“Good morning,” she said. Cautiously. Did she regret how personal they’d gotten yesterday?
Only one way to find out. “Good morning,” Ken said. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you for showing me your lynx yesterday. I know it’s a gesture of trust, and I appreciate it.”
She nodded gravely. Ken felt caught up in the gravity of the situation, and he wondered again at how Lynn was so easily able to draw him into serious moments, when most of the time he’d joke them away without any trouble.
“I wanted you to know,” she said. The words sent a thrill through him. “And I’d seen your lion, so it seemed…fair.”
“I’ve never met a lynx shifter before,” he said. “Are they rare?”
She frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I’m the only one around here anymore.”
“No family?”
She looked away. “No. My father was never around, and my mother passed away when I was a little kid.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
She shrugged. “I never knew them. My sister and I were raised by my grandmother. She was a lynx, and she taught me everything I know about being a shifter, and living in these woods. She lived to a good old age, but she’s been gone for years now.”
“And your sister?”
Ly
nn waved a hand. “She lives a few towns over. She was never as invested in these forests as I was.”
It sounded lonely. Especially now that her grandmother was gone.
“Is she not a shifter, then?” Ken asked. Shifter parents didn’t always produce shifter children, even though it was usual.
“No, she is.” Lynn looked a bit uncomfortable, and Ken was about to tell her that she didn’t have to talk about it if she didn’t want to, when she continued, “She’s always been a bit—wild.” Then she smiled ruefully. “A different kind of wild. She never wanted to run through the forests, she just wanted to go to parties. She’s always had a ton of boyfriends. She got pregnant at a young age, and now she lives with the latest boyfriend and her daughter, my niece, who’s seventeen.” Lynn was quiet for a long moment.
“I’ve never been able to approve,” she said finally. “I never like her boyfriends, and she always knows it. This latest one is a wolf shifter, and the crowd he runs with is kind of rough, and more than once I’ve had to hold myself back from threatening to kick his ass. She wouldn’t appreciate it.”
But Lynn could do it, Ken had no doubt. The fierce expression she wore, not to mention her grace and power out on the trails—any shifter, even a wolf, would have to hesitate before coming head-to-head with her.
“Anyway.” Lynn looked a little embarrassed. “You don’t care about my sister and her latest douchebag boyfriend.”
“I do,” he said immediately. “I want to know. I think you’re interesting, and that goes for your history, your family, all of it.”
Lynn’s embarrassment visibly increased. “Well, I probably shouldn’t talk about her personal life to someone who doesn’t know her,” she finally said. “Anyway, is there more of the forest that you wanted to see? Did you finish your measurements here already?”
“Not quite done here yet,” Ken admitted, “but I am interested to see more of this area. The way it’s grown back from being logged, over a hundred years, is fascinating. Maybe a tour?”
Lynn nodded. “Of course.” She hesitated for a minute, and then said, “Would you prefer to go in human form, or shifted?”
“Shifted,” Ken said without thinking. Running shifted alongside Lynn in her lynx form would be—
Hold on a second. “Lynn the lynx?” he said.
Lynn made a face. “Blame my mother. Grandmother said she thought it was cute. And please do not make a single joke, because I have already heard every possible comment that there is to make.”
“Fair enough.” Ken shut his mouth on all of the puns that were dying to get out.
He was still determined to make her laugh somehow, but repeating jokes about her name that she’d probably heard all her life—God, Ken could just imagine what that would’ve been like in grade school, among the other shifter kids—well, that was clearly not the way to do it.
“Let’s go.” Lynn was obviously eager to leave the name topic far behind; she’d already taken a few steps away from the camp, frowning at the surrounding forest. “This way is best, I think.” And she breathed out, shivered a bit, and shifted.
***