When they arrived home, her dad had immediately gone to work on her, and sewn four neat stitches on her forehead. She had not behaved quite as stoically as Rex. Good thing her father was a plastic surgeon, or she might carry a really unpleasant scar for the rest of her life, a constant reminder of her evening. Not that it was likely she would ever forget it.
Her mother, who was now fully clothed, sat across from Tristan and wrapped his paw in a bandage. When she finished, she stood and surveyed the room in the way only Victoria could. Ashlee had seen her do it a million times. It was as if she calculated the risk each person in the room presented to her. Now that she knew her mom could become a canine at will, her mother’s actions made a lot more sense. Finally, when she was finished, she crossed the room to sit next to Ashlee.
“Okay, Ash, I’m going to try my best to explain…”
Ashlee cut in angrily, her words tinged with the outrage she felt. “Start with how you knew about all of this. Why you can turn into a wolf like Tristan and Rex and I didn’t know about it. And why if you knew the impossible could be true,—like say, that it’s possible for a person to have visions that might actually come true—why you let me think I was crazy for the last half of a year. How could you not tell me that those things I was seeing might actually be true?”
Her mother sighed and looked down for a moment. “It’s all a very long story. But I guess, to answer your last question first, your father and I let you think you were crazy because we hoped you were. You’ve never shown any wolf signs. I had no reason to believe you held the magic inside of you. The doctors said you were showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress related to the ending of your engagement, and I chose to believe that was true. I didn’t want you mixed up in this in madness. I thought if I believed hard enough that you were a beautiful, smart, sensitive girl with no special abilities, then that was what you would be. I owe you an apology. I’m sorry, my love.”
Her mother’s eyes had filled with tears that Ashlee watched her blink away. She wanted to reach up and touch her mother but she didn’t. She was mad. Her parents, who knew it was possible she could have visions and exhibit out-of-the-ordinary behavior, had let her think she was crazy because they were scared? It made sense but it infuriated her just the same. She gritted her teeth to keep from yelling. She knew better than to make a scene in front of strangers. It would only make the situation worse.
Her father spoke up, his brown eyes swimming. “That’s why I sent you to the zoo, Ashlee. I thought maybe if you did have the gift, then being around all of those animals might help you somehow.”
“I tried to get him to change his mind. I was wrong again, if your dad hadn’t sent you there, you never would have found Trip. I apologize again.” Her mother looked at her hands.
Ashlee wanted to bang her head against the wall at the utter wrongness of this whole situation. “Okay. Enough apologies. What was done is over. I don’t understand it; I may never. But it was a memory of you telling me monsters were real that convinced me to go and help Tristan tonight. So ultimately you helped all of us, I guess. Please continue your story.” She was surprised at how reasonable she sounded and evidently so were her parents, as they shared a moment of eye contact that Ashlee could only call shock. Her father raised his brown eyebrows in amazement.
Her mother cleared her throat. “Okay. Rex and Tristan can fill in what I don’t know.
We should all be able to hear one another. Your father is my mate, we’ve been through the mating ritual, and that makes him pack. He’ll hear Tristan, as well. You can hear Tristan because you’re his mate, even though you haven’t yet done the ritual.” She paused to take a breath then gestured to Tristan’s brother. “Now, you won’t be able to hear Rex if he goes into telepathy until you go through the ritual and officially become pack, so Rex, keep the talking to the spoken kind for Ashlee’s sake.”
Rex nodded.
Ashlee stared at her mother and wondered if she’d ever really seen her before.
Always the prettiest woman in the room, to Ashlee and her sister she was ethereal, untouchable. But now, Ashlee could see that beyond Victoria’s blonde hair and blue-eyed appearance, stood a woman who possessed a will of steel. She had attacked the snake man with no hesitation even though she was the smallest wolf in the group.
Had there been any sign of any of this when she’d been growing up? Her mother had been strong and confident. She’d never gotten caught up in any of the pettiness that some of her friend’s mothers had seemed preoccupied with. Often they would catch her staring out in the distance, lost in thought. She’d pushed her father professionally and he’d thrived under her influence. Ashlee had been less motivated by her mother’s involvement, always feeling like she didn’t quite measure up, or that she was being judged somehow to see if she was different
But this level of odd Ashlee never could have foreseen.
“You see darling, we are wolf-shifters.” Ashlee opened her mouth to ask a question but her mother cut her off by raising her left index finger. “Or in simple terms, we can take the form of a wolf when we want to. In fact, some of us prefer to live as animals. But not me; I’ve always felt more human. It’s not clear why we can do it, but people from our families have had this ability for at least five hundred years or more. Some people think it’s magic. Some of our kind can even do magic. Before I left the island, I had learned a few simple spells I could control pretty well. I’ve seen enough to believe our shifts are mystical in their origin. Unlike others, I don’t need another reason for what I can do.”
She blew out a breath and sat in silence.
Our kind?
What did that mean?
They weren’t human. Her mother had said she’d hoped Ashlee was just a human girl.
What was she if not human? She pinched the inside of her arm. She certainly felt human.
She didn’t know what to say so she simply said nothing at all, her heart pounding in her chest.
Tristan crossed the room to sit at her feet. Ashlee, don’t you have any questions about this?
“I saw what happened tonight. I know you all became wolves.” She swallowed. “Is Dad a wolf too?”
Her father shook his head. “No baby, I’m not a wolf. Just an ordinary human.”
Ashlee nodded. “Like me. I’ve never become a wolf.”
Her mother rose. “No, honey. We don’t know if you can become a wolf or not. I never saw any sign of it in you, but the truth is that really doesn’t mean anything. Your first change, the first time you shift into wolf form, should be with a pack. Significant magic must be present to facilitate the first change. I went out of my way to never use magic around you, but my little bit of mystical abilities would not have been enough even if I had to push a change on you.”
Ashlee shook her head. “Why do you have to be with the pack?”
“Well, you don’t have to be. But it’s dangerous if you’re not. If a lone wolf awakened by itself, it could be detrimental. The wolf needs to feel the pack immediately to know it’s not alone in the world. Sometimes on the second and third shift too, but my family has always been strong, and the wolf and person are usually fine after the first time. Also, it usually takes a combined effort of the whole pack and the influence of the Alpha to bring on enough magic.” Her mother wrung her hands. “I’ve kept you from the pack. So, we don’t know if you can do it or not. Even if you can’t shift, you’re still obviously unique—what we call latent. You would still have some paranormal gifts that regular humans don’t have.”