~ ZANE ~
Lia actually giggled and it was such a brilliant sound I wanted to make her do it again. But pretty soon we were both serious again.
"Seriously, Zan—"
"Don't."
"But you're all ssed up about this when you don't have to be! No one cares that you can't shift!"
"I care."
It was the first ti I'd ever said it out loud and it shocked . I usually downplayed all of this, because Lia was right: Human-form-to-human-form I'd bet on myself against any shifter, any day of the week. My father was Chiran wolf, and my mother was human. I was… sothing else. No one seed to know. But whatever it was, it was strong.
And fast.
My mother had been worried about when I was little because I looked human. Large and strong for a full-human, but still human. But I had the senses of a wolf. And sothing else. Sothing even I didn't really understand. Sothing we didn't really talk about because none of us knew what to call it.
But sotis I caught my parents looking at like they were a little bit afraid.
I hated that.
Then, a couple years ago, I discovered the portal to the human world. It was a closely guarded secret that they even existed. I'd heard my parents talk about them at ho since I was small, but they'd always emphasized that it wasn't sothing we discussed with others. Only certain Anima and Chira knew they were there, and even fewer could walk through.
And the one who wanted to was rare.
Both Anima and Chira had been hard by the humans. My own parents still shuddered when they talked about how my father had been raised by them. My mother no longer saw herself as one of them, even though genetically she was.
I'd always seen them as these villains. These… horrific creatures. I'd hated it when shifters called human—because my mother assured that I wasn't. Not purely. Though I looked like one.
When I found the gateway I'd been running from everyone because I was feeling angry and helpless and I needed space. When I realized what it was, I didn't even really think about it. I just walked through.
I think I was telling myself that maybe that was where I belonged. Maybe who I was would make sense in this world.
It didn't. But a lot of other things did.
And for , being here was intoxicating. Much as I hated to admit it to myself, I kept coming back after shorter and shorter tis away because there was sothing compelling about being here among the humans. About always being the strongest guy in the room.
The females certainly thought so.
And unlike the animal shifters, human senses didn't warn females against . Instead, their buried, ancient instincts were drawn nearer. They wanted to stand in my shadow. They wanted to watch .
And the females wanted to mate with —
"Zan. Stop."
I blinked, then realized with horror that I'd been imagining what I would have been doing by now if I'd stayed back at the bar. And Lia was scenting it on .
I gripped the steering wheel, waiting for her derision. Waiting for the way she'd belittle , as she always had, even though I was almost five years older than her.
Lia was the Anima Queen's daughter. We'd been thrown together our whole lives because I was the Chiran Alpha's son.
There'd been jokes about our future together since we were kids—fated to guide the two peoples of Anima through the next generation. But we'd both fought those stereotypes and expectations since we were old enough to understand them.
Lia was as fiercely anti- as I was repelled by the idea of bonding with her. I couldn't believe I was stuck here with her now!
But then the mory of watching her dance flashed in my head—when I hadn't known who she was. The way her body arched. That glorious combination of grace and strength. The way my belly had clenched—
I cleared my throat.
It's Lia. Holy shit, I was mad kinds of horny if I was thinking about her.
"Sorry," I muttered.
But she just shrugged.
I kept driving, heading back towards the Big House.
That first ti I'd co through the now-empty portal two years earlier—naïve and pissed off—I'd been t by three half-Anima, the children of forr generations, who'd been left stuck in this world when the portals closed. They couldn't see the portal, couldn't use it, but knew it was there.
They'd inherited the place from the forr family who'd all fled to Anima at the Queen's order when the humans were trying to invade. They had only seen an Anima twice since they'd taken the house, so they were almost giddy when I showed up. But they were also confused. Because I wasn't actually Anima.
That was a tense conversation. But my knowledge of the Tree City and the people there slowly convinced them. They'd heard my na and eventually believed that I wasn't an imposter.
Now they rolled out the red carpet every ti I ca through. They'd helped get clothes, they left this car for to use any ti I wanted. And every ti we ate together or shared ti, they peppered with questions about "ho," though none of them had ever visited because they'd been raised here.
It hadn't occurred to that anyone else would sneak through. That they might talk to anyone who knew . So I'd been completely open with them.
But if Lia had co through, others probably were going to as well.
We couldn't be the only ones of our generation who could see the Portals.
I tensed. If our parents knew…
It wouldn't matter that I was an adult in my own right. It wouldn't matter that if my parents hadn't survived, I'd already be leading the Chira myself.
My dad didn't give a flying fuck how Alpha I was. If he found out I'd crossed without permission he was going to kick my ass.
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