Nature calls

5 - Kira/Shawn

"ENOUGH," William's voice booms through the forest, scaring some birds away. I feel a sudden surge of anger running through my body and I slowly turn around. Kate notices my mood change and stands beside me.

"Excuse me?" I ask through almost gritted teeth. William gives me a stern look and says, "let's just get to your house and get down to business." I take a step towards and give him a stern look myself. "Do you want access to my forest or not?"

He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. I notice that everybody except the Elders gives him an angry look. Then he says, "my apologies. I didn't mean to disrespect you."

"Good!" I turn around and look into the forest a little confused. "Try touching one of the trees," Kate suggests. I raise my eyebrows. "Huh?" She smiles at me. "This is your forest. Try touching a tree and ask it to guide you home." Then she whispers so only I can hear it, "if they get in, it doesn't mean they can get into the forest again after they leave. Only if you're with them to guide them through it."

I slowly nod. "Okay. Uhm..." Walking up to a tree, I put my hands on it. They start to glow, and I ask the tree to show me the way home. A warmth fills me, and it sounds like the trees are whispering to each other.

Then the tree starts to vibrate and suddenly all the trees move to the side, giving us straight passage to my home. Everybody gasps behind me. Even Kate. I stand with my mouth open in shock.

"Kira..." Kate takes my hand and gives me a bright smile. "You truly are special."

"Uh," I say while scratching the back of my head. Shawn steps up and takes my other hand, smiling just as brightly as Kate. "She truly is."

I'm still shocked. What the hell? How did I do this? How is this possible? The trees freaking moved! "Okay, uhm, let's go, I guess."

We walk through the trees straight to my house. When we get there, everybody except me, Kate, and Shawn gasp in surprise when they see the tree. I narrow my eyes at it. Has it grown bigger? Shaking my head, I walk over to the firepit, look at William and point to the bench.

"Have a seat."

He nods. "Thank you." He sits down and I decide to sit down on the ground opposite him. So does, Kate, Shawn, Sharon, and Hillary. I'm surprised that Sharon and Hillary are sitting down next to me on the ground. Shouldn't they be with the other panther shifters that are standing behind William?

"Is this your home," William asks while he points to the tree. I nod. "Yes, it is." He slowly nods before he slightly narrows his eyes. "Hm. Why can't we get through the forest?"

My instinct tells me not to tell him, so I shrug. "I don't know. It always acts weird." He narrows his eyes even more. "Hm."

I take Shawn's hand, lace our fingers together, and dig my other hand into the ground. Then William clears his throat. "It's nice to meet my son's mate. It's a very unusual thing for a panther shifter to have a mate who isn't a shifter. You must me... Special." Kate, who sits on my others side, stiffens. Small yellow sparks run through the ground, so I pull my hand out of the ground and put in on hers, making her relax.

"I don't know. There's nothing special about me. I'm just... Me," I say as I lift my shoulders in a small shrug. Shawn smiles and kisses my temple.

William clears his throat again before he says, "okay. I just wanted to meet you and welcome you to the family." Although I don't feel like smiling, I do it anyway. "Thanks." Then he says with a puzzled expression on his face that looks fake, "I don't know why we had to meet in the forest."

"You know exactly why!" Kate says. His head snaps to her. I look at her questioningly and so does Shawn and Shannon. "Don't go there Kate! It was a long time ago!" She scoffs and shakes her head.