“Well, no, but it’s possible there’s some.How would a shifter have found the town?”
“I don’t know, but if I go after them, I could ask.”
Kael grabbed Nymon’s arm.“You can’t go after them.If it’s a wolf, you could get hurt, and if it’s a shifter, well, you could get hurt even worse.”
Nymon scowled.“Why do you think a shifter would be dangerous?”
“Because whoever it is isn’t supposed to be here.Shifters aren’t allowed in town.”
“Theworldisn’t allowed in town,” Nymon snapped before sucking in a breath.“Sorry.I don’t want to be angry at you, but I don’t understand why you’re not at least curious.Don’t you want to talk to this person and find out why they’re here?Maybe ask them questions about the world outside of Starhaven?”
“I know everything I need to know about the world outside of Starhaven.That’s what TV and Internet are for.”
Kael didn’t understand.Nymon didn’t blame him, but he also didn’t want his best friend to stop him from doing this.“I’ll probably never have a chance like this again in my life,” he told Kael.“I want to talk to this person.”
“You don’t know if they want to talk to you.You said that you saw them yesterday.Why didn’t they shift?They could have if it was only you there, but instead, they left, right?”
“Yeah,” Nymon grumbled.“They left.”
“So maybe they don’t want to talk to you.They had an opportunity to do so, but they didn’t.”
“They don’t know if they can trust me.”
“Youdon’t know if you can trustthem.Considering they’re in Starhaven, where they shouldn’t be, I don’t know if you should.”
“Technically, they’re not forbidden to be here.There’s no law that says people can’t come in.It’s just that most people don’t know about the town and can’t cross through the shield because of the magic it’s made of.”
Kael shook his head.“I’d say I can’t believe you’re saying that, but I can.This is dangerous, Nymon.I know you’re fascinated by shifters and all of that, but they could attack you.You don’t even know if this wolf is actually a shifter.What if it’s an animal and it attacks you?”
“If it’s really a wolf, it would’ve attacked me yesterday when I was alone.”
“Or maybe the wolf wasn’t hungry.Maybe it’s stalking its prey, and that prey is you.Please.You can’t be serious about going after awolf.”
Nymon glanced toward the forest.He couldn’t see the wolf anymore, so it was probably too late, but he wanted to try anyway.If the wolf was a shifter and they were out there, Nymon wanted to know why.He wanted to know how they’d gotten into town and why they were here.
He realized that it didn’t look good.Why would anyone sneak into town?Maybe they were curious, like Nymon.Nymon wasn’t sure what he’d do if he was allowed to leave Starhaven and see what the world was like out there.Would he spy on people from the bushes, too?Maybe initially, just to see what was going on and make sure that the people who lived there weren’t awful.
He took a step away from Kael.“I promise I’ll be careful.”
“Please don’t do this,” Kael said again, but Nymon had made his decision.
“I’ll see you later, all right?”
“At least let me come with you,” Kael begged.
As much as Nymon wanted to say yes, he felt like he couldn’t.Kael would slow him down.He didn’t want Nymon to find the shifter, and he’d do everything he could to ensure that he didn’t.He wasn’t a bad friend, far from it.He would do it because he was worried about Nymon and didn’t want anything to happen to him.
But for some reason, Nymon trusted the shifter.He’d only talked to them once, and they hadn’t talked back, but there was something that was pulling him to go after them.That something was telling him that even if he did, he’d be safe.The shifter wouldn’t hurt him.
Nymon didn’t know why he felt this so strongly, but he wouldn’t find out until he spoke to the shifter, and he wouldn’t get an opportunity to do that if he continued wasting time.“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” he promised before turning around and darting away.He didn’t want to give Kael the opportunity to stop him.
“Nymon!”Kael called out after him, but Nymon didn’t stop or slow down.He rushed in between the trees, feeling his best friend watching him but never looking back.
* * * *
“I’M SORRY, CAN YOUrepeat that?”Gregory asked.
Tex wished he didn’t have to.“You heard me right the first time,” he told Gregory.“I caught my mate’s scent.”
