Page 50 of Wolf's Endgame

Lottie sucked her teeth as she watched me chew. “Mostly?”

“I’m something else, too.”

“What is it?” Maggie asked, and I heard her nerves as she spoke.

“You don’t need to know.” Putting the bread down, I looked between them. “I won’t hurt you. Ever. I give you my word…” I knew I was doing the right thing. “But I can’t tell you. It’s dangerous for you to know, and I won’t put you in danger.”

“Are we in danger with you being here?”

I held Maggie’s stare. “Possibly.”

She looked at Lottie, and Lottie nodded at the unspoken question she saw in Maggie’s eyes. “Go. I’ll be fine here. Zia would never hurt me.”

Maggie’s head dipped. “I want to stay, I do, but…”

“I killed three men, I disappeared, I turn up naked and confused, and I just told you I’m not fully human and it could be dangerous me being here.” I smiled at her. “Honestly? You’re crazy if you stay.”

“You sure?” she asked Lottie, and when the older woman nodded, Maggie squeezed Lottie’s hand and hurried to the door. She hesitated on her way out. “I won’t tell anyone I saw you, Zia.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I appreciate that.”

Her eyes turned soft as she looked at me. “I really am glad you’re okay. Stay safe.”

The door closed behind her, and I turned to look at Lottie. “Stay safe but not here.” I picked my bread up again. “I can go.”

“It’s cold out. You can stay here. I reckon your kin knows how to find you.” She was slicing more of the bread. “Want some bacon to go with this?”

“Well, now I do.”

As I finished my first slice, we were quiet as I watched her fry the bacon to a lovely crispness and then carried on cremating it even when I tried to politely tell her it was ready. Nevertheless, when she placed the four formerly-known-as-bacon slices in front of me, I added them to my new slice of bread, folded the slice in half, and ate my sandwich. Lottie ate her own slice of bread, and we sat in comfortable silence. It was familiar and it settled me.

“You a werewolf?”

I almost choked on my meal. When I recovered enough to answer, I shook my head. “I told you I won’t tell you.”

“Okay.” She took a large swallow of tea. “Nod, don’t speak. Are you a werewolf?”

Sneaky. I liked sneaky, so I nodded and saw her eyes widen a little. “Shifter, not a werewolf. We prefer shifter.” I sniffed. “We don’t need the moon to shift.”

“Ah, I wondered.” Lottie looked down at her plate and then back up at me. “So you are both?” When she saw my confusion, she elaborated. “Wolf and girl.”

“Yes.”

“Just a wolf?”

Her question made me smile a little. “There’s no just about it.”

“You don’t shift into anything else?” I shook my head. “I have questions. Questions I know I shouldn’t ask, and even if I did, you’d shut up quicker than a clam.” Leaning back in her seat, she shook her head a little as she looked me over. “Did they deserve it? To die?”

“Yes.”

She looked out the window, her gaze thoughtful. “Knew you were different the first night I saw you slipping outside that cabin into the woods naked.” Lottie ignored my startled look. “Thought you were one of the new-age pray-at-the-moon people.” She harrumphed. “I’ve always been too straightlaced to be a hippie. Free love in the sixties meant being a little too freer than I was comfortable with.” She sniffed with disdain. “All manner of diseases going around. No siree. Not for me.”

“You thought I was a hippie?”

“You were a drifter. Young. Carefree. Forgive me that I thought that before I thought werewolf.” Her dry tone made me grin.

“Shifter.”

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