My head hurt. It throbbed, and I decided to keep my eyes closed for a few minutes for good measure. I squeezed them shut as tight as I could, hoping the crazy thoughts I was having would disappear.

A bear. Where Pierce had been standing a bear appeared. That was impossible. It had been a crazy few days, and I was paying for it now.

“Mattie? You all right?” Pierce’s voice came from right next to me, and that made me even more hesitant to open my eyes. I didn’t. I focused on the darkness. Maybe this was all a bad dream and the hard floor beneath me was part of it too. Or maybe I rolled out of bed. That was it. I wasn’t used to the bed, and I rolled off. Maybe I hit my head. There were so many possibilities that didn’t involve the guy I was attracted to being able to turn into an animal.

“Mattie. Please. I’m sorry. I need to know you don’t need medical attention.” He put his hand on my forehead. His touch was warm and kind of comforting. But it shouldn’t have been comforting. I reached up and pushed his hand off. Dream or not, it was time to stop fantasizing over a guy who wasn’t into me.

“Oh, I need medical attention.” That didn’t mean I was going to open my eyes.

“Ok. I’ll carry you to the clinic.” His hands moved to my side.

“No. I don’t mean that kind of medical attention.” I opened my eyes. Pierce was shirtless. Pierce looked really good shirtless. I closed my eyes again.

“What kind of medical care do you mean?” His hands still rested against my sides. The warmth felt good. Too good.

“I mean I’ve lost my mind.” I needed to push him away. That was what any sane person would do. “And I am not trying to disrespect mental health. I am actually worried.”

“You saw me turn into a bear.”

My eyes flew open. “You can’t turn into a bear.” I needed him to agree with me, to put the crazy thought to rest.

“I can. I also turned into the cat you saw earlier.” He moved his hands to his knees, and I missed his touch as much as I didn’t want to.

“Nope. Impossible. That would be impossible.” He was crazy. Maybe he wasn’t a jerk, but he was crazy.

“I can turn into any animal as long as I’ve seen it once.”

“Oh yeah? Funny.” Did he really have to make this worse?

“It’s true. Not very funny, but if you think so, more power to you.”

“Was there a bear here?” I still hadn’t ruled out a dream, but this one was very vivid if It was one. Imagining the bear was the more obvious possibility.

“There was me as a bear. Not a wild bear, but a bear. I was the bear, as I already explained.”

“Oh, you’re not wild?” The words came out without me thinking about how they would be interpreted.

He grinned. “Well, I suppose that would depend on who you asked.”

“I didn’t mean that in any sort of sexual way.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.” He smiled in a wry way that made the whole situation that much worse.

“I didn’t.” I sat up, ready to defend myself.

“Then why do you keep saying it?”

“Because I don’t want you to think for a second—” I stopped myself before I could say anything worse.

“Think what exactly?” His grin got bigger.

“Why are you smiling?” I snapped.

“Why does it matter if I’m smiling?” He held out a hand as if to help me up.

“It matters.” I shrugged off his offer of help and started to stand.

He grabbed my elbow before I was all the way up. “You don’t like when people smile?”

“Arrg.” I was annoyed with him about so many things.

“Sorry, I can’t help it. You bring out this argumentative side of me.”

“It’s only a side?” If it was, it was a very big side.

“Do you believe me?” He stood stock still beside me.

“About what exactly?” I rubbed the back of my head again. I was probably going to end up with a knot.

He sighed. “About the dangers in this town.”

“I want to know what you slipped me.”

“Excuse me?” His expression darkened.

“I don’t remember ingesting anything, so was it something you rub on the skin?”

“Are you accusing me of drugging you?” His voice rose.

“Maybe.” I was probably entering dangerous territory, but I wanted to know the truth.

“I would never do that to anyone, let alone you.”

“Let alone me? Are you once again pulling me out of inclusion with the rest of the world?”

“Not the rest of this world…”

“Then the rest of what?” I was exasperated, and I wasn’t about to hide it.

“This town.” He picked up his shirt off the floor.

“Because everyone here thinks they can shift into animals. Right.”

“Actually I am the only one here who can shift into any animal. There are some wolf shifters and bear shifters, but that’s different.” He pulled his shirt on over his head.

I started to laugh, and once I started I couldn’t stop. It was like a tap opened and wouldn’t stop running.

“You okay?”

“You’ve asked me that already.”

“Because you keep doing things to make me doubt your state of mind.”

“I already told you I’ve lost my mind.”

“You haven’t. You’re just going to have to get used to things here.” He took a seat on the floor.

I stayed standing. I felt better being the one higher up. “So really, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on is you’re in Willow Harbor, and nothing here is what you think it is or what you’re used to.”

“Not even your library catalog.” That bothered me more than it should have considering I’d just hallucinated a giant bear.

“Yes, even that’s odd. Or outdated maybe.”

“What’s Delpha?” I would play along a little. I didn’t believe anything he was saying, yet I also believed him that he didn’t drug me. Maybe that Ty guy did it?

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why?” Of course. He couldn’t tell me anything helpful.

“She’ll want to tell you herself. She’ll get nasty if I don’t let her.”

“Why would she care?” I waited for his half-baked excuse.

"Delpha is more dangerous than you think."

"More dangerous than you?" That should get an answer out of him.

His forehead furrowed. "A different kind of danger."

"This is nuts." I gave into my exhaustion and sat down next to him.

"Would it help if I shifted again?" He pressed his hand down on the floor between us, inches from my own.

"How would that help?"

"You will be prepared so you won't pass out."

"You say you can shift into any animal?" It sounded even crazier saying it out loud.

"That I've seen.”

"Ok." If there was any chance he was telling the truth, there was no reason to pick something scary. "A puppy. A cute, little shitzu puppy."

"Seriously?" His eyebrow rose. “A shitzu puppy?”

"You have seen a shitzu puppy before, haven't you?" I pressed.

"Yes." He rose to his feet.

"Then do it, and I'll believe you." There was no way he could pull this off.

He pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto the floor. "I'm going to have to take my pants off again."

"I'll keep my eyes on your face." Even if his smoldering eyes made it hard to focus.

"I don't care where you look, but I assumed you would."

"You assumed right." I wasn’t the kind of girl who enjoyed checking out a near-stranger’s package.

"You ready?" His hands went to the button of his jeans. Not that I was looking at that area of him.

"Yes." I moved my eyes up and watched as the air shimmered. One minute Pierce was standing there, and the next there was an adorable white and brown shitzu puppy in front of me. "Oh my gosh. You are so cute." I reached down to pet him. His fur was soft, and by all accounts it was really a dog. Before I could study the dog more, the air shimmered again and Pierce was back in front of me—buck naked.

"Couldn't you have warned me?" I jumped back.

He grinned that devastating grin of his again. “So you say.” He stepped into his pants.  

"So what you are trying to tell me is this town is a hot bed for weirdos?”

"Not weirdos." He pulled on his shirt. “You going to let me keep my clothes on more than a few minutes this time?”

I ignored his comment. "What word would you use?"

"Supernaturals."

"This is how I know you are messing with me."

"Huh?" He sat back down.

"If it were true, you wouldn't be telling me." I sat down again.

"It's okay to tell you."

"Why?" I waited anxiously for an answer, hoping it wouldn’t give me even more questions to ask.

"I'll tell you later." He jumped back to his feet and held out his hand.

"Why later?" I accepted his hand this time.

"Because Delpha is probably going to come looking for us, and unless you want to be dragged up to your welcome party I suggest you let me take you where I was going to earlier."

"Maybe I want to take my chances upstairs."

"Be my guest." He shrugged. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“There are a lot of people there, huh?”

“Tons.” He started toward the stairs.

“Are you just saying that to convince me to come with you so you can kill me?”

He stopped and turned toward me. “Why wouldn’t I just kill you here? In a basement? With no witnesses?”

“Are you trying to sound like a psycho?” I crossed my arms.

“You are the one who suggested I was luring you out to kill you. I was giving you a reason to trust me.”

“A reason to trust you. Right.” It was harder to look at him now. Once I knew exactly how muscular he was—and how good he looked shirtless, viewing him in completely platonic terms was hard. But he could also change into various animals. That part should have made him less attractive, but it kind of made him more. I was out of my mind.

A door slammed above us. “Hide.” He pulled me down behind a bookshelf.

I heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and stopped arguing. I wasn’t sure who it was, but if Pierce could turn into animals, who knew what other dangers could be coming to get us.

“What are we hiding from exactly?” I whispered.

“Shh.”

“I’m whispering.” I spoke in an even lower voice.

“Stop talking now.” His expression was tense, and I decided to listen. I bit back any further argument mostly because I also heard voices.

“I’m telling you, she’s the one.” A deep voice said loudly. There was something familiar about it.

“She doesn’t look like she would be,” Another male voice spoke.

“How would we know what she looks like?” the first voice replied. I remembered where I’d heard the voice before. It was Ty.

The sound of boots on the concrete floor had me scooting closer to Pierce.

Pierce seemed to have the same idea. He closed any space between us.

“She’s kind of small,” the second man said.

“That’s probably the whole idea. Make it hard to know. But I’m smart enough to see through this. That job has been open for years. Why fill it now so close to Pierce’s birthday? There’s only one reason for that.”

The job? He meant me. And Pierce’s birthday? What did that matter? A million questions swirled through my head, but immediately finding answers wasn’t worth getting caught.

“I swore I heard voices, and I smelled her upstairs.” The boots slammed against the floor. “But I don’t sense anyone down here.”

“Neither do I. Strange.” The boots moved back in the direction they came.

The lights turned off, and the door slammed closed, leaving us in complete darkness.

“Wait another moment,” Pierce whispered.

We were in a dark basement. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Ok, we’re fine now.” Pierce took my hand. “I’ll lead you to the stairs.”

“You know this basement that well?”

“I can see in the dark.”

“Oh.” I let that sink in. There was so much that needed to sink in.

“How about we check out the party?” He started to lead me.

I nervously moved with him, hoping he didn’t have me knock into something. “What happened to going to the amazing place of yours?”

“The party is probably better. Besides, I need to fix your door.”

“What were they talking about?” What caused this complete change of plans? “Who do they think I am?”

“No one.” The lights flipped on.

I blinked a few times.

“Ok. That was an outright lie.” It’s not that I expected total honesty, but the complete lie was like a slap in the face.

“Listen, I need to figure some things out. I’ll walk you upstairs first.”

“Really? You’re just going to leave? Now?” Anger flooded me. I deserved to know what kind of mess I was in.

“Let’s go before they come back.” He started up the stairs, and I followed in a daze.

“Why is your birthday important?” I asked as we crossed the main floor to the other stairs.

“It’s not.” He hurried up the two flights of stairs.

I followed because I had nowhere else to go.

He opened the door and waited for me to walk in.

“Mattie!” Delpha pulled me into a hug as soon as I stepped inside.

“Hi.” I tried to adjust to the pounding music. If it weren’t for the other craziness of the evening, I would have been worried about getting in trouble for a noise complaint, but it was quite possible that supernatural creatures didn’t worry about loud parties.

“You okay?” She looked at Pierce rather than me for the answer.

“She is.” Pierce nodded. “I have to take care of some things. l’ll be back to fix your door in the morning.”

I wasn’t going to accept his slip-off that easily. “What about doing it tonight?” Was he backing out on that too?

“There are too many people here.” He gestured to the crowd.

“You knew that a few minutes ago, yet you were still going to do it.” It’s not that I cared about the door. Ok, I cared about that, but this went way beyond the door. He was acting weird. I already felt incredible uncomfortable, and this was becoming too much. I barely knew Pierce, but I at least knew what he was. That was more than I could say about anyone else.

“Mattie will be safe with me.” Delpha smiled revealing two rows of white yet slightly sharp looking teeth. I backed away. What the heck was she? Why wouldn’t Pierce tell me?

“I know.” Pierce headed back out of the apartment without a glance at me.

“Wow.” I watched him disappear through the doorway. I’d tried to avoid him earlier in the evening, and now he was avoiding me. So much had happened in the space of a few hours, and I feared what else would happen before the night was over. I should have been packing my bags, yet I wasn’t. I found the thought of leaving Willow Harbor depressing. I couldn’t make myself do it.

Delpha put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s not the most social guy.”

“That’s bull. I’m tired of being lied to.” I shrugged her hand off.

“I’m sure he has his reasons.” She closed the door.

“Hey, this must be Mattie!” A girl that couldn’t be much older than eighteen or nineteen ran over. Her bright red hair fell down her back in two braids.

“Hi.” I forced a smile while I was busy trying to come up with a logical explanation for what was going on. I didn’t want to leave because I couldn’t quit the job. It had nothing to do with Pierce or anything supernatural. I refused to believe any other explanation. Plus, I didn’t know for sure if Pierce was telling the truth. I couldn’t rule out Ty using a subcutaneous drug, or maybe this was a really long dream I would wake up from any minute. No matter what was going on, I had to get through it, and that meant being at least marginally polite.

“How do you like Willow Harbor so far?” The girl flipped her red braids onto her shoulders.

“It’s nice.” I went with the most generic response I could muster.

“Different from New York, I bet. Smaller.” Her smile was huge and her eyes friendly, but I was in no mood to talk to anyone. Plus it was unnerving that everyone knew where I was from.

I nodded. “Yup.” Smaller was the least of the differences. This place was crazy.

“And what about Pierce?” She stepped toward me.

“What about him?” I kept my expression neutral. At least I hoped I was managing to do that.

“How is he compared to what you’re used to?”

I stepped away. “I don’t know what you are implying. I just met him.” My anger, already bubbling, nearly spilled over.

“Then what were you guys doing?”

“Walking…” I had no reason to explain myself to the girl but I didn’t need rumors spreading, particularly when they involved the son of my boss.

“Leave her alone.” Delpha jumped in. “She’s new here. Remember?”

“Yeah, but Pierce is close to his birthday.” The girl gave Delpha a sidelong look.

“What’s so important about his birthday? Why do I keep hearing about it?” I was done being left in the dark. Someone was going to tell me what was going on around here.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” The girl disappeared into the crowd.

“Ok. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.” I sighed.

“Want me to get everyone to leave?” Delpha asked.

“You make that sound easy.”

“It is easy.”

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t in the mood for any more games. "Like you can make them all leave."

"Just watch." She got a gleam in her eyes.

She hopped up on the counter and moved to her feet. "Everyone!" She yelled. "Party is over."

"Why?" the room said in near chorus.

"Because I said so." Delpha crossed her arms. “You don’t need any other reason than that.”

Boos filled the room.

A low guttural sound emanated from Delpha’s throat and immediately got everyone’s attention again. "Take all the booze you want and move on along."

That got people moving. Within five minutes the place was empty.

I closed the door behind the last guest and turned to face Delpha. "Impressive."

"No, it's what happens when you are direct."

"Direct?" I took a seat at the kitchen table which was littered with beer bottles, most of which were unfinished. "Is that what you call it?"

“No other way to describe it. You should try it sometime.”

She wanted me to be direct? I’d go with it. “What are you?”

Delpha blanched, but then composed herself. “Nice. You have the hang of this direct thing.”

“Maybe my first question should be was I drugged, or is everything real?”

“I know Pierce didn’t drug you. I can promise you that. I don’t know what you mean by everything.”

I eyed the door, sure it was closed and no one else was going to witness the crazy words about to come out of my mouth. “Can Pierce really… can he really change what he looks like?”

“Change what he looks like?” She sighed. “Come on, Mattie. We talked about the whole direct thing.”

“Is he a shapeshifter?” I couldn’t come up with a better term, and I sort of remembered him saying something like that.

“Yes. A true shapeshifter.”

“A true shapeshifter compared to a fake one?”

“No.” She laughed. “A true shapeshifter in that he can shift into any animal he’s seen rather than a particular one. He isn’t tied to a specific animal the way the wolves and bears are.”

“So you really think this is real?” I studied her face, looking for any break in her expression that might suggest this was all one big elaborate joke.

“I know it’s real.”

“So Pierce really changes into animals.” I rested a hand on the table.

“It’s hot isn’t it?” Delpha pulled out the chair next to me and sat down. “If he wasn’t like a brother to me, I’d be all over him.”

“Hot?” I looked down at my hands. “I’m not sure if that’s the first word I’d use to describe it.”

“Then what word would you use?” She popped open the top of a glass bottle of beer. I had never seen the bright orange label before, so I assumed it was something local.

“Crazy.”

“Crazy hot?” She took a long sip of the beer.

“No.” I spun the beer top around. “Not hot.”

“Yet you clearly have the hots for him.” She opened another bottle and placed it in front of me.

“I don’t.” I turned the bottle around, searching for a name or brand. I saw nothing written on the orange paper.

“You do.” Delpha leaned back in her chair. “Don’t deny it. Life’s too short to make up excuses all the time.”

“Even if I did find him attractive, why would it matter?”

“It wouldn’t unless you are the one. That’s what we are all trying to figure out.”

“Huh?” Did this all go back to the Ty thing again?

“Pierce’s birthday and all that.” She concentrated on her beer.

Back to his birthday again? “What is so important about his birthday?”

“I’ll let him tell you.”

“No!” I yelled. “You guys have to stop this.”

“Stop what?” She feigned innocence.

“Telling me you want the other person to tell. It’s getting old.” I picked up the mystery beer and took a sip. It was good. A mix of salty and sour.

“Some things aren’t mine to tell.”

“He says the same thing. He also said you’d kill him if he told me what you were.” I took another sip of beer. Maybe drinking a beer I knew nothing about was a mistake, but what about my current situation wasn’t a mistake?

“Still want to know the answer to that question?”

“Of course I do.”

“I’m half Oceanid. If you don’t know your nymph types, I am an ocean nymph from the Oceanus line, not the Tethys.”

“An Oceanid?” I thought over her words, which meant little to me. I assumed it was something from Greek mythology, but I was no expert on ancient myths. “Oh.”

“Oh?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is that really your response?”

“What response should I have?”

“You should be afraid.”

“Afraid of a nymph?”

“Yes.” She frowned. “I’m also half sorceress.”

“Oh.” I leaned back.

“That part scares you more?” She leaned forward on her elbow.

“That means you can do spells and stuff.”

“The Oceanid side is the scarier one.”

“Oh, lovely.” I had had enough. “Thanks for the party.” I headed down the hall to my room. I took one look at the sheets and turned around and headed for the spare bedroom. “I’m sleeping in here.” If Delpha was crashing in my apartment, I got dibs on the room with the door and the clean sheets.

I closed the door and collapsed on the bed hoping the morning would bring more answers than questions.