Chapter Twelve
Harper did not exaggerate about the car’s power. It crashed through all the overgrowth that nature threw at it and never even flinched. We flew over giant roots and fallen logs, which got big cries of pain from Susy, but overall, it was fine. At the Open Zone, we had to swing around the little settlement that had sprung up. The people there were more than a little surprised to see a massive vehicle speed by. We all waved to show that we were friendly, but I couldn’t be sure if they saw us.
The compound was next. I was thrilled when I saw it; the fence had been dismantled by Mother Nature herself. The tree branches, vines, and flowers that had torn it to shreds looked emboldened by their move. Maybe the electricity that had flowed through the fence was inside these brave plants now. I hoped so; I didn’t want anyone to ever cut them down.
We arrived and pulled up outside the boundary.
“Everyone wait here,” I announced. “They know me. I’ll go first and explain what’s going on. I don’t want any riots.”
They nodded and wished me luck. I slid out my door and found I already had a crowd of shifters standing around to see the car and who might come out.
“Hey!” A little voice called out from the back of the crowd, and I heard anxious footsteps running toward me. “Emily! Emily! It’s me, Nate!” Nate’s feet pounded the soft, green earth, and I held my arms out for him to jump into me. He never slowed down; his little legs just pumped him straight at me, and he leapt through the last of the space between us and right into my sternum.
“Uuf! Whoa, Nate! You got so big!”
“Only when I’m a human,” he assured me. “I’m the same size when I’m a bat.” I gave him a serious nod, and then we both started laughing. I gave him a big hug, and just holding him close made me so happy I thought I would burst.
“Where’s your brother?”
Nate shrugged. “With my mom, I guess.”
“Hey,” I whispered to him, “go find your brother. Later, we’ll all play a game together, okay?”
“Nah,” he said, wiggling down to the ground, “we wanna read.” And then he ran off. I looked up again to see Tina standing and watching me.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
She gestured at the car with her chin. “You rob somebody?”
I shook my head ‘no.’ “Not technically, no.”
One of the shifters looking at the car tilted his head a little and then raised his eyebrows in shock. “Did you kidnap Bachmann? Is he in the car?”
That got everyone excited and nervous, but I assured them it was nothing like that. “Listen, listen, I do have some friends in the car. Some humans.” This made everyone go stiff. The compound was shifter territory. We’d never welcomed humans there before. “I know, it’s a little weird. But please, one of the females has a broken leg and needs our help. Can anyone do a purring for her?”
A few of the older females stepped up and nodded. I led them around to the back of the car, and they gently carried Susy out. I gave her a smile as they trudged past me with Susy suspended on a bed sheet between them.
“You’re going to feel better very soon,” I assured her.
As they went off, the rest of the crew tentatively got out of the car as well. I nodded at them. “These are members of a new alliance that was formed by shifters and humans. They want to come and live with us. I think we should let them in.”
“Why would they wanna come here?” Black Feather shouted out. “How do we know they don’t want to kill us?”
Meagan stepped forward to answer that. “The group we came from, the Alliance, they want to kill Harper. I think she should live. That she deserves to live, no matter what. The Alliance started as a peaceful organization, but now....”
Harper crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. “They tried to get a lion to eat me.”
Black Feather looked impressed by that. “Not a shifter lion.”
“Yes. A shifter lion. Someone I trusted.”
The crowd mumbled to themselves, but I could already see their minds were made up. Tina stepped forward and shook Tiffany’s hand. “Hi. I’m Tina. I’m a wolf.”
“Hey. Tiffany.” They chatted a moment, and then Tina went over to Carson and Meagan, winning over the whole group. The others followed suit, and I stepped back to get out of the pathway of welcome.
As I stood off to the side, I felt a tap on the shoulder. When I turned to look, I saw Grey standing there.
“Hi.”
“Hey. You all right?”
He shook his head. “I know the Alliance. And I know Alex. He’s very charming, very convincing. If they want to kill Harper, we can’t have her here. It’s too dangerous.”
I reared back. “So, what? You want to just hand her over?”
He didn’t answer, and I nearly slapped him across the face. “Grey, she’s part shifter. We have to protect her. And besides,” I hissed, grabbing his arm, “she’s an asset. She can drive. She can read. She knows a lot of history. We could really learn a lot from her!”
Grey looked at her and then at me. “She’s part shifter? And she can read text?”
I nodded, which made him sigh loudly. “All right. We’ll protect her.”
Together, we stood for a moment and took in the well-fed, comfortable community standing in a haze of green. I could already see some small trees pushing their way up from the ground, some different plants winding their way around the space in every direction. It was a whole new place, one I felt very happy to be in.
“What’s going to happen to all of us?” I wondered out loud.
“I don’t know,” Grey admitted. “No one’s in charge. The land is changing. The city is becoming the forest. I suppose anything is possible.”
I watched as Meredith walked up with Ted and the boys to join the crowd. They saw me and waved as they made their way over. The sight of them made my heart jump a mile out of my chest.
“I suppose it is,” I agreed as I reached out for my adopted family, all of them ready to welcome me back. “Anything at all.”
***THE END***