Chapter Four
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ETHAN’S PHONE VIbrATED on the table. He snatched it up, eagerly unlocking it and smiling at the sight of Liam’s name on his screen.
Liam had sent him a picture of one of the rigs at the fire station, which wasn’t something Ethan would normally smile about, but he couldn’t help it.
Anything Liam said or did made him smile these days.
If he thought about it, he realized it was ridiculous, which was why he tried not to think about it.
He’d make himself cringe if he did, and he’d probably stop answering as quickly as he was.
He didn’t want Liam to think he was rejecting him, although what would he even be rejecting Liam for?
They were friends, or at least, they were on their way to being friends.
That was all that was between them beyond the professional relationship of Ethan being an artist who’d recently tattooed Liam.
They shared the same friends, though, and Ethan was pretty sure that eventually, Liam would be invited to their family dinners.
From what Liam said, he was getting closer to Austin and West, too.
He truly was part of their group now, just like Ethan had suspected he’d become eventually.
It made Ethan feel better about telling him he was a chimera shifter.
Things would’ve been awkward if he hadn’t, and if Liam had reacted differently.
Ethan didn’t want to stay away from his friends, but he might have if he hadn’t told Liam what he was.
If Liam had reacted differently to the news, he would have been asked to leave, which would’ve made things awkward for West and Austin at the station, but it would have put Ethan’s mind at ease about the rest of his friends.
Luckily for everyone, they wouldn’t have to find out.
Liam was just as excited about Ethan being a chimera shifter as he had been the day he’d found out.
Sometimes, he texted Ethan a few questions, but it was clear he was hesitant, as if he expected Ethan to tell him to stop.
Normally, Ethan would have, but there was something nice about someone being openly curious rather than uncomfortable.
It wasn’t like West and Austin, who felt like they needed to be careful whenever the subject was broached.
Well, they were relaxing about it, too, and Ethan felt it was thanks to Liam.
“From the way you’re staring at your phone, it looks almost like you’re in love with it,” Dani said before loudly slurping some noodles from her bowl.
When Ethan looked up at her, she squinted as if she was trying to read him.
Knowing her, she definitely was, and he tried to smooth out his expression.
He already knew it was going to fail, though.
His friends knew him better than his family, except maybe his grandmother.
“That’s not an expression I’ve seen you make often,” Dani slowly said. “Or at all, actually. You look all soft and weird.”
Ethan snorted. “Looking soft makes you weird, now?”
“When it’s you, yeah. You keep everyone at arm’s length, even us.”
There was some truth in that statement, and it made Ethan feel guilty.
Clearly, though, Dani wasn’t going to expand on it.
She was too focused on finding out what was going on with Ethan, and knowing her, she would find out.
“It’s nothing,” he said, hoping she’d stop watching him as if he was an interesting specimen under a microscope.
She chewed another mouthful of noodles, still staring at him in a way that made Ethan increasingly want to run away screaming.
Then Dani grinned, and Ethan knew he’d lost. “How’s Liam?” she asked.
She knew. She definitely knew. “Fine,” Ethan answered in what he hoped was an uncompromising tone. Maybe she wouldn’t ask more questions if she realized he didn’t want to talk about it.
She didn’t seem to care.
“How do you know? Have you been in contact with him?”
“You know I have,” Ethan said patiently. He was going to have to answer her questions whether he was willing or not. It would be useless to prolong the torture. Dani was getting her answers, no matter how Ethan felt about it.
“Oh? Because I haven’t been in contact with him.”
“You haven’t had to talk to him.”
“I also haven’t agreed to go on the coffee date with him. When is that happening?”
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. It’s a bit complicated to organize with the way his shifts work.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. What’s the holdup?”
Dammit. Ethan’s friends always knew when he was lying. Sometimes, he hated it because it forced him to talk about what he was really thinking and feeling. He didn’t always like making himself vulnerable like that, even with them.
He looked down at his phone again. He couldn’t talk to Dani about this while looking at her. “I don’t know. I guess I’m still afraid of how he’s going to treat me. He said all the right things, but it feels too good to be true.”
“I get it,” Dani said. “You’re used to people rejecting you.”
“My mother has.”
“We’re not going to talk about your mother now because if I start, I’m never going to shut up about her and how I feel about the way she treats you. She doesn’t matter, though. The only thing right now that does is you, and it’s clear that you like Liam.”
“I do, but it doesn’t mean he likes me back.”
“That’s a different kind of problem, although I’d say that if you truly believe he doesn’t like you back, you need glasses. That man has been pining after you since the first time he met you.”
Ethan grimaced. “Please never use that word in that context again.”
Dani waved his words away. “You know what I mean. It’s clear he never thought anything bad about you, before or after you told him you were a chimera shifter. He mentioned something about you having dragon in you, right?”
“Don’t make it sexual.”
“I’m not. I know we joked about it at the time, but I think that, to Liam, it means something.
He’s a dragon shifter. He’s not looking at you like you’re different, not like a lot of shifters do.
He’s looking at you like you’re like him, and in a way, you are.
That’s what he sees. I think you should accept that and go with the flow.
You need to open your heart, and I can’t think of a better person to do it with than Liam, from everything I know about him.
We might all be wrong, but I really don’t think so. ”
Ethan tapped his fingertips on the table. “What if he changes his mind?”
“Then he changes his mind. That could happen with anyone, even with a chimera shifter. It could happen with a human, even if they don’t know what you are.
It’s the problem with relationships, isn’t it?
We have to take a leap of faith. We have to decide to take a chance, and I think it’s time for you to do just that.
You’ve been shielding your heart for too long.
It needs to be allowed out so that it can grow and be happy. ”
Ethan opened his mouth to tell her that he could be happy even without a boyfriend, but the breakroom door slammed open, hitting the wall and making both of them jump.
Ethan glared at Jonathan, but only for a few seconds.
Jonathan’s eyes were wide, and he was holding his phone out as if he needed to show Ethan and Dani something.
Dani groaned. “Oh, God. What happened now?” she asked.
Ethan felt very much the same way. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what had happened. It sure didn’t look like it would be good.
“There was another fire at a shifter-owned business,” Jonathan said.
Ethan frowned. “I thought that was over and that they’d caught the arsonist?”
Jonathan nodded curtly. “That’s what everyone thought. It’s what West told me, and I know he and Austin are convinced that the arsonist was caught.”
“What about this fire, then? It can’t be the same person, right?”
Jonathan shook his head. “The guy’s in prison. It can’t be him.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence.”
Or maybe the arsonist had an accomplice.
That wasn’t something Ethan wanted to consider, so for now, he decided not to.
The fire could be anything. It didn’t have to be arson.
Maybe something had happened by accident, or maybe it was something electrical.
There was no way there was a second arsonist going after shifters in town.
Right?
* * * *
LIAM WAS TENSE IN THE engine as they drove toward the fire. They didn’t have a lot of details about what was going on, but from the way Austin and West had looked at each other when Taylor had told them what he did know, Liam knew something was up. He just didn’t know what, but he’d find out.
He just wasn’t sure how to ask. Did this have something to do with West and Austin being shifters?
Did they recognize the address? Did it have something to do with one of their past emergencies?
There was no way for Liam to know, but since he’d heard about the arsonist who’d set fires to local businesses a few months back, he couldn’t help but wonder if this had something to do with that.
Would it even make sense? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure how to ask.
He couldn’t afford to attract the attention of Taylor or the other human members of their team.
The whole situation made him wary and worried, though.
He felt like something was about to happen, and he didn’t like that.
“Do we have any more details?” West asked, glancing at Austin.
Taylor cleared his throat. “Not really. We just know that the store is up in flames.”
“The owner?”
“Still inside.”
Liam grimaced. That wasn’t going to be fun.