Chapter 20
Luke gasped and caught Sabrina, lifting her into the kiss.
She was soft and sweet and warm, the sudden and absolute center of his world, and he was fairly certain time simply stopped so they could stay in the moment forever, together.
When they finally broke for air, both breathless and smiling, he brushed his nose against hers and whispered, "Just in case it wasn't clear, you're the right reason to go…
anywhere. To do anything. You have been since the moment I laid eyes on you. "
"That's insane," she whispered back, but happily.
"Maybe, but…there's one more thing I need, or want, to tell you. About this whole shifter thing, I mean."
"Is it that our kids will be shifters? I figured that out when you said you generally breed true."
Luke's brain went spang! again at the vivid image of a pregnant Sabrina, and also, just as significantly, that she'd said 'our kids' at all. "Um. No. Rather, yes, if we had kids, if you wanted them—that's escalating, you know," he said almost sternly, and she kissed him again and laughed.
"I know. Way too much escalation."
"Just the right amount of escalation," he disagreed. "But still, escalating. But that wasn't what I was going to say. I wanted to explain why it's not insane."
"Why kids aren't insane?" she asked brightly.
Luke all but gave up with a laugh of his own.
"No! Again, I mean yes, discussing kids probably is insane!
But I meant being willing to follow you anywhere!
Here." He put her on her feet and Sabrina pouted, which he couldn't resist kissing.
Then he stepped back, trying to remember he wanted to talk with her.
"This is my last bit of real insanity, though, I promise. "
"I doubt that, but I'm listening." Sabrina was all smiles again, her eyes bright and happy.
"Shifters know when they've met the person they're supposed to be with," he explained swiftly, afraid he would find some way to mess it up otherwise.
"We call it fate, but whatever you call it, we know.
And I knew from the moment Emmy called me over to you that you were my mate.
The love of my life," he corrected hastily, because even he thought 'mate' was a little… unusual, in human relationship terms.
And clearly Sabrina did too, from how her eyebrows rose. "Mate? That sounds very Aaron Attenborough about it all, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but, well, we are animals part of the time. All of the time, because we're human animals too, but—you know what I mean!"
By that time Sabrina was grinning broadly. "I do, yes. So…you knew, from when we met, that we should be together? And you didn't say anything? Why not? I was out there in Vegas pining for you!"
"Were you?" he said happily. "I hoped you might be, but I wasn't sure."
"How can you not be sure if you knew we were meant to be together?"
SEE???? his rabbit yelled. SEE, you were just making it TOO COMPLICATED!!!
Luke ducked his head and shrugged a little. "It's one thing to know it myself, but it's something else to just come out and say to someone else, hey, you and me, we're meant to be."
They both squinted, and after a few seconds Sabrina said, "Isn't that a line from a…one of those really old bands like the Beatles or something? From one of their songs?"
"I don't know if it's the Beatles but it sure sounds like a line from a song.
Probably a hundred of them have used it.
" Luke shook his head. "Anyway, it's just…
it's a lot to tell somebody. And I wanted to explain about the shifter thing first, and I didn't want to do that in Vegas where you were stuck with me for days. "
"That's…really thoughtful," Sabrina said slowly. "Even if you were absolutely sure I'd take it well, and how could you be, it's really thoughtful."
"Mates do tend to take it well," Luke admitted. "It's part of just being able to accept what we are, I guess. Like if you can handle the fact I turn into a fifty pound rabbit, probably the idea of true love everlasting coming along with that isn't so weird."
"And 'mates' do just accept that you can turn into rabbits or bears or whatever? I know I did, but honestly, you'd basically set me up for the whole joke already so I just thought it was funny and cool. Does everybody?"
"Sometimes there's screaming and throwing things, but it usually only takes a few minutes for our mates to adjust. It wouldn't be much of a fated happiness thing if they had to go away for ten years and get used to the idea, you know?"
"I guess not." Sabrina worried her teeth into her bottom lip, head tilted as she studied him. "Does it always just work out? Even if, for example, your mate has a job in the city and you're a small-town boy?"
"Like I said, I can really do my job from anywhere. But yes, fate doesn't…it doesn't throw us together with people we can't work it out with. Not as far as I know."
"That's pretty wonderful," Sabrina whispered.
"And I'm…I'm part of that now? I. Wow. Boy.
I know I can't, but is it wrong that I kinda wanna rub that in The Girls' faces?
All that time they spent haranguing me about not finding a boyfriend and it turns out it's because I was waiting for fate to strike?
" She looked incredibly satisfied, and Luke laughed, gathering her into his arms again.
"Yeah, you can't tell them, but you can sit around being smug about it with me, if you want."
"Yeah? Are we going to sit around here someday and be smug about it?" She gestured at the old house whose empty living room they stood in, and Luke looked around, too, before bringing his attention back to her.
"That's probably up to you. You're the one whose job is in the city. I'm not going to ask you to choose Virtue over your career."
"But where would a giant rabbit stretch his legs in New York?" Sabrina asked, a faint frown between her eyebrows now.
"I'm almost sure fancy architects get vacation time," Luke said reassuringly.
"And once the train line is in we could pop up here for a weekend easily enough.
But honestly, Sabrina, most of us don't spend much time in their animal forms. I don't know if we used to when the world wasn't quite so citified and connected, but these days for sure it's just not something we do a lot. "
"But that's bad," Sabrina protested. "What's the point in being a shifter if you can't shift?
Doesn't it seem like—well, maybe it's not a 'use it or lose it' kind of thing, but…
it seems like it might be," she added with obvious concern.
"Maybe not you losing it, but generationally.
Are there fewer shifters than there were? "
"I don't know," Luke said slowly. "It sure doesn't feel like it in Virtue, where more and more of us seem to be moving in every day.
And there are so many people in the world it doesn't seem like our numbers could be diminishing.
But I don't really know for sure. We've always assumed we were endangered, though.
It's why Virtue exists. It's been a sanctuary town for centuries. "
"I have so much to learn about your world," Sabrina breathed.
"I'm so happy I get a chance to. And…well.
" She straightened suddenly, becoming brisk.
"The question of whether we live here or in the city is a problem for later, isn't it?
I'm here through October. I was here through October. It'll be longer now, with…"
Her energy suddenly collapsed into fear. "It seems likely that somebody burned the building site to try to keep the train station from being built, doesn't it? To keep the railroad from coming in?"
"It does," Luke admitted unhappily. "But on the other hand, their timing was bad. It's not like everything was nearly done and has to be started from scratch now, right? We've got to get you set up again, but it's not that much work lost. Is it?"
"No, not in terms of man hours or money.
The fact that it was attacked at all is scary, though.
But who would have done it, Luke? I talked to quite a few angry people, but they didn't seem like arsonists.
Not that I know what an arsonist seems like, but I don't imagine them as in their seventies, which the people who were complaining to me mostly were. "
"Tom Barlow and Arthur Lowell?"
Sabrina startled, then made a face. "So it's not just me they were complaining to, huh?"
"They were the opposing team when the town had a council meeting about the railroad, yeah. They're old families in Virtue, although so is Sam Todd, who has been one of the movers and shakers behind it all."
"I met him! Sam and Lola. They were wonderful.
In fact, the whole reason I'm here is through them, because he was in contact with some people higher up in the Gladiator organization—that's my architecture company, Gladiator Architecture, but they're a tiny offshoot of a much bigger foundation.
" Sabrina took Luke's hand and drew him out of the old Victorian house, making sure to close the door behind them before slowly heading back toward town as they talked.
"Someone higher up in the organization reached out to the firm and suggested we put in a bid for the train station. Oh."
She stopped dead, staring up at Luke. "Do you think somebody up there knew?
About what Virtue really is? Do you think they got involved to keep everything in some kind of secret shifter inner circle?
No," she said almost as suddenly. "They wouldn't have given me the project then, would they?
Because I didn't know about shifters before… well. Yesterday."
Luke opened his mouth and shut it again, looking off toward the north where Sam Todd's estate lay. "Sam is a fox shifter…"
Sabrina squeaked with excitement. "Maybe that is it, then. Oh my God. Wouldn't it be cool if there were people high up in the organization who were secretly protecting and helping shifters? How would I find out? I can't exactly just go up and ask people. Can I?"
Luke snickered. "What would you ask them, anyway?
'Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to turn into a wolf in your spare time, would you?
' But no, you can't. Secrecy, you know." They fell into step together again, passing the old quiet buildings between Luke's dream house and the library. "We do recognize each other, though."
"Shifters do? How? Can I learn to do it?"
"I don't know," Luke said, surprised. "Most of it is scent, which you probably can't pick up. I'm not sure if there's anything true humans can recognize."
"Rats. Although now I'm going to be trying, you know. You said there's a lot of shifters in Virtue. Am I allowed to ask you who is one?"
Luke wobbled a hand. "We're not really supposed to out each other, although we're also allowed to tell our mates, because we know you're implicitly trustworthy."
"Nobody is implicitly trustworthy, Luke," Sabrina said wryly.
"But fated mates are," he replied just as simply. "You wouldn't be our mates if you weren't. Part of it is the safety of knowing our mates would never betray us, even accidentally."
"There's a lot of magic in your world, isn't there." Sabrina sounded wistful. "That's pretty wonderful."
"The magic is in your world now, too," Luke promised. "Now, have I distracted you enough, or do I need to introduce you to the librarian, since we're here? You'll like her."
"That sounds great. I—" Sabrina's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, glancing at the caller name.
"It's Tiffany, I'd better take it. Honestly, I should probably get back to the site—" She answered the phone, and from her half of the conversation it was clear she'd be heading back to the site soon.
Luke found himself wishing he could fold her and her entire project into his arms protectively. Obviously it didn't work that way, but he wanted to be able to anyway. When she hung up, Sabrina glanced up at him with a funny smile. "What's that expression about?"
"You're impressive, that's what. I think it was good for you to step away from the site for a little while, but you seem to have gotten your feet right back under you, and it's impressive.
I'm glad I'm here to see it, even if I wish you hadn't had your feet knocked out from under you in the first place. "
Sabrina's eyes glittered dangerously for a moment.
"Yeah, well, if they think a little arson is going to scare me off, they've got another think coming.
This project meant a lot to me before it led me to meeting the love of my life, so no way am I just going to tuck my tail and run.
I do have to get back, though," she said with more regret than fire.
"And I might not make that lunch date after all, given everything. Maybe dinner?"
"I could cook for you, if you wanted?"
"Oh my God." Sabrina lit up. "I forgot you said you cook. You are the best fake-turned-real boyfriend who has ever existed. Can I just give you my apartment keys? Is that too weird?"
Luke grinned. "I don't know if we're at 'exchanging apartment keys' yet, so I'll give them back. How's that?"
"Perfect." Sabrina handed him her keys, stole a kiss, and then hurried off toward work.