“You all right, Mom?” he asked.
“Yes.” She took another breath, letting the serenity of the tall trees soothe her. “I’ll be fine.” Far down the row of widely spaced houses, other cubs were playing. One waved to Ryan, then stood up and waited to see if he’d come over.
Ryan acknowledged his friend and shot a question at his mother.
“Go,” she said, putting amusement in her voice. “I promise I won’t kill anyone.”
“It’s not like that, Mom,” Ryan said. “I was watching.”
No doubt he had been, and no doubt he was right. Not much got past Ryan. “Thank you,” Kenzie said sincerely. “Go. Be back for supper.”
Relieved of the duty of guarding his parents, Ryan ran off toward his friend’s yard. He ran fast, the strength in his legs, which she swore grew longer every day, apparent.
They were the luckiest Shifters, Kenzie thought as she watched Ryan. Unlike other Shifters around the country, who’d been stuck into the slum ends of cities, their Shiftertown had been built in deep woods, in an abandoned housing project from early in the last century.
The houses were surrounded by old-growth forests, with trees that reached several hundred feet, branches reaching out well above the floor of the woods to provide a roof of green. Pine needles carpeted the ground, inches thick. The air always smelled slightly damp but cool, and wind perpetually creaked in the trees high above.
Clean air, far from giant industrial cities, and mountains rising to surround them in beauty at all times. The small houses had been originally built with a woodsy theme, their walls fabricated to look like split logs rather than actually being split logs from any trees around here. In summer, this area could be hot, the air turning dank and humid. Winters, on the other hand, could be fairly mild, with dustings of snow to keep everything moist.
Shiftertowns were places of confinement, but this Shiftertown had always felt welcoming to Kenzie. She’d been to others that made her uncomfortable, but here she’d found home. Didn’t matter that she wore a Collar and couldn’t run free—yet, Bowman would always add—she’d discovered a sort of peace here.
Her clan had come from Romania, in the wilds of the mountains there, which was perhaps why she liked this Shiftertown in the middle of nowhere. But here, Kenzie was no longer alone. In Romania, she’d been part of the clan run by her formidable uncle Cristian and dominated by her grandmother, Afina. Kenzie’s immediate family, however, had all passed when she’d been a tiny cub. Lonely and withdrawn, she’d known no one but her cousins, and since Shifters couldn’t mate within the clan, and Uncle Cristian wasn’t letting her out of his sight, she thought she’d never find a mate of her own.
Then Shifters had been outed, the clan had been rounded up, and Uncle Cristian’s Shifters had been herded to the States and this Shiftertown.
And Kenzie had seen Bowman. She’d first caught sight of him across the gym of the closed school they’d been taken to. She’d seen a tall, tight-muscled Shifter in jeans and a sweatshirt, with tousled, short hair and movements that said he was more comfortable in his wolf form than his human one.
He’d turned his head, as though he’d felt her gaze, and looked at her. A long look that burned the air—it didn’t matter how many Shifters or human soldiers moved between them. His eyes were light gray, she remembered; Bowman on the edge of shifting.
He’d stood very still, looking at her, Kenzie gazing right back at him. She’d stared at him, and he at her, until one of Kenzie’s younger cousins had called to her, needing her.
Bowman had let her go, but the slight nod of his head acknowledged her and the spark that had danced between them. His nod was also a dismissal, an indication that he considered her submissive to him, no matter that he’d never seen her before in his life.
Arrogant, insufferable . . . Kenzie had muttered to herself, but for the rest of the time they’d spent in those temporary quarters, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him.
Bowman had been chosen as Shiftertown leader by the human government’s Shifter Bureau. Kenzie’s uncle Cristian hadn’t liked that one bit, because he’d thought that, being older and from a bigger clan, he should be leader of all Shiftertown. But the two other Lupine clans, smaller and less dominant, had conceded to Bowman’s authority. The Felines and bears had wanted to challenge Bowman to put one of their own in the top position, but the Shifter Bureau had decreed Bowman leader. In the human government’s view, that was good enough.