Page 71 of Scars of the Sun

“Sixty-five last month.”

Río gave a long whistle and clapped a hand between Tyler’s narrow shoulders. “Coolest old man I ever met.” In his defense, he didn’t look a day over twenty-one, and I suspected that without the eyeliner, ripped jeans, and t-shirt, he’d look even younger.

“Remind me why I’m hanging out with animals again?” Río returned the insult by ruffling the top of Tyler’s head to make his short, messy strands even messier.

“Hey, I can’t shift, so leave me out of it.”

He swatted Río’s hands away and scoffed, “Doesn’t matter. You still smell like dog, but I guess you’re both not as bad, comparatively.”

A group of kids shot past us on their boards, excited chattering and whoops forcing us to halt our conversation until they passed and headed toward the bowl. The sun was working on setting, now, and more and more people were entering the park now that the day’s heat had fully broken.

Once any human ears were far enough away, I ventured, “Compared to what?”

Tyler’s darkly delicate features pinched as his eyes narrowed. “Lots of things. True shifters, Fae, humans. At least the last two usually have their wits about them. Some of the time.”

I wracked my brain, trying to remember if I’d ever heard of true shifters before and come up blank. Fae, I’d had some idea about, especially since apparently Sylvie had a grandfather with horns or something. He was a nice guy when I met him at her and O’s wedding, but what that meant as far as her powers, I had no idea.

But, “Trueshifters?” What made them different?

Tyler looked at me like I was stupid but relented with more information. “Can change their form to mimic any living creature…? Have you really not heard of ‘em?”

I shook my head and felt a bit like Dahlia when I tried explaining to her something like why ice floated even though it was technically water. “No, but that sounds… cool.”

Río snorted and lifted his beer to his lips. He paused before downing the rest and crushing the can in his hand. Tyler chuckled, “Sure, until it drives them crazy.”

“Not always,” Río dropped his arm around me to recline back on his hands. He studied the skaters that dropped in and jumped out of the bowl.

“Not always,” Tyler agreed, “but think about it. Changing to different forms all the time? Maybe enough to forget what your real body is? I’ve heard of some shifters, Wolves and shit, that stay shifted more often than not. But that’s a consistent other form, like a tether. But to not even have yourself as an anchor?” He shook his head and crushed the rest of his beer.

That… yeah, when he put it that way, it didn’t sound so appealing. A waft of unease twined in my nose, like burnt toast, and I rested my hand on Río’s thigh.

He blinked a few times then smiled over at me. Whatever he’d been thinking about, probably what it would be like to not have his Jaguar to lean on, cleared just as quickly as it’d come on. He tapped my nose and laughed when I scowled. “Leave it to this geezer to be a walking encyclopedia, huh?”

Tyler didn’t have a retort to that one, aside from a scathing glance and pointedly facing forward, ignoring the teasing smirk on Río’s face.

We sat and people watched for a minute, cheered for a few kids that worked up the courage to drop in and jump out the other side of the bowl until my alarm went off, and I had to tear myself away for the Antler Pointe Pack version of therapy.

Río had picked me up from the cabin, so he was the one to drop me off at Vera’s. The sky once again threatened rain, filling the air with a humid pressure that’d been teasing us all week. Maybe by the time I left her house today, it’d finally rain.

When we pulled up to Vera’s driveway, she was sitting on the porch already, book and pencil in her lap. I hopped off of Río’s bike and pulled off the helmet that he’d surprised me with last week. It was black to match his, and I tucked it under my arm asI tried to smooth down my hair and stop the blush rising on my face.

I hadn’t given Vera too many details about Río—only that I had someone in my life and that it was new. By the pops of curiosity and amusement coming from her direction, she was certainly going to ask me about him.

Río left his bike running but climbed off to walk me to the edge of her yard. It was a modest-sized brick home with pretty hydrangeas out front that her mate, Lauren, cared for.

“All right, Princess. Be good.” I rolled my eyes and leaned into the kiss he planted on my lips. He twirled a finger around a loose curl that fell across my shoulder and lightly pulled before letting it spring back in place. “I’ll pick you up in a few hours?”

“Yeah.”

Vera cleared her throat, now not paying her puzzle book any mind. Río gave her a head nod of acknowledgement, but I heard the feline grumble he tried to hide. “Never thought I’d voluntarily be around this many Wolves,” he mumbled before giving me a final, deep kiss that pressed our bodies together. “I’ll miss you, baby.”

At times like these, my learned response, to clam up and ignore the endearments or actively brush them off, would have been easy to fall back on. But I was working on a new way.

Over his lips, I whispered, “Miss you, too.”

Río blinked a moment, then pantomimed cleaning out his ears, so I shoved him in the chest. His deep laughs rolled through us, and he gave one last nip at my ear. “Oh, I’m gonna eat you up later. Now get goin’,” he swatted my ass and got back on his bike.

No amount of glare I gave broke the cheeky expression on his face. He even waggled his tongue and winked before shoving his helmet back on and watching me walk up to meet Vera. My facefelt like it was on fire, but I still watched him shoot off back up the street once I was safely on the porch. What an ass.

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