“Get in the car, Candace!” Mel was shouting, and Candace jumped in the back seat, forcing Meg to the other side. The back door slammed, and Candace hit the lock, but Mel—who had run around the front of the car—had only opened her driver’s side door. She just stood there, peering into the darkness, where low growls and sounds of a scuffle continued.
Then as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Bart appeared out of the darkness, his arm wrapped around Addy’s shoulder.
“Get in the car, darlin’,” he said, opening the front door for her.
“Maybe I should come back with…”
“You go on home.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, kissing her on her hair.
Without further argument, he handed Addy into the car and closed the door behind her.
“Go on, now, Melinda,” Bart said, coming around the hood of the car to hand her into the car, too. “I’ll be fine. You just get on home.”
“You be careful. Hear?” she said, standing on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.
“Don’t worry. They’re out like a light. Drunk as they are, they won’t even remember this in the mornin’.”
“You get one or two of the boys to go with you to get the van, later,” Mel said sternly. “Don’t you dare go out alone.”
“I won’t, darlin’. Now go.”
Without another word, Mel hopped in the car, closed the door, and in seconds, they were on their way.
On our way to where? Meg asked herself. And now what?
The others were quiet, and Meg wondered if they could hear her heart pounding.
“Are you okay?” Candace asked after a moment, her voice tiny in the darkness.
“I think so,” Meg said, though her voice shook.
She felt Candace’s hand close on her own and was somewhat comforted to feel the other woman was trembling, too.
She thought back to what she had seen in the bar—and what she thought she’d just seen on the street—and reached an unexpected conclusion.
“It’s the eyes, isn’t it?” she said, unable to keep the wonder out of her voice.
“Yes,” Mel said. “They’re all ‘Shifters.’”
“Bart was…”
“He and the boys all become bears,” Mel said. “It runs in the family.”
Meg couldn’t miss the smile in her voice.
“Addy?” she asked, fairly certain the woman had not become a bear.
“I…”
“Addy becomes a mountain lion,” Candace said, when Addy didn’t finish. “She’s probably the only one in her whole family, though, so it’s harder for her. Right Addy?”
Meg saw Addy nod in the darkness and then take a deep breath.
“If you’ll feel more…comfortable staying with Mel or Candace, I’ll understand.”
Meg heard the sadness in Addy’s voice, and her heart went out to her new friend. Reaching forward, she laid a hand on her shoulder.
“If it’s all the same to you, Addy, I’ll feel safer with you until the boys get home.”
Mel chuckled.
“You’re all right, Meg. I think I’m going to like you. A lot.”
“Me too,” Candace said, patting Meg’s shoulder.
Addy looked at her, and Meg could see the other woman’s smile as they passed under a streetlight.
“I think I already like all of you,” Meg said, leaning back in her seat. “I can’t even imagine where I’d be tonight, if I hadn’t heard John’s fiddle from out on the street.”
“Let’s not go there, then,” Mel said firmly, pulling up at a red light.
“Do they have Shifters where you come from?” Candace asked.
“In New York City?” Meg thought for a minute. “Not that I know of, though there must be, I would think. I’ve heard about them, but I guess I didn’t really believe they were, well, real.”
“It would be hard for our kind in a really big city,” Addy said. “It’s hard enough in Nashville.”
“Don’t worry,” Mel said, patting Addy’s leg then accelerating as the light turned green. “We’ll be heading back home for a spell over Easter. You can get your mountain fix, then.”
“Where is home?” Meg asked.
“Eastern Tennessee,” Mel said. “Both north and east of Knoxville.”
Addy seemed to sigh with relief. “I can’t wait.”
“I’m really looking forward to meeting your Gran, Addy,” Candace said.
And suddenly they were talking about Easter vacation as though they hadn’t just had a scary encounter on the streets of the city. Meg shook her head in wonder. Then she thought about these women and their men, the normal life they seemed to lead, the closeness of the family, and she felt her own pulse slow. For some reason, these strangers liked her. They were inviting her into their homes and into their lives.
Then she thought about John, pictured him standing with his fiddle, enjoying his music like she hadn’t in a very long time. I think I’ve come home, she thought, perhaps for the very first time. God, I hope it lasts, because I never want to leave…
35