The First Shifters

Revelations

I look down at Fiona, who’d spoken. She’s yawning and stretching, like she’d been napping the entire time we were in Ryker’s home. My brain was unscrambling itself, and I was thinking a little more clearly.

“Why didn’t you stop us?” I ask her, perplexed. She does one of her throaty laughs, and I huff.

“You asked me to keep you safe from harm. You weren’t in any danger,” Fiona tells me matter-of-factly. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

“Fiona!” I exclaim, and she laughs at me again. I can feel the heat in my cheeks. “Oh god,” I groan, hiding my face in my hands. “I acted like such a fool.” A man has never had that kind of hold over me before. This was new territory for me.

“I think you did fine,” Fiona chuckles, padding softly next to me as we descend down the stairs and onto the path that led us back towards the campus park. “He was just as interested in you as you seemed to be of him.”

“I think he was just playing with me,” I scoff at her.

“Either way,” Fiona says, nudging me with her shoulder playfully. Her head comes to my waist, and for a four-legged wolf she’s pretty big. “Are they still doing pet cups at the café?”

“Pup cups,” I laugh, knowing she purposefully changed the name. “And yes, she will absolutely give you a cup full of whip cream.” This makes Fiona grin, her tongue rolling out. Suddenly her demeanor changes, and the fur down her spine is raised. Not a second goes by, and I’ve got that feeling I’m being watched again.

“Fiona,” I breath, and she steps in front of me. “I keep getting this feeling I’m being watched. This is the third time this week.”

“I can smell something unfamiliar,” she growls lowly. “But I have that feeling too.” This had to stop, it was going to drive me to be a hermit. I call Caliste, and ask her to meet me halfway so we can walk back to my house.

“What’s wrong?” Caliste asks, worry laced in her voice. She knows somethings wrong when I pass up good coffee.

“Someone has been watching me,” I whisper, too scared to make it known that I know. Though with how edgy Fiona and I were walking, I’m sure the spy had to know we were catching on. The feeling of being watched was gone, but I was still super creeped out.

“I’m on my way,” Caliste says in a hurry. “Where are you now?”

“Crossing the campus park,” I whisper to her, Fiona walking as close as she could to me without tripping over our feet. Her warmth against my leg gave me some comfort.

“Perfect, I’m not far then,” she says, and I can hear her panting slightly. Is she running? I love her so much.

“Stay on the phone with me please,” I plead. A small part of me wanted to hightail it back to Ryker’s, but I wasn’t entirely sure that wasn’t the reason I may have been spied on currently. Caliste snorts at me.

“Girl, I wasn’t going to leave you alone. I think I see you, is that Fiona with you?”

“Yes, she came with me today,” I answer. I see a girl waving at me and recognize that it’s her. “I see you,” I confirm. Caliste is with me seconds later, looping her arm through mine.

“From now on, we go places as a group,” she tells me, and I nod my head. “And Fiona goes everywhere with you when Trio and I can’t. Is that okay, Fiona?”

“Of course, Caliste,” Fiona answers, her tail wagging slightly.

“It’s the weekend, and I don’t have classes Monday, I think we should do a sleepover,” Caliste suggests, and I hug her arm.

“This is why I love you,” I say, causing Caliste to chuckle. “I swear you can read my mind.”

“Well, until we can figure out what’s going on, I’m not leaving you alone until we find your stalker.” She’s doing something on her phone for a moment, and tells me she’s placed a delivery order from the Honeybee Café; our favorite drinks and snacks. She’s also sent Trio a message to meet us at my house, and that it was urgent. This was why we were such best friends; we took care of each other in this cruel world.

~*~

Trio and Caliste sat with me on my king size bed, all of us cross legged and drinking our coffees. Our snacks were laying half eaten on the floating, opaque blue trays, the cup holders damp from our cups. Caliste had filled Trio in on what happened, and I told them how long this had been going on for. It has been a short time, but the fact it keeps happening so often had me on edge. And after talking with Ryker, I had to wonder if I wasn’t actually overthinking this, and my gut was right to be worried.

“Guys, I’m starting to think my family is up to something.” I tell them my conversation with Ryker, and how my sister had been acting weird when Ryker came up. “My own family has a data file on me. That’s super weird, right?” Trio nodded his head, and Caliste looked deep in thought.

“I guess it would make sense,” she finally spoke. “If there’s something going on with you specifically, I wouldn’t want you hanging around Ryker either. Who knows how much he actually knows; you know what I mean?” I nod my head, taking a drink of my coffee to wash down my snack.

“What bothers me is that this is my family,” I say softly. “What could possibly be so big that they wouldn’t tell me?” My name was in the science center database, which was seen as the equivalent of the church in ancient times. They ruled right along side the government we did have, but they weren’t doing their people any favors. My family and the other prestigious families may as well have been the government now. Caliste and Trio hold my hands, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“We’ll figure this out,” Caliste says, and Trio smiles.

“I can sneak into anything,” he teases. “We’ve got this.” His words spark something within me, and suddenly I have an idea.

“What if that’s what we do?” I say, and Trio’s grin gets wider. For a rich kid, he was such a troublemaker, and sneaking into restricted areas was like, his thing. I just figured he was bored, but this was about to come in handy. Caliste snorts.

“I know I said let’s figure this out, but I don’t entirely trust your family not to do something rash, no offense,” Caliste says, holding her hands up. “Your brothers scare me.”

“I wouldn’t let them lay a finger on you, I promise you that,” I growl. “They ever go after either of you, I swear I won’t have any brothers.”

“Easy girl,” Trio chuckles, and I realize my fur is standing on end. “We should probably do a little more info digging though, before we really decide to do this.”

“Guys, this is huge,” Caliste breaths. She looks around, as if we are being watched this very moment in my own room. “Depending on what we find, would it be worth the trouble?”

“We’ll just have to find out,” I tell them, steeling my resolve. I was going to dive head first into this, and get some damn answers. I had to know now, there was no turning back. If the Greys really had a hand in this whole thing, it was wrong on so many levels.

“Inara, you have to think five steps ahead,” Caliste urges. “What happens if they really did do all Ryker says they did? What would you even do with that information? If you were to go public with it, who knows the chaos that would bring. Not to mention your family’s reputation, and your own with it.” She’s got a point, and I deflate a little. “And I’m willing to bet what ever info is in there about you, they’ll want to keep a secret, otherwise you’d have known about that already.”

“So, we confirm the Ice Age thing, and then we find out what they’re hiding from Inara,” Trio answers. “We keep what we find to ourselves, and when the time is right, we’ll know what to do with it. How does that sound?”

“You just want an excuse to sneak into the science center,” Caliste rolls her eyes at him with a small smile. Trio does finger guns at her.

“That’s just a huge bonus,” he smirks.

“So, what’s our first step here?” Caliste asks, looking at me.

“Let me do some snooping on my own first, and then I can figure out what I need to do from there.” I would have to show some interest, all my progress had gone to the digital arts. None of what I was studying for remotely needed the science center for anything. Was I going to have to change my career path? Was this part of the personal sacrifice to find answers? My head was starting to hurt.

“For now, though, let’s just relax tonight,” Trio says, holding up his almost empty coffee cup. “Right now, let’s celebrate Inara actually finding a guy she likes for once.” I about spit out my own drink, and Caliste is laughing at me. “Even if he is a huge asshole,” Trio adds.

“Maybe that’s been her type all along, she just didn’t know it,” Caliste snickers, wagging her brows at me.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” I ask, hands on my hips.

“You always go for men who can’t handle you,” she says innocently. “Ryker seems to handle you just fine.” Caliste takes a drink and looks away from me for dramatics. Trio is snorting, and all I can do is huff and roll my eyes.

“He does not ‘handle me’,” I say defensively. “No one does for that matter. If anything, it’s just a physical attraction.” I cross my arms, and nod my head. “That’s all it is, Ryker is hot.” I’ve said it aloud, I’ve admitted that Ryker is, indeed, a hot piece of meat. That didn’t mean there was anything actually between us. I didn’t fall for men like a love sick fool.

“And that brings me right around to last night, a mere twenty-four hours ago in fact, that you were raving on and on about this dude,” Caliste laughs, and I can feel the heat in my cheeks and ears.

“What do you mean?” I ask, a little afraid of the answer.

“You started off that he was an asshole, and then it turned into what I think was you being mad about how cute he was.” Trio is laughing, and I’m feeling a little mortified. This was not normal behavior from me, and we all knew it. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this over a guy.” I groan, and fall back into my pillows, the little tray following my movements. It hovered near me, and I stuffed the rest of my snack in my mouth; I loved the Honeybee’s donuts.

“Attraction aside,” Trio starts, “We need to find out the details of what Ryker knows. I don’t know your family that well, but I have a feeling if he actually knew a lot, he wouldn’t be walking around freely right now.” As dark as that was, Trio had a point.

“Unless they’re arrogant enough to think no one will believe him,” Caliste says. “I mean, we laughed our asses off when Scarlett said he thought the Greys were behind all of this. His career is over, and he’s the laughing stock so to speak. It would have raised some suspicion I’d imagine if someone went missing.”

“Not really,” I sigh heavily. “Anyone that goes missing from the west side isn’t missed from the east. Anyone that gives a damn about him on that side wouldn’t have a leg to stand on anyway, not against the Greys.” I thought about Alex and Piper, and I wondered how they’d feel if something happened to Ryker. Would they stop feeling safe? How much did they know, given that Ryker was family to them? Alex knew enough to confirm what Scarlett had told me. They lived on the east side, technically, but their family took in the kids that always, always ended up on the west side. How much backing would they actually have against my family if things went sideways? They would be seen as sympathizers, how much value would their lives hold then? I shuddered at the thought of how morbid this could get.

“I think we all need a drink,” Caliste said. “This is getting depressing.” Trio nodded his head, and I pressed the little button on my watch that opened my mini bar.

“Let’s put a pause on this tonight,” I say, walking over and pouring a glass of my favorite tequila. It burned when I needed to feel something other than sad and depressed. Trio and Caliste come over and get their own drinks; Caliste grabbing a hard whisky, and Trio the vodka.

“To tricky s**t and finding answers,” Trio says with humor, and with a clink we down our shots.