That night we all met at the Sly Fox: Lucas, Kayla, Rafe, Lindsey, Connor, and me.
We were sitting in a horseshoe-shaped booth, eating pizza, and drinking root beer. For the first time in a long time, I really felt included, part of the pack. The tension I’d felt with Lindsey for much of the summer because of her relationship with Connor had melted away. And I was looking forward to getting to know Kayla better. She was going to start jogging with me in the mornings.
“You really took a chance there disqualifying yourself,” Lindsey said to Connor. “What if the vote had been tied?”
“My dad advised me that if I didn’t want her banned from being a Dark Guardian then I had to convince them that I thought she was worth making sacrifices for. Giving up a vote? Small stuff.”
He reached for his mug of root beer and his newest tattoo peeked out from behind his sleeveless shirt. I skimmed my fingers over it. That afternoon, while I’d been out shopping for cars with my mom, he’d had the tattoo bearing Lindsey’s name removed. I didn’t want details because I was fairly certain it had been a painful process that involved shifting to heal. Then he’d had my name interwoven in a Celtic symbol inked onto his left shoulder. Because the ink is injected into the second layer of skin, while the wound that tattooing creates does heal during shifting, the ink remains in the original design in which it was applied.
“I’d always heard that a Shifter male had to bear the name of his first choice forever,” I said.
“Urban legend,” he said, as he gave me a quick kiss.
“The whole point was that guys were supposed to be discouraged from making rash decisions regarding their mates,” Lindsey said.
“Yeah, well, maybe the girls need to give it a little more thought, too,” Connor teased her.
“Can’t argue with that.” She snuggled against Rafe.
“So tell us about your car,” Kayla said.
I couldn’t stop the bright smile from forming. “Mom said it needed to reflect my wild outlook, so she bought me a red Mustang.”
“Whoa!” Kayla exclaimed. “Way to go, girlfriend. You’ll be the coolest girl at school in the fall.”
“Oh, I can walk to school. Mostly I’ll use it to go see Connor at college. It should get me there pretty fast.”
“You better drive slowly,” Connor warned. “No accidents.”
I knew he was worried because I didn’t possess his ability to heal. Our—their—kind did tend to be reckless because only a fatal wound was ever really a problem. But humans lived to ripe old ages, too. I was going to have to look for a new doctor, though, since the only ones Shifters usually went to were pediatricians. Kids didn’t have the ability to shift and heal either.
“Hey!” A pitcher of root beer thudded onto our table. “Glad things worked out for you.”
I smiled at Daniel. “Thanks for your vote this morning.”
“I never hold a grudge when a girl turns me down.”
“I didn’t exactly turn you down.”
“Grab a seat,” Connor offered.
“We’re going to have to find you a mate,” Kayla said to Daniel.
“Well, let’s not go with the old draw-a-name-froma-hat technique. That didn’t work out too well,” he said, grinning.
I peered over at Connor. “Thought you said it was a bowl.”
“Does it matter?” he asked, as he put his arm around me.
“No.” I snuggled up against him, always amazed by how perfectly we fit together.
“So?” Lucas prodded. “Anyone up for a two-legged run in the moonlight?”