Chapter 31

31

L ogan felt like he'd spent a week on a treadmill without water, sort of dried out, stretched out, and sore. His hip didn't really hurt anymore unless he thought about it, but knowing that the brand was there and feeling the tight place in his skin when he walked made his lips curl back and his teeth grind.

He had thought that coming home might magically allow him to shift again, and he had a moment of hope when he first saw Tabby come running towards him. But try as he might, he could not meet her on two feet and sweep her up into his arms the way he yearned to.

Then he hoped that a night of sleep and resting in a safe place would set things right.

It didn't.

He was still sore, if not as achingly hungry now, and he was still a horse.

His stallion was completely unconcerned. This is comfortable.

Logan snorted, because he couldn't speak out loud, and wandered out of his open stall into the morning sunlight.

His muscles were tight, and there was a soreness in his legs that would need working out, but he had run and walked what he guessed was nearly a hundred miles over the past several days, much of it over rough terrain, and he felt pretty good considering.

He missed hands. And speech. And a hundred little human perks he'd always taken for granted.

He walked up to the house and started to climb the porch steps before he realized that there was no way he was going to fit into Tabby's front door.

Fortunately, the door flew open and Franzi came dashing out. "Uncle LOGAN!" Logan lowered his head to meet her and she wrapped her arms around his face. She hugged him, giggling, then backed up. "Why are you a horsey, Uncle Logan? Not SUPOZE to be a horsey. You have to take me to Tiny Paws in the truck!"

Tabby was on Franzi's heels, looking like she was chasing a whirlwind, which maybe she was. She had Franzi's bag and her own purse. "I'm going to have to take you to Tiny Paws, honey. Uncle Logan is having…a little shifting problem, apparently, and we're just going to have to do what we can, okay?"

Logan nodded, which made Franzi giggle, and stepped back, gesturing towards Tabby's truck with his head.

"I can get into Tabby's truck!" Franzi said, though when she tried to, she was unable to reach the door handle. "I can do it! I can do it!" she insisted, when Tabby went to open the door and help her in.

Logan hovered uncomfortably, unable to help at all as Franzi crawled up into the car seat and couldn't get herself buckled in. Tabby got it all sorted with some effort, and Logan wondered when he'd become some kind of expert at it. It didn't seem that long since he'd been struggling with the same exact things.

Of course, with no hands, it was even harder.

"Do you want me to tell the guys at the auto shop that you…ah…can't come in?" Tabby suggested as she shut the truck door on the passenger side.

Logan gave another exaggerated nod.

"Should I tell them you're…sick?"

Logan shook his head emphatically. Sick wouldn't be a logical excuse for a shifter, and Mason would know that. It gave Logan a pang of regret to think that Mason might think he was dodging work. This was the best job he'd ever had and he didn't want to lose it. Again, though, hands were a pretty necessary part of being a mechanic.

"Family emergency?"

Logan sighed and shook his head again. He didn't want to lie to Mason at all, but he didn't know how to tell Tabby that his boss was a shifter and might understand his dilemma. In fact, maybe Mason could figure out a way to help him out, if Tabby told him.

Logan stomped in the dirt and tossed his head.

"I have no idea what that means, Logan," Tabby said in confusion. "You want me to tell him that you had to go out of town for a conference or something?"

Logan blew out in frustration and shook his head. How did you tell someone to tell the truth in horse? It was never a problem he'd had before.

"We'll try to set up a whiteboard or something when I get back, okay? They have those toys for animals to train them to ask for things that go terribly wrong with cats, don't they? I'll stop at a pet shop and see if they have one. I have a boarder coming at nine and I need to be back at that time, so I have to go now . "

She paused long enough to caress his neck and hug his head, kissing the middle of his forehead.

The tingly feeling of her kiss gave Logan a moment of hope. Maybe she'd break his curse with a kiss like a fairy tale!

But if this was a fairy tale, it was one of those old world cautionary tales where little discontented mermaids tragically died on beaches and stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to fit in glass slippers and had their eyes pecked out by ravens.

Her kiss was only a kiss, and then she was getting into the driver's seat and pulling down the driveway with Franzi waving enthusiastically from the passenger seat.