Page 68 of Remington’s Mate

After rest and a snack, they did it again, except this time with Remy as an owl.

Jaeda focused, trying to hear the owl in Remy, trying to be feathered.

And suddenly her arms felt weird and misshapen, and then she had wings. And a beak and talons and…

Holy fuck I’m Hedwig!

Brock laughed. Apparently he could hear her animal talking in his mind.

And, wow. She had another animal.

It took her a while to Change back, though, and afterwards she was wiped out. “That’s enough for this morning,” Brock said. “I’ll assess you this afternoon, after you get some rest, and maybe we’ll try again. But no Changing on your own.”

“But I want to learn to fly,” Jaeda protested.

Once she’d accepted she was never going to be a shifter and made new goals for herself in high school, she’d buried all the longing she’d felt inside—the ache because she couldn’t shift.

Now the feelings all came flooding back, and she couldn’t wait to do it on her own. To explore the world as an animal. Two animals. To fly with Remy in the moonlight…

“I know what you’re thinking, babe,” Remy said, putting his arm around her and kissing her temple. “But we have time.”

“I know.” She slipped her arms around him. “I just want to learn all about it. To do all the things. I can’t stand not understanding what I can do. If I could just practice, then I’d get good at it, and we wouldn’t have to hide it from people.”

Brock heard her, and came over to cup her cheek with his hand. Serenity flowed through her. “You have to take care of yourself,” he said. “There are too many ways this could go wrong. Just give me a chance to figure it out.”

Brock decided Jaeda was okay to try some more experiments in the afternoon, though she could tell it made Remy uneasy. She knew he loved when she was badass, but at the same time he seemed to have a desperate desire to wrap her up in bubble wrap so nothing could ever hurt her.

It was sweet and frustrating at the same time.

She tried and succeeded to turn into an owl when Colt was near her in owl form, but it was a lot harder than the first time. She didn’t know if it was because she was tired, or because the owl wasn’t as strong in Colt, or just because he wasn’t Remy.

Then they started trying to figure out how close Remy had to be for her to successfully turn into a leopard.

Brock had him move out about five feet at a time, and it got harder the further away he was, even with Brock’s help. When he was at twenty feet, she didn’t think she was going to be able to do it at all.

She reached out desperately—and then suddenly energy rushed through her and she Changed.

But it was all wrong. Things looked different—colors looked different or seemed to fade to gray. And everything smelled different. It smelled more.

And she felt different. She looked down and realized she had dog paws. And a disturbing urge to wag her tail.

Holy shit. She was a wolf.

Brock gazed at her. “Huh,” he said. “I did not see that coming.”

Kitty jumped up and down. “Three wolves, three cats and a bear! Now we’re talkin’ about a crew.”

Remy Changed back to human and glared at Brock. “What the hell did you do to her?”

“Either she pulled the form from me,” Brock said, “or she’s finally finding her natural form. Was she ever a wolf in the spirit world?”

“One time that I saw,” Remy said. “When she was watching a pack of… hell, I guess they were spirit wolves. But she Changed to leopard after I came.”

“Change back to cat and come over here then, and see what she does.”

Remy Changed and padded over to her, rubbing up against her. Leopard. We like the leopard. Let’s be that. And she Changed again, this time to her snow leopard form.

“Okay, one more thing,” Brock said. “Titan, can you come here? And Remy, you go back to twenty feet.”