Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

P enny, with absolutely no visible sign of self-consciousness, simply stood up and stripped her sleeping shirt off. Ashley yelped and turned away, blushing and crushing her eyes shut, and heard the amusement in Penny's voice. "Does the sight of me naked offend you so much?"

"I just don't want to be rude! Or…rude!" There were quite a few other words that actually leaped to mind there, but Ashley didn't think discussing how hot and bothered she got looking over Penny's lush curves would help at all just then.

"Well, I feel silly standing here naked with your back to me. Believe me, people spend a lot of time undressed, or half dressed, backstage at concert venues, so it doesn't bother me at all. Seriously, Ashley, how do I do this? I don't even know how to shift. It happened accidentally last night. My partridge went 'I can do that!' and just, like, did ."

Ashley kept her gaze resolutely on the floor. "Ask it if it can do that again."

There was the briefest pause and then a telltale rush of air, followed by a startled squawk. Ashley twisted to find a wide- eyed partridge standing on the floor, braced like it was expecting something to go wrong.

She was a rather pretty bird, all dusky browns with white and reddish-brown highlights on her wings. Her neck was speckled with black, her throat cream, and her beak, eye rings, and legs were all a splendid red. She was, Ashley suspected, probably twice the size of a true partridge: shifter animals were almost always larger than their true counterparts, and Ashley had the vague idea that normal partridges were smaller than an average chicken. Penny was definitely bigger than that, particularly with her feathers fluffed in alarm, as they currently were.

"That's good," Ashley crooned. She didn't think of herself as a crooner, but it was the only appropriate tone to take with a nervous bird. "That's very good. Now can you shift back?"

The partridge stared at her suspiciously, then marched around in a little circle as if it was thinking very hard. Another bamf of air puffed, and all at once Penny was standing there again, her bare back to Ashley.

She had, Ashley thought, an awfully cute bottom.

"That," Penny breathed, "is freaky. Let me try again." She shifted again, still strutting in a little circle, although she froze once more when she did shift, as if she'd surprised herself and had forgotten how to walk. Then, cautiously, she walked around some more, shifting a couple more times before hunkering down in partridge form and, Ashley swore, concentrating fiercely. She wondered if she looked like that when she concentrated as a bear. It was ridiculously cute, honestly. Animals weren't really suppose to concentrate, and the result was adorable.

Penny sat there with that intense partridgey frown for long enough that Ashley wondered if she should say or do something, but very suddenly the partridge shifted back to a woman again, and this time, she was dressed. Mostly, at least: she was in the gorgeous autumnal concoction she'd rented, although her legs and feet were bare. She looked down at herself, yelped, "Oh thank God!" and collapsed over backward on the bed in a rustle of skirts. "Oh my god, that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Do you know how hard it is to get a partridge to focus on a dress? Yes it's like feathers!" she wailed in despair, clearly to the partridge, then said to Ashley, "It got so hung up on the idea of feathers it wouldn't shift because humans don't have feathers. Oh my God. Is your bear that…" She sputtered out, giving up, then exhaled more quietly and ran her hands over the dress. "At least I got it back."

"That's wonderful." Ashley beamed at her. "Really, I'm very proud of you. That was hard and you did a great job!"

"Thank you. Can I borrow some giant-sized clothes that don't matter if I lose them in a shift? I mean, it would matter, obviously, but?—"

Ashley grinned. "But it wouldn't be a holy-cow- how- much? dress if they disappear. Yeah, of course. I have a couple of skirts that might fit you, and my shirts will be too big, but that's a look, right?"

"The skirts had better be mini, or I'll be walking on the hems. Yes, that would be great, please. Oh!" She sat up and looked down the dress, then collapsed again in relief. "Oh, good, my bra came back with the dress. I wish the shoes had, but I can borrow those big snow boots again, at least long enough to get back to the hotel."

Ashley, genuinely curious, said, "You couldn't tell your bra had come back?"

Penny waved a hand in the air. "This dress has a lot of structural boning. It was fifty-fifty on the bra."

Ashley laughed. "Right, of course. Yeah, let me get you the clothes, and then if you're hungry I'll find something for breakfast. Which means we'll probably eat gingerbread man cookies because that's what I've got in the kitchen right now."

"Not a cook?" Penny sat up again, interested, and Ashley answered as she left the room to find Penny some clothes.

"Not really, no? There's never seemed like much point in cooking for one, and even before I was running the pub I was always pretty busy. I'm capable of producing something edible in a kitchen, but only under duress. You?"

"I make two kinds of food," Penny called, though she lowered her voice as Ashley came back in with a skirt and top. "One: massive party feasts for fifty. Two: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Oh, that's cute. And it is a miniskirt. On you." She held up a denim skirt that was short on Ashley, then stepped into it, displaying how it hit her nicely at mid-thigh. "Amazingly, it fits around the waist, though. I'm now envisioning a future where I can borrow all of my girlfriend's clothes. Unzip me?" She turned to display the complicated zip-and-hook closure of her fairy gown, and Ashley found her hands cold and shaking with nerves as she tried to open it.

Penny glanced over her shoulder, a smile sparkling in her brown eyes. "Is this going to be a problem when we get to unfastening bras?"

"I will never master undoing them with one hand," Ashley whispered, mortified.

Penny laughed. "Me either, honestly. It's witchcraft. Ooh, I can breathe now, thanks." She took a deep breath and shimmied out of the dress, picking it up to lay it on the bed before pulling Ashley's shirt on.

It was slightly longer than the skirt on her. They both looked at where the hem skimmed just above her knees before Penny giggled and tucked it in. "I could have just borrowed this and a belt and I would've been fine. Okay, I'm ready for gingerbread men."

"I can probably do a little better than that," Ashley said guiltily.

"You say that like I'm not happy to eat gingerbread for breakfast." Penny followed Ashley out of the bedroom, glancing around the two-bedroom apartment's open-plan layout. "This is nice. Big living room. Enough space to be a bear?"

"Especially if I push the coffee table out of the way." Ashley had, in fact, done that so she could shift back and forth as she experimented with her clothes. "Gingerbread is good, but shifting takes energy, especially when you're not used to it. Eggs and toast. Maybe bacon if I've got some in the freezer." She went to poke around, emerged triumphant, and got everything going in the small kitchen. Penny checked the fridge, found orange juice, and poured them both glasses, then sat at the kitchen bar to watch Ashley cook, and to consider the question when Ashley asked, "So how are you doing with all of this?"

"I don't know," Penny confessed. "Okay? Maybe? I guess? It's weird and I don't feel like it suddenly fills some kind of 'my god, I always knew there was something missing' space in my life. But it's also fine? It would be finer if this damn bird would stop…I think it forgets how to swallow if it pauses taking a drink, you know? But it's okay. I do think part of the reason I started playing drums was to drown it out, so it's nice to know I wasn't crazy."

"I think you're handling it really well, for what it's worth. And I'm really impressed you were able to get the dress back. I hope Maggie will be able to answer some of your questions." Ashley gave Penny a shy smile. "And I hope you might think about telling my family about all this sometime, too. It doesn't have to be right away, but…"

"But you want to be able to tell them you met your mate," Penny guessed. "That's got to be a big deal for shifters. I mean, real ones like you. Not that I'm not a real shifter, I guess, but you know what I mean!"

"It is a big deal for those of us who grew up knowing it was a possibility, yeah. But," Ashley emphasized, "I also know I have like eleven million cousins and they're all huge and overwhelming and if you want to wait three years I'll understand that, too!"

Penny laughed. "Maybe three days, at least, while I get my feet under me. My…claws? Talons? I guess I mostly think of bird feet as 'feet,' though. That smells delicious," she added as her stomach growled audibly. "Am I allowed to eat like four eggs? And also is it cannibalism if I eat eggs now?"

Ashley's mouth fell open as she contemplated that question. "I never thought about it before. I don't think so? Maybe avoid partridge eggs, though."

"I've managed to do that so far in my life, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep on keeping on." Penny accepted a large plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, humming happily as she ate. "Those are really good scrambled eggs. They've got some kind of little twist to them I've never tasted before."

"I put Worcestershire sauce in them. Just a splash. A family friend did that once when I was over for breakfast and I loved it so I've always made them that way."

"No way. It's really good!"

"Thanks."

They lingered over breakfast, then hopped up guiltily when a knock sounded at the door, like they should have been doing—Ashley didn't know what, but apparently not giggling over toast crusts. Maggie Ross and Conri Lyell were at the door, as expected, and Ashley invited them in, slightly stunned at the wrestler's height. She'd been tall the night before, obviously, but Ashley had been in shoes then, and now with Maggie in heels and Ashley in bunny slippers, the athlete was about six inches taller than herself.

We could still swat her, her bear said consolingly.

The idea nearly made Ashley laugh, so she was smiling as she said, "Hey, hi, thank you for coming, I really appreciate it. Come in, please! You remember Penny?"

"Of course." Maggie spoke for the two of them, though Conri smiled and nodded as they came in. Penny stood up to greet them, and looked unbelievably tiny next to the tall wrestler. Even Conri, who was probably five ten, looked whip-slender and like a breeze would knock him over, beside Maggie. They were an interesting couple, with her tremendous pale height and his sallower wolfishness, and it was highlighted even more by Maggie's flowing hippie dress and coat compared to Conri's incredibly well-cut business suit. The only thing they obviously had in common was a fondness for long hair: Conri's was pulled back in a thin ponytail, and Maggie's thick white braid fell down her spine like a rope.

She looked absolutely delighted as she sat down across from Penny. "You figured it out. I can sense you now."

"You could before," Ashley said. " How ? Can I get you some coffee? Water?"

"Coffee," Conri said. "Please. Can I help?"

Ashley smiled and shook her head. "No, the kitchen's only big enough for one. Thanks, though. Please, have a seat." She went into the kitchen with her bear craning its head toward Conri curiously.

We could swat him, but he is…strong, the bear said after a moment. For a wolf, he is very strong.

Ashley shrugged. I suppose some must be.

I don't like it, the bear announced. It makes my fur itch.

Well, he won't be here long, Ashley promised.

Maggie was saying, "I couldn't sense it, exactly, but I could see you were a bird shifter. It's something about the bone structure, or the eyes, or something. I don't know. I could tell you didn't know it, though, or that you rarely shifted."

"I didn't know," Penny confirmed. "Until last night when Ashley showed me her bear and I shifted. She says that's really unusual, that I must be very strong-willed to have suppressed it. Do you know anybody else like me?"

Ashley looked over her shoulder to see Maggie and Conri exchanging glances. "No," Conri said after a moment. "I know that in our shifter line, there are people who could force a shifter to shift, or not to. But I've never met anybody who suppressed it themselves, besides you."

Penny said, " Your shifter line?" at the same time Ashley's bear said, People like him , with a growl. Ashley, without meaning to, said, "People like you?" out loud, and got a startled look from both the wolf shifter and the big swan at his side.

Conri, reluctantly, said, "Yes. It's a power in my family line. I foreswore it, but yes. I could force someone in our line to shift, or not," to all of them, and then to Penny, "Shifters come from all kinds of different provenances. Maggie's and my line might be the newest, the only one that really knows where it started. It began in the Roman arenas. But we developed all over the world, so we have to have come from different beginnings."

"Hnh. That makes sense. But you don't know anybody else like me. Oh my God!" Penny straightened. "Does that mean I'm a different kind of shifter than the rest of you? Because I could suppress it?"

"I suppose it's possible," Conri said, startled. "I have no idea if that's a thing."

Maggie said, "Joash would know," and her husband gave her a flat look as Ashley brought coffee over and sat beside Penny.

"I'm not flying Joash all the way from Italy to answer questions, Maggie."

"While I agree Joash would be happiest to be flown around the world for a conversation, there are these things called telephones these days, you know. I hear they work all over the whole world, even."

"It's—" Conri broke off, his mouth working with irritation before he muttered, "It's six or seven in the evening there, isn't it. I got my time zones mixed up for a minute and was going to say it was five in the morning. He'd be asleep."

"He's a cat," Maggie said. "He could be asleep at literally any time. Go on, give him a call. If anybody knows, he will."

"Why?" Ashley asked. "Who is he?"

"A big, pretty, lazy lunk," Maggie replied with a grin. "But he knows everything there is to know about shifters, so if the ability to suppress being a shifter is a thing, he'll be the man to tell us."

"Fine," Conri said with a roll of his eyes. He already had his phone out, and turned it to show them the video call he was putting through. "We'll ask him your questions."