Born of Embers Read online

  “Lure?” I felt like an idiot. I was simply repeating everything he was saying. The way he was looking at me gave me chills.

  “Andrei’s a Leshy. He wouldn’t have hurt you exactly, but he does like to take freshman and tourists. He promises them a ride somewhere and then drops them in the middle of nowhere to find their way back. Not all of them manage it.” He shrugged, his eyes never leaving mine.

  “Wait, he was a shifter? I thought I smelled magic.” I looked over my shoulder to where the truck had peeled away. “You mean he was using magic on me? That’s what I felt?”

  “Yes, Nix, that’s what you felt. You have to realize that you aren’t in Orlando anymore. There are very few shifters there. We tend to group in areas where we can use our shifted forms, so think Alaska or Montana. Areas of wilderness. Generally the only other groups of shifters you’ll see are coastal, like dolphins or krakens. Orlando was too far inland for that, plus they prefer islands anyway.” He stretched his arms, crossing them over his chest as he continued to hold my gaze with his. “You may not be ready to talk about your past. That’s fine. It’s completely understandable. When you are ready, we’ll be there. Don’t think that you’re the only one with a messed up past. We all have some kind of issue, Nix. You’re not alone.”

  I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “I don’t think growing up in what’s probably a cushy shifter community with all of your friends counts as an issue.” I knew I was being a brat, but I couldn’t help myself. These guys were all so sweet, gentle, and fun-loving. They had no idea what was really out in the world.

  He raised an eyebrow, his face as hard as stone. It was strange to see Hiro act so coldly. “My parents gave me to the Council to raise when I first started displaying powers. Kitsune never know what their offspring will be, it can be any of the thirteen variations. Forest kitsune are not looked upon favorably. We have very little offensive or defensive power in society’s eyes. They were ashamed. Shame is not something easily born in our culture. They preferred to give me up.”

  I gaped, staring at him. This sweet, caring boy had been abandoned? Thrown out by his family? How was that even possible? “But you’re so…” I struggled to find a word. “Normal. So sweet.”

  He smirked. “I’m not quite as sweet as I let on, Nix. There are plenty of dark parts in me. I wasn’t always this way. It took years to come to terms with all of this. I may tell you more in the future. For now though, it’s cold. Please let me call Rini to give you a ride home. You’re going the same place anyway.”

  I nodded, too shocked to do anything else. I never would have expected that he had faced any kind of hardship in his life. How prideful of me was that? To expect everyone to wear their past on their faces so I could see and judge? Hiro pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a quick text. “We debated whether or not to tell you this, Nix.”

  I froze, unable to look away. Oh, crap. They had just been messing with me. They hated me. I mentally slapped myself. God, when had I gotten so emotional? “What?” The word came out terse.

  “You’re going to want to practice putting up mental walls. Damien has some psychic powers. He can occasionally get what you’re thinking if you’re projecting loudly. He can also broadcast back to you. Or share your thoughts with others. He doesn’t intentionally search for them,” he hurried to explain. “He’s very good about that. But if you want to make sure all of your thoughts stay private, work on building a wall. Rini can help you practice. It’s simple, and will be second nature in no time.”

  I stepped away from him at the sound of a truck. I glanced over his shoulder to see Rini leaning out the window, a look of concern on her face. “Thank you for the honesty. I don’t really know how I feel about that. I like you guys but…” I trailed off, shaking my head. “This has been so much, Hiro. So much I never thought I would ever have to process. Classes start in four days; I’m not at all prepared. I just found out I can shift into a bird, throw fireballs, and who knows what else. Now you tell me Damien can read minds?” I looked at the ground, too overwhelmed to continue meeting those deep brown eyes that seemed to look straight through me. “I need time.”

  I felt him reach for me, and I fought the urge to stiffen. He saw the motion despite my attempt. “We understand. I texted you our address, so you have my number. I’ll give your number to the guys as well. We want to get to know you, Nix. We wanted to before we knew you were a Phoenix. We’re here when you‘re ready. Though I don’t doubt that some of the guys will attempt to wiggle their way into your good graces.” The smile he wore was weary and wry.

  I sent him an equally weary grin as I opened the back door to Rini’s truck. “I understand. Thank you. All of you. For helping me find out who I really am.” With a last glance I climbed into the truck, shutting the door tightly behind me.

  Luckily Rini understood my mood and kept silent during the trip back to campus. I was so tired I was shaking when we began to climb the stairs to our dorm. I followed Rini quietly down the hallway, thinking longingly of my bed. I just needed sleep. I needed a chance to process all of this. I just hoped I wouldn’t light my bed on fire in my sleep… My Phoenix let out an irritated squawk at that comment. Apparently she didn’t like me thinking poorly of her.

  “Rini!” A voice called from the end of the hall. Rini sighed deeply and held out a hand to stop me from walking around her into our room.

  “Stay, please.” She whispered near my ear. “I don’t want to have to deal with her alone.”

  After all the help she had been tonight, staying so she didn’t have to deal with this girl, whoever she was, seemed very little to ask in return. I studied the girl who approached us. Her black hair was long and perfectly styled without a single strand out of place. She wore clothing far more appropriate to Orlando than to Alaska. A tiny white tank top that exposed the deep green bra underneath and stopped to show the golden skin around her navel and a pair of tiny cut off green shorts were her only coverings despite the chill in the air.

  “I haven’t seen you all summer, Rini. How’ve you been?” The girl gave her a sweet smile that didn’t meet her brown eyes as she ignored me completely.

  “I’m fine. What do you want?” Rini’s voice was irritated.

  “Well, I hadn’t seen you on campus yet. I know Hiro is supposed to be an RA this year.” Her words were forced around a smile that I thought would crack the layer of foundation she had painted onto her face.

  “You know Hiro?” The words were out before I could reconsider them. That certainly got her attention. She arched an eyebrow as she studied me, her eyes raking from my toes to my hair, taking in my rumpled state.

  “Of course I know Hiro. He and I are…” she paused, dragging the silence out as she smirked at me. “Close.” She finished, clearly implying they were sexually involved.

  “Good for you, Sparky.” I was too tired to be polite to bitches tonight. I had no idea why Rini had us stop.

  The girl hissed, reaching out her arm as if to grab me. I took a small step to the side so that her hand flew past. “You stay away from Hiro, understand?” Her voice was a harsh growl. “I mean it. Stay away from him.”

  Rini sighed and began walking towards our room again. “It’s over between you two, Ahmya. He knows it, the guys know it, hell, I know it. Just leave him alone. He isn’t going to mate you.” I turned my back on Ahmya, focusing once again on getting to my bed. Girl drama was the very last thing I needed. I heard Ahmya stomp down the hallway away from us. Rini unlocked the door to let us in and I dropped the coat I hadn’t realized I still wore. Hiro’s coat. Huh. I’d have to get that back to him. “Sorry about that,” she murmured as she locked the dorm behind us. “Hiro’s psycho ex-girlfriend.”

  I shrugged, heading towards my room. “Figured. No biggie. If she gives you issues, let me know, okay?”

  Rini shot my a sweet smile and nodded. “They’re good guys, I promise. I know it’s all confusing right now, but it’ll get better. When you want to talk, I’m here.”


  The smile I sent her wasn’t very authentic, but at least I tried. I couldn't handle any more tonight. I needed oblivion, and I needed it now. I locked my door tightly and flopped down on the bed, trying to ignore that I could still smell the guys on my skin. My Phoenix began to hum in my head, a relaxing sound, like a mix between a cat’s purr and the soft whir of a nightingale. I let myself sink into the soothing sound and drift to sleep.

  Twenty

  Nix

  An entire day had passed and I had done nothing but absorb all of the new information that was flying through my head on repeat. I was a shifter. I had shifted into a Phoenix. All of my careful planning to escape my previous life had accidentally landed me in the one place in the country with the largest shifter population. Well done, Nix, well done. I rolled my eyes at myself, stood, stretched, and resumed my pacing—which was hard to do, by the way, in such a small space. I had been doing the same thing on repeat off and on for the last day.

  I was starting to feel bad about my avoidance of both Rini and the guys. I had woken up super early yesterday to shower and was out of the room faster than Rini could wake up. She was a seriously heavy sleeper and I wondered briefly if that was a bear thing? Either way, it had worked to my advantage. I spent the day wandering through the buildings on campus, going by each of my classrooms one more time before school would start. I liked to be prepared and didn’t want any surprises—good or bad—to hinder my first day of classes. I had come this far across the country to live a peaceful, ordinary life. While the ordinary part might not be obtainable any longer, the peaceful part could be, so with extraordinary effort, I had blocked my thoughts and focused only on school and what I needed to get in order to be prepared for classes to start.

  That plan worked until approximately lunch time when I could no longer live in the alternate universe I had tried to create for myself. Sighing, I stopped by a bistro on campus to grab lunch, thankful again for my meal plan, and snuck back to my dorm where I proceeded to do as much research as I could on shifters in between my bouts of pacing. Whether what I found on the internet was reliable or not was another question.

  Today had started much the same way. I woke up early and planned to tiptoe my way to the shower but when I cracked my door open, I caught Rini in a passionate lip lock with Donovan before he walked out of the door.

  “God! Sorry!” The apology slipped from my mouth and I tried to make a hasty retreat back into my room.

  “Nix!” She sounded excited. Well, the big burly bear had just kissed her into next week. If someone kissed me like that I’d probably be excited too. Except for the whole ‘no one could touch me without inciting a freakout of epic proportions’ thing. Yeah, so no kisses for me. I’d have to leave that for books, movies, and, apparently, my roommate. “She emerges.” Rini teased with a smile. “Sorry about that.” She motioned to the door Donovan had just walked out of. “I probably should have warned you that the guys will be in and out of here a lot. Will that bother you? We can set some ground rules for them.” She laughed. “In fact, it would be so funny to watch you try to implement visiting hours!” She grinned a wildly mischievous smile.

  I laughed. “I think I’d rather they like me than hate me. Also, you’re delusional if you think that will work.” The question I had been pondering since I first met Rini, Barrett, Cayden, and Donovan was on the tip of my tongue, my curiosity burning. I decided to dive in and do damage control later if it was needed. I opened my big mouth and let the personal, prying question spill out. “So are you dating one of them? Or is it more of a friends with benefits kind of situation?” My voice rose in pitch as I finished the question.

  Rini straightened at that and crossed her arms over her chest, but her face stayed open. “I’m dating all of them. I know that probably seems odd to you, but the truth is, multiple matings are actually very common in the shifter world.” She explained in a rush, the tone of her voice tinged with defensiveness.

  “Wow. That’s… interesting.” I told her, trying to process what she just told me. I had about a million more questions begging to be let loose. “So you’re mated to them? All three of them?” I asked.

  She nodded before sighing. “Do you want to grab some coffee? I think we need caffeine for this conversation. There’s so much for you to learn and I definitely think you should hear all of this from me rather than from one of the guys.” She grinned like that idea was comical.

  Was this like a sex kind of talk? Yeah, no thank you! There was no way was I going to get the shifter version of the birds and the bees from a gargoyle, a kitsune, a kraken, a puca, and a unicorn. I smiled to myself. It almost sounded like the start of a good joke.

  “Ok.” The idea of having a girl to talk to really did sound appealing. Having a one-on-one conversation also sounded easier than trying to talk to a group. The guys seemed great, and I’d had a good time with them—despite a few hiccups and the earth shattering way in which my world had turned upside down—but old habits were hard to break and I knew I would be more comfortable around Rini right now.

  “A woman of many words,” she teased as she bounced up and down on her toes in excitement. I couldn’t contain the small laugh that escaped. I would need to learn how to be more social and less awkward around people. Lesson one: Talk.

  After showering and dressing for the day I was feeling a little more human and was ready to leave with Rini. I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. I knew I needed to start trying to think of myself as a shifter. As we left the room and walked to a small, cozy cafe on campus, she chatted idly about classes and teachers until we arrived. Settling ourselves into the table in the back corner, furthest away from prying eyes and ears, she broached the subject.

  “So, how are you holding up?”

  “I think I’m doing pretty well considering I didn’t know about any of this five days ago. Hell, I didn’t know about any of this three days ago.” It had been five days since I had arrived and classes would be starting in two more. “It’s a relief to know more about myself, but I think I have more questions.”

  “Look, I’m sorry if we overwhelmed you the other day. You’re having to learn about all of this at an extremely fast pace and it’s not fair or easy. I hope you can think of me as a friend, because that’s what I want to be. I think you’re going to need people to talk to about everything you are and will be experiencing, especially now that you’ve shifted. You can always come to me with questions.” Sincerity flowed through her words as she spoke.

  “Thank you. Honestly, I just needed time to process everything.” I responded quietly.

  “The guys are worried about you.”

  Something in me warmed at the thought. I couldn’t remember the last time someone cared enough about me to worry.

  “You care about them, don’t you?” I asked, deflecting the conversation away from myself.

  “Of course, they’re all like family. Theo and his sister were raised with me. We all grew up in the shifter commune together. Girl, the stories I could tell you!” Her eyes lit up with humor. “But in all seriousness, they care about you, Nix. I’ve never seen them take to anyone so quickly in the entire time I’ve known them.”

  Zings of elation shot through my chest but I tried to tamp them down. Yes, these people, these new friends, seemed different from anyone I’d known in my past, but I was used to being let down and disappointed by people. I was used to getting hurt and I refused to get my hopes up that things were really turning around for me. Time would tell. What I did know was that I wanted to give all of them the time to prove themselves, just like I hoped I would be able to prove myself to them. Trust. It took time to build.

  “They seem really great,” I tried not to give too much away in that one statement. I already liked them more than I should and I had to wrestle mentally to keep my walls up and avoid getting hurt. “I’m going to need some of those stories.” I smirked and took a sip of the double shot espresso that had just been plunked down in front of me. Rini was
silent as she breathed in her coffee and took a drink.

  As the silence stretched on, my mind wandered back to the revelation in the dorm room. Rini was dating all three guys. Daring to peek at her over my coffee cup, I bit my lip, wanting to ask more but afraid of being rude. As much as I had ignored Rini yesterday—ignored them all—I desperately wanted to be friends. Now that I’d had some time and space to work through everything thrown at me the other night, I was ready to learn more.

  “I know you’re dying to ask, so you should just spit out all your questions.” She playfully rolled her eyes at me.

  “You’re sure?” At her nod, I shot questions at her in rapid succession. “So you’re dating all of them? How does that work? Do they know they are all dating you? How did you know you were mated to them? Is mating like marriage? Did you even get a say? They didn’t force you into it did they?”

  Her eyes narrowed briefly. “Firstly, lets get these ones off the table. I was not forced to mate with anyone and yes, they all know they are dating me and I’m dating all of them. We’re a unit.” Taking a deep breath, she relaxed a little and launched in a second time. “Secondly, you’re going to need a little backstory to understand all of this, otherwise it won’t make any sense to you.” She took another gulp of coffee like it was giving her the liquid courage she needed to continue. “There are at least three times as many men to women in the shifter population. Multiple matings are very common among our kind. It’s rare for shifters to mate with humans, and since there’s a definite shortage of women to men, they’ve agreed to share in matings. I guess you could say that mating is like marriage, but mating is honestly so much stronger. Marriages end and people get divorced all the time. When you mate someone, you mate them for life. There are no backsies or whoopsie-daisies. It’s a strong, sacred bond.”