big dining room table, plates heaped with food as per usual, Jai by my side.
“Beth…” Rob rumbled.
“Captive animals, gene splicing…” She waved her hand in the air. “What are they doing up there in that place?”
“That’s what we need to find out. The boys tried a frontal assault and didn’t get too far. Those animals, the lions and tigers you talked about?” Rob said.
“A lion and a jaguar,” I replied.
“Those. You ever had an animal you couldn’t touch with that twist of yours?” My ‘twist’ is what they called my bond with animals. I shook my head, taking a bite of the melt in your mouth roast lamb. “Y’see. That’s not right. Whatever this is, they’ve come into our territory, built that place on our land. Maybe it is exactly as they say, a sperm bank for foreign creatures but…what if it's not?” Rob’s eyes scanned the table, everyone staying very quiet and still. “What if they’re…”
“Like us?” Jai asked.
“That’s what I’m worried about. Not the first time governments or organisations have used us as lab rats. If they… We’re the strongest shifters within NSW, and they chose to build that place right here, on our land. You need to take that job, Shannon. Be our inside man.”
I put my cutlery down on either side of the plate, my appetite killed as I remembered the waves of harsh feeling rolling off those animals. When I looked up, I saw every eye was on me.
It took me a little bit to put it all together, but Beth’s anxious expression was a giveaway. That, and when I looked sideways at Jai, his eyes were on his fork as he pushed his food around.
Things changed after graduation. I’d focussed on Nan when she was sick, seeing Beth and the other women mostly when they came around to help with her care, but rarely the boys. And then when she was gone, the pack had clustered around me, the women sitting with me and keeping me fed, the men helping with the upkeep of my property. But like wolves, they were mostly unseen. I’d turn around and find things done and know it was them. But Nan had been gone a couple of years now.
They’d kept inviting me to all the same pack events like they had Nan, but it’d felt like a formality. I wasn’t a kid anymore, left to play with the others. Seeing Jaz was painful because it reminded me of… Instead, I’d started building a life and a following at the vets, away from the pack and out from under Nan’s shadow. When they requested my presence formally, I went, as was agreed, but apart from regular Sunday night dinner’s at Beth and Rob’s, I saw few of my former family.
Until now.
The boys being sent around, the talking with the alphas, Jai… I pushed my chair away from the table.
Don’t make connections, don’t get tied down, Nan had said. Or if you do, keep them light. You need to be able to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice. You have to keep the line alive. You can’t sacrifice what we are for relationships.
“Thanks for dinner, Aunty,” I said, struggling to keep my voice even and only partly succeeding. “The food was amazing as per usual, but I need to go.”
“Shannon…” Rob growled, but I pushed my chair in, took my plate, and scraped the remains of my meal into the scraps bin for the animals. My hearing started to dull, then go all echoey, the sound of the tap as I rinsed off my dish a cacophonous roar. I slipped it into the dishwasher and then grabbed my bag.
“Love…” Beth said, but I shook my head. She was standing now, so I gave her a quick hug, tugging free when she tried to hold me, and then went for the door.
“Shannon!”
My steps dragged at Rob’s shout, his will bearing down on mine, making it harder and harder to move.
“You’re hurting her, you old bastard!” Beth cried, and his hold on me loosened. “Even more than you already have.”
Why do I always feel relief when I get out of here? I thought as I walked down the front steps. I fished out my phone, my thumb shaking as I cued up my contacts. Janey would come and get me. She’d just be vegging in front of the TV.
“Shan!”
God, this was just like the other night, I thought, bringing up Janey’s number. Same shouts, same—