Chapter 16: Laurel


    Laurel let herself into her apartment as silently as she could. The sliding ss door was already


    unlocked, and she sighed in relief, d she wouldn’t have to bother with the noisy deadbolt on the front


    door. She only vaguely remembered leaving the house earlier. Her fox had been in a frenzy from too


    many weeks of not shifting, and she’d almost cked out when she’d finally shifted.


    She couldn’t even remember if she’d undressed first or where she’d stashed her clothes to retrieve


    them now. She hoped it wasn’t an outfit she liked.


    She didn’t bother with light as she crept across the tiny dining area she shared with her roommate.


    Kelly was a light sleeper, and thest thing she needed now was a bunch of questions about why she


    was creeping inside after one am. Kelly was friendly enough, but she was also Laurel’sndlord, and


    she was a “no bullshit” kind of girl. Laurel had met her when she’de to town for the interview with


    DOTst year. Kelly had been working in HR, doing background checks for new hires. These days,


    she’d graduated to working for a local bounty hunter’s office downtown that had an owner known for


    being anti-shifter. Even though Kelly had never said anything one way or the other about the subject,


    she was not someone Laurel wanted to cross.


    Besides, Kelly was bound to have questions, including why Laurel was currently dressed only in a size


    XL men’s tee. Not a conversation Laurel was dying to have. After everything that had happened


    tonight, she just wanted a shower and bed. She’d sort out Xavier and everything he’d said tomorrow.


    “Ow!” Her foot came down hard on something sharp, and she yelled out before she could stop it.


    A secondter, the hall light came on, and Kelly appeared, disheveled from sleep and wielding a


    wooden bat. “What the…?” Kelly didn’t rx at the sight of a familiar face like Laurel expected. Instead,


    she switched her shocked gaze from Laurel’s face to the apartment around them.


    For a split second, Laurel stared in shock too, too distraught to understand. The apartment was


    trashed. Utterly andpletely. Books and shelves all littered the living room floor. A floormpy on


    its side barring the front door, and the bulb shattered into tiny pieces across the entryway.


    Beside her, the kitchen chairs had all been upended andy upside down and sideways on the tile


    floor, which was covered in something white. Flour? Sugar? She ran a toe through it to check, but red


    liquid stained it and she examined her foot closer.


    Blood.


    She yanked a shard of something sharp from her foot and held it up. Themp that used to sit by the


    back door. The end table it sat on was now on its side. Above it, the window had shattered, leaving tiny


    shards of ss in a pile on the windowsill.


    “Oh my god,” Kelly shrieked. “Were we robbed?”


    Laurel opened her mouth, ready to specte that very idea along with her friend, but then dread


    washed over as she realized what had really happened. Her fox. In her panic over shifting against her


    will, it had done all but tear the walls down.


    She hadn’t done damage like this since she was a kid. Seventeen, to be exact. Her parent’s house. It


    was thest time she’d seen her parents. But even then, it hadn’t been this bad. Everything that could


    possibly be broken was. And it was all her fault. What was she going to say to Kelly?


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    “I think we—”


    “Ssh!” Kelly crouched, knees bent, as she turned left, then right. “We need to call the police. We can’t


    touch anything, we—” She broke off, and her eyes narrowed as she zeroed in on something across the


    kitchen floor.


    She crept toward it, tiptoeing over the flour, and Laurel held her breath.


    “What the hell?” Kelly demanded as she bent over something. “What is this?”


    Laurel could see it from here. She already knew.