Now that he says it, recognition sparks. “The girl outside the bank; you’re her father, right?”
He nods, clenching his jaw.
Stone steps around the counter, worried. “Is she still sick? I could have sworn that I-”
The guy cuts him off by rapidly shaking his head. “No, and I can never thank you enough for everything you did to help Katana. But, well-” he takes a deep breath. “There seems to have been some… side effects.”
He reaches into the pocket of his trench coat, but instead of pulling out his phone to show us pictures, he pulls out a fluffy, silver rabbit.
You could hear a pin drop in the ensuing silence. I swear, I even hear my mates’ slow blinks. The rabbit squirms until he finally sets her down, letting her loose. On autopilot, we follow her into the living room, watching her jump up onto the coffee table.
Kodiak finally breaks the awkward silence. “Well… at least she looks happy. Better a bunny than dead, I guess.”
Raiden smacks the back of his head, and he looks appropriately chastised.
Stone sucks in a sharp breath. “How soon after did this happen? Has she shifted back at all yet?”
Katana nearly slips off the edge of the table, and her father lunges to catch her. Sighing in relief, he moves her to the couch. “She was cleared by the EMTs immediately and I took her home. A month later she started sleeping a lot and lost her appetite. I was worried whatever was wrong with her had come back. I saw you in the tournament on TV a couple days afterward and had already started a plan to track you down, beg you to take another look at her, but last week she -” he gestures helplessly to Katana hopping around on the couch without a care in the world. “- and has been this way ever since.”
Stone looks like his namesake; frozen in time. He stares at them both like his brain has completely short-circuited, so I try to buy him time to collect himself by rambling, “It kind of sounds like what happened with Aurelia. Human bodies weren’t made to contain so much demonic energy, and to save Katana, you nearly drained yourself. The massive onslaught must have had a similar effect and twisted her body into a shifter to cope with the influx of demonic energy in her veins.”
Nobody says a word, simply staring at me, and I try my damndest not to squirm under the unwanted attention.
“It’s as good an explanation as any,” I murmur defensively, avoiding everyone’s gaze now.
A small eternity later, Raiden shakes his head and approaches the couch, crouching down so he’s eye level with Katana. “I need you to try and shift back. Take a moment to assess your surroundings. You know instinctively that no one in this room would hurt you; you’re safe. No need to run or hide. Hold on to that sense of security and let it guide you home, back into your own body.”
The rabbit cants her head to the side, and a few moments later is replaced by a woman not much younger than me. Silver hair is cut into a severe bob beneath her chin, her eyes almost as bright. It’s the slow grin that transforms her into something beautiful and deadly that gives me pause, though.
Raiden swiftly covers her with a throw blanket off the back of the couch, but Katana doesn’t even hesitate. Changing back and forth between a human and bunny is soon as easy as breathing, and her grin damn near splits her face. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
When I look at Stone, he’s as pale as a ghost. “That means the alpha wolves could…”
Raiden whispers in horror, “Make shifters. Holy hell.”
Grim expressions take over the room as we realize the full scope of the implications.
Kodiak shakes it off, addressing her father solemnly. “It's safer for her to stay here in Khalida, especially until things settle down.” He turns to Katana, who’s having a grand old time reveling in her new ability. “Whenever you leave the city, I'll have a member of my security team accompany you. There are plenty of shifters that would take an interest in you simply for being an unmated woman, and humans that'll be pushing back about accepting shifters into their everyday lives.”
A worried pang stabs in my gut as I watch how carefree she’s acting about the whole situation. “Honestly, if you can spare someone, you might want to just make him her full-time bodyguard, Kodi.” When he cocks his head my way in confusion, I gesture to where Katana has already shifted again, walking across the back of the couch, completely unafraid. “She's arabbit,guys. Have you ever met a single shifter that wasn't some kind of predator?”
Katana slips, falling off the back of the couch with a soft squeak. A second later, she calls, “I’m okay!”
Stone blanches further, no doubt blaming himself for unequivocally signing her death warrant. “Kodiak?”
Kodi clenches his jaw, already typing on his phone. “I’ll put Axel on it, he was pissing me off anyway.”
Epilogue
AMARA
One Year Later
Autumn leaves crunch beneath our feet as I follow Stone back to the others. A small spark catches my eye, and I dart behind him without an ounce of remorse, using him as a human shield. Two seconds later, the firecrackers Kodi tossed into his Jack-o-lantern explode, splashing everything in a ten-foot radius with pumpkin guts.
Stone swipes a hand down in his face in annoyance and deadpans, “Really? You couldn’t have waited two seconds for us to be clear?”
“Why do you think I lit it?” he responds nonchalantly with a smirk. “Live a little, Stone.”
