“I’m tired,” I mumbled, wondering how I could be tired when it seemed I’d been sleeping all the time.
“You’ve been through quite an ordeal. You should feel like getting out of bed in another day or so.” With her fingers, she combed my hair back. “Connor saved your life, you know.”
I furrowed my brow. “Really? I thought maybe it was the doctor.”
“Connor wouldn’t let the others stop on the journey back here. He gave you his blood. He checks on you several times a day.”
“Are you a lobbyist?” I asked.
She gave an impatient huff. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
Mom was right. My strength was returning. By late afternoon the following day, I was ready for adventure.
“I’m really feeling strong enough to get out of bed now,” I told my mom. I kept pushing the covers down. She kept lifting them back up to my chin. It was irritating to have her hovering around me.
“I think another day in bed is what you need.”
“Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “I really need to get out of here before I go crazy.”
“This close to your full moon, your body is probably more resilient. I suppose if you took it very easy, didn’t try anything too strenuous, it would be all right.”
“Fine. I’ll just sit around, but I need to do it out of this room.” I shoved the blanket down; she brought it back up.
“I want to talk with you first about your…transformation.”
We’d never had the transformation talk…or the sex one either.
“Mom, you’re a little late. I’ve already talked with Kayla. She told me everything. I’m not afraid.”
“You should be,” she said sternly, taking me by surprise. Her face softened and she brushed my hair back from my brow. “You know that your father and I think the world of Connor.”
“I know.”
“And I know you’ve been hanging around with this Rafe boy. Now is not the time to get rebellious, Lindsey. A bond develops during the transformation. Love deepens. A pact is sealed. A pact until death.”
“I know that, Mom. Why do you think I’m so scared that I might be making a mistake with Connor?”
“You’re not making a mistake with Connor. Rafe would be the mistake.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I know you. And I know both of these boys. Connor is right for you.”
In other words, they’d never accept Rafe. Brittany was so right. Our traditions bordered on the archaic.
“Thanks for the advice, Mom.” This time when I shoved the covers down, she didn’t pull them back up.
“I just want you to be happy,” she said.
I scrambled out of bed and started limping to the bathroom, my thigh still sore.
“I just want to be happy, too.”
Inside the bathroom, I removed the bandages and studied my wounds. They were healing nicely. The doctor had done a good job of closing them with tiny stitches, so I wouldn’t have a horrible scar after all. If they weren’t completely healed, the transformation should take care of them.
I washed up, combed out my hair, and put on a light layer of makeup. I slipped into shorts and a strapless top so nothing would rub against the wounds. I thought they needed fresh air as much as I did. Then I went in search of the others.
I found them all in the library, standing around a desk, studying a large map of the national forest. Even Brittany was there. But my attention was drawn to Connor and Rafe. Connor of the light hair, Rafe of the dark. Connor of the abundant grins, Rafe of the rare ones. Connor, the steady constant in my life. Rafe, the new and exciting element.
“Hey, you’re alive,” Brittany suddenly shouted, with genuine enthusiasm.
“Thanks to these guys,” I said self-consciously as I moved toward the desk.
“I can’t believe you all went after Bio-Chrome while I was dealing with campers.”
“We didn’t exactly go after them. We just followed them, trying to figure out where they had their lab. You probably had way more fun with Daniel.”
She shook her head. “He’s not a loser or anything, but I’m so not into being set up.”
“But Brittany—”
“I’m going to be fine.”
Okay, so she didn’t want to talk about it. I guessed there were more important items on the menu of topics.
“So are you guys talking about how to get rid of that lab?” I asked.
“That’s what we’re trying to decide,” Lucas said.
“Don’t suppose you’d wait until after the next full moon…,” I suggested.
Connor leaned against the desk. “Actually we were just saying that there’s no reason to rush. They’re not going to tell the world we exist, because they want to keep us secret as long as possible.”
“Want to keep their work secret,” Kayla added.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked.
Lucas sighed. “Not sure yet. Although they’re not on actual national forest land, they are still surrounded by forest. Burning the place to the ground won’t work, because it might ignite the forest as well.”
“So we have to find a way to destroy it without destroying our home as well.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m going to talk with the elders. Whatever we decide, doing it during the next dark of the moon would probably be best.”
“Under the cover of darkness makes it all sound kinda Mission Impossible-ish,” Connor said.
“It will be,” Lucas confirmed. “We’ll want careful planning, not just to destroy the building, but to make a statement so Bio-Chrome will leave us in peace.”
“Do you think they realize all the sherpas are Shifters?” Rafe asked. “Do you think everyone is in danger?”
I shifted my attention over to him, and he held my gaze. I read a challenge there: Make your choice. The truth was, I already had.
“I don’t think they’ve figured that out,” Lucas said. “I don’t think they know how widespread we are. Besides, they still have no proof. They’ve never actually seen any of us shift. If they find our clothes, so what? Maybe they’re a little more convinced that whatever my brother told Mason about Shifters is true. But they’re scientists. They deal with facts.”