Page 63 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

“Okay, that sounds better.”

“But… they were a little afraid she might find the situation odd. So, instead of mentioning that it was three brothers to choose from, they just wrote the ad like it was one man, and waited for her to arrive. Surprise!”

Lizzy snorted. “That’s… something.”

“I guess she wasn’t too put off by it though, since she stayed. She picked the eldest brother, and it turned out she had two younger sisters. They came to join her and, well, it all just worked out. Three couples, one huge spread of land.”

“Huh. And they were um, fine with the brothers turning into geese?”

“That’s the best part. It could have been fate or just coincidence, but without realizing it, the ad was answered by a swan maiden. Three geese married three swans and here we are, all these generations later.”

Her mouth hung open for several seconds before she snapped it shut. “That’s one hell of a story. Are you sure it’s not just… you know like a family legend?”

Jacob shook his head. “Oh, no. It’s true. We have all the records and even some personal diaries.”

She was quiet for nearly a minute before she came up with questions. “So, some of your family are swans and some?—”

“Just the girls. The girls are always swans and the boys are always geese. I think, technically we’re not really the same thing. The rules seem slightly… different.”

“Different?” She tilted her head, brow furrowing.

“Well, for one thing the girls start shifting much younger. And they rub it in our faces too. By the time they start school, they’re all able to fully change and even fly.”

She nodded. “That was the same for me.”

“They also seem to have a little more control over the shift. For us, well, for the boys, since I’m still new to it, keeping it under control when stressed can be a problem. It’s kind of a family joke that part of puberty means bursting out in feathers at awkward moments. Some have to be homeschooled for a year or two, until they get it under control.”

“But not you.”

“No. I’m the only one in the family who didn’t start shifting during puberty. I kept waiting… but nothing. It was...” He trailed off trying to find a way to explain it. Finally he settled on, “Hard.”

“Because you felt like you didn’t fit in?”

He shot her a relieved glance, nodding. “Basically yeah. I was the broken one and everyone was always trying to solve the problem, until I started to feel like my existence was the problem. That’s why I ended up moving to California.”

“Oh, you-you don’t live here then?”

“No, I’m just home for the family reunion.”

“Oh.” Her tone was carefully neutral, and she had turned to look at the water instead of him. He was struggling to figure out what to say, when she finally spoke up. “That’s how I felt growing up with regular people and not understanding why I kept changing into a stupid bird. I tried really hard not to, but I could almost never go more than a couple of months without it happening. The longer I put it off the worse I felt.”

“That’s another way swan maidens are different. You can go longer than we can without changing. For the guys, well, we can still get forced into a shift if we’re really stressed or upset,but even if everything is fine, we have to change at least once a month. No choice.”

One eyebrow went up as she looked at him. “That sounds like a euphemism for something. Do you die if you don’t get your feathers on once a month?” There was an amused lilt to her words.

He laughed. “No, but waking up as a goose because your body decided it had waited long enough can be… awkward. And it makes the sheets messy.”

“Still sounds like a euphemism.” Since he’d meant it to, he just grinned as she continued, “I never change by accident. Not since I was little. But the need gets, um, desperate after a while. My skin starts to hurt.” She shuddered.

“Yeah, we’ve never been sure if it’s a gender thing or because we’re different birds. My dad thinks that swans have a different origin, maybe a curse like in the old stories, and that’s why it’s different.”

She let her head tip back, staring up at the stars. “It doesn’t feel like a curse. It’s wonderful. It’s hard to change back to human sometimes.” Her voice was wistful and there was a faraway note. “That’s why I don’t let myself change too often. Someday… maybe I’ll just never return to human again.”

He didn’t have an answer for that. Until a few days ago he hadn’t even considered himself a shifter, despite being surrounded by them his whole life. He had knowledge but no practical experience. And while shifted his focus had really just been on… her.

Thoughts of her had consumed him so completely since then, that he hadn’t even really taken the time to decompress and think about his first shift. His family had been thrilled, of course. Every relative had rushed to congratulate him, but it still didn’t feel quite real.

He tilted his head, looking at her. “So, why haven’t you? I mean what stopped you?”

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