Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series) by Gayle Parness Read Free Book Online Page B

shapeshifter giant sloths.
    I threw the load of dark laundry into the dryer and started a load of lights. “What day is it”? I asked Rob who was putting away the leftovers while Ethan did the dishes, all the while humming “Go the Distan ce” from Hercules. Must be a Disney movie nut.
    “Today is Tuesday,” Rob answered. Without comment, I grabbed a throw blanket, walked out the front door and sat on the wooden porch bench. It was chilly out but I wanted to think. Tomorrow I’d turn seventeen and possibly turn shifter officially. Two weeks ago when I thought about my birthday I’d imagined a cake with Justin and Maggie and a few of my friends from school, then maybe going out to a movie together. What movie had I wanted to see? I wasn’t sure any more.
    My shoulders slumped when I remembered that I was supposed to be graduating in a couple of weeks. Because I’d taken extra classes throughout high school, I was able to graduate a year early. I thought about the ceremony that I’d be missing and the typical parties afterward, most of which I wouldn't have been invited to anyway. I thought about Maggie and Jason looking at me with pride as I got my diploma. I pulled my feet up onto the bench and hugged my knees, wiping away a few tears as I quietly mourned the life I was leaving behind.
    But as the sadness played out with each salty drop, there was a stew of new feelings emerging:  excitement, anticipation, fear, of course, but also hope. Throughout my life I’d balanced precariously on a wire which dangled between normal and different. If I could turn shifter and be accepted into a community of people just like me, maybe I could learn to like who I was.
    Rob sat next to me on the porch bench.  I hadn’t heard him come through the door.
    “Do y ou know who my birth parents were?” This is the question I’d wanted to ask all day, ever since he mentioned that there were shifter communities.  Maybe my parents lived in one of them.
    “It will depend on what you shift into tomorrow. But even after I see you change and watch your progress, I ’d only be able to speculate. "
    “Could they still be alive?”
    He hesitated. “I'm sorry, Jackie, but I don’t know. It’s probably something you should investigate on your own.”
    “What happened to you when you first changed?”
    His eyes lost their sparkle and his mouth thinned out as he remembered. “I was eighteen and living in a town in Southern Oregon with a family who had adopted me when I was an infant. I was pretty happy and looking forward to graduation and college. I had a younger sister who was also adopted as a baby.  At the time she was fifteen and had gotten hooked up with a bad bunch of kids. She’d been missing for about 24 hours when I found her drunk in a rundown house. I grabbed her to take her home and this guy she was with punched me and started kicking me while I was down on the ground. His two friends joined in and I could hear my sister telling them to stop. One of them started punching and kicking her too. Suddenly my clothes were ripping and I was changing into a monster, or so I thought.
    “I h ad no control over my leopard. I attacked them all in front of my sister.then I ran out the door leaving her crying hysterically on the floor. There were woods nearby and I headed there. It was late and I thought that no one had seen me. I ran all night until I collapsed from exhaustion." Rob’s face paled and his hands clenched in his lap, causing his knuckles to turn white.
    “In the morning I found myself back in human form chained up. I was now a captive of a man who ran a very different kind of program than I do. He explained what being a shifter was in only the briefest terms then never explained anything again. He brought me food and water and left me in a boiling hot cell all day. He wouldn’t tell me if my sister was alright. He beat me when I complained and continuously dared me to change again. When I finally did, he shot me with