Page 6 of Sear
Lucas hastily tried to control his expression at the mention of Emily’s new husband before answering the six-year-old. “Because they’re not shapeshifters, kitten. They’re Ordinaries.”
Emily had freaked out the first time that Savannah had shifted into her other shape. She had reluctantly accepted Lucas’s ability to shift because they’d been young and in love. But seeing her daughter demonstrate those same abilities had sent her into a tailspin of shock and anxiety.
Their marriage had already been under a lot of pressure thanks to the demands of a baby and toddler combined with Emily’s long workweeks at the law firm and Lucas’s unpredictable schedule with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
A couple of years later, when Taylor began shifting, too, that stressor had been the final straw that broke their union.
The only saving grace had been that Lucas’s cat had never formed a mating bond with Emily, something that had puzzled and frustrated Lucas while he and Emily were still together.
“Oh.” Savannah accepted his answer calmly. “Is that why we’re not supposed to shift in front of Uncle Nathan?”
“I don’t think your mom has told him about our superpowers, kitten. That’s why they have to remain our secret for now.” His girls’ inherited ability to shift was one reason that Emily hadn’t contested Lucas’s request for full custody of their daughters.
He was willing to bet she hadn’t breathed a word about the existence of shifters to Nathan yet, but he should really ask her what her husband knew before something happened.
Lucas had tried to instill the need for secrecy in both girls regarding their special talent. But they were both still very young—a preschooler and a first grader.
All it would take was a tantrum on Taylor’s part during a weekend with their mother, and the cat would be out of the bag. Literally.
Savannah clipped the barrette onto Lucas’s shoulder-length golden hair. He’d let it grow out because it gave him the right kind of look for undercover work. The new ornament joined the collection of equally glittery pink, purple, and blue ones unevenly scattered through his locks.
On his lap, the cub squirmed and meowed loudly as she returned to her human shape.
When her shift completed, Lucas reached for the heap of discarded clothing nearby and quickly re-dressed Taylor in flowered purple leggings and a matching tunic dress.
Her tantrum already forgotten, she grinned at him. “You look pretty, Daddy.”
“But not as pretty as you, kitty-cat. Let’s take a photo and send it to Mommy,” he suggested, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
As they posed on either side of him, he snapped a picture of the three of them. He had to chuckle at the sight of himself covered in a dozen different hair clips and barrettes, and the girls hanging on him and making silly faces.
He immediately texted it to Emily with a note:What do you think? Are they destined to become celebrity hair stylists?
When his phone rang a minute or two later, he thought it might be his ex, calling to chat with the girls.
Instead, an unknown number came up. Probably spam, but with his job, he never knew.
“Hello?” he said warily.
“Hi, is this Lucas Concolor?” asked a male voice.
“Speaking,” Lucas said crisply. “Who’s this?”
“Oh, hi, it’s Gage Tringstad,” his caller replied. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m the Conservation Officer for the Bearpaw Ridge patrol area. We met at last year’s North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association conference.”
Lucas felt a jolt of adrenaline as Tringstad identified himself.
Work calls on a weekend always meant that something really bad had gone down. And that his special talents were needed.
“Of course I remember you.” Tringstad was a wolf shifter, one of several shifters who worked for Idaho Fish and Game. “What can I do for you, Gage?”
Accustomed to Lucas’s work calls at all hours, Taylor and Savannah quietly returned to their Barbie styling head doll, and resumed their attempts to French-braid the doll’s long platinum-blonde locks.
“I have Dr. Evan Swanson on speaker phone with me. He’s the one who suggested I call you about something that happened near Bearpaw Ridge last night.”
“Hey, Lucas,” Evan said in his deep voice. “How’s it going?”
“Evan! I’m great. How are things with you?” Lucas replied with genuine warmth. He and Evan went way back to the days when Lucas was still working as a Conservation Officer in the northern part of the state.
