Page 16 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“Well, it sounds like it would only be your son. There are no known wolves in all of Oregon. There are some up in Northern Seattle, but shifters are rare nowadays in North America. Most of them immigrated to Australia back when that became the shifter world.” Hilda stated everything like it was common knowledge.

“Great, so I’m a party of one,” I murmured, still trying to get used to the idea that I’d turned into a wolf.

“You have us,” Mae said with a grin.

“We will help you get settled as much as possible,” Hilda said.

“I want to find out why Trina thought that I had werewolf blood in me.” I took the cup of steaming tonic Hilda held out for me. “What in God’s name made her give me that tonic?”

Chapter 12

I agreed to go up to The Estate for the evening. Not only because I wanted to confront Trina, but also because I didn’t want to be alone. I had been alone for most of my adult life, besides my son. Typically, I didn’t mind, but the fact I was now a werewolf and likely to shift into a wild snarling beast at any point in the upcoming future was a little more than I had expected to take on this week. The idea of being around people, especially people that understood what I was, probably better than I did, wasn’t such a bad idea.

I had been curious about The Estate ever since I was a little kid, but there was never any chance to go in it. Not with the Hayes in charge. The Hayes was the title that had been given to Mae’s aunt when she had taken over ownership of The Estate. As the owner of The Estate, the Hayes ruled the cemetery around it and made everybody fear to go up in that direction. We all knew the cemetery was off-limits, though it didn’t stop some of the town kids from trying to get in. Heck, it didn’t stop us from going, but something always happened, to keep us out. To this day I still didn’t know anyone who had actually been inside the cemetery. Well, I didn’t until now. As the new owner, Mae had obviously been into the cemetery.

I had gone up to The Estate to look for Mae, but that was the closest I had ever been.

Just to the front doorstep.

Now As I climbed the stairs with Mae in front of me and Hilda behind me, I knew I was going to go inside. I couldn’t stop the small thrill of excitement that pumped through my blood at the thought of it. I finally get to go into the Hayes house, The Estate, and see what it was like.

The door creaked open, and Mae walked in, straight toward the kitchen. I entered the foyer and paused there for a moment. It was a large room with three doors and an archway leading off from it and a large staircase going to the second floor. The house itself was a Victorian two-story house, built in a time when there was plenty of wood but less money. Even for the prosperous Hayes family, this had been a large enough house to build in Cougar Creek, but for me, it was a mansion compared to my small two-bedroom, one bath cottage. I didn’t mind. I loved my cottage, but this was just magnificent. I took a deep breath. I wanted to look in every room, but I knew it was a little bit rude to ask to.

“Get into the kitchen and face your demons then,” Hilda said.

“What do you mean?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“How was the tonic?” Trina called from the kitchen.

“Oh, I see.” I turned with purpose and walked with a firm stride to the kitchen. I wanted to find out what Trina knew and what she thought she knew. I didn’t even hesitate when I first saw her. “What made you think I was a werewolf?”

“Well, I thought you had supernatural blood, but I never guessed it would be werewolf. I mean, I know you like dogs, but you never struck me as a werewolf type. You’re kind of sweet to be a werewolf.”

“She’s sweet, but direct.” Mae busied herself stoking the fire that lined one wall of the large kitchen.

I wasn’t that direct. I wasn’t about to tell them how my feelings got hurt the night I showed up and wasn’t invited in. I wasn’t going to tell them how much I wanted to be a part of their club. I knew how pathetic that would sound, and there was no way I was going to be pitiful.

“What made you think that I had supernatural blood, and if you thought that, why didn’t you do anything about it before? I’ve known you my whole life... Literally my whole life. We went to kindergarten together. Now here we are in our forties, and you finally give me a tonic to release my latent magic powers?”

“It’s not my fault you didn’t know you were a werewolf,” Trina said coldly. “It’s not that I don’t feel for you, I do. It’s just it’s not my fault, so if you’re angry take it out on somebody else.”

“You still didn’t answer my question,” I pointed out. There was no way I was going to back down.

Trina rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “You sparkle,” she said succinctly.

“What are you talking about?” That was the last thing I was expecting to hear.

“Yeah, what are you talking about,” Mae asked, tilting her head to the side to look at Trina.

“She can see auras,” Hilda said. “It’s a rare gift. Sometimes it’s mixed blood or something that’ll do that to you, but it’s rare to see it in a witch.

“So, what you were saying is you can see my aura –“

“– yes… And it sparkles,” Trina said.

“Why did you not tell me that before now?”

“There didn’t seem to be a very good reason until now,” Trina said. The room got super quiet. Only the sound of the fire cracking in the fireplace invaded the quiet of the evening.

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