Pack

Chapter Seven

Huh?

My brain went into shut down mode. Every nerve ending sizzled off into nothing. The word werewolf kept flashing in my mind like a broken neon sign.

"Wait a second." I shook my head hoping to get it working again. "I feel like I'm missing a lot of crucial information. You're telling me I'm a werewolf too?"

"Yes," Jonathan answered with a nod.

"You're wrong." I shook my head. "I've never changed into a wolf."

"Not yet." He smirked. "A werewolf's first transformation happens 100 lunar cycles after the onset of puberty. It's different for everyone. Scout's first change should happen at the full moon sometime during his 19th year. Since I'm not sure when you first went through puberty, I can't pinpoint exactly when your first change will be. I would guess anytime within the next few years. When did you first start bleeding?"

Whoa. Personal. But then again, this entire conversation was fairly inappropriate. "It's been kind of irregular." I looked down at my lap and fiddled with a loose string on my joggers. This was certainly an awkward topic to discuss in front of a bunch of guys. "The first time it happened, I was eleven, but I only got it once that year. The next year I got it twice. Even now I usually only get it twice a year. I've gone to see specialists about it, but no one can explain it." I glanced up and shrugged. "They say I'm healthy, though."

Jonathan gave me a knowing smile as if it all made perfect sense. "Since your birthday is soon, you may change this year, perhaps the year after. It was a good thing we found you when we did. It would have been very traumatic to have changed for the first time without guidance."

That was his definition of traumatic? It made me wonder where abduction, attacks and werewolves ranked on his scale.

"The reason your bleeding is so irregular is because your cycle is more wolf than human. Wolves only go into heat a couple times a year," he continued spouting his nonsense.

"So let me get this straight." I needed to placate him until I could find a way out of here. I could totally get on board that these weirdos were werewolves, but me? That was a pill I couldn't quite swallow. "I'm a werewolf. And my werewolfy scent will make male werewolves try to find me. Not to mention that one day soon I'm going to shift into a wolf." I arched an eyebrow. "Do I have all that right?"

"Yes, except you're mistaken in thinking that they want to find you because you're female. They'll track you because you are the only female werewolf." His eyes locked onto mine. "Ever."

This was going from bad to worse. "You need to explain that."

"Werewolf's have always bred with human females since before you, there wasn't another female werewolf to breed with. The werewolf gene is recessive, so for a male werewolf to produce werewolf offspring the human female must also be a carrier for the gene. This means that at some point, there must have been a werewolf in the female's family to ensure that the recessive gene passed along. For whatever reason, male werewolves will only produce male offspring. However, their non werewolf siblings may produce females, and they are the ones that pass the werewolf gene along."

"So, the survival of your species is based on non-werewolves that carry the werewolf gene?"

He nodded. "If a non-wolf passes the gene onto his daughter and then she mates with a werewolf there is a potential the child will become a wolf."

"So how do you know Scout's a werewolf?"

"I can smell the wolf in him. I recognize it as similar to myself." He leaned forward on the recliner, placing his arms on his thighs and clasping his hands together. "I smell it in you too. That's how I know you're mine." He leaned back into the chair, folding his arms across his chest. "I bet you can smell it too."

This sounded like crazy talk to me, but the sincerity burning in Jonathan's gray eyes told me he at least believed it. So could it be true? Turning my head toward Scout, my nose brushed against his shaggy hair as his head rested on my shoulder. If all kin had a similar smell, then Scout and me definitely belonged together.

So . . .  did that mean I really was a werewolf?

"The longer you're with us the more liberated your wolf side will get," Jonathan explained, no doubt reading the conflict in my eyes. "It will become stronger, and you'll learn to trust in its abilities more."

A part of me refused to believe it, but I couldn't deny what he said made sense. Scout and Jonathan smelled like me. No. This was craziness. There was a logical reason for why I had an above average sniffer. Maybe I always had it, but never noticed. Maybe it was the cleaner air here. Maybe these guys just stunk making it easy to pick up on their differences. Whatever the reason, it hardly meant I was a werewolf. But then, Dean was a werewolf, I saw it with my own two eyes and Jonathan confirmed they all were. I scrubbed a hand over my face. This was too much.

I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath. It didn't matter if I was or not. Jonathan's treatment of me was hardly any way to build trust. The entitlement, and him uprooting my life, pissed me off. He could have approached me on neutral ground, he didn't have to drug me and drive me halfway across the country. My anger flared and without much thought, my eyes flew open and I lashed out. "So why couldn't you have just met me in Pennsylvania for a coffee and told me all this. Why did you have to drug me and abduct me from the woods?"

Scout squeezed my hand tighter. I wasn't sure if it was a warning not to attack, or to comfort me. Dean shifted in his seat, while the others moved closer to me. Jonathan's eyes roamed over my face, before he leaned back in his chair. Obviously, he didn't consider me much of a threat. Sad.

"I'll admit, we'd spent so much time tracking false leads and dead ends that I never really put too much thought into what would happen when we actually found you. I didn't consider that you were more human than wolf, and that the situation would seem strange and hurtful to you. And for that, I am sorry. But it's unsafe for you to be around your human family. You're scent is getting stronger. It would have eventually led werewolves right to you." He crossed his arms over his chest, and watched me for a few beats before continuing. "Although you may believe our pack is a bunch of unemotional, demanding wolves, most of our kind are more like that man who broke in earlier. They would kill your human family and anyone around you without a second thought just to get to you. You need protection. And for the safety of humans, they need to be as far away from you as possible."

Images of that crazy man breaking down the door of my parent's house filled my head. In vivid detail, I saw what would have happened if I'd been there, instead of here, when he found me. I saw him grab my mother by the throat and shake her lifeless. I mentally watched as he threw my father out the large bay window in the front room of our house, shattering the glass and breaking his body as he smashed into the large spruce tree on our front lawn. Or what if I'd been with Carly? He would have ripped her throat out without hesitation. Or Jake. He would have gone down fighting to protect me, only to fail in the end. By Jonathan taking me, he saved them. Every day that I'd spent in Pennsylvania with my family had put us all in danger.

My anger immediately fizzled and died. If I believed anything of what Jonathan said—and I was starting too—I needed to stay away from them.