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“The pack elders can kick rocks,” Elaine spat. “They never did anyone any good, wrinkled old hags of a bygone era. Most of them are still obsessed with your grandfather.”

Tom laughed. She wasn’t wrong. “I still wish you’d reconsider coming.”

“You’re the Alpha now, son. I retired with good graces, the pack knows that, but they need to see you as the head now,” Charles responded. “Maybe after a few years, but for now, we’ll sit back and let them see you take charge.”

“Are you eating well? With taking on all this extra stress, you need to keep up with your appetite.”

“Yeah, Mom, I’m eating fine.” He glanced at the kitchen he never used. “A new shifter just moved in, Michael. He was in foster care over in Nebraska when he turned the first time. Sara found him on one of her runs. She told him about us, and after his eighteenth birthday, he showed up on the doorstep. He’s a good kid, likes to cook.”

“Poor thing must have been terrified the first time that happened. I can’t imagine going through my first shift alone like that,” Elaine said.

“I know, Sara said the kid thought he was stuck a wolfman for the rest of his life when she met him.” His words sounded dead in his own ears. “But she was able to calm him down enough to teach him to phase back. He’s been here only two months and he’s already well ahead of this year’s new shifts.”

“How many strays do you have living with you now?” Charles asked.

“With Dan and now Michael, that makes five living here.” He rubbed his eyes. “The pack as a whole, seventeen, if you don’t count Sara.”

Charles laughed. “I still remember when you argued with me about Sara. A single human mom in our town had a shifter kid with no one in the pack to claim it. The way you fought for her to be let into the pack without the stigma of being a stray, that was when I knew you had the making of a great Alpha.”

“Speaking of Sara,” Thomas said, “we now think she might be a cousin of Sam’s from the Maine pack. Sounds like her mom spent a lot of time in that area before she got pregnant and moved to Fairville.”

“Have you reached out to the Maine Alpha to confirm?” Charles asked.

“No,” Tom said. “Sam is concerned about stirring up that much muck without solid evidence. I agree with him, our relationship with the Maine pack is still rocky since he ran off without permission, and this is a serious accusation.”

“I know you never wanted this, Thomas,” Elaine said, “but in the last year, you’ve done more for the pack than most Alphas do their entire life.”

“I’m not doing as good a job as you think I am.” His voice felt thick. He hated this. He fought tooth and nail with the pack elders on a regular basis, and for what? To let them all down, to disappoint the pack, disappoint his parents?

“What’s the matter, Tom, you okay?” Charles asked.

“It’s bears, Dad. A group came through town. I caught one of them trying to hunt in our territory. I stopped him, but he got away. We think they’re still in Fairville.”

His mother cursed in the background.

“What do you mean ‘he got away’?” Charles growled.

“I—The woman he was … I was trying to get her to safety. When I got back, he’d disappeared. I knocked him out, I just didn’t realize he’d wake up again so soon.”

“They heal fast.”

“Of course they do, all shifters heal fast,” Tom said.

“Not like them we don’t. You know how bears come to be, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I remember the stories. They aren’t born into it like the rest of us. They make a deal with a demon or a witch in exchange for power. It’s tainted magic, so they eventually go insane.”

“Insane isn’t exactly the right word. They become feral. More than feral; every animal instinct to hunt, to fight, to survive, is magnified, eclipsing any humanity they may have had. Unlike regular wild animals who only attack when threatened or hungry, these shifters live for the kill,” Charles said.

“They’re bloodthirsty monsters,” Elaine added. “Not only do they kill for fun, they torture. Anything to see pain on another’s face—they get off on it.”

“Your granddad told me the stories about what happened the last time our pack encountered bears, it was terrible,” Charles said. “They had families under the pack’s protection, smaller shifters and humans who knew the secret before the rules changed in the eighties. Well, the pack used the fear to their advantage. Most of them did hard labor in the businesses, but in exchange, the pack was supposed to keep them safe.

“When the bears went to war, they didn’t go for the pack members directly, they found the humans and the small shifters first. They’d torture them, string them up from trees, then set their houses on fire.”

“The lucky ones died in the fires, when the bears were too impatient to tear them apart,” his mom added. “My family was three towns over at the time and it made our news. The cops thought there was a satanic gang behind the murders.”

“After that, the pack severed all dealings with the other shifters and the humans.” His dad sighed. “Their reputation for protection had been ruined. It was chaos and he couldn’t ensure they would keep the secret or the peace. Not that anyone would believe them if they started talking about ‘skin walkers.’”