Cattail Ridge by T.L. Haddix Read Free Book Online

first books he read were Owen’s Tobias Hedge series. Middle-grade children’s books, they featured a young boy named Toby who was a shape shifter, and chronicled his adventures. Although Owen’s identity as their author was a fairly well-held secret, the family had confessed the truth to Archer once they saw how much he liked the books. The stories particularly resonated for Archer, though he couldn’t tell the Campbells why. Until he was shot he had been a shape shifter. His shift-animal was a mountain lion, as was Logan’s. The ability came down through their father’s bloodline.
    After Candace had nearly killed him, however, the lion was gone. He hadn’t been able to change. Figuring he’d just needed time to heal he hadn’t tried again for a few months, but even then, he couldn’t shift. No matter what he tried, the cat was gone.
    He’d grieved harder over that loss than the loss of his marriage.
    His inability to transform was something he hadn’t told Logan about even though the assault was now three years behind him. His brother had a hard enough time dealing with the guilt he carried over the shooting, blaming himself for letting Archer marry Candace in the first place. It didn’t matter how many times Archer had insisted to Logan that he couldn’t have stopped the nuptials. So telling him the truth–that Candace had apparently killed the mountain lion when she’d shot him–was something Archer was putting on a far back burner.
    One of the things Archer wondered about, however, was just how Owen had managed to get so many things right about shifting and what it meant to have an animal spirit that one could transform into. He had his suspicions, especially as he learned more about the family, but he didn’t have confirmation until one cold evening late in February. He and Amelia were having a lesson in their usual spot in the kitchen when Sarah came in from work, anger clear on her face.
    “Mom? What’s wrong?” Amelia asked.
    “Your sister. She’s the most stubborn person I believe I’ve ever met, your father included. I need to change clothes. Hi, Archer.”
    “Sarah.”
    After she left, he and Amelia just looked at each other. Archer had never seen either Sarah or Owen more than mildly annoyed.
    “Which sister do you think she means?” Amelia asked.
    Archer shrugged and tried to answer as tactfully as possible. “Well, from what I’ve seen it could be either of them.”
    She snorted as she stood and went to the stove to check the pot of soup she had going. “No, really? Not my sisters. They’re meek and pliable.” He nearly choked on his coffee, and she grinned. “You do have them pegged. Whichever one it is, she must have done something pretty obnoxious to get Mom that upset.”
    He couldn’t suppress a smile. There was no way around the fact that Emma and Rachel were both very headstrong. Amelia was stubborn in her own way, but “obstinate” was probably the easiest way to describe her older sisters.
    When Sarah came back in she gave him a brief hug. “I’m sorry for that outburst. I’m worried, and there’s nothing I can do about it. She’s a grown woman.”
    “Which she?” Amelia asked as she accepted her own hug.
    “Rachel.”
    Amelia nodded slowly. “Let me guess–she has another migraine?”
    “Of course. And she’s out of her medication, had to call me because she couldn’t get up with her doctor.”
    Rachel was in school in Lexington, Kentucky, going for a master’s degree in history.
    “All she has to do is shift and she wouldn’t get those headaches,” Amelia threw out casually as she sat back down. As soon as the words registered, she froze. So did Sarah. They both looked at Archer warily, only for an instant, and then Sarah rushed to cover up the revelatory statement. But Archer couldn’t unhear the words. They made too much sense.
    “Rachel’s a shifter?”
    The women exchanged a look. Amelia was biting her lip so hard Archer was afraid she was