“What does that mean?” Adam asked from the water.
“Nothing,” Liv replied before Fern could explain. “No, we’reliterallyanimals, that’s what I’m telling you. Ben and I are the alphas. We have two betas, and—”
Her jaw hung open as she swung her head around to study everyone in turn. Nofuckingway. “Oh my god. It’sreal? Why aren’t you an omega?” she whispered her last question to Liv.
Liv pinched her brows together.
“How do you know about omegas?” Noa asked, climbing out of the water to head their way.
“Areyouan omega?”
“I’m an enforcer,” Noa said.
Fern took in Adam’s, Noa’s, and Ben’s perplexed expressions. Elliott was back to avoiding eye contact. Maybe this wasn’t what she thought. “I’m confused. Do you guys not have, like, glands and slick and knotting and stuff?”
“The fuck are you talking about?” Adam had crossed his arms on the rocks and rested his chin on them, totally engrossed in her confusion as he kicked slowly to stay afloat.
“Knotting? Like a copulatory tie?” Ben asked, aghast. “Who taught you about shifters? What do you think we are?”
“Fern, it’snotthe omegaverse,” Olivia explained, realizing where Fern’s mind had gone.
“What’s omegaverse? Is that a graphic novel?” Ben stepped closer to the conversation.
“I fucking wish.”Thisshe could handle. Whatever else was going on was churning her brain at the moment. “Have you ever seenSupernatural?”
“Oh my god, no Fern. It’s not like that.”
“Well then,explainwhat it is like, Liv, please. I’m so confused right now, I’m about to go steal your freaking car and run away.” Shutting down her MPreg train of thought, Fern tried to drag her mind from her books to whatever strange reality she was living in.
Some distance away, pacing in the grass, Elliott huffed, clearly listening in even if he wouldn’t look at her.
Olivia got serious, taking back Fern’s escaped hands. “We can turn into animals. Everyone in Beckett Falls can, and we’re all part of a pack that Ben and I lead.”
“A pack?” Back on her books, Fern’s mind whirled through the thousands of plots she’d read over the years. “I have so many questions right now.”
“I know it’s difficult to believe—” Noa began, coming to sit on Fern’s right.
“Oh, no. I believe it.”
“You do?” Adam looked baffled.
“Liv’s my bestie, I can tell when she’s lying, and she’s not. I just have alotof questions.”
“Shoot,” he said, climbing out to join them on dry ground. “We’re all ears.”
“Can you show me? Who wants to show me? Can you be any animal you want? Are you all wolves? Are any of you wolves? I feel like wolves are most common, at least in what I’ve read.”
“What have you read?” Noa checked.
Fern met her gaze, face heating. “Nothing.”
Noa’s eyes narrowed as she smirked.
“Ben will show you first,” Olivia offered.
The women rotated to face the grass, and Fern watched, awed, as Ben fizzled before her like he stood behind a curtain of static. His body stretched, and he dropped to the ground. His human limbs turned hazy, his face elongated into a snout, and his T-shirt and shorts were replaced with fur—so much fur.
She stared at a wolf. Gigantic, black and gray, he blinked at her through amber eyes. Having risen to her feet when he shifted, Fern gaped at wolf-Ben and frantically reached for Liv’s hand but found a puff of curls instead. She hadbelievedOlivia, but holy freaking fuck, it was unreal to see in person.
