Page 48 of Hidden Nature

Scooping it up out of the pile of clothes we all left behind, I saw it showed a missed call from a blocked number. Now I had to hope that she would call me back. It was our protocol that if we couldn’t answer, we would let it go to voicemail, and they would leave a coded message or try to call back. My gut told me she wouldn’t leave a message—too risky with a phone neither one of us bought or set up. As I was holding it, the phone started to vibrate in my hand before it began its song, only this time Lane’s name appeared.

“Good morning,” I answered.

“Oh, ah… good morning, sweetheart. I wasn’t expecting you to answer so quickly or at all the first time,” Lane admitted with a chuckle. “How are you? Did they let you get any sleep?”

I could hear the others in the background arguing about something as Lane waited for my answer. It seemed everyone was awake back at the house. “Yes, I did get a little sleep, but I’m thinking a nap later would be a good idea.”

“Sounds like a wise choice. Can we expect you for breakfast in the near future?” Lane questioned.

Glancing over my shoulder, I found the twins sitting up, watching me with blurry eyes awaiting my answer. “Yeah, everyone is up, and I think Margaret tried to call me, so I think it’s best for us to be awake. I’ll have to shift and run over since someone had the bright idea to literally tear my clothes off me.”

Mason grinned at that, giving me a thumbs up. “Best choice I ever made.”

Returning his grin, I looked out the window to find the sky was clear and the sun bright. “It’s a nice spring day. Who knows, I could just go for a walk in the nude. I hear from people it’s incredibly liberating.”

Snarls from the room and on the other end of the line told me everyone was listening.

“Little dove, I would advise against that if you want to be able to sit for breakfast,” Zander called from the background.

“Sounds like shifting is the best plan,” Lane suggested, humor in his tone. “We’ll see you in a bit.”

After I hung up, I looked at the twins sitting before me, appearing as exhausted as I felt. Coffee would do us all wonders, but if Margaret called back, we would need to head out to meet her.

“What are the chances the others will let me meet with the contact without all of you coming with?” I asked, cocking my head slightly, taking in the sight of them standing to get dressed.

My wolf stood up and took notice of her sexy mates, and my scent filled the space, revealing my thoughts. How was it that I could possibly still crave them so much when we indulged in each other so freely last night? Something told me I would always want them, just like my other mates. Yes, omegas tended to be more hyper-sexual to encourage breeding, but I don’t think that was what this was. My feelings for them were far deeper than needing to reproduce. No, it was the feeling like I was no longer complete without them.

“Babe, you need to stop looking at us like that or we are never going to get to breakfast. My willpower is only so strong,” Noah warned with a smirk on his full lips.

“As for your question, snuggles… no. I don’t think there is a snowball’s chance in hell that you can meet up on your own.” Mason raised a hand to stop me from speaking. “What you might be able to do is get them to stay in the car while one of us goes with you.”

I mulled that over a moment and nodded. “That is something I could work with. I’m just worried that having all of you around will make it hard to keep this exchange from going unnoticed. Zander can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing him.”

“That’s a good point, and I’m sure as an assassin, that type of person around you makes things challenging,” Noah commented as he pulled on his pants.

“I would never ask Zander to change his life, but it does mean I will need him to sit things out on occasion,” I agreed.

Once they were dressed, I dropped down out of the treehouse and shifted. My wolf was pleased to be going on a run after so many days trapped in my human body. Stretching, I shook out my fur and lifted my nose to scent the area around us, taking in a deep breath. My magic seeped out of me and into the ground, greeting the trees and plant life. Leaves rustled in the light breeze as if they were waving back at me. A sense of tranquility floated around me as the forest reached out, telling me what was happening in the woods around us. I got images of a hiker lost in the foothills of the mountain that was wandering in our direction but was still a day’s walk away. Sending my thanks, the forest released me and settled back into its normal routine, leaving me to deal with the problem.

“The forest just told me a hiker got lost in the foothills, heading our direction. You might want to let the scouts know to the northeast to keep an eye out,” I relayed to Mason and Noah. They both looked at me with raised brows.

“Damn, this new connection is going to be so nice now that we can talk while in wolf form,” Noah muttered as he shoved his hand in his pockets and headed off in the direction of Zander’s house.

“I’m going to run ahead so I can shower and change,” I informed them before I darted off into the woods.

Mason’s deep laughter filled the air. “Afraid if we join you that you won’t get clean?”

“That’s exactly what would happen,” I shot back.

Even though that was a real outcome, the other part was that my wolf was begging to stretch her legs. I also knew I could get in a run burning off some of the energy I had stored from being a human for so long. Now that the trees and other plants of the forest were watching out for me, I wasn’t worried about getting caught off guard while on my home turf. My muscles sang as I pushed my body to go faster, digging my claws into the soft earth, propelling me forward. The joy I felt couldn’t be contained, and I let out a howl, scaring a flock of sparrows up in a tree, causing them to burst out into the sky. While being a werewolf wasn’t something I had planned on happening in my life, now that I’d embraced it, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

When I finally arrived at the house, the patio door was open and I darted inside but didn’t account for the fact Zander had all hardwood floors and came sliding into the kitchen. Trying to stop the sound of my nails on the wood drew my other mates’ attention, but Colt, who was right in my path, didn’t turn around fast enough to see me coming right for him. Crashing into his legs, he toppled over onto me, and we both landed on the floor in a heap.

“Finley?” Colt blurted, surprised to see it was me. “First time on wood floors?” he asked with a chuckle.

I snorted at him, picking myself up off the floor, shaking my head, frustrated at how foolish I’d just appeared.

Lane came and squatted down in front of me, reaching out a hand, scratching behind my ear. “Don’t take it too hard, sweetheart, all of us have made that mistake at least once or twice in our lives. There’s no instinct for knowing how to deal with slippery flooring. Go on head up, shower, get dressed, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”