Page 78 of Pack Kasen: Part 1

His smile is faint. “You seem surprised.”

This isn’t the way I thought the story was supposed to end. The farmer was supposed to be the first shifter. “But you said…”

“Nine monthslater, his wife gave birth to a son,” he continues, his expression thoughtful. “And it isthisson who was the first shifter.”

“Ah.”

“When her son first became a wolf, she was initially afraid. But this was the son who she had nursed and loved with every fiber of her being. He was a part of herandher dead husband. She could not harm or throw this half-wolf child away. Not even when, as a teenager, he attacked and bit a man who had threatened to take their farm from them. He said nothing to his mother about what he had done. Days after the man disappeared, a rabid looking wolf started attacking people. The villagers eventually banded together to hunt and kill the wolf. Only then did the son admit to his mother what he had done and that the man had run away before he could kill him.”

I understand at once. “The son bit a man and the man became a feral?”

Gregor nods. “The wife was an older woman now and her son, a husky nineteen-year-old. Fearing someone would connect her son to the events, they packed up their belongings, sold everything they could not take with them, and they lefttheir small village for England, boarding the first boat from Southampton to the Americas, in search of a fresh start along with thousands of others.”

My history lessons at school merge with this new shifter history that had initially sounded familiar. “Did she have other children?”

He nods. “She remarried and settled in a small southern town, hoping that whatever had made her son what he was would not occur again.”

“But it must have, right? Otherwise, there would be no shifters.”

His smile is approving. “That’s right. She had three more children with an older widowed man from town.”

“And were they shifters?”

“No.”

I blink at him. “But her son…”

He shrugs. “No one understands why only her son became a shifter, but her other children did not. Perhaps the gene passed from her former husband to the child they created together.”

“What happened to the son?” I ask, curious.

His eyes sparkle. “The son was a large, mysterious and handsome man who drew eyes from all the young women. What do you think happened to him?”

I smile at him. “I think the ladies loved him.”

“They did, and he loved them back. He had come from a small village where everyone knew each other, but in America, he was popular and he loved their attention. We believe some of his offspring became shifters while others remained human. He was careful not to bite any more humans when he was in his wolf form, so we believe his genes spread.” His expression turns thoughtful. “But who is to say that the wolf in their Romanian village was the only one? Perhaps others traveled to the Americas as well. We just know him as the first.”

“Did he ever get married?”

Gregor nods. “He did. He fell in love with a woman and they had five children. With her, he trusted his secret, and it was a good thing he did. Three of their children became shifters, and we know them as the first shifter pack in America.”

History never fascinated me as much as it does now. “Are they still alive?”

“The Wolf Lord of New Orleans is a descendant,” he explains.

“And other ferals?”

His eyes lift to take in the cage that has been slowly killing my wolf. “A long time ago, someone learned that we do not like silver. And so…”

“You use it to cage a feral?” I ask, a bite in my voice.

He studies me. “Prolonged contact with pure silver isn’t just agonizing to our wolves. It stops us from shifting and will eventually kill our wolves. And us. Because we are two halves of the same whole, you can’t cut one half out and expect the other to survive.”

Now I know what the metal is in the cage I’m sitting in, I have external validation about exactly what it’s been doing to me, and I hate the Wolf King even more.

“He didn’t wear a glove when he was holding the end of my chain, and neither did Marisa,” I say. “Does that mean they couldn’t have shifted either?”

Gregor nods.

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