Page 13 of Glass
My heart beats like mad in my chest, the weight of the situation finally hitting me. I don’t know this guy, and the only reason I trusted him enough to come with him is because he’s a shifter, too. I know better than anyone that being a shifter doesn’t necessarily mean he’s one of the good guys. Can I really trust my gut? I’ve never been sure.
There’s a creaking sound from inside the RV, the behemoth vehicle swaying the tiniest bit with the movement inside. Even over the sound of my blood whooshing in my ears, I can hear heavy footsteps moving across the floors of the vehicle. My heart lurches into my throat as the door swings open.
“Fucking finally. This kid is staring at me like I’m a monster because you weren’t here when we showed up.” A man with short, dark, curly hair fills the doorway of the RV as the door hangs open on its hinges. His sharp jaw is covered with a couple day’s length of beard. And despite his scowl, the light pouring out from behind him makes him look unexpectedly angelic, as if a halo of light has formed solely around him.
Doc shuffles a step to the left, and the man’s eyes move to me. He jerks back a step as if electrocuted, and I don’t have any right to judge because…I feel it too.
My heart rate skyrockets and my hands shake, knees going weak at the electric shock that seems to flow through my veins. The feeling swirling through my body is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It burns in my veins, making my lips twist uncomfortably as I tighten my hands into fists to bear the feeling as it settles under my skin.
The second the feeling fades, I cross my arms defensively across my chest, letting some of my hair fall forward to hide behind. When my arms brush the fabric of my shirt, I’m struck by an unexpected realization.
“My clothes,” I blurt out, the thought only half-formed.
Both men look down at my outfit for a second before understanding dawns on them, and they exchange a look before meeting my eyes again. Doc is the one who jumps to fill me in, “Shifting in Acadia doesn’t follow the rules you’re probably used to. There are adaptations in place here to help keep us safe. We shift at a moment’s notice to avoid being caught by tourists, and that means we can’t exactly risk shifting back to naked.”
I blink at him several times. No matter how many times I run the words back in my head, they don’t make sense. What does he mean, the park made adaptations for them? Or something else? I glance around, eyeing the tall pines stretching toward the sky, feeling a little bit out of whack trying to wrap my mind around what they’re saying.
“It’s evolution,” the curly-haired man supplies brusquely.
“Evolution implies a change over time,” I point out. “I’ve been in Acadia for barely more than an hour.”
The man steadily holds my gaze as he drops down the two steps from the RV to the ground in front of me. “You had to evolve the second you became one of us. An hour is plenty of time in Acadia.”
One of us?I can feel my wolf bristling inside of me, threatening to rise to the surface and fight to distance myself from these men. I’m not one of them; I’m only here to accomplish one thing.
“Felix,” Doc pulls the other man’s attention toward himself. “This is Poppy Glass. She’s come looking for her siblings, and she believes they’re here.”
Felix’s expression hardens. His thick eyebrows knit together as he frowns and takes another step toward me, crowding me as he towers over my considerably shorter height. “People come to The Lost for a reason. If they wanted to be found, they wouldn’t have becomeLostin the first place.” I’m surprised by the intense ways he growls out his words to me.
I take a step back, but he mirrors me with another step forward to keep us in close range.
“You’re not going to intimidate me just because you’re bigger than I am,” I say with quiet indignation, my body uncomfortably tense. It’s not like I expected The Lost to throw their arms open wide in welcome, but I wasn’t prepared for the intensity rolling off this man as his dilated eyes stare me down.
Felix runs his hand over his mouth. “It’s late.”
I hold my breath, waiting for Felix’s verdict. I can tell from the way Doc spoke to him that he defers to Felix, and I think that must mean that Felix is the de facto leader of The Lost. If Felix sends me away right now, the chances of talking my way back in are slim to none. And the longer he takes to say something, the more my shoulders droop with growing dread.
“You can camp with us for tonight,” Felix eventually grumbles.
It’s not an answer—I still don’t have confirmation about the presence of my siblings—but it’s a chance to continue seeking the answers I’m looking for. In my heart, I know it means something that there hasn’t been an outright denial. I’m breathless as I realize that only one restless night’s sleep separates me from the last of the Glass kids. Tomorrow, I’m finally going to get to take them home.
Technically, I’m not exactly sure where home is going to be come tomorrow, but I’ll come up with something. I always do.