Chapter 11

Makayla

I'm doing a very good job of being patient, I think, but after two hours of waiting in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, I just can't handle the wait anymore. "Aunt Kaitlyn," I say, "What the hell is happening?"

"Watch your language, young…" She stops and looks at me and then both of us burst out laughing. I think that really breaks the tension for me and a moment later, the two of us are holding each other. I'm giggling like crazy and then I'm crying and then finally, I'm calm.

Wordlessly, she leads me to the couch and sits me down. "First and foremost," she says, "are you and Daniel serious?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

She says, "You and he were both naked and your clothes were scattered all over the floor, Makayla," she says. "It's been a long time since I've had sex but I still remember certain basic facts."

I blush pretty damned hard over that. How in the world did I forget that the two of us were naked? I say, lamely, "You look pretty hot, Aunt Kaitlyn."

She laughs. "Oh yeah. That's the great thing about being a shifter. You keep your figure for a while."

"But you're still sick?" I ask. I think my tone makes clear the part I don't add. Or is that all bullshit, too?

"I'll be sick for the rest of my life, Baby," she says, "but it could be a very long life. I'm not sick when I'm a lion and?—"

"Wait… Holy shit! What the hell with the lion thing?"

She reaches forward and strokes my cheek. "You're in a bit of shock, I think. Maybe. In any case, you've had a shock. That's why you're thoughts are kind of jumping around."

"Aunt Kaitlyn," I say, "I love you but I swear I don't want to hear anything out of your mouth other than explanations."

"I'm a lion," she says, "and so is Daniel. Humans settled on the term shifter, and I suppose that's as good a term as any. Your father, my brother, was a shifter. Your mother was not."

"Am I a shifter?"

She shakes her head. She explains how unions of shifters and humans work. Evidently, it's a fifty-fifty chance when a shifter has a baby with a human. But, since I'm partly shifter, any child I have with a shifter will be a shifter. It's the fucking craziest conversation possible.

And I believe all of it. "Is it just because I saw you two turn into lions?" I ask. "Or, wait. I saw a lion turn into you first. Is that why?"

"Why what?" Aunt Kaitlyn asks and I realize I'm verbalizing some of my internal thoughts but not all of them.

"Why do I believe this so easily?" I ask. "Why aren't I in… uh, denial?"

She smiles. "It is who you are. You're a little ahead of schedule, which is why Daniel kept saying three more years. You've come into your own as far as your heritage is concerned. You know it's true even before you're told, and that's why you accept the truth."

"Because I'm a lion shifter. Wait. No. I'm not. I'm not one."

"You're not a shifter but you're still a lion, Mackadoodle." Mackadoodle. I haven't heard her call me that in a long time. It was her pet name for me until I was five or six. Now, it comes out with serious live events and steps forward. The last time was when I graduated high school.

"I don't understand what that means," I say.

"Nobody really does," she says with a smile. "If you were never told, you would have grown up knowing something about you is different but you wouldn't know what it is. We don't know exactly what it means. We know that there are certain things that all of you have in common. You're all very intelligent. You will have a shifter child if your mate is a shifter. You're destined to succeed at whatever you choose to do."

I stare at her and I can't think very clearly because I'm focused on the shifter child thing. I'm focused on the shifter mate, thing. "Why did you ask me if Daniel and I are serious?" I ask.

"Because you two are a good match," she replies, "far better than you imagine."

I don't really have a chance to respond to that. Before I can, the cabin door opens, and Daniel steps in. There's so much I want to say to him and so much I want to ask him. I can't bring myself to do anything other than reach for him and hold him tightly.