Page 62 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

“What makes you think I want to … why would you assume…”

“Elizabeth, let’s not pretend. I’ve never felt a mating bond before but it’s pretty obvious when it happens. You’re all I can think about and I’m betting it’s the same for you.”

Her eyes widened and she swallowed hard. “Are you trying to tell me that I don’t have a choice? That I have to be with you?”

He let out a long sigh, as if she were being especially difficult. “You have a choice. We can avoid each other and be miserable for a while. Eventually the bond will wither if we don’t feed into it. It won’t be pleasant, but if that’s what you want, we can try it.”

And just keep feeling like this until… “How long does that take?”

He shrugged. “No way of knowing. Could be months. Could be years. My parents gave me a little refresher on being a shifter yesterday. Since I never shifted… I haven’t really been living as one.”

She caught her breath, mouth dropping as she remembered him saying it was his first time. “Wait, so you never changed until the other night? Seriously?”

“Nope. Thought I was a throwback, or a freak. Boys usually change during puberty but I… I just never did.” He looked away, staring out at the water with an intensity that spoke of a lot of suppressed emotions.

She knew what it was like to lock down all your feelings to avoid the pain. “Puberty? Weird. I started changing when I was much younger. Before I can remember really. I…” Her chest felt tight, and she took a second to breathe through it.

“Yeah.” The pain was still there. “I was adopted as a baby, but then I guess… well, they weren’t expecting to find feathers everywhere. Eventually I did change fully and… they weren’t sure what to do with that, so they gave me up.”

“Ouch. I’m sorry.”

She skimmed another rock across the lake, but there was too much anger in it, and it only skipped once before it sank with a splash. “They left me with a suitcase full of clothes and an old book I’d never seen. Inside was a note. From my birth mom, I guess.”

“What kind of book?”

“It was old, and an amateur thing. Written like a nature documentary, except it talked about people who changed into birds. There were some hints that, well, led me here.”

He let out a low whistle. “Huh. I bet my father would love to see that book some time.”

“I—sure. That’s fine.” She was normally very careful who she showed it to, but in this case, it made sense. “Would have been nice if it had some practical information. Anything about what I was would have been a big help.”

“So, you really don’t knowanythingabout being a swan maiden then?”

“Swan maiden? That sounds like something out of a fairytale.” She laughed.

“Well, it is. Or rather the fairytales about swan maidens were based on people like you. Women who change into swans.”

She squinted at him. “How do you know so much about swans? You’re a goose.”

“Funny story that…”

Chapter

Eight

He repositioned himself on the rock, wincing a little as a sharp edge stabbed him in the thigh. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to get into his family’s history, but the soft lapping of the lake was a calming influence. “It’s like this… way back when the government was trying to get homesteaders to fill up all the empty land they’d stolen, three brothers moved out and claimed three pieces of land that they combined and worked together. This land has been passed down in the family since.”

“You were serious about your family owning the lake then?”

“Yep. The Brood brothers were geese shifters, and they specifically chose this land because of the lake. But once they got here and built themselves a big house to live in… they realized they were kind of lonely. Women were in short supply back then. So, they did what any red blooded, slightly misogynistic fella from the 1800’s did and posted an ad for a mail order bride.”

“Um, just one?”

“Mhm.”

“Is this going to turn into one of those reverse harem romance stories?”

Jacob threw back his head and laughed. “I have a cousin who loves those stories, but no. They decided that they could only afford for one of them to be a distracted newlywed at a time. They were going to let her choose which brother she wanted.”

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