Kierra

"I should have seen it right away in your hair...but then you shifted and it was right there. I've heard stories from my people that wolves of both Clan and Pack have about Silver Wolves. They're both revered and feared, said to be magical."

She notices my confused look, so tries to rewind and start over.

"Shifters like me, who are born as what we are, form Clans. Most are made up of several same-animal families. Members from one Clan go to another to breed, to prevent any inbreeding. Snow leopards are a solitary animal, and each type of Clan animal is much like their natural cousins."

She stops to make sure I'm following along. I nod, much of it being what Asher had mentioned before.

"My clan had come here around fifty years ago to allow those of breeding age to find someone from another clan that was here at the time. I look to be your age, but I'm actually thirty-two. Shifters age differently than humans, but we're not immortal like the Were-animals and Vampires. I could live to clear up till I'm over eight hundred. I was born here, grew up here. While I stayed, everyone else went back up north. After Ryder and I had successfully reproduced, he had to go back to his Clan as a fertile male."

At my raised brows she laughs and explains.

"Feline based Shifters have a harder time breeding than any of the other types. Clan Wolves, on the other hand, breed like rabbits."

Her nose scrunches and I laugh. I wonder if the term 'Hound Dog' had gotten started from wolf Shifters.

"When Rye had proven himself fertile, he went back so he could be sent out to another Clan. In a way, I guess you could say my breed of Shifter is a bunch of pimps, but it's normal for us so it isn't looked down upon. A male is not imposed on a female, they choose each other. All Shifters I know of are like that. In my Clan, it's normal for the mother to be single while raising a child."

I nod, but still feel sorry for them. One hell of a thing if a couple came together actually in love, but the male having to leave if they have a child? Bit fucked up if you ask me.

It makes me wonder though if Ava and Ryder had actually loved each other. I don't ask, just in case they had. I keep ignoring the whole immortal thing, not wanting to think about it.

"Okay, so Shifters are Clan, Were-animals, no matter the flavor, when in groups are called Packs. Both Clan wolves and Werewolves share a lot in common, one thing being the Silver Wolf. As far as I know, there hasn't been one mentioned for over a hundred years, and that one was overseas if I remember right. In Germany, I think. Said to have been killed by hunters when they were in wolf form."

Well, so much for seeking answers from one. I'm beginning to think being a 'Silver Wolf' isn't a good thing.

"I don't know any of the in-depth stories of what one can do, just that they were looked up to, having many more psychic and magic abilities than any other. Crap, lemme back up again for a second... Were-animals have their preternatural senses and some psychic abilities, same as Vampires. Shifters have a little more of each. My ability to talk to you for example. In animal form, Were-animals can use telepathy with anyone in a room with them, while Shifters don't have that limitation. I can talk to my mother who last I knew was in northern Wisconsin. We just have to make the connection with that person while in person. Make sense?"

I blink a few times, taking everything in. So Weres and Vamps have a level, and Shifters have more than them, and Silver Wolves are supposed to have way more than that. Alrighty then.

I'm so fucked.

"And what does that mean for that wolf though? 'Cause, I gotta say, so far my treatment has been seriously lacking for even a dog. For example, getting raped by that fuckin' wolf the other day."

Ava winces, her brown eyes watering as she looks at me.

"He had to have been a rogue or someone who'd been banished from wherever he came from. None of the wolves I know would force themselves on another, let alone a Silver. It was obvious he knew what you were too. You didn't say it, but I'm guessing that black shadow that had helped you was Asher, wasn't it? If the stranger didn't realize it was another Werewolf, he more than likely ran because he thought you were starting to use your magic."

"If I had any magic, don't you think I would have used it before I got reamed? I may have been in 'heat' during that time, and my body may have been wanting it, but my brain sure wasn't."

She winces again and shrugs, her eyes luminous as she tries to get me to see how 'important' I am.

"If any other Werewolf or Shifter finds out what happened, they would hunt him down and execute him in the most painful way possible. He's running for his life now, knowing it's forfeit. As for your magic, it might not have manifested yet. I have no idea when it will. That connecting you keep doing with Faline could be part of it."

I shake my head.

"No, 'cause that first time, she had connected to me, not me to her."

Ava's brow furrows as she thinks about it.

"I think you should go to one of the Packs around here. As soon as they see you, you will see how you're supposed to be treated..."

She drifts off when she sees my head shaking, my eyes going hard. I'm not going to have my chance taken from me.

"No. I've heard how they treat their wolves. I will not go to them for help for myself or my sister. I will do this without them. Only reason it has taken as long as it has is because Asher has been training me, then the full moon made it so I couldn't even do that. As soon as I can really defend myself and cause as much destruction as I can, I will find Faline."

She looks at me with sad eyes, but nods, knowing how stubborn I am when I set out for something. Opening her mouth to say more, the timer goes off for dinner. The timing couldn't be more perfect. We both head out, the kids already in the kitchen waiting impatiently, even Bastion looks excited. Should be, I don't do much cooking at home, I'm not that domestic.

I look around the room, but don't see Asher, the boy seeing me do so tells me he went outside when the timer went off. That grabs Ava's attention.

"Why doesn't he shift and join us?"

"He can't."

She looks startled as she sets the very hot pan on the island counter.

"What do you mean?"

I shrug, not sure if he wants me to say anything, but if I don't say something she'll keep hounding me.

"Bad mojo some years ago."

Recognition fills her eyes, her mouth making that surprised 'O' shape, then excitement, fairly bouncing in place.

"He's that Asher? Oh my God, I've heard stories about him. I didn't think he was in the area anymore."

Topping, cutting, and separating the meatloaf, getting it dished out and put on the dining room table, the pan is put on a rack on the counter for if more is wanted. Once we're all sat down, I can't hold it back anymore and more or less blurt it out.

"What stories? What do you mean by 'that Asher'?"

She had also caught Bastion's interest when she'd said it, but he's also eyeballing the massive piece of deliciousness in front of him. I love Ava's meatloaf, I know he will too, as soon as he can get himself to dig in. He looks almost intimidated by it.

I help him along by snitching a bite of his. He snaps out of his reverie, almost growling at me as he pulls his plate closer to himself. I smile sweetly at him, wiggling my fork at his, telling him to dig in. He looks at it again.

"You don't eat it, then I will."

I threaten him playfully, being really careful about how I word things. Lily helps by acting like she's gonna snitch a bite. He shoos off her fork by grabbing his own.

I start feeling bad because even though I don't starve him at home, there's not much in the way of food at the house, making sandwiches or just the meat from the package, cans of vegetables and fruit.

Although I think that's better. Depending on how badly he had been starved, if he had tried to eat something like Ava's meatloaf when he first got to my place, he would have gotten sick. It would have been too much of a shock to the system to take it properly.

I think when we leave, we'll be going grocery shopping. Asher might want to go home first though. Don't think we could get away with saying he's a seeing-eye dog. Might pass for a therapy dog, but I don't have the vest they wear advertising that.

My questions to Ava have been put off as I watch Bastion eat his first home-cooked meal. After that first bite, I keep having to tell him to slow down. I smile, chuckle, and look at Ava.

"I think we'll be taking some of that home with us."

Both she and her daughter laugh as Bastion nods eagerly. I don't even try to joke about the food I have at home, knowing it would be in poor taste. Turning back to Ava, she starts answering my questions, hands wiggling in the air as her brows draw together.

"He's considered a ghost. There was talk of him dying some years ago, but others would say they'd seen him running around from here to down south. Some sightings in Chicago, but it was all talk, no one knew what was truth and what wasn't."

She shrugs and takes a few bites. I remember Asher saying since no one would provide assistance or justice that he'd traveled around for quite a while. Sounds like someone would recognize him and mention him just for the stories to start flying. Pig headed assholes if you ask me.

"I heard it was some kind of love story that started it all. Shifters are real big on telling stories, real or not. A love triangle gone bad. Others I heard when I was little was that he killed his lover, set their home on fire, and ran, being killed at some point and his ghost coming back to haunt people."

She lifts her fork and waves it around.

"What I always found weird was he was supposed to have lived in this area, yet there's no record of him living anywhere."

I can feel my face close down in anger as my fork is set down carefully. Bastion picks up that something's wrong, he'd been busy talking to Lily and eating that he didn't hear what we had been talking about, but he senses something now.

"There wouldn't be, would there? It was covered up, buried. Both 'Pack' and 'Clan' turned their backs on him when he asked for help. Those in charge not willing to lift a finger since one died in a fire so therefore the issue wasn't important. His lover was his wife, who was being pursued by a Vampire. When Asher wouldn't back down from the constant fighting, the Vamp brought in magic. His wife was trapped in a fire several undead assholes had started, killed, then he was cursed."

I shake my head. So help me if I ever meet any of the leaders, I'm so not gonna be civil. Don't care if they are elders or politicians, they would get a piece of my mind.

"He was cursed to remain as a wolf, never again able to take human or Were form. For the last twenty-five years or so, he's been searching for that Vampire and has yet to find him. He's only stopped for a while to help me, but as soon as Faline is home, he'll go searching again."

A pang in the region of my heart is startling at the thought of him leaving. But I have no right to keep him from finding what he needs. Ava just looks at me. Probably weighing my words. She knows I'd never lie to her, but stories are stories.

"I was just a child when this all happened. Like I said earlier, I'm older than I look, and didn't know what was truth and story. Things being covered up isn't new, it's been happening for years, it's one of the ways supernaturals stay hidden. I'm sorry that happened to him."

She does look sad, but when it's something that doesn't impact you or yours, you can only feel so much.

"As for his home, it may be buried, but not forgotten. His home is the one near mine."