm toward herself. One moment, Dreya was looking at slim fingers with their fine scars and their carefully trimmed fingernails. The next, they lengthened, and five curved claws slid out. Dreya gasped at how similar Lucy’s claws were to her own, right down to color and size. Without even realizing what she was doing, she reached out to touch them. They felt like hers did, too.
Tears welled in her eyes. For the first time, she had visual evidence that she wasn’t as messed up and strange as she’d always thought. She wasn’t alone with this thing.
Lucy’s claws retracted, and she motioned Dreya to follow her to a workout bench a few feet away. Lucy sat astride the bench cross-legged, motioning for Dreya to join her.
“How long have you worked at the DCO?” Dreya asked as she sat.
“Since I went through my first change twelve years ago,” Lucy said. “I was in a bad situation when John found me. I would have died if he hadn’t gotten me out. He risked a lot for someone he didn’t even know, and I’ll never forget that. I owe him everything.”
Dreya tried imagining trusting someone that much but couldn’t. “Kendra said you work with a lot of different teams, particularly ones who need your special skills, but she didn’t actually say what kind of work you do for the DCO.”
Lucy shrugged. “It’s complicated. Suffice it to say I provide simple solutions to extremely complex problems.”
Dreya waited for Lucy to elaborate, but she didn’t. Dreya didn’t push. Something told her that was the only answer she was likely to get out of the other shifter.
“Do you like it here?” she asked.
Lucy smiled. “Yeah, I do. I won’t lie and say that everything here is perfect and that there aren’t people who look down on me because I’m a shifter. But there isn’t another place in the world that allows people like us to be who we are or values us because of it. It’s the only place where I’ve ever fit in.”
Lucy was telling her what it was like spending time with people who were fully aware that you had fangs and claws when the other shifter suddenly stiffened, her eyes locked on something over Dreya’s shoulder.
Dreya turned to see that an older man in a pricey-looking suit had joined Braden and the others. She turned to Lucy.
“Who’s that?”
“Dick Coleman,” Lucy practically growled. “He’s the deputy director of the DCO, and as his name implies, he’s a dick. Not only does he hate shifters, but he’s dangerous. Stay away from him.”
Dreya looked over her shoulder again, wondering if it was a coincidence that a man who hated shifters just happened to stop by the gym at the same time as the DCO’s newest recruit.
Just her luck.
Chapter 7
“You have to trust your partner,” Danica yelled.
