Read Otherkin for Free Online

or ancient burrito?”
    “Dog, please. And chips. And soda. And candy, chocolate.” I waved him toward the store.
    “Yes, ma’am.” He touched his forehead in a mock salute. I couldn’t help watching him saunter away, trying to ignore the fluttering in my stomach. The door chimed as he entered the store.
    I felt for the edge of the rug covering the bottom of the trunk and lifted it slightly to reveal the spare tire underneath. The manila folders slid back. I saw them and froze. The tab on one folder was marked in thick black ink, “Grey, Desdemona.”

CHAPTER 5
    My hands trembled as I reached for the folder with my name on it. The glare from the lights of the gas station easily illuminated the pages as I turned back the cover. Several pages of jagged handwriting stared up at me. I read the first words: “Notes taken from the central file on Desdemona Grey, suspected Shifter. Subtype: Feline. Species: Tiger, Siberian aka Amur.” In the same hand, written at an angle across this was jotted: “Shifter confirmed Nov. 11, 16:05 hours.”
    Through the store window I could see Caleb paying for the gas and pointing at the rotating rack of hot dogs behind the clerk. Hastily, I scanned the other pages, turning my back to the store so he wouldn’t see what I was doing.
    It became clear that the writer, probably Lazar, had tracked me closely in those final hours before the shift. He noted everything, from my estimated height (“Approx. 6’0”, normal for larger feline shifters”) to my interaction with Jake Peters (“Flirtatious male teenager put hands around subject, came into contact with back brace. Subject fled.”).
    They must have been following me for a long time if they knew I had the brace. God, possibly years. Only the last half a day before my capture was recorded here, but this was a temporary file, used while Lazar was on the move. He’d probably planned on later copying the information into a central file.
    The clerk handed Caleb his change, so I stuffed the pages back into the folder. I didn’t want him to see the file. It was too private, too weird to have my own fanatical stalkers. I needed time to digest it all. I could read it closely later.
    Caleb was coming through the door of the Eat and Go, his arms piled high with food. I slammed the folder shut, got in the car, and threw it in the backseat.
    He tapped on the glass with his elbow, hands too full to open the door. I leaned across and pulled the handle. He slid into his seat, bringing a warm smell of cooked meat with him.
    “I left yours plain in case you have a phobia of ten-year-old condiments, but here’s some mustard and ketchup packets.” He brandished the food.
    “Mustard’s great,” I said a bit too shortly, and relieved him of a hot dog, condiments, soda, bag of chips, and two chocolate bars, glad to busy myself with something normal.
    “We’re poor again.” He ripped open his own bag of potato chips. “I put twenty down for gas, and all this added up fast. Did you find anything else in the trunk?”
    I took a huge bite of hot dog to give myself a moment. “No,” I said, chewing. Warm, salty meat taste coated my tongue, offset by gooey, bland bun. “God, this horrible food tastes amazing.”
    “Ambrosia.” He crunched into his chips. “So I was thinking about what you said earlier, about going home.” He glanced at me, sounding too casual.
    “What about it?” I gulped down a fizzy mouthful of soda. It followed the hot dog down to my stomach to form a hard, buzzing lump.
    “I still don’t think you should go,” he said. He held up a hand as my eyes widened in alarm. “No, hear me out. I know it’s an impossible choice for you, but I know a safe place not far away. You could meet other shifters there and learn a lot about how it all works.”
    I stared at him. “Not everyone leads a lawless, under-the-radar kind of life, you know. I can’t just abandon my family without a word. They’d think I was kidnapped by some