54
Lucy
I woke up with a pounding headache. The smell of burning wood and something floral was still in my nose. I opened my eyes and found the room completely dark. The sheets weren’t Matt’s or Tony’s, and that made me relax. I had to be in Yvonne’s quarters.
Someone was yelling outside. It sounded like an argument, but I couldn’t make out the words. I shuddered at the thought. Was it Matt? Was he still angry? Had he hurt Yvonne?
My stomach turned as I swung my legs over the edge and felt for the floor. I felt around until I felt something that felt like a lamp, but it didn’t come on.
A knock sounded on the door a few seconds later.
“Y-Yeah?”
Yvonne opened the door, and the lamp started to glow. She smiled.
“Sorry, the lights require a little magic to get them going. Most electric lights are irritating. How are you feeling?”
I shrugged, unsure of what to say. “Okay, I guess.”
“Headache?”
I nodded.
“Hungry?”
I shook my head and drew my knees to my chest. “I-I don’t think I can eat right now.”
“That’s okay,” she said, coming into the room. The lamp grew brighter as she grew closer, and she sat in the chair beside the cot. “Welcome to the official medical bay, where the very sick tend to stay.”
“Wh-Where’s Matt?” I asked. “Is he… Is he still angry?”
“The twins only have two settings: horny and angry,” Yvonne scoffed. “I think he’s more horny right now than angry, but Tony’s livid.”
“H-He’s back?”
She nodded. “And you don’t have to see either of them if you don’t want to.”
I nodded and took another breath.
“Tea?”
I nodded. “That would be nice… What was all the shouting about?”
She grinned. “Ah, that would be the calvary.”
I frowned as she left the room for a moment. She came back with a mug of tea for me. It was warm and different from the tea she’d given me for the nausea.
“This one is good too.”
“Vanilla Lavender,” she said. “Good for stress… Do you remember anything?”
I shuddered and shook my head. “It’s… all pretty fuzzy.”
“That’s normal. You… seemed to have a post-traumatic reaction. Likely to Matt turning violent… were your adoptive parents physically abusive?”
I closed my eyes and shuddered. I tried to push the thoughts away, but I nodded.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. You would think they would care about something like that…”
She sat back with a sigh.
“Can you… explain why they keep saying that?”
“What?”
“Mates,” I said. “They… keep telling me that. Even their beta said it, but no one is telling me what that means.”
She sighed again and rubbed her head. “Just when I thought they couldn’t get any dumber… It’s a bigger concept in the werewolf world than can be explained simply, but it’s mostly bullshit.”
I blinked. “But they… I mean, they keep saying it…”
Her lips twitched. “Hence why it’s a larger topic than can be explained simply. Over dinner and probably a few drinks.”
She smirked. “I don’t usually condone underage drinking, but you’ve been through hell.”
I shuddered and thought back to the bar they’d taken me to and the drinks Matt gave me at the ramen bar. I shook my head.
“I don’t want alcohol.”
“Tea? Juice?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “How about a mocktail?”
“What’s a mocktail?”
“A cocktail without the alcohol,” she grinned. “Tasty. Think a mixed juice drink.”
I smiled. “I’ve never had much juice… I don’t think I’ve ever had juice, actually.”
She grinned. “Then, you’re in for a treat!”
She shook her head. “You know, I hate to say this, but you’re lucky in a lot of ways. Despite everything that’s happened to you, you never have to be… more or less a slave to the werewolf mythos.”
I frowned. “Mythos?”
“Mythology? Propaganda.” She snorted. “Some of it being blatant lies.”
“Like… the pregnancy thing?”
“Correct. I’d like to add that since werewolves don’t tend to mingle between packs, they tend to find their…kicks in the human world and hide their children from those relationships.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a whole mess, but werewolves aren’t the only shifters that are like that… though other shifters have a lot less involved with their reasoning.”
I sipped. “What do you mean?”
“Werewolves aren’t shifters in the conventional sense like dragon shifters. Werewolves are the only types that can turn humans. It’s why they’re called werewolves and not wolf shifters. Actual wolf shifters tend not to mingle with werewolves because they’re generally considered ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous, how?” I asked.
“Prone to fits, out of control, etc. Blue Moon is usually to blame for the really big fits of temper, but all of them are prone to losing their shit if things don’t go their way. It’s why they’re not allowed to be liaisons and are under heavy management.”
I frowned. “I thought… the werewolves were… sort of at the top?”
She laughed. “They wish, and I’m sure the big bad alpha twins painted that picture. You’ll find that the moment you step out of the Estate, there’s a whole lot of things they say that don’t make any sense.”
I nodded. “I see. Why don’t more people know?”
She smiled. “That would be a part of the mates conversation.”
“Okay. How does everyone else… make more of them?”
“The old-fashioned way,” she grinned. “With mixed results. Werewolves, because they are contagious, so to speak, tend to be the deciding factor between two partners having children. Either they take over the child and make them a werewolf, or neutralize the other bit of magic completely and make them human.”
She shrugged. “You’d be surprised how many humans are walking around in the world with werewolf genes, and they’ll never know until they have children with a werewolf or some other supernatural child.”
I tilted my head. “You mean if other species have children together, it’s one or the other?”
She shook her head. “If a shifter and, let’s say, a witch has children.” She chuckled a little. “There are three options. The child is either human, shifter, or witch, but they tend to have other traits from both parents, like shifters who can do magic. Witches with extreme resistance to fire. Humans who can do magic, etc. They can pass those traits on if they have kids with a real human, a shifter, or a witch. When werewolves have kids with anyone, they tend to be human or werewolves, except those humans are more like carriers. They won’t have extra senses or anything like that, but their kids might depending on whom they have kids with.”
I nodded. “Blue and brown eyes.”
She chuckled. “You said you didn’t like biology, but you’re drawing some great comparisons from it.
I looked down. “How would I know if… my parents were what?”
She hummed. “Well, you can ask the SCF to do a lineage trace on you.”
I blinked. “What does that do?”
“It’s like a magical DNA test. It could tell you a few generations back who your family is.”
I worried my lip. “Would I be able to find them that way?”
“If they’re registered, of course,” she said. “Have you… ever tried to find your parents?”
I shook my head. “There didn’t seem to be much hope for it, and I didn’t have the time or money.”
She nodded. “I understand. If you want, I can help you organize it…”
“I’ll think about it,” my lips twitched. “I’m not sure if I’d want my parents or my family to know what’s happened to me… I mean… they left me at the orphanage for a reason.”
She blinked. “How do you know they left you?”
I looked down. “One of the caretakers told me. A man brought me to the orphanage and left. He didn’t name me or anything, and he never came back. They didn’t even remember what he looked like.”
Yvonne leaned back in her seat. “Are you certain that man was your father? Or even a relative?”
I blinked. “Who else would it be?”
Yvonne smiled. “You’re eighteen, right? Sixteen years ago was the tail end of a pretty large war in the werewolf world. You could have been a survivor. Do you remember anything about what happened before you were at the orphanage?”
“I don’t think so.”
She shrugged. “It’s fine. A lineage test would be able to tell you if any of them are alive at least.”
Another knock sounded from further away. She stood. “Seems like the calvary is about to advance. Would you like to meet him?”
I blinked. “Him?”
She grinned. “Chief Operative of the SCF and Liaison Specialist Dagon Bluescale.”
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