Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Cunning

 "And if I've never seen them," I told Korr, "How do I know what they are?"

"It never snowed in your home enclave?" Korr asked.

"No, it was very dry. It barely rained, except when the rains came in spring." The spring rains had always been miserable, with fetid, gray rain pouring out of the sky and turning everything into smelly muck. But I knew the scent of snow in the air, and the sensation of a blizzard on the wind, and could see the swirling white, but I did not have memories.

The recesses of my mind yielded nothing else: just vague, distant knowledge but no explanation as to how I had acquired it.

"Perhaps it's knowledge from your before," Korr said.

"Pups know how to eat," Itek came around to my left side and blotted out the sunlight. "But I doubt any of us remember our first meal. But we know what food is, and isn't."

Korr's gaze slide sideways to his brother. "Mostly."

Then what was my being able to see, smell, taste, feel a blizzard and ice but not remember it?

"Perhaps your memory is coming back." Itek traced his fingertips down my scarred upper arm.

What was the memory of a young child worth?

"And with it, perhaps your ability to shift," Itek added. "And your magic."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." A cold chill ran down my spine and through my scars.

Asund drew his fingertip down my spine. "Then perhaps we should do something else."

Ethat brp'd in surprise and Korr raised a brow, a smile lurking on his pale lips. "The wolf wastes no time."

I looked over my shoulder at Asund. As much as I would have loved to get lost in him--or any of them--Korr was clearly not well, Ethat was a mess (that was his own fault), and there were two immediate things I needed help with. "Perhaps later, naughty wolf."

"You have no idea how naughty." Asund nipped my shoulder.

"Really? So far you've seemed disappointingly tame." Korr sighed dramatically.

The memory of Asund with the Priestess stabbed my awareness again. I tried to hide the shudder, maybe I succeeded, but I jumped right to the real issues. "I--"

"Were tempted by the Lord-Raven's offer?" Korr inquired.

Ethat made a grim nose and slicked down all his scales with a terrible crackling sound.

"No!" I grabbed a handful of hair and took a deep breath. "After I got back, Deliah was brushing out my hair and we were talking about Marcus and beautiful blood. She was scolding me a bit. Such as it is given I don't know a damn thing about anything. And it just came up in conversation where I was able to ask her if she thought I was a shifter or a human. She thought I was teasing her."

Korr gestured for me to follow him into the main hall. "She was serious."

Ormiss slid between Itek and Asund. "She thinks you're human."

"Both she and Yanice. Except shifters thing I'm a shifter. Someone's wrong. Very wrong."

Itek guided me to the rugs and pillows in front of the hearth, which had a fire going in it even in summer since the structure was cold--usually it was much colder than this because of Korr, but Korr had an aura of heat around him, like being near a warm teapot. Itek pulled me down into the cushions, and positioned himself behind me. He pulled out the combs and pins securing my hair.