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Chapter Two
Adan
A black wolf with silver threads through her fur. And silver eyes. I’d been a little surprised when she wanted privacy to shift because most wolves I knew had no concerns about nudity. It made me wonder even more about her past and what got her here. After all, we were hardly at the school for people whose lives had been the smoothest.
I’d never seen anything like her before, but I knew the moment I did that it was Karelis. Something about her spirit translated to the wolf, but there was also something very different from any other beast I’d met before. And I wanted to know…
“Karelis, you are fascinating to me.” I reached for her hand and started for the school buildings. “Your wolf.”
“You said she’s beautiful,” she asserted. “And I thanked you.”
Ouch. Apparently she didn’t want to tell me any more, but it was hard to do the smart thing and back off. “You sure did. Does she resemble other wolves in your pack?”
Her steps faltered, just for a second, but she was back in rhythm before I slowed down. “Oh, I don’t know. There were a lot of different-colored wolves. Black and gray were common, I guess.”
Gray. She was anything but gray, the light catching on those silver strands as she darted into pools of sunshine between trees. “I see. We have a variety of colors in ours as well, but not as bright as your fur. Big pack?”
“Average, I guess. Yours?”
“I guess. Depends on what you think of as average.”
“And you’re here because of computer hacking.”
Had I told her that? I was sure I hadn’t, and neither had my roommates. It wasn’t common knowledge outside my friends’ circle… “Is that what you’ve heard?” We were close to the tree line now and would be back inside the school shortly.
“I did.”
“Who said that?”
“Uh, I don’t remember. Are you saying it’s not true?”
“I plead the Fifth.”
She swung our linked hands and gave a little hop. “I see. And since this is a civil rather than criminal interrogation, I can use that statement to assume it’s true.”
“That’s kind of convoluted logic, and I can say that without even knowing why you have knowledge of the human courts.”
She giggled. “I don’t, really, but I watch a lot of TV. Come on, Adan, tell me why you’re here.”
“I’ll go first. I did indeed hack into a human computer system in order to go to university. My pack homeschooling education did not qualify me for admittance, even though my personal studies far exceeded their requirements.” It hurt even to say it. I’d had such hopes when I did that. Never feeling like it was anything wrong because I knew how hard I’d worked, how I’d stayed up late at night studying things I’d never need as a wolf shifter just to get access to the education that university could give me.
“You wanted to learn.” She stopped walking, making me halt as well. “Adan, you have a right to your dreams, and no pack should deny you that.”
“Thank you, but you are part of a very small minority who feels that way.”
“Hmmph. Did you actually start classes after you hacked your way in?”
I shrugged, afraid of showing too much of the emotional conflict that still surged within me. But while I didn’t meet her gaze, I could feel it burning into me. “Yes, I started classes.”
“And how did that go?” Her level tone offered no suggestion of how she might react to my answer.
“Perfectly. I got straight As and learned a whole lot of things I wanted to know how to do. Computers can do so much for the pack, especially if they insist on homeschooling. Because the kind of education they are getting isn’t great. Just so many ways modern technology can help them.”
“So what happened? Wasn’t your pack glad to be getting all this helpful information and training for you?”
“It’s a long story but the short version is no. I’ll tell you the whole story some other time.”
“All right.”
