Page 44 of Entering a New World

The tingling sensation washing through my body said yes.

I waggled my eyebrows. “Okay… is shifting science or magic? Like… is your DNA different from mine? And what kinds of paranormals are there? What kinds of shifters? Do you have, like, mouse-shifters or rabbit-shifters?”

“Oh wow, you’re not beating around the bush. Shifting definitely has magical elements,” Rhett said thoughtfully. “There are scientists, shifter ones, mind you, working on answering that exact question. There are differences in shifter and human DNA, so… both? Answering that question is really hard because we obviously have to be very careful. Nowadays, everything easily lands on the internet, and once it’s there, it won’t ever go away. So having someone accidentally post about human-slash-animal DNA online would be a catastrophe and put all our lives at risk.”

“Do you really think humans wouldn’t accept shifters?” I asked.

“Have you taken a look at the state of the world?” Rhett retorted, raising his brows.

“Good point.”

“Besides, to answer your other question, it’s not just about shifters. It’s about magic users—witches, wizards, and mages—too. I don’t know if other paranormals besides magic users and shifters exist. I think I heard someone talking about meeting a vampire once, but I’ve never met one. If they are real, they’re extremely reclusive.”

We paused our conversation while Oliver delivered our drinks, then placed our orders with him.

“To a great first date,” I said, raising my glass for a toast.

“May it be the first of many,” Rhett answered, gently clinking his glass against mine while holding eye contact.

The first of many. My stomach swooped, and not because of the lemonade’s sparkling water base. I liked the sound of that. It made my stomach all warm and fuzzy.

“I think there’s still one question left unanswered, if I remember correctly? I’m not sure if it’s disappointing to you or not, but there are no rabbit or mouse shifters. From what we figure, since the weight of the shifter stays the same in both forms, if there were mouse shifters, you’d basically have giant mice running around. We think that’s the reason wolf and big cat shifters are the most common, while bears and foxes are rarer. Though, I have to admit, seeing a hundred- and fifty-pound fox is damn impressive.”

Nodding slowly, I tried working through the information. What Rhett was telling me made sense, but now I really wanted to see a fox shifter in his animal form.

“How rude would it be to ask Paul to shift for me?” I asked, thinking about the red-haired Mountie that was helping me navigate the whole shitshow that was my life.

Rhett snorted, a bit of beer foaming out of his nose. “Uhm, it’s generally pretty frowned upon to ask people to shift for them. However, seeing as you’re human and this is a whole new world for you… most pack members wouldn’t have a problem with it. We do have a couple of pack members that escaped very traditional packs, though, so it’d probably be best to ask me first if you want to ask someone to show you their shifter side.”

Got it. No asking people about shifting for me. Better safe than sorry.

Rhett cocked his head, face turning serious. “Was Paul able to help you? I haven’t talked to him about your case because while we usually keep tabs on any shifter related crimes, I wasn’t sure if I’d be invading your privacy by not getting the information from you.”

A smile tugged at my lips, and a pleasant warmth washed through me. My mate was thoughtful. Damn. I hadn’t known that was a turn-on for me. “It’s okay. Feel free to talk to Paul, if you want to. I just want to leave this mess behind, but I’m afraid it’ll take a while to get it resolved.” Taking another sip of the lemonade, I scrunched up my nose. “As far as I know, the police got a search warrant for Alistair’s office and his apartment. Paul said the VPD was probably going to search his place today. Honestly, I’m kind of glad I don’t have my phone on me, otherwise I’m sure he’d be blowing it up, and I want to enjoy dinner with you.”

Beaming at me, Rhett took my hand, his bigger, much warmer one engulfing mine, squeezing it gently. “Me too.”

“And then we ran off as fast as we could, thinking we’d gotten away with it,” Rhett told me, mirth sparkling in his eyes. “But, did you know what our drunken, idiotic selves didn’t think about?” Snorting, he shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he’d done.

My belly swooped with all kinds of feelings. This was a new version of the thoughtful, but rather stoic man I’d met. This was a playful, funny version I really liked. It made him more… human? Which was a silly thing to say since he clearly was human. Well, half-human.

“What?” I asked, sipping on my third lemonade of the evening.

“Shifter senses. Back then, the sheriff was a shifter and he could not only smell us, but the alcohol from about a mile away.”

“Oops.” I giggled. “Did you get in trouble?”

“Trouble is an understatement. Gray’s father was furious. It hadn’t been the first stunt we’d pulled that month, and for some reason, wrapping our teacher’s house in toilet paper really rubbed him the wrong way. We got in so much trouble. Think month-long trouble.”

Rhett shook his head, then carded a hand through his sandy hair, mussing it all up in an incredibly sexy way. The fake candlelight highlighted the sharp features of his face, illuminating some parts while dipping others into shadows. He looked delectable and I was definitely starting to hope for a kiss.

“In the end, it actually did us some good,” he finished his story, emptying his glass of beer. “My punishment was to help my predecessor, Solomon, out. In the beginning, it really felt like a punishment, but I grew to love being outside in the wilderness, and started to enjoy taking care of our packlands. I never stopped.”

“Mave told me you’re the one who started keeping bees?”

Watching his whole face light up was one of the highlights of this evening. And I had fun finding more and more topics that elicited that reaction. It was inspiring.

“Yes. It was supposed to be a fun project, but we’re actually making money off of the honey and beeswax. It’s not much since we really only sell the stuff at the farmer’s market or to other pack members, but it’s a revenue stream, and quite a few teenagers actually enjoy beekeeping, so it’s a fantastic way to involve them in pack business.”

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