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Ethan sat back, chewing his lip.“That seems like a longshot, Edie.”
“I know.But it’s the only thing I can think of.Besides, it’s not like any of our other experiments have worked.”
He picked up the tissue and prodded at the bloom with his finger.“Fine.I’ll run some tests,” he said.
“I can do it, if you’d let me borrow your lab.”
“No, I’ll take care of it,” he said, bundling it up and sticking it in his pocket.“Though I still think this won’t go anywhere.My grandfather and I spent a long time looking for something that would allow us to isolate a physical property that makes a shifter a shifter.I had a vested interest in it, after all,” he said, staring down at his folded hands.
I leaned forward.Ethan never talked about his inability to shift.“It must have been really painful to see so many people find their stone when you never did.”
He nodded.“It used to drive me crazy.Why me, what’s wrong with me, etcetera.But if I’d been a shifter, I wouldn’t have been able to go to medical school and serve my community this way.I suppose it is what fate wanted for me.”
The words felt practiced, and I wondered if they were meant to convince me or himself.I felt sorry for him.I knew what it was like to be an outsider.“It just seems impossible that there’s no difference at all.I’d love to see MRI footage of the shift in action, or do a brain scan--”
“Why?”
“Well…to know.Don’t you want to know?You’re a doctor, and you’re sitting on the greatest medical discovery of an era.Think of what we could learn.”
He wiped his mouth with his napkin.“Play that out.What use is that information?”
“Isn’t knowledge useful?”
“Not all kinds of knowledge.There are some things we’re better off not knowing.It’s generally not encouraged amongst shifters to explore our biology too extensively.It’s sort of like--well, to be frank, Edie, asking too many questions about the differences between shifters and humans is considered to be a sort of eugenics.”
“Oh,” I said, taken aback.“Even though more knowledge could help the clan?”
“You need to understand--until Melinda took over, Twisted Pines was closer to a cult than a community.A lot of folks up here, they’d spend weeks or months in wolf form.It wasn’t a place where people expected technology to fix their problems.We didn’t trust outsiders, and we definitely didn’t want people poking their nose into our business.”
“You must have been a kid when Melinda took over.”
“I was nine, but a very adult nine,” he said with a small smile.“My grandfather used to take me on his rounds with him, so I learned how to clean a wound at the same time most kids are learning to ride a bike.He had the same sort of curiosity about the origin of shifters that you do, and even more so when I couldn’t find my stone.”He hesitated.“He learned a lot.He took his knowledge further than anyone else.But when Melinda found out that he wanted to do some very basic experiments on clan members, she shut it down.“
“Why?”
He looked around the crowded dining room, filled with families and tourists that had no idea that several of the people in the room could turn into wolves.“Like I said, play it out.If you could isolate the gene that creates a shifter, what could you do with that information?”
It didn’t take long to see where he was going.“You’d be able to develop therapies that would enhance the gene.”
“Or take it away,” he said, nodding.“You could track it in the population.You could predict its occurrence or trace it through families.And that’s just the beginning.If we were to isolate what makes a shifter a shifter, that information could change the world as we know it.”
He watched me carefully, like he’d learn something important from how I replied.“I’m a curious person.That’s why I went into medicine—I’m totally fascinated with how the body works.The existence of shifters flies in the face of everything I’ve every learned.I can’t stop wondering why.”
He licked his lips.“I won’t go against the Alpha’s wishes.But--” He suddenly sat back.“Hey, Jasper.How you doing?”
“Good morning, Doc,” Jasper said from behind me.A frisson of excitement tripped over my skin at the nearness of him, which pissed me off.I was absolutely, positively, not going to throw myself at him again.
“Good morning,” I said, my voice clipped.It was juvenile, but I didn’t look at him and instead concentrated on spearing a perfect bite of chef’s salad.
“It looked like you were having a serious discussion.Is there anything I need to be worried about?”
“No, of course not,” Ethan replied, a little too jovial.“I wish we had something new on your mother, but…”
I couldn’t see Jasper’s face, but I could practically feel his tension.“That’s too bad.I’d hoped for more information.”
“With Dr.Matthews and I working on it, I’m confident we’ll come up with an answer.We’ve been working very closely.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper adjust his stance.It shouldn’t have been threatening, but it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.I tried to catch his eye, but he was too busy staring down Ethan.Was he…jealous?
