Page 44 of Bitten Shifter

“May I see it?” He holds out his hand, waiting.

I sigh, tug my sleeve, and place my hand in his palm. His hand is massive, completely enveloping mine, and so warm.

He inspects the damaged skin, rotating my arm gently, his thumb brushing over the scar tissue with clinical precision.

“You have healed remarkably well,” he says, sounding thoughtful. “That, again, is unusual.”

I bite my lip, ignoring the weird electric shock each time his thumb moves.Married!I remind myself sternly.You are still married, and you’re… whatever this is now.

The reminder does not help.

Abruptly, I pull my arm away, tugging the sleeve down to hide the scars.

“I’ve been doing a little digging into your medical history.” He taps the paper. “This is from your original human files.”

Merrick slides the document towards me. My name leaps off the page. Beyond that, it’s dense medical jargon that might as well be written in another language. The date is unmistakable—it’s from my childhood.

“Okay, erm, thank you,” I say, though I have no idea what he wants me to look at.

He sighs and gets up, moving around the desk to stand behind me. I freeze as he leans over my shoulder, his breath warm against my neck. He points to a highlighted section, and I force myself to focus on the bold words.

Human.

Shifter.

Mage.

Vampire.

I swallow hard and turn to look at him, wide-eyed. We’re so close I can almost taste his breath. His expression remains unreadable.

“What does this mean?” I whisper.

“You have all four human derivatives in your blood,” he says.

Oh.

So what? A little bit of shifter DNA shouldn’t be enough to make me furry. Right? Maybe now’s the time toconsider telling him about my technomancy. Does he really need to know I’ve got mage powers?

Unless… I don’t. I haven’t tried them. Not once.

And with everything happening, there’s a chance they have disappeared altogether. Or worse, what if they have… changed? What if I try to use them and end up frying someone’s phone or blowing up a server?

My thoughts spiral, and I clamp my mouth shut. Years of keeping this secret have made silence second nature. It’s notsomething I’ve ever felt comfortable talking about. And now, with all this DNA mutt business staring me in the face, I feel even less inclined to bring it up.

“Do you think the results would be different now?” I ask, trying to sound casual. “Because, you know… I’ve changed.”

Merrick shrugs noncommittally. “I don’t know. We’d have to run tests.”

“Tests?” I groan. “Great.”

“We need to find out why you didn’t need the ceremony. The wizard’s house—or the bite—must have triggered something inside you. The shifter saliva likely caused an immune reaction, flipping a switch in your dormant DNA.”

Oh.

I blink. “What does that mean?”

He smiles wryly. “It means, don’t let a vampire bite you. We have no idea what you would turn into.”

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