Taken by the Buck by Kristen Strassel

Author:Kristen Strassel [Strassel, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fated mates, doe shifter, fairy tale, deer shifter, small town
Publisher: Kristen Strassel
Published: 2014-12-02T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“CHLOE!” GRANDMA WAS the only person who was happy about this situation, she must’ve been waiting by the door for John’s truck to pull up to the house. She wrapped me in a hug, I’d never realized how tiny she was before, and she rocked me back and forth. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too,” I whispered, the tears falling now that I was in a place I was truly safe. It was surreal being home, I didn’t feel like the same woman who shifted to a doe a month ago. Like going back to the cabin after mating with Cane, everything was as I left it, but I had changed. I didn’t know what that meant yet. “I have so much to tell you.”

“Why don’t you get comfortable first? You look exhausted.” That was Grandma Code for I needed a shower. “I’ll heat up some carob and you can tell me everything.”

I could still taste Cane on my lips, and he haunted me like a ghost. No, I thought as I shivered under the steaming hot water in the shower, this wasn’t the end. I had no need to mourn. But why did I feel like I’d lost something?

Padding downstairs in my fuzzy pajamas and slippers, Grandma had set two mugs and a plate full of apple slices in front of the fire, like she did when I’d come in from sledding as I kid. As much as I already missed Cane, it was good to be home.

“You were right about the ribbon.” I began as munched on an apple slice. “But nothing else was as I expected it to be.”

Grandma listened raptly to my story. I didn’t tell her everything, of course. Like what a wicked flirt Cane was, or how I found him completely infuriating, and how much I liked it, or how I’d almost broke my promise to the herd. So I left out a lot.

“I thought we knew of everyone in the herd.” She wasn’t ready to buy my story yet, because Paul had got to her first. Out of everything I’d worried about, I never expected she’d doubt me, and panic crept in. Away from Cane, his crooked smile and soft beard, and that scent, I was willing to accept the possibility she could be right. “How could he leave? What if he’d shifted in New York?”

“He said his mother hadn’t shifted, but his grandparents did.” It had made sense at the time. “He said when he kept having dreams about it, he knew he had to come home.”

She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“The herd is smaller now than it ever has been.” Most of the people my grandmother’s age lamented the growth of the town, and the influx of hunters. Every year we had people not come back. My blood ran cold thinking of Daphne, I’d forced her to have to go alone. Had she run into trouble, like I apparently had? Or worse? “It would make sense if some of us didn’t shift anymore.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.