by Chant, Zoe
Tora shook her head, telling herself not to be so silly. She didn’t really believe in aliens. Was she going to let herself be swayed by some pranksters making crop circles and running around in the forest with a couple of flashlights?
Those crop circles had looked pretty elaborate, though. Who could’ve made a thing like that, and in such precise patterns so quickly?
Another flash zoomed by her window. Then another.
Tora raised her hands to the glass, staring wide-eyed out into the trees. There were dozens of them suddenly whirling, zooming, flashing through the air, spinning like a light-up top.
They weren’t close enough that Tora could make out literally anything but the flash of light – and right now, the fact that they weren’t coming any closer was a good thing in her book. It couldn’t possibly have been the work of just a couple of prankster kids. Not unless there were several dozen of them, and they’d somehow learned out to fly.
The lights continued in their frenzied dance, lifting up into the highest branches of the trees before descending again, whipping around with seemingly no rhyme or reason, while Tora gawked from her window.
Maybe I should – should go check this out a little more closely, she thought – but she had to admit, she was just the tiniest bit freaked out right now.
Just as she was trying to talk herself into not being such a fraidy-cat about something she didn’t even believe in, the lights suddenly… took off, swirling into the night sky and disappearing, leaving Tora standing at the window gaping up at absolutely nothing.
Maybe she should’ve grabbed her phone and tried to film whatever it had been before it had taken off, she thought, eyes wide, but her college and training institute had had pretty strict social media policies for athletes, so grabbing her phone to film or photograph things wasn’t second nature to her like it was for many other people.
Well, whatever that was, it was weird, Tora thought, a chill running down her spine. She felt pretty unsettled by what she’d seen, and right now, she wasn’t really relishing the idea of a night spent all alone in a cabin in the woods.
It wasn’t like she had a lot options, though – and she absolutely refused to show up on Wyatt’s doorstep ranting about aliens and UFOs, like she was one of the people in the fields who’d messed up their afternoon. It wasn’t like she thought Wyatt would be angry about it or anything, but it wasn’t exactly something she felt good about doing!
No, I’ll just have to tough it out, Tora decided, backing away from the window. Aside from anything else, she wasn’t going to go running through the woods in the pitch-black night!
Still, she decided that she’d sleep in her pajamas after all – and she’d keep the curtains to the room firmly closed, despite the beautiful view out over the fields and mountains.
And… maybe I’ll just keep the lamp on, too, Tora thought as she snuggled down under the comforter, pulling it up to her chin.
Well, if nothing else, at least she’d have something to talk about with Wyatt in the morning.
* * *
Tora yawned as she cracked an egg into the frying pan. After her close encounter the night before it’d taken her a long time to drop off, since she’d been going over and over in her mind all the completely logical explanations that there had to be for the whirling, spinning lights.
Like a weather phenomenon.
Or pranksters.
Or some weird variation of the northern lights.
Or any number of totally normal, everyday things that could totally cause a bunch of flashes of white light darting through the hills before taking off into the sky.
Well, even if there aren’t actually that many things it could be, it’s not like it was actually aliens, either, Tora told herself as she poked at her eggs.
Her toast popped, and she put it down on her plate, before buttering it contemplatively.
In fact, am I totally sure it wasn’t just a dream? I was sleeping pretty heavily before then, and now that I think back over it, my memory is pretty fuzzy…
Tora’s blood ran cold as she considered the possibility that maybe the whole of yesterday had just been a dream – Wyatt included. Maybe he’d just been something her fevered, romance-starved brain had cooked up.
That would make sense, Tora thought, shaking her head. Could any man really be that perfect, after all?
Maybe she’d mosey on down to the general store after breakfast and casually ask around, see if there was anyone named Wyatt Armstrong in town. If all she got was blank stares and Who?s then she’d know she was just really, really in need of a good –
A knock at the door startled Tora out of her ruminations. Blinking, she hurried across the room, peeping out of the window next to the door before she opened it.
Wyatt stood on the other side of it, just as tall and broad and handsome as he’d been yesterday, his biceps bulging in a checked flannel shirt and his thigh muscles encased in worn denim jeans.
So if this is a dream, it’s a really good one, Tora decided. And I would really prefer not to wake up just yet.
She hadn’t looked in a mirror this morning when she’d woken up, so she hoped she didn’t look too rough as she opened the door, greeting Wyatt with a smile that was totally unforced – she really was overjoyed to see him.
“I’m not here too early, am I?” Wyatt said as he looked at her – and belatedly, Tora realized she was still wearing her pajamas.
“Oh – I –” She could feel herself blushing to the roots of her hair. “No I – I just haven’t gotten around to getting dressed yet. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Wyatt said with an easy grin. “Dinosaurs – cute.”
Tora laughed, a little embarrassed. “Oh God, I forgot about that. It’s… it’s kind of a joke I had with a roommate of mine, Harriet. When we were first dorming together, we were kind of joking around that you couldn’t get PJs that were as comfy as the ones you had when you were a kid. So she got these made for me for my birthday one year as kind of a gag gift. She found some dinosaur-pattern flannelette in a fabric shop and took it to a seamstress, and now, here we are.” She gestured down at herself. “Best pair of pajamas I ever owned.”
“And they look pretty cute on, too,” Wyatt said, smiling. “But seriously, I hope this isn’t too early for me to come around – I think working on a farm for a while has seriously messed up my idea of what counts as ‘early’.”
Tora laughed. As if there was ever a bad time to see Wyatt!
“Not at all,” she said warmly. “I’m usually a really early riser myself – five a.m. for my morning jog, rain, hail or shine. But part of the point of coming out here was to try to do things a bit differently – take it easy and all that kind of thing.”
“And how’s that going so far?” Wyatt asked.
“Well, it’s my first morning, so it’s hard to say just yet,” Tora told him. “I did enjoy finishing the whole carton of ice cream yesterday. And lying in bed past dawn was something special.”
Wyatt laughed – a warm, rich sound. Tora returned to the stove, turning away to hide the way it made her bite her lower lip.
The eggs were done, and she flipped them onto her buttered toast. “I feel bad eating breakfast in front of you, though – can I get you anything?”
“I’d love a coffee, but I can make that myself,” Wyatt said easily. “You having one?”
“No, thanks,” Tora said. “It’s herbal tea all the way for me.”
“I should give those a go,” Wyatt said. “Wean myself off black coffee – but then, a man’s gotta have some vices, right?”
Tora laughed. “One or two, just to make things interesting.”
She tucked into her breakfast, not feeling self-conscious about eating while he busied himself with his coffee – there was just something about Wyatt that made her feel totally at ease. There were no games, no pretenses. He wasn’t the type to get precious or offended about these kinds of things.
Maybe I should ask him
if he saw the lights last night.
Tora almost dismissed the idea out of hand, but to be honest, she was burning up with curiosity. Had it been real? Or had she dreamed the whole thing?
“So,” Tora said, as she polished off her eggs and Wyatt sipped his coffee. “Um. Did any more… uh, crop circles pop up overnight?”
Wyatt glanced up at her. “Did you hear about some?”
“No,” Tora said, shaking her head. “But, uh, well, not to sound like a crank or anything, but I did see something last night.”
“The lights.” Wyatt grimaced – and Tora wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or apprehensive that they did seem to have been real after all. “They’ve been coming and going these past few weeks as well. Never this close to my property, though – I can’t see ’em from the house at all, but Lori Marsden told me she’d seen them out this way.” Wyatt paused, looking at her. “Actually, it’s part of the reason I came over so early today. I wasn’t sure if you would’ve been… freaked out by them, or anything.”
“Maybe just a little,” Tora admitted. “I mean, it’s not the kind of thing you see every day, aliens or not.”
“No crop circles that I could see in my fields, though,” Wyatt told her. “But my place is small, and it’s all grazing land – no crops at all. Grass doesn’t make for such high dramatics, I suppose.”
“Well, whatever it was, it was a little weird,” Tora said. “Just a bunch of flashing lights in the trees, spinning and dancing – almost like a cliché of alien flying saucer stories. I didn’t really see anything other than that.”
“Hmm.” Wyatt took a contemplative sip of his coffee. He seemed to have something on his mind. “But in general, you don’t believe in that kind of thing?”
“Well… I guess if someone showed me real proof of aliens or whatever kind of supernatural thing, I’d believe it,” Tora said, not sure where exactly this was going. “But until then, I suppose I’m a little skeptical.”
“So… something solid, something you could see with your own eyes?” Wyatt asked, looking up at her, his olive eyes intent on her face. “Something you could touch with your hands?”
“I… guess?” Tora frowned. “Why? Did you… find a piece of the alien craft or something?”
To her relief, Wyatt laughed. “No. Nothing like that. I just… well, I feel like there’s something else I really ought to talk to you about.”
Tora blinked, staring at him. “Something else?”
“Tora…” Wyatt trailed off, then cleared his throat. “Have you ever heard of shifters?”
She frowned, staring at him. “I… no. I haven’t,” she said, though something about the word shifter was poking at something at the back of her mind.
After a moment, she figured out what it was: there’d been beings called shifters in the romance novel she’d been reading last night. The hero of the story, Darrick, a billionaire CEO, had been a dragon who could shift into human form. Tora had thought that was a pretty fun idea, but it wasn’t real.
That was fiction, she thought, staring at Wyatt. And I can’t possibly ask him if that’s what he means. He’ll think I’m weird. He probably means some kind of… farm thing.
Whatever the case, Wyatt looked a little crestfallen at her answer.
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t have,” he said. “Not many people know about shifters at all.”
“Well… you could always explain it to me,” Tora said, becoming more confused by the second. “I’m sure whatever it is, I could learn about it.”
Wyatt nodded. “To be honest, it’s a little tricky to explain. I’ve never had to do it before. Either people have already known, or they don’t need to know. So this is something a little new for me.” Wyatt trailed off, grimacing. “But you probably think I’m being all intentionally mysterious now. I swear I’m not, I’m just trying to find the right words – and these aliens, or whatever they are, showing up has made it a little harder. I don’t want you to think I’m playing some kind of prank on you.”
“I have literally no idea what you’re talking about right now,” Tora informed him. “A prank? I don’t get the feeling you’re that kind of guy at all. So maybe just try telling me.”
To tell the truth, Tora was feeling a little frustrated – she knew Wyatt had said he wasn’t trying to be mysterious, but he was! What could possibly be so weird that he had to dance around it like this?
“Maybe… maybe I could just show you what I mean,” Wyatt said, putting down his coffee mug on the kitchen counter. He glanced at her. “But I’ll explain what I mean first. Come on. Let’s head outside.”
“Okay,” Tora said, uncertain. But whatever Wyatt had to tell her, she wanted to hear it. She followed him out into the small clearing in the trees that surrounded the cabin. It was a sunny day with a chill wind, and Tora shivered a little in her pajamas. “All right, what did you want to show me?”
“First of all, I want to say that shifters are… well, they’re just like humans,” Wyatt said, before pausing. "Or maybe I should say we are just like humans. Because that’s what I am – a shifter. Someone who can change their form at will.”
Tora stared at him. Oh my God, it’s exactly like the dragons I was reading about last night, she thought, head spinning a little. But… what the hell? Wyatt turns into a… a dragon? Okay, no, that’s silly. Dragons don’t exist.
“Um,” she said, after a long moment. “I don’t think I quite understand what you mean.”
“No, I get that,” Wyatt said. “Which is why I think it may just be better to show you. But when I do, I want you to remember that it’s still me – I’ll still be the same as I am just now, I’ll only look different. I want you to know that I’d never, ever hurt you. I’ll still be able to recognize you and understand everything you say. So please don’t be afraid.” He paused. “And, uh, I may just have to take my clothes off first. Since I didn’t bring any spares.”
Well, Tora certainly was in favor of the clothes coming off part, but the rest of it had her completely mystified. She just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
Wyatt returned her nod, his hands going to the buttons of his shirt. He didn’t seem especially self-conscious about it as more and more of his tanned, golden skin was revealed – though, Tora thought hungrily, it wasn’t exactly as if he had anything to be self-conscious about. Every inch of him was gorgeous – broad, muscular and powerful, and Tora found that despite the fact she wanted to allow Wyatt his modesty, she just couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
Wyatt didn’t seem at all worried, though – and she supposed if he minded, he wouldn’t be getting undressed in front of her in the first place.
“All right,” he said, once he was standing there in all his glory, his clothes piled neatly on a grassy patch beside him. “Remember what I said. It doesn’t matter what I look like, it’s still me.”
Tora barely had time to nod before it happened. Her mouth dropped open as she watched as Wyatt’s body began to – began to change.
“Oh my God,” Tora muttered, staring. Wyatt had always been big – but now he was growing even bigger. It only took a second, but Tora almost felt like she was watching in slow motion as Wyatt’s body filled out, golden skin becoming a dark brown pelt, his arms becoming legs, and his head becoming –
Becoming a… a bull?!
Tora might not have been on a farm in about a decade and a half, but she knew what she was looking at. Wyatt had become a massive, powerfully muscled, dark brown bull, with massive, curving horns.
Tora stared. At first, she felt instinctive fear at suddenly being confronted with such a huge, dangerous animal – but as the bull turned its head to look at her, its eyes finding hers, she found her fear somehow beginning to dissipate.
“W-Wyatt?” she whispered, her voice shaking a little.
As if to confirm what she’d said, the bull – Wyatt – lifted its head and lowed softly, clearly trying not to make too much noise, just in case she startled.
Well, I am feeling kind of startled, Tora admitted. It wasn’t every day your dream man turned out to have magical bull-shifting powers, after all!
But despite the fact she knew that bulls could be aggressive and dangerous, Wyatt had gone to a great deal of trouble to assure her that he’d still be himself – that he’d know her and would understand everything she said to him.
Still, her knees shook a little as she took her first few steps toward him, heart pounding. Wyatt watched her with his large, dark eyes. Somehow, Tora could see it was still Wyatt in there, no matter what he looked like. No matter what crazy magical powers he might have.
“Can I – can I touch you?” Tora asked, swallowing, once she was standing by his side. She’d felt small next to Wyatt before, but next to his bull form, she felt positively tiny.
Wyatt let out another soft, small lowing sound – and somehow, Tora understood that he was giving her his permission.
Reaching out a hand, Tora ran the tips of her fingers along Wyatt’s side. His fur was coarse beneath her hand, but he was warm, and, while Tora wasn’t about to deny what she’d just seen with her own eyes, touching him somehow made it all seem all the more real to her.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay, I guess I believe you. You’re a – a shifter.”
Wyatt snuffled a little, pressing his cold nose against her arm for a moment as if trying to reassure her. But while Tora had to admit she was a little… weirded out, she wasn’t frightened at all. Mainly, she just wanted to know more. How had Wyatt gotten like this? Was it a family thing, or had he been bitten by a were-bull?
He’d have to be a human again before he could answer any of her questions, she guessed – but a moment later, he was, his body shimmering a little as he returned to his human, and kind of naked, form.
“Tora,” he said, looking down at her. She could see the nervousness in his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was just trying to find the right way.”
“No, uh, I guess this isn’t really the kind of thing you can just blurt out,” Tora said, laughing quietly. “I can see why you waited.”