Page 88 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
“Whathaveyou heard before?” I asked, suddenly deciding I was ready for more in-depth answers. “What is this other world you talked about? What exactlyareyou, Lincoln?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lincoln
“Iam a wolf shifter.”
The shock on her face had to mirror my own. It was the first time I’d ever revealed my secret in such plain language to anyone not from my world. The biggest and sometimes darkest secret I’d ever possessed, my true nature, and with Vee, I had spilled the beans as easily as if she’d asked how I slept the night before.
It was almost too easy.
Pulling back internally while her face appeared to work through shock, I searched myself for any foreign interference, any signs that I was coerced into telling her. Nothing seemed out of order, no traces of magic in my mind, but then again, would she leave any?
I tested the air. Magic always came with a scent. You could smell it, if you knew what to look for.
“Do I stink to you?”
The question startled me back to reality. “Pardon me?”
“You’re smelling the air, like you think I just passed gas but don’t want to say the words out loud,” Sylvie said.
“Oh. Umm …” I shook my head. “Sorry, no, that’s not it.”
“What do you smell then?”
I sniffed again, nostrils opened wide. The air flowed in and …
“Nothing,” I said, smiling. “Nothing at all.”
“Are all wolf shifters this weird?” she asked, leaning back into her chair while projecting an air of casual comfort.
“No,” I said, wondering if she knew I could see through her façade. While I didn’t smell magic, Ididsmell something else. Fear sweat had a distinct, acrid odor that was unmistakable. Sylvie was terrified.
There’s no way this is a powerful witch. The acting is too top notch. No witch is that good at it, especially not one who is rumored to be as powerful as Sylvie could be. She has no idea who she is. She’s just scared of what she’s uncovered.
I had to hide a wince at that. The elders were going to have a meltdown when they learned of everything that just happened here. They would have many questions on why I hadn’t just let the tree-thing get her andthendestroyed it. Let the Chained minions do the dirty work for us, they would say, all the while totally missing the point.
If she was evil and in league with the Chained, why was it manifesting its very limited powers to try tokillher?
That wasn’t even all my problems. I could argue that one away in the end, most likely. Yet to do so would force me to admit that I had committed, in some ways, an even larger sin.
I had revealed our existence to a human. Telling a mortal is strictly forbidden, and for good reason. Part of me smiled on that, though. They couldn’t enforce that code, without makingthe argument that she’s mortal, which would prevent her from being the woman that would bring doom to us all.
That was a problem for another day, though. As was the trouble Noel would kick up over my actions. Mortal or not, he would say I was acting rashly. Then he would call for my removal.
“A wolf shifter!”
I jerked at the sudden outburst. “What? Yes. What’s wrong? We’ve been over that.”
“You’re awerewolf!”Sylvie cried out, scooting to another chair on the far side from the couch, erecting an impenetrable barrier of six feet of space between us instead of three. “Not only that, I let you into my home. I invited you in!”
Sighing, Iverygingerly eased myself back into more of a reclining position on the couch. “Both of those comments are so incredibly inaccurate.”
“You justtoldme you’re a werewolf.” She was wringing her hands, looking around wildly until her eyes landed on something. Ignoring the pain, I cranked my neck around to see what it was.
On the kitchen counter was a wicked-looking woodsman’s knife, lying open on top of its sheath.
“Sylvie … Vee,” I said, grabbing her attention and pushing down the anger that she would feel fear from me. From the one person who would do anything to protect her. “I need you to listen to me and repeat the exact words I said to you. Theexactwords.”
