CHAPTER 7 #4
“It worked, in time, though we lost hundreds of wolves to the war in the interim.
Eventually, the war became too costly for the vampires, and they left the area to seek out easier food sources among the chaos of the Wild West, where people died so easily from cholera and typhus and gunshot wounds that no one would notice all the corpses drained of blood.
“We didn’t trust them not to come back. So far removed from modernity, the breeding program continued right up until the 1970s, when decades of petty infighting among our clans erupted into outright civil war. We’d bred ourselves to be powerful and vicious, and we tore each other apart.
“Technology was moving in at that time, and we, in our wilderness enclave, were unaware of the threat it posed.
A very old vampire came to speak to us one night about it.
She told us why we must set our differences aside, that protecting the truth of preternaturals from the rest of the world was paramount to the continued existence of all of us.
“We didn’t listen. By the eighties, we had decimated our own population and exposed ourselves several times to nearby humans.
Thankfully, that vampire was there to clean up our messes.
But by the nineties, she’d had enough. It was clear that nothing would stop us until we’d destroyed ourselves in such a spectacular way that the entire world would know about it. ”
My gaze drifted past Lizzy, memories clouding my sight, a haunted note creeping into my tone.
“She came in the night, alone. I’ve never felt anything else like her.
Vampires get stronger with every passing year, and she was so old that her power made my bones hurt.
How we could have been foolish enough to ignore her, I’ll never understand.
Even with our superior numbers and two hundred years of selective breeding, we didn’t stand a chance.
She culled all of the adults who wouldn’t see reason, which was most of them, including my birth parents.
Sometimes I still dream about that night, my four-year-old self wandering barefoot through the slaughter as I called out for help. ”
“Jesus Christ,” someone swore.
I blinked and came back to myself. “The survivors were split up, sent to live with other packs. I landed with the Fitzpatricks, and the rest is history. So to answer your earlier question,” I said, turning toward the Kolbecks’ alpha, “that’s what I bring to the table.
Monstrous size in wolf form, so much power that I have to constantly mute it or else fight every wolf I encounter, and enough strength to beat a vampire to death with an affordable midsize sedan. ”
Across the table, Amy choked back a laugh.
Her mother was less amused. “We walk a delicate tightrope of a ceasefire masquerading as peace. Your people’s brutality is a risk we can’t afford. If you snap and take someone’s head off, it will be shattered.”
“They’re not my people,” I told her. “The Fitzpatricks are. And just so you know, I’ve never so much as seriously maimed someone.
I’m sure you’re aware that the White Mountain pack is known for their control of the shift.
Few wolves outside our area have mastered it like we have.
I was damn near feral when I was adopted, and my parents spent years trying to save me from myself or from being killed by Brian, our alpha, because of the threat I represented.
You might not trust me, but he’s only a phone call away.
He can assure you that I’ve never been a problem. ”
“Up there, perhaps,” she said. “But you’ll find the city will afford you with far more opportunities for violence than the backwoods you’re accustomed to.”
In answer, I set my right elbow on the table and raised my hand.
Concentrating, I opened my mind, calling to my wolf form.
The cage around my power weakened, enough escaping that soon my fingertips began to tingle.
I flexed them, and fur pushed through my pores.
My nails thickened and lengthened, turning into claws.
Mingled smells of surprise, unease, and deep discomfort filled the room. I guess the Kolbecks hadn’t seen this little parlor trick before.
I stopped the shift halfway down my forearm, then pulled my left hand up and placed my other elbow on the table, showing them a still fully human hand. It wasn’t until I’d proven to Brian I had this much control that he stopped ordering his enforcers to trail my every move.
“Holy shit,” Lizzy breathed.
“Language, Elizabeth,” her mother said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Michael place his right hand, the same hand I had shifted, on top of the table, his fingers spread wide as he stared down at it.
Near panic came through the bond, and I felt him struggling not to shift as well.
With a thought, I pulled my power back and let my human form reclaim dominance.
The fur melted smoothly back into my skin, and my claws retracted with a prickly sensation.
Michael rubbed his fingers together as though scratching my itch.
I turned back to the head of the table. “If I have this much control over my shift, imagine the rein I have over my more problematic instincts.”
Michael’s mother smiled at me, the first warm look I had seen on her face. “In that case, welcome to the family, Layla.”