amazing cover by @TheDarkKnight17

***

A young and timid girl leads me to my quarters. I pry her name away with a lot of efforts, Charlotte. She's tall and slim with almond green eyes and ginger hair. The room is nice, bigger than my last apartment. Well, sure, I've got one or two villas in Europe but it's been years since I went there. Too many memories. Plus I never stay long in the same place so I don't need that much. The room is heavily decorated with its own bathroom at the back. Nothing, no detail makes the place personal. But the silky sheets seem inviting.

I need to get to my car to grab my bag of cloths but I have a feeling I'm not allowed to leave the room. I could go from the window, I'm currently two storeys high.

Easy peasy.

I can see the back of the house from there and the forest spreading further down. There are at least seven fighting grounds with a sandy floor scattered at the back of the mansion. I didn't notice them when we arrived. A few fighter are training right now and I spend some time observing them.

Not bad, but could be better.

Still I can see some really powerful wolves. In times of war I might have selected them for my army.

Let's see how careful they are.

Discretely, as quietly as I can, I open my window and listen to the wind. It's blowing in my direction so they can't pick up on my scent. In a swift movement I sway on the edge of the bricks and with the power of my arms hoist myself onto the roof. Once on the other side I quickly locate my car. There is no one around but I can sense the wolves in the forest. I sneak in the shadows without a noise. As soon as I am in my car I hesitate. I could just go. The road is in front of me and the time for them to react it will be too late. I caress the steering wheel and breathe in the lingering scent of Nate. That's what makes me exit the car and go back inside following the same path as before. I climb the front stairs, tightening my hold on the handle of the bag in my back. I'm about to take a leap to the second floor when I see a shadow move on the third floor and turn towards it. There, leaning against the window frame, Nate stands in all his glory. I smirk and keep going.

When the time for dinner arrives Charlotte comes back to my room and brings me to an insanely big dining hall. I took a long shower to loosen my strained muscles and changed my cloths, deciding to stay simple with jeans and a black shirt, my red sneakers the only piece of color. The room is festive and full of joy. The pups are running around, playing between the table while the adults discuss animatedly. A few watch me enter but most ignore me entirely. I take a plate and raid the buffet, salad, mashed potatoes, chicken wings, tomatoes, pasta. They even have an Asiatic section so I take a second plate to fill it with sushi, maki, miso soup, rice, nems and tempura.

What ? I have a fast metabolism.

I choose a seat in a corner with an empty table. I like it better when I can see the enemies come. I let my eyes travel around the room. I don't like packs, that many people in the same place is dangerous, they can be wiped out in seconds and be none the wiser. There are too many innocent and weak pups. If too many rogues got in, there would be a bloodbath and the fighters wouldn't be able to save everyone. Kill the weak and innocents and they give up fighting. Rogues are sneaky, they don't have the pride of the fighters of a pack, they kill everyone, without a glance back.

I'm finishing my plates when a small boy comes to my side, giving me a piece of vanilla cake and blushing furiously. My heart breaks at the sight. His beautiful chocolate eyes and his dirty blond hair stir me. He reminds me of Liam.

After the Republican French Insurrection of 1832 I found the little guy on the streets on the brink of death. He was only seven at the time and both his parents had been killed during the war. I don't know if it was his frail body dying when I was an immortal being that even hunger couldn't slow down or the piercing brown eyes daring death itself to steal his last breath but something warmed my body, new feelings, old ones long forgotten.

I took him home with me without a second glance. At the time, I lived on Roquette street, on the east side of Paris, north of the Seine river. Never in my wildest dreams would have I thought myself capable of that kind of selfless act. More so for a human. But maybe, deep down, I thought this little boy would feed some sort of hidden maternal need.

The child was bright, a quick learner. I taught him how to read and to fight but also manners to succeed in society. I didn't want for him to be an outsider so I decided to create us both new identities as mother and son. He followed me in my travels and with him I socialized more than I would have on my own.

He always knew what I was, nothing went unnoticed with him. I did my best to behave like a human in front of him but a beast stays a beast, even in disguise.

"You know, I like the real you better." He had told me nonchalantly one night over dinner.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I had feigned innocence but hadn't been able to hold back my smile.

"I wish I was stronger." He had murmured next and I understood.

If he had been stronger he thought he could have saved his parents. But life is unfair and if he had been stronger he probably would have died in the war too. We talked a lot about his parents, how his mother used to sing for him and his father was a gunsmith. I had done some research and he had actually been a renown one.

When Liam grew up we became brother and sister and when he started his own family with the sweet Katherine I became a distant cousin. I didn't see him as much by then because we weren't alone anymore and even though I trusted him to keep my secrets I wasn't so sure about his new found father-in-law. The old judge was always asking questions and suspected a lot of things. When it became apparent that he was older than me we almost entirely cut ties, only meeting once a year and then once every ten years. He kept sending me letters though, telling me about his life, how he became a lawyer to please his in-laws, how Katherine gave birth to two boys and a little girl, how they all healthily grew up and how happy they were.

Liam lived a long and content life surrounded by his family but each time I noticed the new wrinkles around his eyes, his graying hair, his shrinking body, his disappearing strength. And eventually he died and that day I lost a part of my soul, the one that cared. I became the monster once more.

The movement next to me brings me out of my memories. Still a little lost in my thoughts I thank the pup and concentrate on my plate. I expected him to turn around and leave but he surprises me as he sits beside me with his own plate.

"You know, my father is a fighter." He starts a conversation.

"Really ?" I decide to play along.

Kids aren't judgmental like adults. It's easier to talk to them even if I need to watch my mouth more. He nods.

"Is he strong ?"

"Yes, one of the strongest."

I smile, a kid always thinks his father is some super hero.

"I'm Hope. Whats your name ?"

"Jordan."

"Alright Jordy, how old are you."

"My name is Jordan." He pouts and I laugh.

"Alright. Sorry Jordan."

"I'm six" He answers with a bright toothy smile. "I saw you climb the wall." He whispers in a tone of confidence.

"Ah. I forgot my bag and I wasn't supposed to leave my room." I murmur back.

He starts to giggle when I wink at him.

"But I didn't see you." I point out.

"I was playing hide and seek behind a curtain on the second floor. No one ever finds me there." He explains proudly.

"I see."

Suddenly Nate arrives with losers 1 and 2 on the other side of the room and I smell it instantly, the disgusting and stinking perfume all over him, Cory's scent. I see red and feel my canines elongate, my claws enclosing on the table's wood. I hear the crack and see the wooden chips fall from my hands. Everything around me is tinted in blood. Thankfully Cory isn't in the room right now otherwise I would have shredded her to pieces.

I hear Jordan gasp beside me. I turn to him reflexively and he's staring at my eyes.

"Crap" I mumble, quickly closing them.

I count to ten and try to imagine anything I can think of ; my car, the race, the vanilla cake, long runs, but when it doesn't work and I can still only smell the stenches on Nate I count to twenty. I hear the small heart by my side beating fast and concentrate on that. I listen to him breathing. Tentatively, I open my eyes slightly and watch him. I forget everything else and concentrated on the chocolate eyes in front of me. I feel myself calming down, my eyes turning back to their usual yellow.

"Sorry about that." I apologize.

"Your eyes" He mouths without a sound.

"Can you keep it a secret ? People dont like my eyes."

"I like your eyes." He frowns but nods repeatedly.

I smile gently.

"Thank you. Me too."

I feel the alpha approach and turn towards the pup even more to show him my back. Jordan watches over my shoulder, uncertain of what to do and most of the conversations around us stop. From the corner of my eye I see the beta of the pack, still a frown on his face. Nate is a few feet away by now and I wrinkle my nose at the stench in the air. His scent is spoiled by the other too heavy fake perfume on him. I don't like it one bit.

"So Jordan, do you want to become a fighter when you grow up ?" I hasten to ask when I hear him clear his throat behind me.

The pup nods silently.

"What about becoming a doctor ? Or a lawyer ? Or an adventurer, like Indiana Jones ?"

I see his eyes brighten.

"I like Indiana Jones."

"And you can be a fighter and go around the world." I exclaim motivated.

"I won't need his bullwhip because I'm a wolf."

"But keep the hat ! The hat is nice."

I can feel Nate tense, his anger seeping off him. He doesn't like being ignored. I can't help smiling even more.

"Hope." He tries to say calmly but I hear the strain in his voice.

However talking to Jordan is the only thing keeping me from hunting down a certain blond beauty and kicking Nate's ass.

"Do you want to hear about one of mine ? Something that happened to me ?" I ask the pup next, not missing the growl in my back.

The little guy nods, completely forgetting his surroundings. I start my story.

"Someone asked me to find an old painting. The legends said it was a portrait of a Chinese Emperor's Wife from the Tenth Century. She was supposed to be a beautiful woman and some even say that she was a descendant of Kitsune. Do you know what they look like ?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"We can transform into wolves right ? Well, in Asia man turned into foxes."

The pup nods to show me he is following me.

"How do you know if a wolf is strong ?" I ask.

"By his color." He whispers, I smile to encourage him to go on. "If the wolf has a dark fur then he's really powerful but brown is less strong."

"That's right. But a Kitsune can be many different colors. To know if the beast is strong you need to count his tails." I see his brows shoot in surprise and continue. "The stronger kitsune has nine tails."

"That's a lot." He says in wonder.

"That's a lot." I agree. "So of course I started my search in China. But no one could tell me where the painting was. Back then, there were a lot of wars and the winner usually took the loser's treasures. I found out that the Japanese army had stolen it from the emperor. I went to Japan next and read a lot of books, everything I could find about that time and after months of research I found an old piece of paper that said that pirates attacked their ship."

"Pirates" I hear him gasp.

"That's fun too, you know ?" I wink and his eyes widen.

"You were a pirate ?" He mouths.

"Maybe." I trail off with a smile. "Anyway. The pirates were from a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island wasn't easy to find because they lived in secrecy and they didn't map out all of them to hid all their treasures. Fortunately, I found an old fisherman that said that he could bring me there with his boat. So I organized an exploration. We left with ten men. We traveled for thirty-five days, at the time motors didn't exist."

Damn it !

I stop mid sentence, aware of my mistake. I don't think a pup would catch it but the twenty pairs of ears around us definitely did.

"I mean, the ship was old and it didn't have a motor. We could only use the wind to move forward, so it took longer. We stopped on three different islands before finding the right one. And we found the treasure at the bottom of a cavern."

"No traps ?" Jordan asks, disappointed.

"There were traps everywhere !"

"I knew it !" He exclaims. "Otherwise it's not a real expedition." He adds like a true connoisseur

"Spears and arrows shot out of the walls, floors crumbled under our feet, gigantic spiders attacked our skin." I listed. "Five men died."

"So what kind of treasure was it ?" Jared asks on my left.

I had forgotten he was there, too engrossed in my story.

"Smart question Pollux !" I retort without looking at him and am greeted with a growl. "To answer your question, we found gold, gemstones : rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds... and a lot of jewels."

"What was the name of the expedition ?" Nate asks, not missing a beat.

"Excuse me but when you're telling a story do you like to be interrupted every five seconds ?" I demand exasperated.

Who asked them to join this conversation seriously ?

"So, as I was saying," I start again. "There were jewels and a lot of money. But the painting was nowhere to be found. The cave was really deep and sea water was filling it from under which led me to think that the pirates used an other entrance to hide their boat inside and maybe there was another room with more treasures. I kept going until I found a room bigger than this hall." I showed the room around us.

"It was full of water, so deep we couldn't see the bottom. And in the middle of the water there was an earth bank with wooden chests. Dozens of them. Encrusted with silver and shiny pearls. I should have been more careful but I was so excited I didn't notice the skeletons of small animal at first. I swam the small distance and hurried to open the chests. There were paintings and old writings everywhere. I was looking for the painting of the Empress and didn't see the bubbles on the water coming closer." I pause for effect.

"When suddenly, out of nowhere appeared a gigantic monster with the body of a snake, humongous horns on his head and the beak of a bird filled with hundreds of enormous teeth." I shoot my hands up in the air to show Jordan just how big everything was.

I hear him gasp and his tiny little hands grasp the edge of the table.

"It attacked me fast. Plunging towards me with his entire body. I had to jump from side to side to avoid the blows, attacking me with his head and his tail at the same time. It hit me on the back of the head and I fell, rolled up to the edge of the water. I was falling , falling, falling..."

"Oh no." I hear him whisper.

I find it funny for him to be worried when I'm currently right in front of his eyes, perfectly fine, proof that I survived. I can feel the room tense and realize almost everyone is listening. Even the men next to me seem engrossed in the story.

Seems like I got an audience.

"Then what happened ?" A girl asks in a small voice two tables away. I look at her and she freezes, her hand shooting to her mouth as if the words fell out of her mouth, fear written all over her face.

Right, I said I didn't want to be interrupted.

I smile gently at her and I see her ease up on her chair as I go on.

"My left foot was in the water. I opened my eyes but couldn't see the beast anymore. Everything was quiet." I describe in an eery tone. "Suddenly I felt something grab my leg and pull me deeper into the water, so I started to panic."

'I don't remember it to be that scary.' My wolf mocks me.

Alright, so maybe I didn't panic and did it on purpose so that I could grab it myself, but where's the fun in that ?

Jordan gets closer, patting my leg as if telling me that everything is going to be okay. I bring my hand over his.

"Luckily I had enough strength left in me to grab the concrete floor and dig my claws in it so the monster couldn't pull me to the bottom. I used everything I had to loosen its grasp of me and when it let go I ran to the chests, looking for a weapon. It came back out and I was ready. With a big sword I sliced it in two !" I exclaim triumphantly.

I might have pulled it out of the water and chopped it with my claws but who cares.

'I do, these are the legends of the Great Beast of the Sun. This kind of monster would never be a threat.'

Shush.

"Wow !" I hear the pup mumble and concentrate on him.

"Crazy." I hear faintly.

"Liar" Someone else coughs.

"Impossible" Yet another one denies.

I ignore it all because it's impossible for me to prove anything, it happened to long ago and I don't have any proof, at least not here in America. I kept a percentage of the artifacts of that expedition as did all of the remaining men on that ship but everything is safely stored up in Europe.

"And you did all that on your own, without any help ?" Jared makes himself known in a mocking voice.

"I'll let you decide whether it's true or not Gromit." I reply with a shrug when I'm faced with his smirk.

'Wipe that smile off his face, it's pissing me off.'

Nah, he's growing on me.

'Seriously ?'

I roll my eyes.

No, I'm just waiting for the right moment.

"That's incredible Hope, you're really strong." Jordan asserts.

"Of course I am." I answer proudly. "Want to know a secret ?"

He nods, I motion for him to come closer so that he's the only one to hear what I say.

"I'm stronger than anyone in this room."

He frowns at that and I don't miss the power suddenly emanating from the alpha behind me.

Someone's eavesdropping.

"Even my dad ?"

"You're right, except your dad." I reassure the boy.

It seems to satisfy him as he stands up from his seat and quickly kisses my cheek before hurrying to another table where the man I met earlier on the stairs in front of the house is sitting with who I suppose to be his mate. He is openly glaring at me but I wave his way challengingly. I quickly glance behind me when I don't feel a murderous intent anymore and am surprised to see Nate watching me with an amused smile on his face.

He's hot.

I feel better now, my anger has finally settled down, I can say without a shred of doubt that everyone will safely sleep to tomorrow. Even the little blond-blue-eyed devil.

"What ?" I mouth, raising a brow at him.

He points toward the door for me to follow him outside but I'm not in the mood.

"No thank you. I'm tired so I'm going to bed. Also, there's a stench in the air, that's making me queasy." I tell him sweetly.