Page 30 of Ethereal Shifters

“Interesting.” Alek nods.

“I’ve been training with my friends.” He looks at me and I smile his way. Helping Howard was a good thing to do. He is a nice person…and he shouldn’t be friends with me.

“Very well.” Alek steps aside. His arms go behind his back as he observes us. “Let’s begin.”

The others go first and I watch as they use elements to destroy their targets with ease. When it’s my turn, I reach for mypower, and my Nexus uses the moment to take control with a slam into my mind, and I wince as I’m pushed back. NO! I watch through her eyes as she melts the metal swords into a plank of metal, like a wall, and she throws it straight at Rochelle. Rochelle is laughing with Georgina, and she doesn’t see it coming as the metal slams straight into her with an echoing smack. She screams as she flies through the air with it and cracks the wall with the impact.

Alek’s arms tightly wrap around me from behind. “Shift back and right fucking now, Nexus mate,” he commands into my ear. My Nexus growls at him. “I mean it, Nexus. You’re going to ruin everything for Gwen, and I know you love her, so shift the fuck back and let me do damage control.”

She listens to him and leaves me to face the consequences of her actions. Again. Rochelle isn’t moving. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

Everyone’s staring at me in horror, but Georgina falls to her knees at Rochelle’s side. Light, like an angel or a star, beams from Georgina. Everyone looks at her and gasps in delight. “Georgina, she’s amazing. Isn’t she? Look at that power, and she is saving Rochelle from Gwen.”

Dewy, a tiger shifter, looks at me and points. “People like her shouldn’t be allowed in here. She can’t control her Nexus.”

“That’s enough.” Alek walks to Rochelle and Georgina. “Everyone knows the risks that come with training to be a ranger. Well done, Georgina, for healing Rochelle.”

She smiles up at him, touching his leg. “You’re welcome. Like I told you in your room earlier, I can heal anything.”

His room?

It’s not fury but pain that nearly brings me to my knees. His room? Is this why he has been distant with me? Does he want her? Of course he does…

Dewy isn’t done. “It’s not fair. She shouldn’t be in here. She’s a monster.”

That word rings in my ears. Alek is walking to me as Hollis comes into the room and he sees Rochelle.

“What the fuck did you do?” he asks, jogging to her, and my heart just breaks.

I can’t be here. I don’t know where I’m going until I climb up onto the roof and shut the door behind me. It’s not raining as I sit down on my knees and weep into my hands. I must be sitting up there for an hour, because it’s nighttime by the time I hear Alek. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I don’t know why I didn’t think to check the roof.”

I’m on my knees looking up at the stars, my cheeks wet. “Do you think, if I prayed hard enough to them, they would change what I am?”

“I don’t hate what you are.” He kneels behind me. “And for the record between us, I came back to my room with my breakfast and found her in there. I told her to leave, and she tried to talk her way into staying by offering to heal a cut on my neck from class yesterday where a student threw a weapon my way by accident. I told her to get out, and I went straight to the main office to tighten the spells on my room, and apparently, they had been taken down.” He sighs. “Gwen, I would never do that to you.”

His forehead presses against the top of my back, and he kisses me once. I shiver as I look up at the stars. The endless night of them spread out in every direction. “She’s perfect for you all. She’s a healer, kind and gentle. They are right to tell you to bond with her and forget me. Her Nexus is pure light, and I’m an evil monster.” He doesn’t leave as I cry and stare at the stars. “They made me like this and cursed me. I was born to destroy, and I wouldn’t blame you for rejecting me right back.”

“I love you.” Aleksander’s vow echoes around me in the night, and I can’t help but burst into tears. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me to his chest, holding me to him. “I love you and choose you. She isn’t the light in the darkness, Gwen, that is you. You’re the star, shining so brightly that I’ve never been able to look away.” He kisses my cheek, kisses my tears. “And you’re mine as much as I am yours. I pray to the Gods every night and thank them for you. I thank them for creating every inch of you, including your Nexus. You are not a monster. You are not evil or cursed. You are mine and I love you.”

“How can you say that and yet you have been pushing me away?”

He breathes in low. “It’s because you don’t remember me. You don’t remember how we first met. I need you to remember me, and I need you to tell me. Until then, it will hover between us. It’s unfinished business, but it doesn’t mean I am not yours. Don’t ever doubt that I belong to you.”

“Tell me.”

“I can’t.” His voice is raw and I believe him…but I don’t remember. Why can’t I remember? “Look at the stars, Gwen. They didn’t curse you; they gave you everything you could ever need. We will figure the rest out with time. Let me hold you.”

For the first time, I look at the stars, and even though they feel like they are staring right back…it doesn’t freak me out as much as it did. I’m curious what they want with me.

Chapter

Fourteen

Iwatch Rhodes as he helps a sick, very badly injured cat out of a box and onto the vet table. There is something deeply sexy about watching a big man help animals, and he doesn’t care at all that the animal is dirty and sick. Apparently, this poor old ginger cat was found just outside of Inverness, and the humans had just left him there to die. One of the vets from here got the call, and he was visiting human friends and brought him back. The humans wouldn’t have kept him alive, not when he is old and sick. It will be expensive to save his life, but Rhodes doesn’t care. Some humans don’t all treasure their animals as much as they should do, and it’s sad. The cat hisses at Susan, the vet, and Rhodes takes over, calming the cat by singing, humming a tune under his breath that I’ve never heard before.

When Susan’s done the checks, declaring his eye has to be taken out before they do anything else, she sedates him so that she can get to work with the eye, and Rhodes leaves her to it, promising to come back later. He washes his hands before coming out the door to me. “Hey. I’m sorry, I know it’s been a long day. You’ve been here all day working. I’m sure you want to get going now. I just needed to?—”

“Don’t apologise.” I stop him. “It was hot as hell, the singing.”

---