Changed by Fire (Phoenix Rising #6) - Harper Wylde Page 0,103

leaning over to cup his cheek. “I’ll listen to any of you whenever you need it.”

“We need it now, Nix,” Damien stated. “You started bringing the barriers down. My Gargoyle is pushing me to do the same.” I considered Damien’s words and realized my Kitsune was doing the same thing. He felt even more connected to Nix now, more tightly entwined with her, and I realized Damien’s ‘walls’ analogy was fairly literal. Nix’s confession had torn open our mate bond, exposing her deeply. If we all did that, all shared the darkest parts of ourselves, if we had that much trust in each other, I wondered how tightly interwoven our bond would be.

“Then I’ll go again,” Nix insisted, her chin going up though I could feel her shiver slightly.

“Nix you already—” Ryder began, but Nix held up a hand.

“I shared part of it with all of them. Not… not the worst of it,” she disclosed softly. “Not the darker parts of myself, just enough for them to understand. That was for them. This part, this is for all of you.”

Damien considered her before nodding. “All of us then. All together.” My Kitsune barked his agreement, his tails lashing madly. Nix settled onto the floor beside me, crossing her legs and tossing her hair over her shoulder as she shifted.

“I’ll go first,” Theo offered. He pushed his glasses up his nose, his blue eyes going slightly glassy as he thought. I wondered if he knew what confession he wanted to make. Part of me was surprised that everyone felt as though they had secrets large enough to matter, while the other part, the honest part of me, realized that we had all seen so much pain in our lives despite our ages. We had just refused to admit it before now. He turned his gaze to Nix. “You know that I moved here with my mom and my sister after my dad died. What you don’t know, what none of you know, is that I’m the reason he died.” Nix didn’t interrupt him, though I felt Ryder stiffen beside me.

“When I was young, I didn’t shift very well. It’s not uncommon, many shifters aren’t competent at the skill before they reach their teens. While there were other krakens who lived in the area with us, we didn’t form packs or groups the way many shifters did. Most of our kind are solitary or prefer to stay with their family unit,” Theo explained. “Molly was already born, but she was very young. My father had been trying to teach me to hold my shift longer so I’d be able to hunt with him. One evening, I wanted to go for a swim to show off a bit. I’d been practicing and practicing and was convinced I could finally hold my shift long enough to get really deep in the ocean. My father forbade it. You see, we weren’t the only type of shifter in the area. I was so angry with him, I hadn’t heard the calls of the others, didn’t know about the issues going on with them. I thought he just didn’t want to help me. So while he was helping Mom put Molly to bed, I snuck out of the house.” Nix reached out and entwined her fingers with his, though she made no move to halt the words now flowing from his lips.

“I went to this spot my dad always took me to, the mouth of a river not too far from our home that was both deep and wide enough to accommodate our creatures. I’ll never forget the cold water and how proud I was of myself when I transformed and started swimming around. I thought if I could stay out all night in my Kraken form that I’d show him. I was convinced that if I could do this, he’d let me start hunting with him. My Kraken was excited as well, but as time passed, the current took me farther from our home than I planned. We were just enjoying the water. I didn’t know there was an issue with the local bunyips and that I managed to float right into their territory.”

“Bunyip?” I could tell she didn’t want to interrupt him, but the foreign word confused her.

“Think of it as a giant, aquatic werewolf,” he explained, his eyes unfocused. “They’re no strangers to the water, but they’ll attack their prey either in water or on land, and then drag them to wherever they’re weaker—so