Page 105 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“LikeHomo erectusand Neanderthals,” she suggested.
“Right. It’s just a story. But sometimes you meet someone and you instantly connect with them, don’t you know? And it’s overwhelming and strange and wonderful all at once.”
“I’m desperately afraid to ask where you’re going with this.”
Macropi spread her hands. “I’m just saying that it happens, whether you call it a crush or a soul mate orKama-Rupa. Sometimes you meet the exact right person at the exact right time. Even if you don’t know it, the universe does.”
Lila (barely) held back her snort. “I’m not swimming the widest river Oz has ever seen—which would be the Mississippi, I’m assuming—no matter how attracted I am to him. That’s all it is, y’know. You’re talking about soul mates and connections and crushes, but you left lust off that list. Which, ninety-nine times out of one hundred, is what it is.”
“Oh, yes,” Macropi agreed. “But you’re one in one hundred, Lila. And so is my Oz. All I’m saying is, sometimes strangers are brought together for reasons even they don’t understand. Both versions ofKama-Rupaare about lonely people who will die alone if they don’t find their physical and spiritual counterpart.”
“Jesus Christ.”
Macropi brightened. “But in the second version, meeting the right person didn’t just save their lives, it birthed an entirely new dominant species. So you have to ask yourself, ‘What am I missing in my life? What’s the thing that is slowly killing me thatKama-Rupais trying to fix?’”
“Again: Jesus Christ! Look, this has been weird and interesting, like every other thing this week, and I guess butting in is your prerogative as the neighborhood mother figure, but I’m not Oz’sKama, or hisRupa, or hisKarma Chameleon, or whatever you want to call it.”
Macropi shrugged and smiled. “As you like, dear.”
“So to get allllllll the way back to what I wanted to talk to you about in the first place, in return for me not taunting Garseatoooften about her Honey Bear nickname, you were gonna tell me about Shakopee.”
Macropi’s smile disappeared. “Oh.”
“That killed all the fun in the room, didn’t it?”
“Just a bit, yes. But.” She spread her hands. “A deal’s a deal.” She leaned against the counter, folded her arms across her chest. “What do you want to know?”
“Were you there?”
“No, thank heavens. I found out afterward, like most of us.”
“And you guys kept it out of the news, positioned it as a climate change protest turned violent, one-time only, such a tragedy, thoughts and prayers…like that?”
“It seemed safest at the time. You understand how vastly outnumbered we are.”
“There are a crap ton of Stables crawling all over the world,” Lila admitted.
“Yes. So our standard response is always geared toward staying hidden. It trumps every other consideration. But it also gives rise to that tired ‘separate but equal’ canard. That’s how you get the Klan and imbeciles like SAS. Lila, dear, are you all right? You look like someone clipped you with a brick.”
“Is that what it is?” Lila breathed. Everything had disappeared as her brain followed the trail that had suddenly lit up like a fireworks display. Macropi, the kitchen, the state of Minnesota, the northern hemisphere all faded away while she followed her train of thought.
You’re the first one of your kind I’ve spent any real time with. And Sally didn’t just say that once. It wasn’t an offhand comment. It made enough of an impression that she pointed it out twice.
“Is that the connection?” Lila knew she was breathing, but still felt like she wasn’t getting enough air. “That’swhat makes Team Smalls so special?”
“Lila?”
“How.”
“What?”
“How! How’d the protest—the coup attempt—how did you guys—Garsea said sanity prevailed. How?”
Macropi looked taken aback but answered readily. “There was a mole among the SAS. Or a traitor, depending on who you’re talking to.”
“So a few disaffected Shifters lost because it was a numbers game.”
“It’s almost always a numbers game,” Macropi replied. “As anyone who’s read a history book knows.”
