“What the fuck is going on?” Rick exclaims, and my wolf turns her head, looking over at Rick and Nath standing in the doorway with bags of shopping in their hands. My wolf looks back down at Josh, who is underneath her and who she has been fighting with for the last ten minutes. Well, I wouldn’t say fighting, not when Josh has been pushing me away like I’m a puppy. Josh laughs, pushing me off him in one smooth movement.
“Adie lost her temper, shifted and tried to bite me,” Josh explains, fixing his crumpled shirt.
“And you didn’t knock her out?” Rick asks, sounding a little shocked. I growl, shaking my head as Josh smirks at me. I can’t be knocked out that easy.
“I didn’t want to hurt her, so I let her play for a bit,” Josh states, and my wolf sits back, feeling more than a little annoyed.
“Adie, your wolf…” Nath murmurs, and I remember how strange my wolf must look to them. My back is black with blue lines swirled into the fur. I have a strange circle of blue swirls on my forehead and my ears are pointy. Like seriously tall. It makes it so I can hear miles away while I’m in this form, but I don’t have a clue what the blue swirls are for or from. After reading that letter from mum, I’m guessing it’s a Fray thing. I glance at my foot, seeing that the red bracelet has stayed on and is attached around my leg, just before my right paw.
“Is weird right?” Josh remarks, smoothing down his messy hair. My wolf steps closer, baring her teeth with a long growl.
“Not weird. Just different,” Rick suggests, interrupting my wolf’s thoughts as she watches Rick instead. He puts the shopping bag on the floor, walking slowly over to me. “I’ve never seen a wolf that looks like you.”
“The ears make her look like a cat,” Josh remarks, and I growl once again.
“Josh, why don’t you go to Adie’s with Nath, and get some clothes for her,” Rick suggests, but it comes out as more of a growl. Nath opens the door, and Josh looks between us with an annoyed frown.
“Whatever,” Josh replies emotionlessly and walks out the door after Nath, shutting it behind him.
“Shift back so we can talk?” Rick asks and picks a blanket up off the back of one of the sofas and places it in front of me. “I will turn around and wait.” I pull my wolf back and shake off the light pain from the change before grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around me. When it’s secure, I reach and touch Rick’s shoulder, so he can turn. He goes to say something, but I put my hand up.
“Oh, I can start off,” I growl out. “One, the wild ass pixie spent half an hour throwing things at me, and you could have warned me about that ball of crazy! Two, you are working for the hunters? Are you insane or do you actually hunt your own kind?”
“If I hunted my own kind, do you really think I would be protecting you?” he asks, not seeming bothered about my outbreak. “And I am sorry about Tay. We will go back to that one later after I’ve had a word with her.”
“What are you doing then?” I ask, needing to understand why they are working with hunters. Hunters are nasty people. The videos on YouTube of what they have done to my kind, it is horrible. Hunters take pleasure in hunting us and have the backing of a world full of scared humans.
“How do you know we are working for the hunters?” he asks.
“Mr. Graves came here and told me. He offered me a job…and I have to go into the base to be shown around tomorrow,” I tell him, and his eyes widen in shock.
“Fucking hell,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his head. The front door opens again, and this time a guy I haven’t seen walks in, stopping when he sees me in just a blanket. He raises his dark eyebrows at Rick.
“Adie, this is Mich,” Rick introduces us, pronouncing Mich like Mitch. Mich has short brown-nearly-black hair and dark eyes. He has a business looking suit on, that goes well with his serious expression. He has a smoothly shaven face, and he is just as good looking as his friends. I can’t scent him as anything other than human, and even then he smells good.
“The wolf?” Mich asks, his voice is husky and deep, and not impressed. “Sleeping with her already? I thought you were sending her away from here, not keeping her. Now is not the time to be fucking around, Rick.”
“I’ve just met you all, and you think I would sleep with any of you that quickly?” I ask.
“You are in just a blanket,” he responds.
“I shifted…and ripped my clothes over there,” I point at the pile of clothes, and he doesn’t even bother looking.
“You are going to be trouble for us all,” Mich remarks, looking at me like I stole his steak off his dinner plate before literally disappearing into thin air.
“What the hell?” I ask, staring at where Mich literally just was.
“Witches. Well, Mich is a half witch, half shifter,” Rick explains. “Do you not know about other kinds?”
“I know witches, angels, shifters and vampires exist. Just not their powers,” I explain.
“Well, we are all half breeds here. I’m half shifter and half vampire,” he tells me. “The others you will have to guess.” He winks.
“Do you drink blood?” I ask, curious if he needs it.
“Yes. Only once or twice a month,” he explains.
“I didn’t know half breeds were a thing, but it makes sense,” I say, and Nath walks through the door with a pile of clothes and is rubbing the side of his head where a cut is healing.
“Your sister wasn’t happy about us coming over, and she threw a shoe at my head,” Nath explains, handing me the clothes as I try not to laugh.
“The bathroom is down there, under the stairs,” Rick points and whacks Nath on the arm. I walk away but still hear Rick speaking quietly to Nath. “You got beat up by a tiny girl, seriously, man? Way to look cool.”
I chuckle as I pull the bathroom door open and step inside, shutting the door and taking a deep breath as I make a mental plan. Get changed. Find out why they are working for hunters. If they are the bad guys…run.