Heart : Animal Senses Series Book 1

Chapter 40

With long strides, Devin stomped off the deck and back into the house. She wanted complete honesty. She was damn well going to get it. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Turning, he stripped off his shirt and kicked off his shoes as he headed back towards the deck. He only paused long enough to figure out how he was going to take his pants and the water back out with him.

Shifting when you're angry or upset doesn't give you the same rush as when you're doing it because you want to. He felt robbed of that, and it made his mood even blacker. Devin didn't take the time to stop and consider what he was about to do. He just grabbed the cuff of his jeans and flung them over his shoulders, and then with the top of the bottle between his teeth, he trotted back through the open door out to where Rayne was sitting.

He stood behind her long enough to hear that she had managed to regain some of her composure while he'd been gone, but she still chuckled quietly. Lowering his head, he backed up so the jeans would drop to the deck and then went around the chair without any hesitation and dropped the bottle of water in her lap. Devin could never have anticipated what happened next. Rayne shrieked so loud he thought his sensitive ear drums would be pierced right through. She dropped the cane and then reached down for it with one hand as she threw the bottle of water at him with the other, hitting him right between the eyes. He hadn't even seen that coming. Devin forgot about taunting her in his wolf form and shifted back to skin, as he rubbed the spot between his eyes he went over and picked up his jeans, keeping his back to her as he pulled them on.

When Devin turned again she had both hands over her mouth, her eyes couldn't have been any wider and her chest heaved as she hyperventilated, and now he felt like slime having been the cause. He squatted down a few feet away from her and rubbed a hand over the throbbing target on his forehead. "I'm sorry," he managed to whisper. Leaning his head into hand, he let out a slow breath and hoped she'd look calmer when he finally managed to look at her.

She didn't. The shock was still there, but there was something else now, anger.

"I didn't know how to show you without startling you..."

"Startling?" she squeaked. "I think that's an understatement!"

He took a long-ragged breath. "I know. I'm sorry..."

She held up a hand to silence him. Now looking at him like he'd grown two heads, and his heart fell deeper into his chest. He'd seen that look before. Words like freak and monster usually came with that expression. She opened her mouth and then closed it, frowning at him for a second or two more.

"Are you saying my parents could do that?" Her voice shook, but there wasn't fear behind it. She sounded hurt.

Devin looked right into her eyes and hoped she'd see the truth in his own. "Yes."

She stared so intently in his eyes, he was afraid to blink. "And you think I can? I'm pretty sure I'd know if I could."

He didn't move from where he was, still not sure if she'd bolt and hurt herself or throw something else at him. "Both of your parents could and you will be able to. Males can shift at the onset of puberty and females a few years after that."