Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (4 page)

“I do what I can, James. Though I wish
you’d keep out of trouble in the first place.”

“What would the fun in that be?”

“More fun for me, I assure you.”

“Well don’t worry too much about me,
Uncle. I’ve got things under control. Speaking of which, I met your newest
employee. She’s very…human.”

He chuckled softly “You never were on
for subtlety, James. I believe Kira is more than she appears to be and she is
more than deserving of the secretary job. I was, in fact, ready to turn her
down but then I saw her interacting with the animals in my office. It was
unlike anything I’d ever seen before. They responded to her as if they knew
her, and she to them. I had to change my mind.

Most humans just want another line for
their resumes but she genuinely wanted to learn and help the animals. A
werewolf, she is not but a special person like that deserves a chance and I
feel lucky to have her on board.”

“Maybe but it seems odd to go lax on the
rules for some stranger.”

“James, I have known you all your life
and there are things about you that I’m sure I will never know. It seems trust
is a bigger part of your life than you want to let on and you should take the
time to figure out why.”

Trust issues? Me? Never. I thought of
the girl who’d been popping in and out of my mind all day and made a decision.
If Doc wasn’t taking any precautions then it was up to me. “I’ll tell you what,
I’ll come by tomorrow and show her around town. Let’s call it a sign of good
faith…and trust.”

“Splendid, bring your friends too but
make sure you understand your motivations and if you can’t then you can always
fall back on my instincts.”

“What about my instincts?”

“I’m sure they are fine you don’t trust
them yet. Plus mine are sure to be much better, regardless.”

I laughed “You’re such a cliché nutty
uncle.”

“I’ve never claimed to be otherwise.”
He said, smiling.

I noticed the moon’s ascent in the sky and
turned to see the others lining up at the tree line. They were preparing to
shift for our run and hours of playing, hunting, and fighting. I went to follow
when my uncle grabbed my shoulder and held me back “You’re a good male, James.
Learn to trust
that
.” Great, more advice.

“Uncle Eric, I hate to be the one to
tell you this but you’ve been reading too many fortune cookies.”

“That’s all right. Let’s go.” We raced
to the tree line and I stripped and shifted from a human to a brown furred
wolf. The cracking of bones and joints was blanketed by a rightness and
necessity of transformation. As soon as my inherent power finished the shift, I
was off, leaving behind distant howls to the moon.

It was Monday morning and I was
starting my new job. I had woken up at 6:00 am, sang through the shower, ate a
big breakfast and spent all morning getting ready and building my excitement.
At exactly
8:50am
, I walked through the big door under
the sign “Bark n’ Bite” and into the Veterinarian office.

Doc greeted me and put me to work at
the front desk. It was basically checking people and their pets in and out,
answering calls, and doing paperwork. The best part was interacting with all of
the animals. The worst part was that everybody was a little too friendly. I got
a lot of questions about myself but Doc had told me to expect that by saying
“Small town, people are nosy and people will talk, good luck m’dear” and he
left me with that. The barking and general animal noises got old though and by
noon
I had learned to put music on at my
desk.

Around
4:30 p.m.
Jay walked in with the red haired
Trent and another boy I didn’t recognize. The other boy was average height, had
noticeable muscles, brown eyes and blond hair, and like the others wore a
t-shirt and jeans. He looked familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. They
all came to my desk and I smiled up at them “Hey.”

The boy I didn’t know raised his hand
out to me and I shook it. “Hey I’m
Brandon
, you must be Kira.”

“Word travels fast” I laughed.

“In this town it does but my brother,
Logan, met you the other day so word didn’t have to travel too far on that one.
Also Doc told us all about you yesterday at Jay’s house.”

Jay shrugged with that ever-present
smirk on his face. “The crew came to gawk at you” he said.

“And kidnap you”
Trent
added. I didn’t know what to say to
that

I managed an “Oh” as the entrance door
opened again and in walked two more guys followed by
Logan
. They were laughing as they came in
and the two people in the waiting room stared as now all six guys were standing
at my desk. They sure took up a room. Each one of them was at least 6ft tall
with strong builds, not an ounce of fat on any of them.

Logan
waved and said “Hey beautiful. How’s
it going?”

“Good thanks, first day.”

“Cool, I see you’ve met my brother,
these two shmoes are Max” he indicated the tall, lanky one with spiky black
hair, brown eyes under a pair of glasses, and a blue polo shirt with khakis on
“and Will” he slapped the one furthest away from me. He was the biggest muscle-wise
out of all of them. He wore a gray shirt, black basketball shorts, had an
almost shaved head of dark hair and cold blue eyes.

Will nodded. I nodded back.

“Hi, erhm, everyone, do you want to see
Doc because I’ll let him know you’re here but he has a few patients to see to.”
I was overwhelmed and rambling. To distract myself and calm down, I looked over
their heads and in the spaces between their bodies to see one woman with her
young daughter, the
Crenshaws
, I think it was, with
their Siamese cat. They were Doc’s last patient for the day

Jay shrugged. “Not necessary. We saw
him yesterday. What time do you get off of work?”

I felt calmer and looked up at him. “In
another half hour, why?”

“Well someone has to welcome you to
town properly.” He said and leaned in close to my desk. Eye contact was a huge
mistake and I was on alert once more.

I hoped my voice didn’t squeak as I
replied “So you brought the city basketball team?”

“Clever but no. It’s just me and some
friendly neighbors. Have you been to the local pub yet?”

I began to fiddle with the already
filed paperwork. “No, what time are you going?”

“Now, we’ll get Doc to let you out
early.”

“Oh no, thanks but no, it’s my first
day. I can’t be skipping out early.”

Jay leaned in even closer, purple eyes shining,
just to taunt me, I was sure. “Don’t worry about it. My uncle won’t care.”

Logan
added “We are meeting up with other
friends too so you won’t be the only girl.”

I coughed awkwardly. That was something
I considered but I didn’t want them to think it bothered me. “Um, thanks but
really, I can’t leave early. I can meet you guys there in 45 minutes or so.” I
factored in time to go home and change.

“But happy hour ends at
6:30
”
Brandon
whined. I suspected then that he was
the youngest out of the guys and he must be just old enough to drink, if that.
This was followed by a chorus of “Come
on’s
” and
“live a
little’s
” and “you know you want
to’s
.”

At that moment Doc walked out of his
office and into the waiting room, holding the Shih-Tzu out to Mrs. Tavish beside
him. She had paid when she arrived, knowing it was a simple check-up. I watched
as Doc told her “He’s as healthy as a pup.” She smiled, thanked him and left
the office.

The guys were talking all around me but
I heard Doc say “Mrs. Crenshaw I will be right with you and Mittens” then he
headed over to my desk.

The guys made room for him and he
turned to Jay. “James, I thought you would wait until after office hours to
collect Kira.”

Before I could stop myself I spoke up
“Collect me? What?”

Doc turned his gray eyes to me “Oh I’m
sorry Kira, I’m still in Vet mode, I’m afraid. James told me he would come by
today to see if he and his friends could show you around town. I thought it was
a nice gesture.”

“It is. Thank you but as I was telling
them I’m still here for another” I looked at the clock “26 minutes.”

He shook his head “Oh, don’t you worry
about that. You did very well today. I haven’t seen the desk this organized
since the day I bought it.” He gestured broadly at the desk that admittedly did
look much better now that I’d organized it. “Why don’t you head out, it will be
good for you. Young people should have friends.”

Trent
slapped Doc on the shoulder, saying
“You rock, Doc.” Jay laughed at me with his eyes, the “I told you so” hanging
between us.

Brandon
decided to say it though anyway “See
Kira, you can come now. Didn’t we say so?”

I ignored that “Great. Thank you, Mr.
Dellarson. I’ll be here tomorrow
9 am
sharp and the files on the toad are on
your door.”

“Thank you, Kira. I will see you then
and please call me Doc.” He turned to the boys before heading back to Mrs.
Crenshaw “Any of you boys try to mess with my employee and you will not live to
tell the tale. Have fun.”

Jay leaned back against the wall
looking relaxed and smug, knowing he’d already won. He spoke lazily, “Do you
have your stuff? You can drive with us and we can bring you back to your car
afterwards.”

I nodded, grabbing my purse from
underneath the desk. “Yes and sounds good but I get shotgun.” Jay gave the
barest hint of a nod in acknowledgment and what seemed like respect crossed his
features.

Brandon
yelled, “Damn it, she’s good” and the
guys headed towards the door to the parking lot. Jay waited for me and held the
door open. As I passed him he said into my ear “You look nice, today.”

I almost stumbled on the threshold but
managed to keep it together. “Thanks.” I shrugged and played it off cool as I
walked to the Hummer that had the others piling into it. At least I hoped I
did.

We met up with a few girls from the pack,
Mena, Demi, and Annabella. We introduced Kira and the girls clicked instantly.
I knew I shouldn’t be suspicious but I was. Every time I tried to throw her,
she kept it together. I don’t even know what I thought would happen though.
There was just something about her.

I thought about what Doc said about why
he hired her. He said she was unlike anything he’d ever seen but being unusual
could also get you in trouble. And although no one else seemed to care, I
intended to figure how much trouble this girl really was.

We got our drinks then we found our
usual booth in the bar and I made sure Kira sat next to me. Annabella took her
other side. Will and Demi, attached at the hip as usual, sat in their own booth
and Max, Mena, and Trent stayed at the bar and the stools there.

“Why do you fight?”

I looked up surprised “What?”

Kira looked up at me expectantly “I
said, why do you fight?”

“What makes you think I fight?”

“Because I noticed on Friday that you, Trent,
and Logan had some bruises and today you all have new ones. So what’s the deal?
You guys in some secret fight club?”

Had this girl noticed our accelerated
healing? I didn’t think so but still we had to be more careful with that. We’d
been getting sloppy lately. I was down with causing trouble but I wasn’t
stupid. I played it off. “If you know the first rule about fight club you’d
know I can’t answer that…but you didn’t ask that, you asked why, first.”

“Right, why do you do it, put yourself
in harm’s way deliberately? Money?”

I don’t know why I answered, maybe
because she caught me off guard. “No, it’s more for fun. Fighting is good
exercise and training. Plus you get bragging rights.” At least most of the time
when I fought with the pack it was for fun. My fights outside of the pack? Not
so much.

“Training for what? Christina told me
you were going into politics…”

Aha. “Checking up on me?”

She looked right at me “You’re checking
up on me. It seemed fair.”

I leaned back and searched her face.
Either she was really good at reading people or someone had tipped her off. She
spoke up, “Let’s just get this out of the way. There’s nothing nefarious to it,
I like animals and I need money and experience. Can we be friends now, James?”

I burst out laughing and my pack shot
me strange looks, apparently I was louder than I thought. I reined myself in.
“Straight to the point, then. So you’re telling me I don’t have any reason to
be suspicious of you.”