I regained my consciousness after losing it for only about a second or two. My face hurt like ancients, and so did pretty much the rest of my body.

Apparently, I'd been out long enough for Colton's voice to thunder towards me. "How stupid are you, seriously? First you fall down the stairs and literally break your neck, now you're running into trees!"

I could barely concentrate on what Cole was saying when my unclear view sharpened back into focus and it fell onto his very naked body. Why did he always have to be naked and strut around like that?

Wasn't he embarrassed I could see his private parts if I looked—I shouldn't look!

But I did.

I shouldn't have.

"Triggering the shifter gene enhances your senses, unfortunately for you, it doesn't affect your intelligence however. " How could he even be standing there like that with a straight face, when clearly, he was showing off parts of him I should not be looking at!

"Shut up," I mumbled back eventually, trying to look at anything but him. "I don't have a clue how to use this weird crap." Blood trickled down my nose and the rest of my face pulsated with pain. My bones were already healing, I could feel it.

My skin started to itch, and stretched in places without me touching it. My nose cracked, as if snapping back into its original state. To my utmost surprise, a few moments later, the pulsating stopped and the pain was erased. As if nothing had ever happened. Super-fast healing abilities were also a piece of the package-deal apparently, lucky me.

"Well, at least that's a win! Means my clumsiness won't be the death of me, after all! Least not permanent death, anyways," I said, speaking more to myself than anyone else.

Lisa made gurgling sounds then and confused, I looked at Cole. "She trying to talk or is she having an aneurysm?"

Cole chuckled, which irritated me slightly. "She gets frustrated when she says stuff and people can't hear."

My confusion doubled. "So that was her talking?"

He half nodded, half shook his head. "As wolves, we share a link."

Sometimes Cole's inability to answer questions sufficiently drove me to the brink of insanity, in which hitting him seemed like a satisfying way to regain sanity.

"Well you both keep saying I'm a shifter, so shouldn't I hear her, then?"

"No, because the link is only active when we're wolves. Since we both aren't, we can't hear her."

Nodding, at least one thing that made semi-sense. Ah––But wait! "Then why did I hear you back in the woods when you called me princess?" I suppressed cringing.

"That's all that you took from that conversation?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because it was the most disturbing part."

Cole snorted. "Probably because you had the gene but it wasn't triggered and the magic was jiggled up and confused. That part is a mystery to me as well," he said quickly, and despite my suspicion of dishonesty, I left it at that.

I needed to process enough information that accusing him of lying right now was not on my agenda. It would only strip me of more nerves I didn't have.

"So, we are still in Pebble Creek, right?" I wondered aloud and when Cole nodded, I sighed a breath of relief. Thank goodness.

"I better get home, then. Care to point me in the right direction? I got a bad sense of direction and no idea where we are."

Cole arched a brow and tilted his head. "I mean I applaud you for not using that awful piece of garbage you Easterners think are necessary, cars, you call them? But are you sure you want to walk everything home alone?"

Colton's concern came as a little surprise, since he wasn't usually one to openly show that he cared. Uncertainty, however, made that assumption waver slightly. Maybe he was just being a control freak and didn't trust me to be able to find my way.

That was the more realistic possibility.

"I'm a shifter now, apparently, so shouldn't I be able to sniff my home out or something?"

A small smile spread on Colton's lips. It was a strangely contagious smile, the way he showed some teeth and one side creating a dimple in his cheek. It suited him.

"Works better if you actually shift," Colton answered and my mood dropped instantly.

Shaking my head I said, "Not happening."

"Suit yourself then." Colton turned away from me and just started walking without saying anything else. Conflicted, I wondered whether or not to simply follow. As I did, I figured he was probably not leading us to my place because that would have been too easy.

And Cole never did anything easily when others were involved. I didn't even need to check with him what direction we were going in, he already revealed what I'd expected.

"No need to follow if you don't want to go back to the cabin."

Sighing, Cole proved yet again to be perfectly predictable.

"Can you, for once, not make everything harder than it needs to be? Just let me find my way home. Can't be that hard."

My patience was starting to wear thin. I needed to get home––space and time to deal with all of this. Being around both Cole and Lisa barely allowed me to clear my head because everything they said made me re-question my entire life.

"Winding you up is too entertaining to pass up," Colton muttered with a smile in his voice, to which I sighed again.

"I'll get you home."

Thankfully, he did.

Turning to Colton, my hands grew clammy at the uncertainty what to say once we reached my front porch. He didn't make any signs of making the awkward silence any less awkward, either. I waved as I stepped up onto the porch.

"See you around, Hamster-hater."

A chuckle rumbled through Cole's chest. Waving back he said, "You'll be fine. Trust me."

And before I could say anything, he already started walking away, letting me stand there with a strange feeling going through my entire body, creating an irritating tingle that I felt all the way to my fingers.

That had been by far the nicest thing he'd said to me!

My brief moment of a very peculiar sense of joy was short lived, for the person that opened my front door from the inside was one I hadn't been expecting to see.

"Where for goodness' gracious sake have you been?"