Page 102 of Wolf's Chance

“McLeod.”

“Not Harper?” Caleb asked.

“No, Harper is from the home I was in, Harper’s Home for Girls.”

“You took your name from the orphanage?” he asked me with surprise.

“It’s the name I was given when they found me,” I murmured, aware of the scrutiny from the others in the room.

“You lived in an orphanage, you were fostered by the McLeods,” Doc summarized quickly, “they died in a car crashwhen you were sixteen, and you took ill and developed ME after it. Right?”

“All you’re missing is the big red book,” I grumbled. Seeing the blank faces, I shook my head. “This Is Your Life? No? Okay. Forget it. Itisold, I suppose.” Seeing them all look at me, I shrugged. “Sorry.”

“What age are you?” Cannon suddenly asked me.

“Twenty-six.”

“Ten years,” he mused, his gaze locked on Caleb’s. “Coincidence?”

“What is?” I asked, looking between the two of them. “What’s a coincidence?”

Caleb’s lips were pressed together in a thin line. “I think so,” he said, ignoring my questions and Cannon’s skeptical look.

“It’s not a coincidence,” the shaman said.Hisattention had never left me, and I would have welcomed the relief of him looking away. It was unnerving. I felt as if he was seeing much more than just my physical body in front of him. “Nor is it random.”

“Luna?” Cannon asked doubtfully. “Why?” He sounded as bewildered as I felt.

“I’m human,” I reminded them. I felt that someone had to point my humanity out to them. “I don’t interest your God.”

“Goddess,” three voices corrected immediately.

Oh-kay. “Right.”

The shaman turned his head, his attention moving to the man who still stood beside me. “It’s been ten years, Caleb.”

What had?

“You’re stretching.” His voice was tight with controlled fury.

“Am I?” The old man leaned back in his chair, so unassuming, but as I watched him, I realized something I hadn’t picked up from him before: he radiated power.

Now that I had noticed it, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. A fact he noticed, because his gaze fell back on me. “You see it now?”

I didn’t know whatitwas, but I knew whatever it was, I did, I could see it. I wasn’t one for talking about auras or any of that mumbo jumbo—that was more Lily’s thing, telling me about burning sage and stuff. But sitting here, in a room full of supernaturals, I could feel their presence as more than just four men in a room.

“I don’t…” I blew out a breath. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s something.”

That earned me a small smile from him. “You’ve been brave,” he suddenly complimented me. “A lot has been thrown at you, and you have taken it in your stride.”

I coughed out a laugh. “I wouldn’t say that. Caleb had to deal with my bedridden ass for three days and then carry me up this mountain.”

“Yet you are here,” the shaman said. “You. Not anyone else.”

I didn’t have a comeback. Instead, I said nothing, knowing my cheeks were burning from the praise and the attention.

“So…” Cannon’s voice drew the shaman’s attention away. “We’re right, they’re linked?”

The shaman nodded. “Undoubtedly.”

---