Page 42 of The World She Never Knew Existed

“Are you falling in love with him?” Charlie asked.

“Of course not. It’s way too soon for that,” Clara said.

“Mm-hmm,” Charlie replied with a smirk. “You can fool yourself, but you can’t fool me.”

Clara rolled her eyes at her friend.

“Changing the subject, there has been some interesting, and slightly frightening, things going on in town,” Clara said.

“What kinds of things?” Charlie asked.

“There is a dark legend associated with the city,” Clara said.

She related the story that Jamie had told her.

“Now, there is a man missing who has probably been tortured and murdered. Word is that he is a shifter,” Clara said.

“The hunters around here seem to be especially ferocious,” Charlie said.

“I didn’t even believe in shifters before,” Clara said.

She couldn’t tell her best friend what had changed her mind, because she promised Jamie that she wouldn’t. Charlie wouldn’t tell anyone, but when Clara made a promise, she kept it.

“Now you do?” Charlie asked.

“I guess I have to, although it is still a hard concept for me,” Clara said. “It is hard to think about a human being able to shift into an animal form.”

Charlie hesitated for a second and then said, “You’ve known a shifter for almost your entire life.”

“What do you mean?” Clara asked. “Who?”

“I’m a shifter,” Charlie said. “I’m a tiger shifter.”

“What?” Clara asked. “You can’t be.”

Charlie stood up and quickly undressed. Then, she shifted into her tiger form. She stood there for a minute or so, and then shifted back into her human form and redressed.

Clara was stunned silent. A heavy awkwardness hung in the air.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Clara asked.

“For one, being a shifter isn’t a huge part of my life. I don’t shift very often. This is the first time I’ve shifted in a couple of years. Plus, it was drummed into my head since I was born that I couldn’t tell anyone, no matter who they were,” Charlie said. “On top of that, it never seemed like the right time to tell you.”

“How could you keep this from me? This is who you are. I thought that we shared everything about ourselves with each other. I thought that there were no secrets between us,” Clara said.

“I’m sorry that you are hurt that I didn’t tell you sooner. Like I said, I had been told over and over again from practically the time that I was born that I couldn’t tell anyone. It was too dangerous. It’s not that I didn’t trust you or that I was keeping something from you. I just didn’t think about telling you,” Charlie said. “Honestly, the only reason that I thought about it now was because of the situation going on in your city.”

Clara shook her head. It was a lot to take in. When she first moved to Ivy Springs, she had never even heard of shifters. Now, she had seen two of them up close and personal. Her best friend, who she thought of as more of a sister, was a shifter and had never said anything to her about it.

“Are your parents shifters, too?” Clara asked.

“Mom is. Dad is a regular human,” Charlie said.

“Wow,” Clara said.

She suddenly felt as though her entire life had turned upside down.

Charlie was silent, giving Clara time to think about it. Clara tried to understand the situation from Charlie’s point of view.

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