Page 66 of Dead Wolf Walking (Bad Moon Academy 1)
Two things I’ve learned about my wolf—she loves food and is obsessed with finding me a harem.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re a bad teacher?”
He laughs. “You’d be the first, but I don’t mind being bad.”
He’s definitely in the harem, you know that, right?’
Now’s not the time, Joan, I scold her.
“What do you know about demons and the fae?”
Lifting a shoulder, I cross my legs. “We really didn’t learn a lot about either in school. They mainly focused on shifters and vampires.”
He nods. “Most public schools do; we are the most relevant threats. All right, student’s pick. Fae or demons?”
Seeing as I already learned about how terrifyingly complicated vampires are, I opt for the lesser of the two evils.
“Fae.”
“My fae-vorite.” He smiles so wide, it’s hard not to laugh at the horrible joke.
“I think you should keep your day job,” I say with a smirk. “Puns can’t pay the bills.”
“Ah, but if the pack pays for everything, I can do whatever I want.” He smooths his hair.
“Touché. Pun it up.”
He clears his throat in an attempt to get serious, but the corners of his lips twist up. “Fae come from Faerie. There are two breeds of fae: unseelie and seelie. Seelie fae will tell you they’re the nice ones, but they’re lying. All fae are malevolent.”
I scribble in my notebook and underline the last part, then make a small note after it.
“What did you write?” He leans forward. “Note to self: Fae suck. Well, you’re not wrong.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, like I was saying, unseelie or seelie, it doesn’t matter. They’re all bad news. The pixies may be cute and tiny little things, but they’re the worst of all. There are the low fae: brownies, redcaps, banshees, changelings, and trolls. Then you have the high fae: elementals, will-o-wisps, pixies, kelpies, nymphs, and the like.”
He pauses and I finish the last of his list. Then frown.
Changeling.
Adler said he was a changeling. He’s fae… low fae.
“Oh.”
“What?” he asks. “Did I confuse you? We’ll go over each type in more depth. This is only meant to give you the basic grasp of their world.”
“What’s a changeling?” I ask, setting my pencil down and glancing at him. “Those sound interesting.”
Carter nods and sips his coffee. “They’re fascinating actually. Changelings are low faeries who can shapeshift and mimic other forms. On Earth, changelings are swapped for humans.”
“What? Why?”
Setting his cup down, he leans back in his seat. “Slavery mostly.”
“What about the changeling’s family?” Even a low fae has people who care about them, right?
Carter sighs. “There’s not a ton of data on fae culture, but what we have found suggests changelings are considered cursed fae. The fae families swap them for humans and get rid of the cursed child.”
“Wow, sounds harsh. Why do they think they’re cursed?”
Adler’s family gave him up. Poor guy.
