Secrets by Lynn Crandall Page B

separate way.
    It was convenient that the meetings typically were held here, because he could see his parents and his colony cats in one visit. Efficient. Plus there was the added benefit of his mother’s cooking. She often cooked a meal for them all and it was always delicious.
    He parked and stood outside, taking in the comfortable sense of being at his haven. It had been the place he could escape to and be himself after days at school being human. Luckily for everyone involved, were-cat children didn’t transition to full were-cat ability until eighteen years old, after high school graduation, so designated colony mentors could help them make the changes by keeping them at home. Casey chuckled, remembering his transition. It was a bit rough. Since each were-cat retains their human personality, in his case he resisted his mentor’s attempts to “tame” him or advise him to stick close to home while his shimmering was random and out of control. He’d wanted to be free to be himself, lynx and all, and felt unnatural at pretending.
    Things were different for him now. He carried a sense of being comfortable in his lynx skin and his human skin, so he didn’t need to act out or have the security he’d grown up with here in this grand home.
    Secluded among large oak trees, his parents’ home was more than one hundred years old. It stood tall at four stories high and was lined with large windows inset into the brick. Without moving he could summon an image of the gardens in the back that his mother kept green and healthy. As a child he used to play around the tall hedges that enclosed the gardens of rose bushes and simpler flowers, including daisies, hydrangeas, and peonies. In the warm months it made a plush and inviting spot, but now, with fall in the air, it would be dying down for the cold months.
    He lifted his nose to catch the scents of his home and got whiffs of a range of smells, familiar scents of his fellow colony cats: Asia Blue, Lara Monroe and her brother Asher, Elizabeth Sands—Tizzy for short—Conrad Pike, Quinn Arons, and Booker Chase. Booker’s wife, Shaun, was human, and she rarely attended colony meetings.
    Casey took the four steps up the stairs, through the front door, and into the entryway, then felt rather than saw his friend Tizzy barrel into him, her slim arms wrapping tightly around him.
    “Hey, Casey!”
    He hugged her hard. “Hi, Tizzy. You about knocked me over.”
    She laughed heartily. “If I had wanted to knock you over you would now be sitting on the floor.” The young woman sparkled up at him, her brown eyes the warm color of cognac, pinning him. In her were-cat form she was a beige-white lynx with the ability to leap higher than any of the rest of them. In her human form she stood a mere five feet, two inches and had the energy of a spring. “You’re late. We’ve been waiting for you to show up so we could eat dinner.”
    “I know better than that. Since when do any of you have the grace to wait for me or anyone else?” He rubbed her head of cropped blond hair.
    “Funny. We’re not that wild.” Tizzy winked up at him.
    Casey chuckled. “Yes you are. So, is everyone here?”
    “Not everyone, but those who are are waiting in the den.”
    In the den, Casey kissed his mother and hugged his dad. Conversations floated around the large room and bounced off the deep mahogany wood paneling. Groups of overstuffed upholstered chairs and a matching sofa made for comfortable seating in front of the large, limestone fireplace, now crackling with a small fire.
    Lara, the pure cat who had called the meeting, stood from her spot across the room. “Dinner will be ready soon, so shall we begin the meeting?” Lara was a sweet bobcat and a skillful vet with powers to heal.
    A roomful of nods and grunts answered her, and Lara began.
    She scanned the room for attention and shoved a shoulder-length twist of her dark hair behind one ear. Her dark, nut-brown eyes glistened in the light of the