Wolf & Witch III: Oracle's Path

Ch. 15

Kaiden sat on the front steps plucking away at one of his guitars. The chilled air had thrown off the tension on the strings and was forcing him to tune it before actually playing anything, but he was really just keeping himself entertained while he waited. Besides the half-hearted guitar tuning, he'd also been smoking a little, though the blunt was mostly unfinished, and just sitting in the ashtray next to his foot. He'd just started on a few bars and slides when he noticed Anna and Trevor on their way back.

"Hey guys," he greeted as they reached the porch.

"Hey, Kaid! Talk later! I gotta use the little boys' room!" Trevor said as he skittered past the beta and into the house, getting a chuckle out of Kaiden.

"Great, because I was hoping we could talk a little," Kaiden said, setting the guitar to the side and looking at Anna. "I mean, if you're up for it."

"That depends..." Anna looked pointedly toward the ashtray. "You up for sharing that and answering some of my questions?"

Kaiden smirked. "Sounds like a deal." He passed the ashtray to her and scooted over to make room for her to sit.

Anna stooped to pick up the blunt first before taking a hit, then sitting down next to him. "What did you wanna talk about first?" she asked, after exhaling a wobbly ring of smog.

"Right, well... about what you said earlier, you're right. It's something that should have been brought up sooner. It's also not anything that's going to change any time soon. We're—well, we can be—very dangerous, just like witches are capable of doing things no human is, so are we. The difference is we're a little more prone to being ruled by our instincts... A wolf who gets a taste for killing will kill again, so we have to police them, otherwise a lot more people could be in danger as well as the entire pack. It's not the type of thing we like doing, and it's super rare that we even have to bring it up... Actually, we have a lot more pack laws that are meant to avoid getting to that point. That's why we make so many rules and exceptions for non-wolves... We know we can't hide from the outside world; we have to learn to live in it. At least the best that we can."

"...That was a mouthful," Anna said, but the smile she cracked let him know that she was only joking. "So, my turn now?"

Kaiden nodded.

"What determines how you look when you turn into a wolf?" She tapped away some ash before continuing, "Cuz that night you and your buddies were at my cousin's with us, I noticed that, for some of you, the curtains kinda match the rugs, so to speak. But not you... And I know Sean has said that Nate is a black wolf too...and black is definitely not his natural human hair color."

"Oh, it's just based on your parent's coat color. Uuuunless you have a human parent. That pretty much always makes you a black or super dark wolf." Kaiden looked a little curious now. "Why?"

"Mmm..." Anna nodded, taking another hit and listening to Kaid's tuning for a bit longer before answering him. "Divination. Sean doesn't like using it for certain things, but I do, cuz I'm nosy, and a bit of a romantic."

"Sweet. You mean like tarot cards and stuff? Not going to lie, I'm kind of jealous you guys can do those types of things. If I could, I'd probably use it all the time!" A chuckle left him as he switched cords and glanced back at Anna. He could see some of the family resemblance with Sean. Not outwardly, but in their sincerity and body language. Kaiden felt comfortable around Anna the same way he did around Sean and Trevor, or maybe it was just a witch thing?

"Sometimes it's been cards. More like scrying in this case...you don't always see something. And a lot of times, what you do see is so quick and disjointed that it can take years to figure out what they meant or what significance they had," she explained.