Page 2 of Outnumbered

“No,” Caleb said and sat on my other side, kissing my cheek. “It just makes her even more adorable. I can’t wait for you to shift so I can tweak that adorable bunny nose.” He pinched the tip of my nose and I smacked his hand away, giving him a stern glare that only made him smile wider. His bright blue eyes full of mirth.

This was unfair. A bunny? Why? Why did my parents name me after a bunny? Why couldn’t they have named me after a puma or something? Something predatory!

“Maybe I don’t have that form anyway,” I countered. “Maybe I’m not a shifter. Not all elves are shifters.”

“That is true,” Fox said as he walked in. “Not all of us shift, but I can tell you with certainty that you have a second form.”

“How?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Caleb told me,” he said.

I turned to look at Caleb. “How do you know?”

He shoved a huge piece of food into his mouth and shrugged.

“Caleb,” I growled, the sound so deep that I gasped immediately and put a hand to my mouth.

“Oh, that was hot,” Caleb praised. “When did you learn that? Who are you channeling? Was it Branson?”

Speaking of Branson. “Where is he?” I asked, looking around.

“Dad recruited him for a job,” Deryn answered. Deryn’s father was King Daniel of the Werewolves. He’d taken a liking to Branson and even though Branson turned into a bear, he found Branson had werewolf blood and pulled him into the werewolf clan.

“Oh,” I said and frowned, “maybe I am channeling him. I was irritated, but haven’t been able to growl like that before.” When I’d met Caleb, we had discovered that we had a connection, one unlike anything they’d heard of before. And not just him, but I had a connection with Triston, Branson, and Riddick. Branson and Caleb had marked me, which had strengthened the connection even more and now I randomly channeled aspects of them. My siren blood also meant our emotions got entangled as well.

I didn’t like it, but it amused Caleb immensely.

“Caleb, how do you know I can shift?” I asked again, bringing us back to the topic at hand.

“Your eyes have shifted before,” he answered after drinking some milk.

“What?” I breathed. When had that happened? Why? How? Had that ever happened before, or was it just part of the marking and connection?

He nodded. “A few times, but the first time was when you cured all the cursed beings in the park.”

That was before the marking, so that ruled that part out and the connection had been weak and new then as well.

“Oh,” I whispered and poked at the food on my plate.

“Do you want me to work with you on shifting?” Caleb asked.

My eyes narrowed. “No.”

“I’ll teach her,” Fox said. “You’re going to tease her too much.”

Caleb frowned. “I know when to be serious.”

Everyone at the table laughed or scoffed.

His eyes narrowed and I could feel his anger.

“Son, you handle a lot of things very well, but when it comes to Ember, you tease her quite often,” Jolie said, trying to soften the tension in the room.

“How many bunny jokes would you make during training?” I asked him.

His lip twitched and he sighed. “Fine, you’re right.”

“Now that training is over, why don’t we head to the apartments and play some games,” Triston suggested.

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