Shift | Complete ✔️

8 | Simple Truths

I felt the blood drain from my face. I detected no lie in his words, and as he guided me to the corner lounge by the fireplace, it felt as if I wasn't even in my body at all.

I couldn't even muster a word to fully encompass the gravity of what I was experiencing. There I was, presumably in Phelan's home, a werewolf I hadn't known existed a few days ago, with his four legged sister at my side and her partner stuffing his face with cookies as he stoked the fire.

I don't remember how I sat down. I just remembered the note; you will find the answers when you get to Haven.

Except this place didn't seem like a Haven. It seemed like the setting for a horror movie.

"Breathe Edie."

I felt the circles he was rubbing on my back, and as I stared off into space I couldn't help but allow myself to be soothed by his touch. I felt like I was betraying myself, my morals. He was a killer. But it was to protect me, no?

Sophia must have shifted back as we walked to the living area, I didn't even pay attention, but when she came to sit on the other side of me with two legs instead of four, I didn't even bat an eye. It really was, the least of my concerns.

"Ask whatever you need to Edie." Phelan's voice near my ear was smooth, his patience and presence a comfort despite the strangeness of it all.

My words came out softly and slowly. "So, you're all werewolves in Haven. It is your pack, correct?"

He continued rubbing my back. "Yes. That's right, I am the Alpha of our pack. Haven has been our territory for many generations."

"There's some truths in the legends then? An Alpha... whose your Beta?"

Gunner piped up, "that would be me, I help run this place when things turn to shit."

I looked to Gunner and then back to Phelan. "And this situation... The Guild... would be an example of things turning to shit as you so put it?"

The room fell silent. I watched as Sophia bit her lip in the corner of my vision.

"The Guild is a long standing and traditional council of our kind. They claim their role is to protect our kind from being discovered by humans..."

Sophia interjected Phelan's explanation, "and... they have strong core beliefs about protecting the supposed strength of the bloodline. Although, we've long believed their motives are in stark contrast to what they claim."

I shook my head, nothing made sense. "Wh- what do you mean, strength of their bloodline?"

Clearing his throat, Phelan continued. "It means, twenty four years ago, they caught wind of the birth of a baby. Half wolf- her mother, and half human- her father. Never. Never had such a possibility been considered more than folklore. So, instead of raising the child here, the mother... your mother, sent you away to live as a human child to hide you from The Guild."

I buried my head in my hands.

Gunner's timing was questionable, his attempts to lighten the situation admirable, but missing the mark entirely. "Puts your human soap operas to shame doesn't it?!"

My voice was muffled, strained. "So, you're... you're saying that I'm some sort of hybrid wolf slash human?"

"Yep! The first and only in history. Pretty cool huh!"

I saw Phelan shoot Gunner a look of incredulity, as if telling him to shut the fuck up.

Sophia lent forward, her hand outstretched as if trying to keep the conversation as calm as possible. "What he means Edie, is that, as a hybrid wolf, the only hybrid wolf, The Guild consider you a mutation of our gene that needs to be ended, before it continues and exposes us all."