I was still staring at her, unable to fathom this conversation we were having. “Humans? You said…the humans? Does that mean you’re not human too?”
She laughed this time…downright roared with laughter, which quickly turned into a little yippy sound. I just stared at her openmouthed as things began to fall into place. Sally had said she never baked with chocolate, and she always wore a choker around her neck. Her white hair was always drawn up in a puff at the top of her head, her nails and face were perfectly groomed, she almost bounced with happiness every time she saw me or anyone she liked.
Fuck me. “You’re a shifter…a…poodle shifter?”
She laughed some more, this time even harder. Her laughs turned to outright yips this time as she nodded. She pointed a perfectly groomed fingernail at me. “Took you long enough, unicorn.”
“Oh my God!” I began laughing right along with her. “You’re a poodle shifter.”
“A white standard poodle with a pedigree a mile long, I’ll have you know,” Precious said, puffing out adorably.
“Wow, I swear. I will never get used to this town, Precious.” I chuckled through the cinnamon twist and moved on to a filled doughnut which tasted purely orgasmic in my mouth. When I’d swallowed my third doughnut and a full cup of coffee, I turned back to my dispatcher. “So, Mary…she’s what? Human or shifter?”
“She’s a shifter also,” she said, grinning. “Guess what kind?”
“I couldn’t imagine. I just know that the two of you look great together, like you match.”
She smiled so widely I was sure the sun radiated from her face. “Well, that’s because we do match in a way. Now, guess.”
“Is she a dog also?”
Precious nodded.
“Okay, so it’s just the breed then.” I thought back to what Mary looked like. She was very pretty but very shy and had been hurt quite easily when that witch, Broadmoor, had turned on her. “She’s not purebred…she’s a shelter dog…a rescue…a mutt?” I asked as things began slotting into place. My world was getting stranger by the day.
“Very good, Sheriff Romeo. She was a shelter dog of mixed breed. She looks a lot like a beagle when she’s in dog form but she’s by no means purebred which is just fine with me. I’ve loved her from the moment I first saw her behind those bars.”
“You saw her in the shelter and knew she was a shifter?”
“How much do you know about shifters?” Precious asked, sipping coffee.
I shook my head, thinking back to Vincent’s description of the mice shifters in cages. “Absolutely nothing before coming here to Prosper Woods. Now that I’ve been here a couple of weeks, I know one percent more than nothing.” I smiled. “Fill me in. How did you know she was a shifter? Could you smell her or something?”
“Shifters of the same breed—and this includes werewolves—communicate with each other telepathically. I knew what she was the moment I walked into the shelter in Stockton. She called out to me the moment she saw me, and we had a conversation. She was a mess.”
“That’s horrible. Had she been abused?”
“She hadn’t been physically abused but there are many other ways a human can abuse a loving, caring, desperate companion. Her owners were assholes in every way. They were very uncaring people who dumped her and the rest of her litter in the shelter along with their mom. They weren’t puppies but still, the family just dumped all of them and moved away. She was separated from her mom and the others almost immediately because she’d gotten kennel cough and a very bad respiratory infection. The shelter had her in the sick room—what they call the infirmary—for months. By the time she was healthy enough to be released, the rest of her family was already gone. She was alone.”
“But she knew she was a shifter?”
“Yes. She’d only shifted once before when her mom was teaching the whole litter to shift while the human owners were away. When I got there, she no longer remembered how to shift at all. Anyway, Mary was the last to be adopted. Before I adopted her and brought her home, she’d been in shifted form so long, she no longer recognized her humanity. It took me almost two years before she was trusting enough to shift, and the rest is history shall we say.”
“Damn, that’s quite a story, Precious,” I said. “What about the rest of the town? Do they know you’re both shifters?”
She nodded. “Most of the folks in town who are shifters themselves, already know who all the other shifters are. That goes for me and Mary too. The humans think we’re roommates rather than true mates in love.” She sighed, smiling sadly. “And now you know all of it.”
I paused but figured since the cat was out of the bag, I should ask her. “How many people…ah, shifters, know about me and Vincent?”
She smiled sadly. “Sheriff Romeo, Prosper Woods is a really small town. Most everyone has heard about your connection, by now. Word just gets around.”
I shook my head, looking down at my boots. “I figured as much.”
Precious reached out and patted me on the hand. “Don’t worry about it so much. It was bound to come out since everyone can smell everyone else in this damned town.”
I chuckled, looking up at her. “Thanks, Precious. I’m glad you were so honest and took the time to talk to me about things. We’d better get to work then.”
“More coffee?”
“Nope. But I’ll take one more doughnut,” I said, eyeballing the nearly empty container.
“That’s a deal,” she said with a sweet smile, holding the container out. I plucked one more filled doughnut and shoved it in my mouth.
I was happy to have had the talk with her, but I was pretty sure if she kept
