The Shifters: Katrina

I started realizing my friends were being weird after my comforting day with Molly.

Sunday afternoon, I tried to spend time with any of them, but they were all nowhere to be found. The only clue I had was the glimpse I'd seen of Tyree's figure through the windows of Coraline's office. She was up there with the leader while I was searching for our friends. The best idea I had was to rush up to Coraline's office, but when I got there, Tyree was nowhere to be seen.

"Coraline, where'd Tyree go?"

The leader had been in her chair when I arrived. She looked up, frowning.

"I'm assuming at her dorm, but I wouldn't know."

"She..."

Coraline's lying. Tyree's hiding.

I shut up after that and left the building. Tyree was hiding from me, so who's to say that the rest of them weren't.

They're all in on something.

Yesterday, my training had gone from the usual to Molly advocating for something easier on my body. She and Aaron had banded together and decided that they'd help with my apprenticeship as well. Victoria and Koren were in charge of physical combat, but they decided to crown themselves my diplomacy and strategy teachers. That, however, was an umbrella description. One thing they loved to teach me was tracking, since guards of the compound were also those who tracked down threats to deal with them as cleanly as possible.

Yesterday evening and this morning, I'd spent a few hours with the two elites learning about investigation tactics; the basics of basics. I wasn't particularly skilled or informed, but the idea of trying to put my classes to the test made me grin. Molly had reminded me to keep pushing myself after our lessons this morning, and I managed to hold onto the sentiment.

That's how I ended up sitting in Clarissa's store, eating one of the mint chocolate muffins and thinking hard about how I'd track my friends and get to the bottom of their shenanigans. My ideas included sneaking into Coraline's building, breaking into one of their dorms, and even nabbing one the next time I saw them.

That's when I swore I was seeing ghosts.

Walking down the street, receiving dozens of stares, was a familiar human woman guarded by three of the people I was searching for. Gene, Tyree and Alisa crowded behind my mother, Marie, watching her like a hawk.

What the hell?! I thought. Everything just got personal as I growled, slamming money down on the table and leaving the store without another thought. I stayed as quiet as possible, walking on the balls of my feet as I stormed behind the four of them. They were walking away from Coraline's building, but that wasn't my focus. My focus was the woman in the center.

She's a hunter, I thought, why is she still here?

They stopped outside the town, just before the trees. My mother was forced to the ground, the three teens keeping her sitting on her butt. Alisa transformed, curling around my mother's arms. She tensed, and I knew she didn't like snakes. Tyree and Gene stood on either side, and while I hid next to the last store in the row, Coraline and Koren arrived at the scene as well, the attention of most of the regular shifters on the group of six.

"Are you sure we can trust her information?" Tyree asked when the adults got close enough. My hearing was heightened by my abilities, my form at the edge of transformation.

"With what I've done," Coraline murmured, "I don't think she'd lie. So, what did she tell you?"

"The documents are located in Greenhill. Turns out she was a high ranking huntress," Gene told them. Koren's expression darkened.

"A high ranking hunress trying to keep one of our own from us..," he growled, "we should kill her for it."

There was a pang of panic in my heart. That's my mother, it was telling me, but my brain took over. The logical part of me knew that Marie Roberts was no longer a motherly figure to me.

"Documents?" Coraline echoed.

Tyree nodded. "The history books. They're not far from us. We can get them," she told the leader. "And get back."

I watched Coraline chew on her lip in thought. My eyes were wide, and things finally clicked into place. Everyone had been in on the plot to extract information from my mother, and now they were going hunting for the history of our species; in my hometown, using information from my mother, and all without telling me.

Another layer of betrayal piled on to the things that upset me these days.

"If we get this," Koren began, "we'll know why hunter groups began to form and where the originals went. This is big."

Coraline rubbed her forehead, scowling. "But it could be a trap."

"So then we take extra firepower!" Koren insisted. "This could be huge for us! The other compounds would be begging for a peek!"

They want power over their own race, I thought grimly. I wasn't surprised -- power over the other compounds would keep Iluita safer.

Too many things were in play right now. There was my mother, the two Iluita shifters that became rogues and joined forces with hunters, the fact that my friends were working for Coraline on something special and keeping it a secret, and the fact that the end goal was a possibly gruesome history between regular people and my own people.

And that was just for this particular thing going on.

I had more questions about who I was, and a lot more training to do.

Hell, part of me wanted to forget about Iluita and search for my own answers. These days, I didn't want to escape so I could go home.

I wanted to escape to go find myself.

I pushed the sentiments aside, focusing on the task at hand. My options were to expose myself and demand an explanation or to try sneaking around while following them. Since shapeshifters had amazing detection skills, the second option was almost guaranteed to fail.

With the first option, however, I could cause a stir even if it failed.

Holding that in mind, I buried my nerves and forced myself to straighten, walking into the center of the street before slamming my heel into the ground to get their attention.

It worked. All six of them jolted, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Anything to say for yourselves?"

"We're just dealing with a prisoner," Coraline said, tilting her head, "why the dramatics?"

I scowled. "The least you could do is stay silent instead of lying."

She paled, looking a little guilty.

"Katrina..," Koren swallowed, "we just didn't want you to get involved and stress you out more."

I lifted an eyebrow.

"They thought you would be a liability," Tyree told me. "That's the real truth."

Despite the blow to my pride, I felt grateful to my friend. She had the decency to be honest with me after being caught red handed, while the adults looked absolutely mortified.

"Because I'm out of control?" I offered. "Too personally tied to the prisoner? Hot-headed?"

"It's because you're--"

"Enough," Coraline snapped. For once, she looked genuinely mad. "There's a reason she doesn't need to know. You can always shut your mouth instead of lying if you feel above that, child."

I glared. "That's unfair."

She fixed her upset look on me. "You have no business knowing anything I deem private. Go away."

It felt like a slap to the face. Coraline had never been brutal like this, nor had she flexed her authority over anyone. My hands curled into fists, my feet remaining planted. A familiar feeling of defiance bubbled up -- it was the same one I felt while staring at Kami when they first took me in their blue van to come to Iluita.

"Don't challenge me," Coraline warned.

So that's what this is, I thought, it's a challenge between animals.

A dragon versus a cheetah, my thoughts continued, I'm rather curious.

"Stand down."

I didn't.

"Katrina."

That was Koren, the wolf looking panicked as I locked eyes with the leader of the compound. I was mad, and I showed it. My mother was silent as she watched our interaction, unmoving.

It actually gave me an idea.

"Marie."

She looked up at me.

"In terms to my school," I began slowly, knowing that the elites knew where my home was but not my actual school, "where are the documents?"

Surprisingly, she answered. "Well, go down the road toward Benny's," she explained, giving me a series of instructions that only I understood. Coraline looked horrified, but when she tried to strike at the huntres to shut her up, a shield of ice came over her.

The final directions created a map in my mind, and I grinned.

"Don't you dare--"

"Stop," I cut in. "Don't order me around, Coraline. I have a right to know what she's hiding too."

"But what if you don't like what you find, Katrina?"

I blinked for a moment, my head tilting. "What?"

Tyree glanced at Coraline before stepping forward. I allowed her to come near, my friend stopping just in front of me.

"We think that the originals' history could explain why you're different," she told me, "but if we find something upsetting..."

"It would be better for me not to know," I finished.

Tyree sagged forward with relief. "Exactly."

I glanced from her defeated expression to the gloomy look on Coraline's face. Koren didn't meet my eyes, and Gene busied himself with hovering over my mother.

"You're worried about it being a trap, so let me lead the team."

The adults' heads whipped toward me.

"That's idiotic!"

"It might work, though."

They couldn't say that that was wrong, or idiotic.

"Katrina..."

I crossed my arms.

Coraline sighed.

"Fine. Assemble a team. I'm sending Willa and Koren with you."

A smile broke out onto my face.

"Aye aye, captain."