Ryan shrank down to the floor. A pile of fabric curled around a green snout that peered out from the folds of the robe. He climbed out, triumphant, his long, forked, pink tongue tasting the air around him.
The connection was lost and in a daze, Ana smiled. “Awesome! Great job, Ryan!”
“Ana!”
Her heart skipped a beat in surprise and she put her attention on Lifen’s voice, the source of the interruption.
“Come with me. Now.”
Her mentor swept toward her and as she passed by, grabbed hold of her arm, and led her to the door. They burst out into the cold, dry air and Lifen didn’t stop there. She continued all the way to the opposite side of the driveway, where the stairs led down to the house.
If it were possible for flames to ignite in her irises, she was pretty close to it now. Ana thought she’d seen Lifen agitated before, but she was wrong.
“What do you think you are doing?” Lifen said through pursed lips.
“I . . . don’t know,” Ana stammered. “What do you mean?”
“You were just trying to adjust Ryan’s energy. You have no place doing that. I am the teacher and you are the student. I am the one that knows what’s best for all of you. You haven’t lived for more than twenty years and you think you know everything already. My lifetimes could lap yours around the sun many times over.”
“Wait, you mean he had an energy leak on purpose?” Ana shrank away, just a little bit freaked out at Lifen’s intensity. She wasn’t one for a fight. She’d rather walk away than deal with confrontation.
“You breathe a word of this to anyone and you will be on your own. Not only will you ruin your own education, but theirs. Male shapeshifters have far more energy than the average person. You know this. That increase of power in their youth is a challenge for most to control. Mixed with their feelings and ego, it can create a monster. I have found through my years of aiding youngling shifters, that if their energy doesn’t peak too quickly it helps them through their most important stage of learning. So, I create a small puncture in their energy field so it never grows too big before they are ready. None of them are ready.”
Ana didn’t know what to say. What could she say? She guessed the logic was sound, but still, it just seemed backwards. Although she’d known Chance to be a bit impatient and he had his moments of frustration, he’d always behaved himself. He never did anything inappropriate with his gifts. That she knew of.
She had a realization. “Wait, is that why I feel like a shock whenever I touch the guys?”
“Yes, it is. I hadn’t realized you could sense it.” Lifen closed her eyes. When she opened them, the anger that had been so alarming was gone. She put her hand on Ana’s shoulder and the edges of lips curled up.
“I hope you understand, Ana. I have lived for hundreds of years and I’ve met my share of shifters. I may sound bitter, but it is for good reason. More times than not, their inability to keep their powers in balance has caused death and destruction. Shapeshifters are an endangered species, and healers, well, are even harder to find. This is why I was so excited you found me—that we found each other. You are unique and you have the power to change the world for the better. I know this is confusing, but I need you to promise you will keep this a secret. It is for everyone’s good.”
Ana didn’t know which end was up. If Chance were here they’d talk it over and figure it all out. He’d know what to do. She had no idea if she’d made the right choice coming here with Lifen, but all she knew was this was the only place for her to learn about healing. At present, that was the only thing that mattered to her. Or, it used to be. She’d made friends. Friends who mattered to her and she didn’t want to see them hurt.
With reluctance, Ana nodded.
Chapter 18
Ana woke to a text from her mom.
If we aren’t seeing you for Thanksgiving will we see you for Christmas?
It was only ten minutes before her alarm was set, but her eyes were heavy with sleep. She’d stayed up late looking at the stars from the living room windows, trying to calm her mind, but it didn’t work. She hadn’t wanted to ask to use Lifen’s private gazing tower, because she didn’t want to be around her. The only thing she was prepared to ask for was healing lessons and she was waiting for her opening.
Her eyes blurred when she stared at the glowing text. As much as she wanted to see her mom and sister, there was no way she was about to leave. She wasn’t entirely confident Lifen would let her leave if it came down to it, but it didn’t much matter to her. She was staying until she found out what she needed to know, and if Lifen refused her that knowledge, only then would she leave.
Work’s been going well. Christmas is busy here—but I will come home soon. Promise.
After she sent her response, she tucked her hands, phone and all, under her pillow. She considered having a sick day to sit in her room alone, but knew it wouldn’t fly. Not with a healer in the house. She might as well get up and put her feelings into something else besides brooding in private.
Ana got up and took a shower, which helped a little bit. She got dressed, put on her slippers and went down to the kitchen. Cooking wasn’t her passion—she’d prefer leaving that to someone else—but today, she felt like doing something for the guys.
She opened the fridge and saw there wasn’t much to pick from. She’d had her mind set on scrambled eggs but it wasn’t going to happen today. There wasn’t enough fruit to make a salad, so she went to the cupboards to scavenge. The only thing she could think of to make was oatmeal and she found some blueberries in the freezer. Something to add a little color and flavor when it was done.
“Wow, you’re cooking breakfast?” Jordan asked as he joined her.
“Yeah, I hope you like oatmeal. There’s not much left in the fridge. I wanted to do something nice for you guys.”
Jordan sauntered over to the pot and switched off the burner. “Thanks, Ana. I let Lifen know we were running low on supplies. Looks like it’s time for her to make another grocery order.”
Derek and Ryan emerged in the doorway.
“Did I hear Ana cooked breakfast?” Ryan asked with a grin. “Is it safe to eat?”
“I saved it from being burnt,” Jordan said.
Ana joined him at the stove. “What? Oh, no! Glad you got here in time.”
“So, what do you think Lifen has worked out for us today?” Ryan asked while he braced his hands against the counter. “Who wants to bet she’s in a bad mood?”
Ana spooned out a large helping for everyone and sprinkled the blueberries on top, saving one to pop into her mouth. As soon as it touched her tongue, it began to melt and the sweet juices awakened her taste buds. “I don’t know, but I’ve been waiting for a good day to ask about more healing lessons. I can’t take another crabby day. I didn’t come here to just shapeshift.”
Ryan and Derek exchanged a smirk and Jordan accepted his bowl of oatmeal before muttering, “Tell us how you really feel.”
Derek flashed his dimples and laughed silently.
“I’m serious,” Ana said. “I haven’t had a dream of Chance in over a week. I don’t know what that means, but how do I know he hasn’t gone all crazy-Markus-like? I have to help him and Lifen doesn’t seem to care about any man, least of all Chance.”
Derek put his arm around her. “Sorry, Ana. That really sucks. Don’t know what you can do but try to grease her up. We’ll see if we can’t help out too by being on our best behavior. Right, Ryan?”
With a sweep of his hand, Ryan tucked some of his stray blond locks behind his ear. His blue eyes met Ana’s and his constant smirking face grew serious. “I’ll do my best. What sort of dreams are you talking about?”
Ana realized she’d never said anything to the guys about her special dreams or whatever they were. It was just something else that made her different from them. She hadn’t said anything previously because she didn’t want one more reason for Ryan and Jordan to resent her, but now that she’d landed on L
ifen’s naughty list many times and the guys seemed to have warmed up to her, she figured it couldn’t hurt to share.
With their bowls in hand, they walked into the dining room and Ana took a bite before saying anything. “No, I’m not talking about regular old dreams. After Chance saved my life and put all of his energy into me, awakening my powers, I started dreaming of this place.” Ana waved to the windows and the icy lake outside. “I saw the lake and heard Lifen’s voice in my head. I asked her about it on the way here and she said that healers can sense emotion, and sometimes thoughts floating around someone’s head—but close up, like in the same room. She said that when I was dreaming, I found her and visited her, like telepathically. Something like that. And since Chance left I’ve had these dreams of him. Not all of them have been good, but at least it’s a way to know if he’s alive or not.”
“Whoa, that’s a trip,” Ryan said, holding his spoon in the air.
Ana ventured a look at the guys and they were all staring at her in awe. “Have you ever heard of shifters or healers having unique abilities? Or am I just a freak?”
“If you’re a freak, then I don’t know what we are,” Derek said.
Jordan leaned forward and his eyes were alight with excitement. “The research I’ve done about it would suggest that it’s happened before. I’d have to look into it more though. What did Lifen say about it?”
“I don’t know. When I asked her about the dreams, she told me it wasn’t something she could do. That she’d sensed me visiting her, but past that, she wasn’t really in the mood to tell me more.”
“Don’t you want to know though?” Jordan responded.
“Well, yeah. I guess so, but that hasn’t been my focus. It’s not going to help me save Chance. What I need is the knowledge she has about healing. I don’t want to get her cranky if she doesn’t have to.”
“I hear you. Okay, so today we’ll all do what we can to get her into a good mood so you can ask her about healing. Right, guys?” Derek’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Jordan and Ryan.
Ryan finished his oatmeal and answered, “I’ll do my best.”
“No different from any other day,” Jordan said.
“Thanks guys.” Ana hoped luck was on her side.
Derek and Jordan spooned their last bite into their mouths and got up to leave. Ryan leaned in and whispered to her, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Did you have anything to do with me taking iguana form? Lifen seemed bent out of shape, so I wondered . . .”
Ana took a moment to answer, not sure what to say. Her conversation with Lifen was still fresh in her mind and she still didn’t know how to feel about the energy leak situation. At the time, she’d only wanted to assist her friend and she didn’t regret helping him, even if it got her in trouble.
“S’okay. Your silence speaks volumes. Just wanted to say thanks—I don’t know what you did, but it worked.”
Lifen met them at the front door after they cleaned up from breakfast. Ana noted her calm disposition and gave her a bright smile.
“Today I thought I would give you the opportunity to prove yourselves again. Last time you failed to work together, but I hope that today you find the value of working as a team.”
The four of them exchanged weary glances and then returned their gaze to Lifen. Butterflies churned in Ana’s belly and she felt her breakfast testing the boundaries of her stomach.
“I have hidden an item of my clothing within this mountain range. You must work together to retrieve it and bring it back to me. You are to stay together to accomplish this task and you all must choose from the animal forms you took last time.”
Ryan crossed his arms and scowled. “But last time you put your scarf in the tree and we couldn’t get to it. That totally wasn’t fair.”
Derek shot him a warning glare, which he conveniently avoided.
“You did not work together before you began, and you did not plan how you were to accomplish the challenge. It was not my fault you did not work as a team and you gave up too quickly.”
Ryan grumbled to himself, but refrained from saying anything more. Ana watched Derek’s complexion turn from cocoa to brick red while he grimaced at Ryan. His fists tightened and she worried he wouldn’t be able to keep his cool, but somehow he contained his anger and closed his eyes. Her next concern was Lifen. Had Ryan just ruined the possibility of cornering her with her request for more healing knowledge?
She didn’t want to wait to find out. “I was just talking with the guys at breakfast and we know we can do it together. You won’t be disappointed in us today, Lifen. We will work hard for you.”
A slow smile spread across Lifen’s face. “Thank you. I accept your offer. I don’t want you working hard for me, but for yourself. Most of all, I want to see you work as a team. Go get your robes on and we will meet outside at the top of the stairs in five minutes. You are allowed to talk and plan as long as you need to before you begin. Once you shift, you are to remain in that form until the challenge is over.”
Ana nodded to the guys and they all chorused their thanks to Lifen and started down the hallway. Before going downstairs to his room, Ryan stopped. Derek bumped into him as he brushed by. Ryan waited until Derek’s door shut before he said to Ana, “I’ll really do my best. I didn’t mean to. . .”
She locked eyes with him and found a seriousness there that she didn’t often see. “I believe you. And hey, Ryan, friends help each other. That’s how that works. I’d do the same for you.”
He gave a small grin and followed the guys to the lower level.
As fast as she could, she stripped down out of her clothes and wrapped herself in her robe. She hurried back to the front door and slipped on her boots. The guys were only seconds behind her and they ventured up the zigzag walkway to the stairs that led up to the drive.
Lifen stood in the snow barefoot. Her sage-colored silken dress rustled in the breeze and her pale skin glowed white in the reflected light of the snow. Ana imagined that her mentor must have known love in her lifetime. Her ageless beauty would have brought her many opportunities. The gentle expression on her face was the same misleading peacefulness that had lulled Ana to trust her when they’d first met. Not that Ana considered her mentor a wolf in sheep’s clothing exactly, but her placid appearance certainly covered a tormented heart.
Ana smiled brightly at Lifen and prepared herself for what would likely be another hard challenge. There was no way she could give up or let the others do so.
“If you are all ready, you may discuss your plan. The rules are the same as last time, but now you must select the same animals you used before. You cannot leave our valley, you are to stay in that form until the end of the challenge and you have to work together to succeed. Do you understand the rules?”
“Yes, Lifen,” Jordan said first.
The four of them stood in a circle and Ana held the lower half of her robe tight, trying to prevent the chilly draft from touching her legs. It was freezing, but soon enough, she’d be covered in fur and warmer than she was now.
“What’s the plan, Ana?” Derek asked.
The others stared at her, waiting for her response. “Uh, okay.” She paused and thought it out. “So, clearly we don’t have to come up with new animals—that’s all settled. Jordan, you’ve got horsepower and strength behind you. You’re the largest out of all of us so you won’t be able to squeeze through thick forest and it’s dangerous for you to go across extremely rocky areas. Derek, you’re a natural rock climber and you’ve got great ramming abilities, but because of your hooves we should stay clear of ice. My form is small and I’m probably the most nimble out of all of us. Ryan, the wolf has a strong jaw, and you would be our best tracker, so you should take the lead. We can’t cut across the lake just yet. It wouldn’t be safe for Jordan or Derek because they could break through. I don’t trust the thickness of the ice—it’s still too early in the season. Remember, we have to stay together, so if we have to go another way because someone can’
t make it, then we turn around and try another path. There’s no giving up. Between all of us, there has to be a way to accomplish this. I believe in us. We’re not just your average group of misfits. We’re misfits with skills.”
“Mad skills,” Ryan chimed in.
“Any questions?” Ana asked.
“Nope, I think the godfather has spoken.” Ryan winked at her.
Jordan tilted his head. “The godfather?”
“She’s our alpha. Alpha Ana. AA.”
Derek laughed. “I like it. Let’s do this for Alpha!”
One at a time they shifted into their animal forms, and before the minute was out, a horse, ram, wolf and fox stood in a single-file line on the driveway. Ryan led them off the snow-covered concrete and down the mountainside. Ana took one last look over her shoulder at Lifen, who watched them drop out of view in silence.
They moved diagonally south along the range. The snow was quite deep from the last couple of weeks of winter weather and Ana found it challenging to spring into Ryan’s footprints, so Jordan trotted ahead of her and shuffled his hooves through the white powder. He left behind him a narrow trench that was far easier for her to navigate through. Derek’s wiry, cotton-ball puff of fur was almost camouflaged, except for his gray horns that twisted out from his face and the cloud of steam that surrounded his nose and warmed Ana’s heels.
Clouds moved in and covered the sun, forcing the temperature to drop severely. Except for Jordan, who had shorter fur, they were all equipped to handle the cold. While she moved behind him, she noticed his abdomen twitch in shivers and she hoped they’d be able to finish quick before he turned into a horscicle.
The path they took appeared to be exactly the same as last time. Once or twice, Ryan paused with his nose in the air, and then continued on. They rounded the southernmost point of the lake and had to weave around a particularly rocky section, an area that Ana and Ryan had avoided before when they’d run across the frozen water to the bear den. Although it was Ryan’s job to track Lifen’s scent, Ana could smell it too. So far, everything had gone extremely smoothly and she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was no way that Lifen would just give them her shawl. She wouldn’t make it that easy, no matter how much she wanted them to succeed.
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