Page 85 of Wolf's Mark

“Very possible. You were being protected.”

I wasn’t certain what I could say at this point. “Protected.” Great. Now I was just regurgitating everything he said.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“That I am not certain of.”

Why did I want to toss pillows at him? Or something sharper. He was lying to me. “The one who guided me from the forest was one of your kind?”

“From what you’ve told me, yes. We aren’t killers. In fact, we almost never shift and haven’t for two decades. There is no need any longer. That was a decision made by a majority of pack members at the time.”

“Democratic vote?” I tried not to laugh.

“Yes.” He was studying me intently and I had a feeling he was searching my mind for information I wasn’t readily supplying him with.

“You’re telling me you’re totally humanized.” This wasn’t a laughing matter, but here I was laughing. Soon, I would fall into hysterics. I finally managed to take a gulp of wine, forced to keep from chugging the entire glass. I’d slipped on a banana peel and hit my head. I was dreaming this insanity. There was no other rational explanation.

“You’re not dreaming, Sedona. This is real.”

“You really can read my mind.”

I’d be damned if the man didn’t smirk and it was sexy as usual.

“Yes, I can. One of my many unusual and very helpful attributes. Most wolves within every Wolfen pack across the world want to remain human however. We live our lives like any other human, including raising a family and going to college. We take out loans and enjoy family barbeques.”

“What else can you do besides…”Fuck like a wild animal.I was completely embarrassed by my irrational thoughts. A warm flush crept up on my cheeks and I turned away.

“Strength. Vision. Hearing. What you’ve read about our keen senses is accurate. But nothing else.”

“Mostly human. I can’t buy any of this, Jax. You must understand why.”

He seemed quite exasperated that I wasn’t accepting everything he was telling me based on our closeness.

“It will take you some time. Wolfen are human except we have a gene inside that allows us to shift if necessary. Yes, there are some additional subtle differences as well.”

“You can breed with humans. Right?”

His nod was deliberate and when he cocked his head, my breath skipped.

“Why hasn’t it been bred out?”

“I will not be as technical as you are, but from what I’ve been told, our DNA takes over a significant percentage of human DNA. However, a good number of us were recently told that what you assume should happen is occurring, just very slowly.”

“Before now, it prevented extinction. A safety mechanism.” Was this suddenly making sense to me? Possibly. While I’d been freaked out after the first victim had become reanimated, I had spent time looking at the tissues. There were anomalies I’d yet to identify.

“Undoubtedly. We have survived many worldwide diseases because of our wolf DNA. But the fear is that we will be no more if the trend of mating with humans continues. It was just ruled that we were no longer allowed to pick and choose who we wanted to marry and have children with.”

“If you survive various diseases, that could help mankind.”

“Humans aren’t supposed to live forever. But yes, I’m certain it’s possible.”

“Do you live forever?”

As he’d done several times before out of frustration, Jax sighed. Was he growing bored with the conversation? Tough. “We canbe killed and some die of heart disease, one human ailment that we do succumb to. I fear there will be more as time continues to go by.”

“Too many fatty foods,” I said in jest.

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