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  Chapter 2

  My confusion only grew as Brandon pulled up in front of Bill Hayes' house. Bill had been my father's best friend for as long as I could remember. Why on earth were we here when Brandon said he was taking me to see the pack leader?

  When Brandon opened his door to get out, I asked, "Why are we at Bill's house?"

  "You know the Anikitos?"

  "I don't know who this Ani-key-toes you keep talking about is, but I do know that this is Bill Hayes' house. Bill is Dad's best friend. I've known Bill my whole life."

  "Do you trust him?" Brandon wanted to know.

  "Well, yeah, of course I do."

  "Good. Then this'll be easier for you. You already know he's not going hurt you, and you know you're in good hands if you, or he, want me to leave."

  "You keep acting like one of us is going to throw you out or something. Why would we do that? You're my friend, you're telling me that you and he are the same thing I supposedly am, so why would we throw you out?"

  "It's a Kindred thing, and he's the Anikitos, the boss. If he says jump I ask how high and then I do it. End of story. I know you don't get it now, but later you'll understand. Maybe not right away, but eventually, you'll get it. I just want you to be prepared, in case it happens."

  "Okay, if you say so, I'll take your word for it. Let's just get this over with," I said, opening my door and climbing out of the car, the heat of the day rushing in to smack me in the face after the cool temperatures from the air conditioning in the car. I was starting to feel the ravening hunger I had felt earlier return. "When we're through here can we find something to eat? I'm starving."

  "I don't see why not, but let's see how things go here before we make any solid plans."

  He had already made his way up the short walkway and was standing at the door by the time I managed to tiptoe around the car on my bare feet.

  I'm so glad that Bill keeps this place so shady, it's saving me from burning my feet now. Brandon rang the doorbell while I was still padding carefully up the sandstone walkway. By the time I got to the door, it been opened and Karen, Bill's wife, was standing in the open doorway.

  "Alekto, I offer my apologies for showing up without warning, but the Anikitos ordered me to bring Nickie to him as soon as possible," Brandon said to Karen in a formal and subservient tone. It baffled me as I'd never seen Brandon behave in such a manner. I looked back and forth between the two of them and I noticed that Brandon was carefully avoiding looking Karen in the face. What's going on here?

  "Not a problem, Brandon. Bill told me you would be coming. I'm glad to see you both, come on in, Bill's in his office. Nickie," She said, turning to face me for the first time, "You know where it is. Please let Bill know I'll be there in just a moment. Is there anything I can get for you on my way?"

  My stomach chose that moment to let us all know just how hungry I was, and it growled loudly. I felt the blood rush to my face as I blushed bright red.

  "Did you have anything to eat after shifting?" She asked kindly.

  "I had a couple of protein bars." I said, trying to pretend that had been enough to satisfy me.

  "Oh, dear! Is that all?" She seemed surprised.

  "Sorry, Ma'am, it's all I had in the car, and the Anikitos told me to bring her straight here." Brandon put in apologetically.

  "Ah, no worries then," She smiled, "I'll just put something together for you, and then I'll bring it in with me. You two go on in and see Bill though, he's waiting for you."

  I led Brandon down the hall toward Bill's office. I'd been here many times before with my Dad and I'd thought I knew Bill well, but apparently not as well as I had thought. I wonder if Dad knows about Bill being some kind of werewolf leader? I didn't know Karen quite as well, but we'd always gotten along well. The door to Bill's office was standing open, and I stuck my head in first, looking to make sure he was actually in there before I just walked in. He looked up from the papers he had been studying on his desktop and I could see a smile jump to his face, as though he had been unsure who was coming in the door.

  "Nickie!" he said as he stood up, pushing the wheeled chair backward with his movement. He skirted his desk and approached me. "I'm so glad to see you, and that you're safe and sound too.

  "Why don't you come on over here and have a seat? Then you can tell me exactly what happened today," He invited as he guided me with an arm around my shoulders toward the sofa and chairs arranged into a conversation area at the opposite end of the long, narrow room from his desk.

  "I thought Brandon already told you what happened?" I asked him, confused. I took a seat in my favorite of the large black leather chairs. Curling my bare feet under me as I settled into the comfortably familiar overstuffed seat. I could remember many hours spent in this same chair over the years, listening to Bill and Dad talk.

  "He did, but I'd like to hear it from you, if you don't mind." He told me as he sat down on the matching leather sofa across from me. Only Brandon was still standing, he looked uncomfortable and like he was waiting to be told what to do next.

  "If that's what you want, I don't mind. Oh!" I said, suddenly remembering, "Karen said she'd join us in a few minutes, and to let you know."

  "That's fine…" Bill said, and he, almost absently, pointed at Brandon and then to the other chair in the seating area, silently ordering him to have a seat, but his eyes never left me.

  I was quiet for a moment as I tried to decide what to say. "Where do you want me to start?" I asked, does he want just the shift or what led up to it, or everything that happened to me in the last few months since we've seen each other?

  "Wherever you want to. Where were you, what were you doing? Tell me as much as you feel comfortable with."

  "Ok…" I said, deciding to start with this morning, "Well, Brandon and I left early this morning…" I told Bill what happened, getting caught up in the memory of it. "The next thing I knew I was looking up at Brandon and he just looked so surprised. He said something like he thought it would never happen, and at the time I had no idea what he meant. It was several more minutes before I realized I wasn't human anymore."

  "You were, and still are the same person you've always been, Dear, you just weren't in human form," Bill said firmly, "Remember that. You are always you, no matter what shape your body takes. You were still able to think weren't you?" I nodded. "Then you're still you. End of story."

  I nodded, accepting his reassurance, and continued my story, "He picked up my back pack and told me to follow him back to the car. I have to admit it took me a few minutes but once I got the hang of it, the trip was a lot easier on four legs instead of two. Anyway, we got back to the car, and Brandon got these out of the trunk," I said pulling at the loose black sweats I was wearing, "He told me how to shift back. After I got dressed, he gave me a couple of protein bars, he told me I'm not crazy and I'm something called Kitsune, and that you and he are too, and then he brought me here." I turned to look at Brandon, "Why did you have these in the trunk anyway?" I asked.

  "I always carry an extra set of clothes." He said, shrugging.

  "Oh," I only have clothes in my car for specific reasons, so I didn't know what to say to him.

  "Can you tell me exactly how you managed to shift back to human form?" Bill asked, once again taking control of the conversation.

  "I just listened to Brandon and did what he told me to do. I pictured my human body and concentrated on how badly I wanted to be back in it, and it worked. When I opened my eyes I was normal again."

  Bill turned to Brandon, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, and asked, "And you didn't help her?"

  "No, Sir, that's not something I have the Talent for. I just told her how to do it. I was hoping that she could manage it on her own. If anyone has the force of will to manage their first deliberate shift without help, it would be Nickie," He said, I found his confidence in me startling, but at the same time comforting and reassuring.

  "And what would you have done if she hadn't been able
shift back on her own?" Bill questioned.

  "Wait a second," I interrupted, feeling myself start to panic again, "Are you saying I could have been trapped as a wolf? That I could have been unable to shift back?"

  "Kind of, but not really, or more accurately not for long." Bill said gently, "I'll get to that in a minute, but I want this answered first. Just give us a second." He turned back to Brandon and his voice hardened. "Well?"

  "I'd have brought her here to you. I called you while she was trying to shift, I didn't know if she would manage it or not at that point. If she hadn't managed, I would have told her what I could and kept her as calm as I could while I brought her to you. I know that our Harmonia has the talent to call and restrict animal forms, and once I got Nickie to you, you would have been able to see to it that Nickie got the help she needed to shift back to human form."

  "Very well," Bill said, seeming to find the answer acceptable. He turned back to me and his tone softened again, as if he had gone from speaking to an employee to a beloved family member, "As Brandon just said, we have someone who would have been able to help you to return to human form. Being stuck, as you put it, would only have been a temporary inconvenience." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to relax away some of the tension that had seized my body when I thought I could have been trapped as a wolf. "Now, how are you feeling? Physically, at least, I'm sure your mind is spinning at all the new information."

  "Honestly? I'm starving."

  "That's to be expected. After all, you've shifted, not once but twice, and healed the snakebite too I’m sure, in a very short amount of time. Changing shapes takes a lot of energy, even shifting once will make you hungry, and two energy bars aren’t nearly enough to replace what you’ve burned. I'm willing to bet if I know my wife," Bill smiled fondly as he thought of Karen, "That's what's taking Karen so long. She's taking the time to fix you something to eat."

  "She did say she was going to put something together before she joined us." I recalled.

  "Very well," He said, he turned to Brandon and again his voice cooled as he spoke to him, "You're free to go." It sounded like a dismissal and I looked at Brandon, expecting him to protest being treated like a subordinate.

  Brandon looked at me and asked, "Are you all right here without me or do you want me to stay?" I saw Bill's eyebrows rise at this, as though Brandon's not immediately leaving surprised him.

  I turned back to Bill, "When Brandon told me he was taking me to see the pack leader, I had no clue who that might be, and I admit I was more than a little nervous. I made him promise not to just drop me off or leave me somewhere I wasn't comfortable. He promised that he wouldn't leave me anywhere without my permission." Looking back at Brandon I said, "I'm fine here if you want to go. Bill will take good care of me and see to it that I make it home, I'm certain."

  "Of course," Bill agreed easily.

  "But I'm going to need my backpack out of your car, it has my PCD and some other things I'm gonna want in it."

  "No problem, I'll bring it in before I go. Give me a call when you can, we'll get together," Brandon said before turning back to Bill, "If you'll excuse me, Sir."

  Bill nodded and Brandon backed out of the room, almost as though he didn't want to turn his back on Bill.

  I must have had a confused look on my face because Bill asked me, "What has you so baffled, Dear?"

  "Him, you, all of it. I'm going to ignore everything that's happened to me today and just let that process for a while. But what I can't understand right now is Brandon acting almost afraid of you. I've never seen him act like that before with anyone but you, and Karen when we got here."

  "It's not fear exactly, more like healthy respect. I'm the Anikitos for our pack. The pack alpha, for lack of a better term. It's a position I had to earn by battle and dominance. Simply put, I'm the strongest and the most powerful in the group, and I have the right to punish or have punished anyone in the pack, as I see fit, and Karen as well, though her title is Alekto. Normally he's not quite so submissive, but I think he was a bit afraid that after you were injured and shifted so suddenly I would be angry. Maybe a bit more so after he found out how well we know each other."

  "Oh," I was still confused, but not sure what else to say. I was still watching the doorway that Brandon had left through, but I wasn't really focusing. I'd let my eyes go distant as I thought about what he was telling me.

  "Now," Bill said, changing the subject, "Would you mind showing me the wound where the snake bit you?"

  I shook my head slightly, jarring myself from my thoughts of what he had told me about Brandon and pulled my attention back to him.

  "Not at all." I scooted forward in the chair pulling my right leg out from underneath me and sliding the elasticized bottom of the leg on the ill-fitting black sweats up to my knee. I carefully propped my bare foot on the edge of the table that was situated between the sofa and chairs and leaned my leg to one side so that the spot we were looking for was on top. "Here it is," I pointed to a spot on the side of my calf, "You can see the marks, but they look days old and mostly healed now, more like healing scrapes than any kind of puncture or bite." I looked from them up at him and back down at my leg again, "I really don't understand how that can be." I tilted my head to one side and watching him for his reaction.

  Bill slid forward in his seat until he was just barely seated on the edge of the couch and leaned forward so that he could get a better look at the marks on the meaty part of my calf. He reached forward with one hand but stopped mere millimeters shy of touching me. "It appears that your shifting has healed any damage that the venom might have done, not that it had time to do much damage and it's well on its way to healing the wound, too.”

  "It wasn't quite this healed when I shifted the second time, in the car. I could still see a wound, it was starting to scab over but now it looks at least a week old."

  "That's not uncommon, the worst of the damage was healed when you first shifted, it healed more with your second shift and now your body’s working on finishing up."

  "But how, I just don't understand?"

  "Well, I wasn't there, so I can't tell you for certain, but I can give you my best guess based on my experience with Kitsune healing…"

  "Okay," I told him as I waited to hear what he could tell me. Maybe he'll say something that will help me understand what's happening to me.

  "Well, we already know that you panicked, you admitted it when you told me what happened today. I would place bets that your panic in turn sent your wolf into a panic. Though you have yet to know her, your wolf knows you well since she is a part of you, and she knew that if you were in a panic then you and therefore she, was in danger of dying. So she took charge, forcing you to change. The process of your change itself pushed the venom back out the open wound and healed any damage that it had done so far.

  "You said that you were bitten, panicked and then found yourself in wolf form. I'm assuming this happened in the space of just two or three minutes? There probably wasn't a great deal of damage yet, so the healing needed for that would have been minimal."

  "It seemed like hours at the time, but in reality, it was probably no more than two minutes. Brandon wasn't far ahead of me on the trail. I heard him stop when I fell, and it probably took him less than a minute to cover the distance and by the time he managed to reach me, he looked so surprised, so I must have already shifted."

  Bill nodded. "That makes sense," He said as he moved to sit back on the couch again, "I realize this has to be more than a little bit of a shock to you."

  "What did Brandon mean when he said he thought it would never happen? How could he know that I might someday shift?" I pushed the leg of the sweats down my leg and settled back into the chair again. The discussion about the process of my shifting reminded me again of the statement. "And you don't seem particularly surprised, why not?"

  "I'm not surprised. I've known for years that there was a possibility that you would shift. And Brandon knew it
was a possibility, because I told him."

  "And you never said anything to me? What about Dad?" Bill was shaking his head and I knew he hadn't told Dad either. "Why would you say something to Brandon, but not to us?" I couldn't hide the hurt and confusion in my voice.

  "I couldn't, not until I knew if you were actually going to shift."

  "What do you mean? If you could tell that I’m one of these Kitsune, how couldn't you know if I would shift?"

  "Because being a Kitsune doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be able to shift, you can be one of us, but not shift. To be Kitsune, you either have one or both parents who are shape-shifters, but having either doesn't guarantee that you will be able to shift yourself. I'll simplify it some. You took Biology while you were in college, didn't you?" I nodded, "Think of it in terms of genes, the ability to shift is a dominant gene. But sometimes something goes wrong and someone who should shift for some reason can't. It may actually be some kind of genetic defect that we haven't found yet. If you have one human parent and one Kitsune, any children they have will be shifters. If you have two Kitsune parents, the children will most likely be shifters, but it's not guaranteed. It is also possible for two non-shifting Kitsune offspring produce a shifting child, but it is rare, and can only happen with the first generation of non-shifters. Either way, shifting or non-shifting, they are still Kitsune."

  "So, basically, what you're telling me is that one or both of my birth parents was a Kitsune?

  "Certainly."

  "Well, I guess that's more than I've ever known about either of them before…"

  "I've put a lot of thought, and a bit of money toward investigations, into your situation over the years. And before you ask, no, your father has no clue of the research I've had done into where you came from.

  "As far as I can tell, it's most likely that if it was just one parent, which I believe it was, it was your father who was Kitsune. The way some people are, it's entirely possible he may have never even known of the pregnancy or you. I can also say with some certainty, that if your mother was Kitsune her pack either never knew of her pregnancy or she told them she had miscarried. I checked with other packs all over the country when you were a baby and there was no knowledge of who you could belong to.

  "Because you were one of the first baby's surrendered under the Safe Haven laws, it’s impossible to know much about either of your parents without some kind of DNA test to prove the relationship. They just didn't get that kind of information then.

  "I'm giving you all the information I've been able to find out, but it's not much. You were under 72 hours old when a young woman handed you to a fireman in a Phoenix fire station, so the date of birth that your parents were given is accurate within a day or so. The records of your surrender say that she told the firefighter that she couldn't take care of you like you needed, that your father never knew you existed, and that she hoped you would be given to someone who could give you the life you deserved, and then she left. There was a cursory search through police and court records to make sure there were no babies reported missing, no custody disputes that you could have been part of, and then you were put up for adoption.

  "Her story supports my theory that it was your father that was Kindred, most Kindred girls, if they find themselves pregnant with a child they just can't raise or don't want, will find someone among the Kindred who is more than willing to take the child in. We don't, as a practice, voluntarily give up our children to people who don't know what we are."

  "It sounds like you tried to find out who gave me up."

  "I did. Not that it would have changed your life much. I never would have done anything to try to have you taken from your parents, but I could have had a better idea whether or not you had the ability to change, and I could possibly have let you in on the secret earlier. If I had known more I could have made this less of a shock to you." I nodded, glad he could see that my parents love us all just the way we are, and that he cared enough to try to find out where I came from.

  "I knew the first time I saw you, when your parents first brought you home, that you had Kindred blood. I could tell by your scent that you had the blood of a shifter. The offspring of a non-shifter doesn't have that Kindred smell unless they’ll be able to shift. But I had no way of telling if you would have the ability to shift or not. Since the shifting of the Kindred isn't tied to the moon, it's also possible that even if you could shift that you never actually would, since you wouldn't know to try. That's part of why I tried to find out where you had come from."

  "Not tied to the moon? You mean I won't turn into a wolf every full moon?"

  "Not unless you choose to," He said, "Not only are we not forced to change on the full moon, we aren't forced to change ever. Yes, your shift was sudden and unexpected, but I wouldn’t consider it forced. It was your wolf's way of saving you. The moon has no effect on us at all, it's not easier to change during the full moon, the new moon or any other time."

  "But I thought we were werewolves?"

  "No. Werewolves are pure fiction, though they may have some, slight, basis in fact. Some Kindred choose to shift during the full moon, because they can see better, unfortunately, they are also more easily seen. It doesn't take a silver bullet to kill us, though, don't get me wrong, a sliver bullet will do the job, but so will most others. We aren't immortal, we just heal faster than most. Any wound that would be instantly fatal will still kill us."

  "I see," I tried to think, "Why tell Brandon that I might shift?"

  "Brandon came to me after his first shift and told me that he could tell you were Kindred. I explained to him what he needed to know. And just as importantly, how he couldn't say anything to you about it, but that I needed him to watch you for signs that you would or had shifted

  "So Brandon has only been my friend because you ordered him to watch me?" I asked, feeling betrayed. I wondered how I couldn’t have known he had been my friend because he was ordered to.

  "Actually, no. Brandon has been your friend for how long? Since you both started Kindergarten together, right? That makes what, twenty years?"

  "Yeah, about that."

  "Brandon was sixteen the first time he shifted. So if you’ll the math, you’ll see he was your friend for eleven years before he came to me. And for the record, I only told him to watch you, to keep an eye out for you, because he was already your friend."

  "I see," I calmed down and told myself to stop jumping to conclusions. I really wasn’t sure how I felt about the situation but it was more than a little upsetting to be finding this all out now.

  "Generally, Kindred children are raised knowing what they are, or what they could be.” Bill continued, “They’re taught to keep the secret from their first words and steps and somewhere in their mid to late teens, they're taught how to shift. Shifting’s not impossible to shift before then, but it's uncommon. It generally only happens in life threatening situations, when an animal form fears for its life and forces the change, like yours did.

  "For someone who had no clue what she was or what was going on, to suddenly shift and manage to shift back to human so soon, and without help, is really a big deal. It's uncommon for someone who's known what they are their entire life to manage the first shift without help."

  "But I did have help, Brandon told me what to do, how to shift back."

  "That's not the kind of help I mean. What I mean is another Kindred either feeding you power or helping by forcing your animal form to retreat."

  "Kindred? You've used the word several times now, what do you mean by it?"

  "Kindred is a term we use among ourselves, instead of pack or Kitsune. It helps to protect our secret from normal. If they never hear you refer to Pack or Kitsune, they can't get suspicious and start asking questions. Kindred is an old fashion term for family, more commonly it's shortened to kin these days. But we use the full word, and it means a member of the pack or Kitsune."

  I was silent for a moment, unsure what to say. I was saved from having to say
anything when Karen walked into the room carrying a plate filled with chunks of fruit and cheese.

  "Here's you a snack, I’ve dinner started and I expect you to stay and let me feed you that as well," She sat the plate on the small table between the two chairs. The sight of the food made my stomach growl again, and I felt my face redden with embarrassment.

  Bill chuckled "Go ahead. I know you've got to be starving, and I've been grilling you instead of feeding you."

  "Help yourself," Karen said, "I know you're hungry. And Brandon brought your bag inside, it's waiting for you next to the front door when you need it."

  "It's fine where it is, but I'll need it when I go home."

  "Why don't you go ahead and get something to eat and let it all sink in. I'm sure once the shock of it all wears off, you'll have plenty of questions."

  "Alright," I said, shifting in my chair so I could easily reach the plate. I took a few pieces of cheese and popped them, one at a time, into my mouth as Karen spoke up

  "Dinner shouldn't be too much longer, but I knew you'd be starving."

  "Thanks," I said between bites as I quietly ate the snack. I’d almost cleared the plate when it occurred to me, "Brandon said no one knows about the Kitsune, that it's a well-kept secret." I looked up at Bill for the first time in a while.

  "That's right." Bill waited to see where I was going with this.

  "Does this mean I can't tell my family about all this?"

  "I've known your father for years, and I trust him. I’ll agree to you sharing what you are, and by extension what we are, with your parents, if you want, that’s up to you. I'll even help you tell them, help you answer any questions that they might have. However, that's it. You can't tell your siblings, or your friends."

  "I guess I can understand that. Can you give me a few days to process all that has happened and to decide?"

  "Sure, take all the time you like. Here, let me give you a card." Bill got up and went to his desk, "This has mine and Karen's phone numbers as well as numbers for the pack's Lysandros and Harmonia.

  “If you have any difficulties, anything at all, give one of us a call. You should be able to get someone at any given time, day or night." He handed me a business card. I looked at it as he continued to speak, "If for some reason you can't reach one of us, and you need someone, call the emergency number. It's a line that's kept staffed at all times, they'll ask some questions about what is going on so that they can send someone to help you. But no guarantees it will be someone you know, just that it's someone high enough in the pack, and with the right skills to help," On the card were neatly printed four names, including Bill and Karen, and a number next to each, there was also a fifth number labeled Emergency. I flipped the card over, looking for more, but the other side was blank, the names and numbers were all that was on the card.

  "I have one more question, for now, I think.”

  Bill lifted his brows and waited for me to ask.

  “Will I be suddenly changing again? Am I safe to go home and be alone? Will I wake up in the morning only to discover that I'm a wolf again? I guess that was more than one question." I said sheepishly.

  "You're safe to go home, the only way you'll wake up as a wolf in the morning is if something threatens you enough to bring your wolf to the surface to protect you. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, shifting is voluntary and deliberate. Even dreaming won't bring on a change. Your wolf will know the difference between a dreamed threat and real one."

  I sighed, relieved. "That's really good to know, I was worried."

  Karen insisted that I stay for dinner, saying something about making sure I was properly fed after shifting and then Bill drove me home.

  "Thanks for the ride," I hugged him before climbing out of the cab of the truck.

  "Think nothing of it," He watched from the driver’s seat of his pick-up as I gingerly carried my backpack along the cool sidewalk to my building and carefully, because of my bare feet, climbed the stairs. I waved and smiled at him before I let myself into my apartment. It was only after I was safely inside that he backed out of the parking space and left.