Page 24 of Kiki

“I might live here already, but don’t we need to get permission or something? And what about Dahlia?”

“Dahlia is a big girl,” Neo said, nuzzling the base of my throat. “She’ll be fine.”

“But about the school? Don’t they assign where people sleep?” It was very hard to think with all their attention focused on me. Of course, that was probably my favorite part about the night before. I’d never sought to be the center of attention, always trying to fly under the radar. What a difference when it was my mates.

“Mates are always permitted to live together,” Ian said, close to my ear, his breath warm and soft. “Your sisters live with theirs you know.”

“Honestly, I didn’t know.” We were so new as family together I had never been to their rooms. “But I am glad to hear this because I don’t want to be anywhere but with the three of you. Do you think we could start skipping classes and be home-schooled here in the suite?”

Neo chuckled. “Do you think we’d learn anything if we did?”

“Oh…” I curled into his lap and wriggled free of my sheet. “I for one think I’d learn a lot if last night offers any indication.”

“You’re a very naughty girl,” he growled.

“I’m trying to be.”

Two hours later, we went out to breakfast where I ordered the extra-large stack of pancakes to replenish my energy. Thank heavens it was the weekend because I was not prepared to leave them for class yet. Monday would have to be soon enough. Every moment we spent together gave me added confidence, and I remembered my sisters saying their mates made all the difference with their powers. Could it be the same for me? I pushed my pancakes around, my appetite diminished by the thought that it might not be. Or perhaps was it the opposite? Did I fear that if these men actually did complete the circuit, if being mated to them fixed what I feared was wrong with me, it made me vulnerable.

Setting my fork down, I waited until all three were looking in my direction before speaking. “I need to see if I am no longer broken.”

“I beg your pardon, mate?” Neo reached for my hand. “I don’t see anything broken about you. Can you clarify what you’re saying is in need of repair?”

I pulled away, wanting to speak my piece without being sucked into the warmth and sensuality of their touch. “The wind thing. Maybe broken was the wrong term, but I have never had any control over it, and I think or hope it could be useful, although I don’t know how. But my sisters said their powers did not come into their full control until they were mated. And I am hopeful that the same has happened to me, and yet at the same time worried that might be the case. I am not used to needing people.” I swiped at a tear rolling down my cheek. “And I already need you all.”

I’d never been more terrified.

“Can we maybe go up to the roof and see if I can bring on the winds?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

I asked them to come to the roof with me and see if I could make wind happen on command. I still had no idea what the benefit of that could be, but perhaps I’d learn later in life. And I did know for sure that not controlling it was a problem. That fire could have spread to the whole roof and maybe even farther. The tornado once upon a time. And there were other incidences I could now look back to and recognize that they weren’t just stray breezes or dust devils or even poltergeists. Yes, I’d stretched that far to avoid taking responsibility for something that seemed too unlikely.

A shifter? A wolf? Yes, I could accept those things, but having the random ability to set the air moving? Why? Where did it come from? And then meeting my sisters and hearing them talk about their abilities made me feel like I wasn’t such a freak if I did have a gift like that. I didn’t really understand what an original shifter was, except that they were impossibly old, but I supposed someone who lived that long might well have been different from the run-of-the-mill wolf. I wished we were able to know more though. I wished we could meet him.

But maybe he wasn’t just the player we assumed. Maybe in creating us he’d had a plan? Passing on abilities he had to make sure that when he was gone, they would be available to the world? And, if so…had he already moved on to another plane, perhaps the one from which he came.

Was an original shifter like an ancient god?

And what did that make me? And Ava and Minx?

But they had learned to handle what they’d been given. Certainly they felt their mates helped with that, but I also had to believe it took a lot of discipline as well. Did I have that? I had not yet once summoned the wind on purpose. Could I?

“Mate? Are you ready?” Ian, my math study buddy asked. “Tell us how we can help.”

I nodded, dragging myself back into the moment. I could have all the esoteric ideas I wanted about the whole thing, but what mattered was making it work. “Can someone put one of those pickleball wiffle balls in the middle of the patch of grass?”

Neo complied and stepped back.

I wasn’t even sure how to go about it. I tried squeezing my eyes closed and concentrating very hard. But when I peeked, the wiffle ball remained unmoved. Then I got right up to it on my hands and knees and threw power at it. Not that I really knew how to do that. I used all my willpower and then little of it, thinking it might be overkill, but after a half hour or so, I was exhausted and frustrated and ready to quit. “If I can’t do this with something this light, how did I send a laptop into the air and all the other things in the classroom that day?”

Neo leaned against one of the heavy plastic rectangles that made up the wall of the roof area. He tapped his fingers on his lower lip and murmured.

“Maybe light isn’t the answer.”

“What?” I looked away from the damnable wiffle ball. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Aerodynamics. I’m not an expert, but look at things like airplanes that can be lifted into the air. Filled with people and cargo.”

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