AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t forget to feed the horses and water the house plants today, honey. Did you want anything when I go into town to pick up a new knife at the blacksmith’s? Oh, did I ever tell you that I played the lead role in the high school production ofTeen Wolf, without the need for a costume?”
All the pieces fit into place as I recalled every moment with Bryant, with Luka, down to the gray liquid poison that must be some sort of silver alloy.
“So now you know,” Bryant said, cracking his silver-blue eyes open weakly.
“Now I know.”
He scratched his black stubbled jaw, letting his weak hand drop back to the side.
“Got fleas too?” I remarked nervously.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Funny woman.”
“Glad to lighten the mood a little.”
I anxiously stared at him as if he would suddenly jump up and turn into the monster creature that ripped the throats out of two men less than an hour ago.
“I’m still me, Callista,” Bryant said as if reading my horrified thoughts. “I still love you and would never harm you for any reason.”
My mouth dropped. “You...you love me?”
“I turn into a werewolf, and that’s the thing that concerns you?” He rolled his eyes, saying, “Of course I love you, Callista. I always have. Why else would I keep disrupting my peaceful life and putting myself in harm’s way every turn of the dial?”
“Maybe you’re a masochist.”
“A what?”
“Someone who enjoys self-inflicted pain,” I explained.
“Probably then,” he agreed, snorting. “So are you, it seems. It’s not every woman who would love a werewolf, much less marry one.”
“Except another werewolf,” I countered, then startled at my own remark. “Are there others? Werewolves, I mean.”
He nodded. “Many. Other were-kind, too.”
“Were-kind? Is that what you call yourselves?”
“You are mankind, and we are were-kind. Those who can shift into our creature self—wolf, bear, lions, coyotes, eagles...”
“Whoa, there are flying werewolves? I mean, were-kind. Were-eagles.”
“And hawks,” he added. “Other shifter forms as well, all throughout the world.”
“The legends are true then, that silver really can kill you?” I said, my curious, academic brain suddenly intrigued.
“For wolves, yes,” he said. “Other shifters have their own particular elemental poison. Nature’s way of balancing the scales, I suppose.”
I gently touched his shoulder, carefully avoiding the still healing wound that was quickly closing and pinking over. “How...how are you feeling?”
“Better. Thank you. Once again.”
“Oh! That’s why you have those herbs, in case something like this happened. I wondered. They never seemed good for much else.”
“Flying Deer gave them to me,” he said.
“She knows then.”
“And Black Crow and his brothers, and Dove, and the elders,” he added. “Others in the village suspect, but are polite enough not to ask. Their people consider my kind their protectors, and we are for the most part. I am, anyhow.”
