It took me a few seconds to crawl my way up out of sleep. There was someone pounding on my door. Glancing at the window, I noticed that the sun hadn't even peeked over the horizon yet. The only light that was coming through the blinds was the orange phosphorus light from the street lamps below. Muttering, I pushed myself out of bed and stumbled toward the door. I yanked the door open and found Allison standing on the other side.

“What do you want?” I asked blearily. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Yeah, time for you to haul your lazy ass out of that bed and get down to the dig site with me. The professor wants us down there. Now.”

“The sun's not even up. What could he possibly want?”

I backed into the room and fumbled on a pair of jeans. Allison stepped in and flopped down on my bed, propping herself up on her elbows.

“I don't know what he wants, I just know he was at the dig site late last night and now he wants us there.”

“Was he really there all night?” I found a t-shirt and pulled it over my head, then slid a flannel on top.

“If you'll get the lead out of your ass we’ll go find out.” Allison picked up one of my pillows and tossed it across the room at me. I caught it and lobbed it back at the bed. “You throw like a girl. Hurry up, Patricia.”

“Fine,” I said and shoved my feet into my boots. “And for the record, yours is not exactly the face I want to wake up to.”

“Your mug doesn’t do it for me either, rich boy. Let’s go.” She jumped up off the bed and pulled open the door.

“Just let me stop in the lobby and grab some coffee, maybe a donut. Or two.” I followed Allison into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me.

Ten minutes later I had a donut clutched between my teeth and a cup of coffee in my hand. I was in the truck with Allison. She was driving and I was munching on my breakfast. The old truck rattled its way into the hills, the sun finally starting to peek over the tops of the mountains, turning the sky pink and orange.

When we finally pulled up at the site, I looked around and saw portable lights set up all around the dig. It did look like Professor Frostburg had been here all night. He was over by the tents, talking to one of the younger team members, his arms flapping excitedly. He was still in the same jeans and ratty University of Stelline sweatshirt he had on yesterday.

I slid out of the truck and joined Allison as she headed over to see the professor. When he caught sight of us, he gave his student a hearty clap on the shoulder and headed toward us.

“About time you got here,” he said.

I looked at my watch. It was barely five thirty in the morning. I glanced at Allison with my eyebrow raised. “It's a little early, Professor,” I said.

“Early,” he grunted. “I didn't notice.”

“Um, Professor, have you been here all night?” Allison asked.

“I guess I have. Haven't paid much attention,” the professor said. “Now come on. I have something I want to show you.” He led us into the tent. There was a folding table set up in the middle, and new rolls of paper that weren't there before were spread across the edges held down by rocks. A portable light shone across them. I walked over and studied the paper.

“What am I looking at here, Professor?” I asked.

The professor moved around the table. He leaned forward and dropped his hand on to the papers. “This,” he said, “is one of the most amazing things I've seen.”

I studied the printouts a little bit more. “Are these from the ground-penetrating radar? I didn't think we went this far out with it. I could have sworn we stopped here.” I indicated a point on the map.

Allison was standing at the end of the table, quiet as she stared down at the printouts.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked, and pointed to one of the edges of the papers.

“Well, if what you think it is is the oldest known shifter burial ever found, then you'd be right. Not to mention the fact that it's both an adult and a child in the same grave. No one has ever found anything like this before. Just when we think we reached the end of the burials we find more.” The professor found two points on the map and marked them. “We've searched here to here, and every time we search we turn up something new. In this area here,” he quickly circled another spot on the map, “we found evidence of building materials. What I think we're looking at here is the first ever complete shifter settlement. Not just graves, but living accommodations, kitchen areas, an entire village.”

“But,” Allison started, “it's never been confirmed that early shifters lived in these kinds of settlements.”

“Not yet,” the professor said. “This is our chance to find out exactly how the earliest shifters lived—everything about their daily lives, and their deaths.”

“So, what do we do now?” Allison asked.

“We start digging.” The professor gave us a tight smile before he headed back out to the dig site.

* * *

The sun was up completely now, and it was already starting to heat up the early morning air. Allison and I collected more strings and wooden stakes and headed back out to restring and recalibrate the dig grid. There was so much more work to do now. The dig area had almost quadrupled in size. I didn't know what we were going to find once we started unearthing the site, but I was more excited than I'd ever been about a dig.

I started off at the northwest section and was carefully pounding wooden stakes into the ground when I heard the sound of a truck coming up the road. When it rounded the corner and pulled into the dig site, I saw that it was the same big—and still strangely clean—truck that the pack Alpha was driving the last time he was at the site.

The door popped open and the pack Alpha, along with several other large men, piled out of the truck. And then, coming up behind them all, was Shiloh. He lifted one corner of his mouth in a small smile and gave me a slow wink. I crooked my finger at him but he dropped his gaze and followed his pack toward Professor Frostburg’s tent.

“Did you just get dissed, rich boy?” Allison tilted her head at the local pack as they disappeared into the tents.

“Looks like. Come on.” I dropped the rubber mallet and made for the tents, Allison right behind me.

“I’m not stopping this dig!”

Professor Frostburg was leaning over the map-covered folding table when we walked in, his fisted hands resting on the piles of paper and his face turning various shades of purple.

The local pack was standing on the other side of the table making a half-moon around Barrett, tense and looking ready to spring at the first sign of trouble. Only Shiloh stood apart, behind the others, his face tight with worry.

“What’s going on?” I eased up beside Shiloh, voice low.

“Barrett thinks your professor is overstepping,” Shiloh answered.

“Do you?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes, maybe.”

“You’ve moved way beyond where you were originally supposed to dig,” Barrett shouted. “It stops. Today.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have a say in this. We’re still on private property.” Professor Frostburg gave Barrett a grimacing smile.

“This is sacred ground!” Barrett slammed his hands into the table and sent maps and print-outs fluttering to the ground.

“I know! Why do you think I want to dig here?” The professor shoved the table and it rocked forward, thwacking Barrett across the legs.

The pack stepped forward, growls rising from their throats, fists knotting at their sides.

“Do something,” Allison hissed at me.

Then I saw Shiloh. He’d moved forward and was at Barrett’s side, his hand on the pack Alpha’s arm. Amazingly, some of the tension seemed to ease out of Barrett. He looked down at Shiloh.

“What do you say, my little seer?”

“It’ll be okay, Barrett. They won’t disturb anything. They’re here to learn. And after they study our peoples’ bones and homes and broken dishes, they’ll write their papers and publish their books and then it will end. Not everyone is interested in the past. Very few, in fact. The past only counts for people like us now. Everyone else lets it go.”

Shiloh’s voice was soft and lilting, almost like he was in a dream. Or like I was. Even the air around him had taken on a shimmering quality. Allison gasped. And when I looked at the pack, they were all purposely looking away, shifting their eyes to the tent ceiling or studying the tips of their boots, rather than looking at Shiloh. Even Barrett had his eyes trained elsewhere.

Shiloh dropped his hand and the pack shifted, shaking away the effects of whatever Shiloh just did to them. Shiloh smiled at Professor Frostburg, who looks a little stunned, and turned away.

“Oh, one more thing. The professor will be hiring a couple of young people from the pack to help with the dig and also to keep you informed.” Then Shiloh slipped out of the tent and left the rest of us blinking and wondering what had just happened.

* * *

The day at the dig was long and the sun was gone by the time I got back to the hotel. I jumped in the shower and let the warm water sluice the dirt off my shoulders. A light tap sounded on my door just as I pulled on a clean shirt. It was too polite a knock to be Allison; she beat the door like a cop breaking it down at a drug bust.

I pulled open the door to see Shiloh standing there, a brown paper bag in his hand.

“Hi,” he said. “I brought dinner.”

“Oh, okay then.” I stood back and waved him in. “I planned on grabbing dinner downstairs.”

“I brought steak sandwiches, baked potatoes, beer. Even pie.” He smiled at me and glided over to the single, small table in my room.

“From where? I thought the only other places in town are a fast-food joint and a fried chicken place.”

“From my kitchen.” He gave me his slow, soft smile again and started unpacking food from the bag. “Have a seat.”

I shrugged and dropped into one of the two chairs, watching as Shiloh set up our meal. Every move he made was graceful. He even made sliding a paper plate onto the table look like dancing. I wasn’t sure I understood this boy. He always looked like he was in a dream-state, his eyes slightly out of focus, his words slow and even and soft. What he did at the dig site earlier today—did he put all of us in a trance? Could that be done? Did he actually look into the future? The way the pack reacted, not looking at him, made me think they were more scared of him than in awe. I studied Shiloh as he shifted food onto the plates. He looked innocent enough, and young, but there was a depth to his eyes I’d never seen in anyone—human or shifter—before.

“…glad they took my advice.” Shiloh pushed a plate toward me and took the opposite chair.

“What?” Was I always going to feel out of time and space around him?

“I said I was glad Barrett and the professor took my advice. Has your professor called the university for more funding yet?” Shiloh passed me a fork and then popped the cap off a beer bottle, sliding it across the table at me.

“I… don’t know. I didn’t ask. Shiloh, why are you here?” I took a bite of the steak sandwich. “This is fantastic, by the way,” I mumbled around a mouthful of steak, onions, and mushrooms.

“Thank you.” He beamed. “I figured you’d be hungry and I wanted to see you. You’re the father of my child.”

Suddenly the sandwich was a concrete lump in my throat. “Yeah, about that…” I dropped the food back to the plate and took a swig of my beer.

“It’s fine, Parker.” Shiloh gave me his soft smile again.

“What’s fine?”

“I know you’re conflicted. We just met, only slept together once. You’re not sure about me and my abilities. In fact, they scare you a little.”

“Don’t do that.” I put down my bottle and narrowed my eyes at him.

“What?”

“Don’t read me or whatever it is you call it. Stay out of my thoughts.” I felt strange even saying it.

Shiloh tossed back his head and laughed.

“What?” I mumbled.

“I’m not ‘reading’ you. What you’re feeling is what anyone would feel in your situation. It’s normal. And besides, that’s not necessarily how my abilities work.”

“How do they work?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try.”

“I might be able to show you,” he said to me. He got up and came to me, standing in front of me. When he reached toward me, his shirt rode up and I saw it. His small belly. Already round and straining at the waist of his jeans. Us shifters were so quick to show.

“Wait,” I said. I reached out and laid my hand on the curve of his stomach. “So amazing. It’s really mine.”

“Yes.” Shiloh laid his fingers over mine where they rested on the small mound of baby growing inside him.

“Okay,” I murmured. “I’m okay with that.” I hooked a finger through his belt loop and pulled him toward me. When he was closer, I hiked his shirt up higher, my fingers tracing the roundness of his baby bump. I leaned forward and pressed my lips into the soft skin and burgeoning life of his stomach. His fingers threaded in my hair and his breathing changed above me.

I tugged him down and settled him onto my lap, pulling his shirt off and tossing it away. My fingers drifted across his chest and stomach and I let my lips find his. My tongue twined across his and I tasted the desert sunshine on his lips. He was magic, this little backwoods pack boy, and he was carrying my baby. Just the thought sent lust raging through me, white hot and sparking.

I stood up, taking Shiloh with me, and aimed us for the bed. I tumbled him across the cheap hotel blankets and looked down at him. His soft hair waved across his forehead and his eyes sparkled at me, violet gems.

I put one knee onto the bed and grabbed Shiloh’s ankle, pulling him towards me. He gave me his beatific smile and his hands reached for the button on my jeans. Soft fingers slid inside the material and worked their way down, tugging aside the elastic of my shorts, until they wrapped around my cock. His hands stroked me, pulling at my shaft and sending waves of bliss rolling through my body. Reaching down, I threaded my fingers through his hair, tracing the lines of his face with my thumbs.

With his eyes still on my face, Shiloh tugged my jeans down around my hips, freeing my rigid cock. With a sigh that bordered on complete satisfaction, Shiloh slipped his mouth around my shaft, and I had to steel myself to keep from falling over. Shiloh’s lips slid down my cock, wet and soft, as my fingers tightened in his hair. My head dropped back and my eyes slid shut, and there was just Shiloh, his mouth sliding up and down my pulsing length, his molten lips leaving burning trails of fire that ignited all over my body. When his fingers crept around and clutched at my ass, his nails digging in only a little painfully, my hips bucked and I pulled back quickly before I spent myself in his sweet, tugging mouth.

“I want you, Shiloh,” I murmured as I bent over to kiss the lips that pulled so deliciously at my cock. “Get those clothes off.”

Without a word, he stripped out of his clothes and leaned back on the bed, beckoning for me. His cock lay across his stomach, hard and quivering, his fleshy balls against his thigh. He opened his legs wide and his puckered ass almost winked up at me, pink and inviting and glistening.

I reached forward and pressed one finger against his hole. It was warm and wet and my cock jumped at the thought of burying myself inside him. I knelt on the bed and grabbed Shiloh’s thighs, draping them over mine. My hands traced his ass and slid between the warm cleft. My fingers eased into his tight pucker, and I felt it tug at my digits as I stroked his tunnel, widening him for my cock.

Shiloh reached forward and grabbed my cock. “Fuck me, Parker. I want you in me.” His hands guided my shaft to his hole and he inched his legs further apart, opening himself for me. I pressed the head of my cock to his ass and thrust. Shiloh gasped under me when the head of my shaft pushed past his tight, fleshy ring.

My cock was lodged tightly in him, each beat of my thundering heart throbbing between the parted globes of his ass. I stilled for a moment to let him accustom himself to the fullness of me inside him. Then I slid out, slowly, feeling his tunnel grasping at each inch of my stiffened shaft. I pushed back in and Shiloh groaned, rolling his hips against me, pushing at me.

“I want more,” he gasped. “Fuck me more, Parker. Don’t wait.”

I was trying to go slow, as much for the baby growing inside him as to make it last, but I didn’t want to now. Fuck lasting. I wanted to fill the greedy little hole grasping at my cock. I braced his legs against mine.

I plunged into him. Hard.

“Yes,” he ground out. “Like that.”

I slammed into him again. And again.

My wolf rose inside me. A growl rumbled through my chest and underneath me, and Shiloh answered back with his own wolf-like growl.

I wanted to claim him.

“Over,” I gritted between my teeth, “on your knees.”

Shiloh flipped, the globes of his ass high and tight in front of me. I grabbed his hips and plunged into him again. I pulled him up until his back rested on my chest and hammered into him over and over until I felt imminent release grip my body. My teeth scraped at his shoulder.

“No,” he gasped. “Don’t claim me. Fuck me, knot me, but don’t claim me.”

I was so close, so lost in him, I didn’t even argue. I drove into him one last time and spilled myself inside. My cock swelled, tightening between us, locking Shiloh to me. Something suspiciously close to a howl ripped from my lips as Shiloh panted and shivered beneath me. We tumbled to the bed, still locked together, Shiloh firmly between my arms.

* * *

“What do you think?” I watched as Shiloh moved across the room, headed back toward the bed from the bathroom, his legs lithe and naked in the moonlight pouring through the window.

“About what?” He snagged a bottle of water and cracked the cap off.

“Us? What we’re going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Shiloh put the bottle down and slid back between the sheets, tucking himself into my side. I dropped a kiss on his shoulder.

“I thought you were a seer. Why don’t you know?”

“It doesn’t really work like that,” he said. “I can see what might happen, but shifter nature being shifter nature means what I see can be altered by events and decisions made by a person.”

“That doesn’t sound very reliable.”

“It’s not.” Shiloh shrugged. “But the more a person believes in my gift, the more likely a seeing will come true. Self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.”

“Ah. I see. I think. But you didn’t answer the question. What do you think about us? Not as a seer, just as Shiloh.”

“I think… we’ll wait and see what happens.” Shiloh’s hand slid over my cheek.

“Fair enough,” I said and dipped my head to taste his lips.

After that, I forgot about seers and the future and lived in the moment for the rest of the night.