Cyrene’s scream was full-bodied and terrified. Her magic burst to life in her core, and she pulled energy tight to her as she prepared to attack. Avoca held her blades in her hands and crouched in a defensive position, like a predator.

But her scream had startled the beast. It rose on its haunches and looked at them with the same intensity that the last Indres had in the mountains. Much too intelligent for a normal beast.

Avoca let loose a blade, and it struck the creature in the shoulder. It roared in pain. But, instead of charging her and taking her out, like Cyrene had always seen them do before, it backed further into the corner. Further away from them.

As if to say, No, please, not me. I’m sorry.

“Wait,” Cyrene said when Avoca went to land the killing blow. “Its eyes.”

“Gold,” Avoca whispered.

“Human,” Cyrene added.

And then, before their eyes, the creature shifted form. At one point, it was a ten-foot-long beast, ready to rip their throats out, and the next…it was a naked man, trembling in the dark room.

Not just any man.

“Ahlvie?” Avoca gasped.

The door burst open then.

Orden had his blade at the ready. “I heard a scream.”

His eyes darted to Ahlvie lying naked on the floor. He immediately removed his cloak and covered him up. Both girls were too shell-shocked to understand what they had just seen.

“I’ll get him cleaned up,” Orden said, taking charge. “Meet in the twins’ room.” When he saw that neither of them was moving, he barked louder, “Now!”

Avoca and Cyrene jumped, as if they had just been shaken awake. Cyrene nodded her head at Orden, and he hastened Ahlvie out of their room. They each changed into something more presentable and then walked, uncomprehending, into the next room.

Matilde and Vera were seated in a corner, serving tea, as if nothing at all had happened in the hours since they last saw them.

“How is he?” Vera asked.

“An Indres,” Cyrene said, wincing at the words.

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Avoca said. Her face was grim. She looked more like Ahlvie had died.

“Orden will bring him in when he’s prepared to talk. I know this is a long time coming for him,” Vera explained.

“How long?” Avoca demanded.

“Patience,” Matilde snapped. “Drink this. It will help with the nerves.”

“What’s in it? A spell?” Avoca asked, taking the drink.

“Very similar. It helps loosen the muscles and releases tension and inhibitions. We call it whiskey.”

Avoca shot her a humorless look before taking a drink. She coughed heartily and then downed the whole thing. She passed the cup back. “I’ll take another.”

“Cyrene?” Vera asked.

“No.”

“Suit yourself,” Matilde said.

When Ahlvie finally entered the room, he looked like a hollowed out shadow figure of the man he had been. Orden took a seat next to Vera, and then they all waited. Ahlvie stared at the ground, at his hands, at his shoes, at anything but them.

“So, I guess you know now,” Ahlvie said with a short laugh, as if the whole thing were one big joke.

“How long?” Avoca demanded. Her voice was tight and clipped.

Ahlvie winced at the venom in it. “Maybe I should start from the beginning.”

Cyrene could almost see him putting on his tattered mendicant costume before a performance in the pub back in Eleysia. He seemed able to tell a story if he became someone else. Not the man who had been an Indres, but the charade he concocted around himself. The one Cyrene always saw as the pomp, bombast, and bluster that made Ahlvie, Ahlvie.

He finally lifted his gaze and searched them out, one by one. He flinched at the intensity in Avoca’s eyes, but he seemed relieved that Cyrene was facing him head-on. She could only imagine what was running through his head.

“The year I was born, a devastating attack hit Fen. Wolves came out of nowhere and slaughtered dozens of people. Huge wolves. Enormous wolves. Wolves that no one had ever seen or would ever see again. We had a name for them, passed down through legend, but no one dared speak it at the time. Not with so many dead. My father included,” Ahlvie said. “That was about twenty years ago.”

Avoca startled. “Was that the night Aonia was sacked?”

“As far as I can tell, it is in the right time frame from what you’ve told me.” Ahlvie chuckled once. “I guess Ceis’f and I have more in common than he thinks.”

“But you survived the attack,” Cyrene said.

“Yes, and no. Growing up, I had this wicked scar on my stomach. The kind that ran from chest to navel. As if someone had opened me up and then incorrectly closed me. It wasn’t until my lone wolf ceremony when I really realized that I wasn’t like anyone else my age. I always had keen eyesight. I could hear conversations I knew I wasn’t supposed to hear. My brain cataloged information that I never forgot. But I thought nothing of it until I was the first person back that day, and my mother finally told me about the attack.”

“You were bitten?” Matilde guessed.

“Yes.”

“But bites don’t make you do…that!” Avoca cried out.

“No. Many others were bitten that night. Some died. Some didn’t. No one else was affected. But I was a baby. I should have died by that bite. But a man was traveling through our village, who stayed there that night. Without him, the Indres certainly would have slaughtered our entire village. He imbued my body with magic, which held the Indres venom in my bloodstream. That man saved me and damned me.”

Avoca gasped softly. Her eyes were wide. “You don’t mean…”

Ahlvie nodded. “Ceis’f.”

“He saved your village and your life, only to return to Aonia to see it gone,” Avoca whispered.

“Another reason he must hate humans,” Cyrene whispered. “To think, if he had not helped you and just gotten to Aonia a night sooner, he might have helped them.”

“Or died,” Vera added. “He very likely would be dead.”

“He’d be smart to see it as a blessing that he had stayed back an extra night,” Matilde said.

“That doesn’t sound like him at all,” Avoca said. “Are you sure it was Ceis’f? It might mean that there is another Aonia Leif alive.”

Ahlvie shook his head. “My mother recognized him from twenty years ago. She says he looks the same. She tried to thank him, but he said he didn’t remember her. Or he chose not to acknowledge her.”

“Does…does he know that you’re the baby he saved?” Cyrene asked.

Ahlvie nodded gravely. “He does now.”

Cyrene winced. Ceis’f had saved Ahlvie’s life only for Ahlvie to end up with the woman that Ceis’f loved. He must hate himself for that. Among many things.

“So…Ceis’f kept the Indres venom in your system, and now, you’re an Indres?” Avoca asked in disbelief.

“Not…exactly. I would say up until then, the venom had been dormant. I got some of the benefits. They really helped me in Byern when I needed them. Sneaking out was especially easy.”

“Of course you would be given powers and use them to sneak around and cheat,” Cyrene muttered.

“What’s the use of having superpowers if I can’t have a little fun?” Ahlvie shrugged. “Anyway, when we were in Aurum and you were attacked by the Braj at the castle, I disappeared into the gardens and was met with the Alpha.”

Matilde and Vera perked up at this knowledge. “The real Alpha?” Matilde asked.

“The big, bad himself. There are pack Alphas, and then there’s the top Alpha,” Ahlvie explained. “They could sense that I was one of them. That I was inherently prepped to join them. And they sent their best to force me to join or to take me down.”

“And you won?” Vera asked, practically giddy.

“Killed the bastard,” Ahlvie confirmed. “Then, the pack invaded my mind and made me Alpha, all because I’d killed him. The symptoms have been getting worse ever since. I’ve been trying to fight them off to ignore their calls. But, up on that mountain, with so many of them with us and nothing but the call of the wild, I lost it and shifted.”

“And that likely saved our lives,” Matilde said, inclining her head.

Vera smiled and did the same. “Thank you for getting your pack in line. Perhaps that will keep them off our tail for some time.”

“So, just like that?” Ahlvie asked. “You’re okay with this?”

“We’ve had some time to consider. We’ve known all along,” Vera told him. “You’re not the first half-breed we’ve come across in our years.”

“Really?” Ahlvie gasped. “There are others like me?”

Avoca jumped to her feet. “Are none of you going to acknowledge the danger of what we witnessed? Indres are evil. In Eldora, we hunt them for sport. They killed six of my men in the Hidden Forest. They would have killed us all if Cyrene had not saved us. And, now, you are one of them?” She looked disgusted and horrified.

“I didn’t choose this,” Ahlvie said with his arms wide.

She shook her head and stormed from the room. Ahlvie reached for her, but she sidestepped him, being careful not to touch him before she left.

“Let me,” Orden said, swinging on his cloak and following after Avoca.

Ahlvie looked downtrodden. “I was afraid of that,” he said, plopping down into his seat.

“She’ll come around,” Cyrene said. “She loves you.”

“This is something worse though. I’m her enemy. I knew it; I did. That’s why I didn’t tell her.”

“Maybe, if you had told her, then you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Ahlvie shrugged. “Maybe. But you? How do you feel? Am I still part of the party?”

“You once told me you were a cheat but loyal. I trust you.” She reached out and put her hand on his. “I always have. I don’t think being Indres inherently makes you bad. You still have a human heart. Use that, and you’ll be fine.”