Dreya sighed. It was complicated, but if they were going to be partners, he should know the whole story when it came to working with a shifter.
“This is going to sound crazy, but being a shifter is more than just claws, fangs, and really good senses,” she said, trying to frame her thoughts and hoping what she said would make sense to him. She’d only had this conversation one other time—with Rory—and that had been over a decade ago. But Kendra and Lucy, as well as Clayne to a certain degree, had helped her understand a lot more about herself. She only hoped she could get it out in a way Braden would understand.
“You already know I can see in the dark, pick up your scent from a hundred feet away, hear your heart beating from the other side of the room, run fast, and all those other things, right? Well, those skills are the outward expressions of what it means to be a shifter, but none of them are what makes me a shifter. Being a shifter is about what’s inside that really makes me different.”
He regarded her in silence for a time. “And what’s inside?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to explain, but sometimes, it’s like there are two people living in the same body. One half is me—Dreya, the woman who likes to make jewelry and watch Netflix. The other half is my feline shifter. That part likes to drive fast on my motorcycle, climb tall buildings, and steal things purely for the thrill of it. Both halves are equally important. If I ignore either side for too long, the whole becomes…well…cranky I suppose is the best word for it. Rory figured that out a long time ago and taught me how to be a thief to keep my feline side happy, even though he didn’t want me doing it. When I said I would have gone insane without his help, I wasn’t kidding. He helped find a way for both halves to be happy.”
She caressed his hair-roughened jaw. “Does that make any sense at all?”
Braden didn’t say anything for a long time, but then he nodded. “Yeah, I think it does.”
Taking her hand, he tugged her to his chest. The position was just as warm and cozy as it had been before, but for some reason she couldn’t understand, something felt different now, and she couldn’t help wondering if she had told him something that put a wedge between them.
Chapter 15
Ivy didn’t expect Trevor to be with anyone when she walked into the common room of the psychiatric facility to visit him. In all honesty, after the runaround Brand had given her when she’d gotten to Stillwater that morning, she half expected Trevor to be locked up in a padded room. According to Brand, her “brother” needed to get acclimated to his new surroundings without his sister’s interference. She’d been afraid he was trying to cover up the fact that something had happened to Trevor when the hybrid escaped, and she wasn’t leaving there until she saw that the coyote shifter was okay. Not only that, but she and Landon needed an update about what was going on inside Stillwater. When it looked like Brand wasn’t going to budge, she threatened to call the Maine State Police and have them poke around. Brand hadn’t been happy, but he agreed to let her see Trevor.
She eyed the dark-haired teenage girl beside Trevor on the couch as she took a seat on the matching chair.
“Who’s this?” Ivy asked.
“Brooklyn,” Trevor said softly. “She’s a patient here and a new member of the I’ve-seen-weird-shit-but-kept-my-cool-when-the-doctors-questioned-me club. You can talk in front of her. She’s smart enough to avoid getting herself turned into a medicated zombie in here, and she’s a friend of Ian’s, the hybrid you might have noticed flying out the window last night. I’ve told her pretty much everything else. Speaking of Ian, you and Landon caught him, right?”
Ivy wasn’t quite sure what she thought about Trevor divulging classified information to a teenager in a mental institution, but if he thought it was okay to talk in front of her, then she’d go along with it, especially since it didn’t look like Brooklyn was going anywhere. Besides, as Trevor pointed out, she knew Ian. Maybe she’d be able to give some insight into the kid so she and Landon could apprehend him.
“No, we didn’t catch him, which is why Landon isn’t here. He’s out looking for him,” she said, keeping her voice low even though the only other patients in the room were two elderly men, clearly hard of hearing, playing chess on the other side of it. “Ian’s not like any hybrid we’ve ever dealt with before. He’s way more clever.”
She didn’t miss the look of concern—or pride—on the girl’s face.
“Instead of running for the hills like other hybrids would have done, he’s hanging around the woods out there,” Ivy added. “Landon and I haven’t been able to figure out why.”
“I think I might be the reason,” Brooklyn said. She pulled her ponytail around to the side and played with the end of it. “Ian won’t go, because I’m still here.”
Ivy studied the girl. The fact that Ian refused to leave—even if it meant saving himself—said a lot about Brooklyn. It also said a lot about him. Ivy knew there was something special about the hybrid from the moment they’d started chasing him last night.
“If the bumbling orderlies were the only ones out there looking for him, we wouldn’t be nearly as worried,” Ivy said. “But unfortunately, Thorn’s men are out there, too.”
Trevor frowned. “Thorn’s men? He sent backup for you?”
Ivy grimaced. “More like reinforcements. Thorn’s head of security, Douglas Frasier, is the one leading these guys, which means Thorn doesn’t trust us anymore.”
“Crap,” Trevor muttered.
“Exactly,” Ivy said. “No doubt Frasier already told Thorn that Mahsood created a functional hybrid and that Ian is on the loose out here in the forests of Old Town.”
“Who’s Thorn, and what does he want with Ian?” Brooklyn asked, looking from Trevor to Ivy and back again.
“He’s a man who makes Brand look like a saint,” Trevor said. “If he gets his hands on Ian, it won’t be good.”
Panic flickered in the girl’s eyes for a moment before being replaced with grim determination. “So how do we stop him?”
“First, we let Ivy and Landon worry about Ian,” Trevor said. “They’ll keep an eye on him and make sure Thorn’s people don’t get to him. While they’re doing that, we need to work on getting me into that isolation ward so I can free that shifter and stop Mahsood from turning any more patients into hybrids.”
Ivy was wondering exactly how much Trevor had told Brooklyn about all of this stuff when the girl spoke.
“Can’t you go kick the crap out of all the orderlies and walk in there right now? I saw what you did to that door last night, Trevor, so don’t even pretend you didn’t break that knob with your bare hands. A few out of shape orderlies shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
