Howling Fury (Book 1) (Being Edited)

Chapter 24

"I still can't believe that you are a multi-shifter. I never believed there was such a thing until I saw you with my own peepers. How long have you known about this?" Alistar asks both me and Mark. The four of us; Alistar, Demetri, Mark and I are sitting in Mark’s office, having a 'meeting'.  Alistar is seated behind Mark's desk, while Demetri, Mark and I are on the couch, me in the middle of the two. Personally, I don't see the point of this, but Mark insisted, so here I am.

I give Alistar a look. "Well. I have known about my ability to shift into a lycan and werewolf ever since I first began shifting." Alistar cuts me off. "When was that exactly?"

I give him a level stare and struggle to stop myself from baring my teeth. I don't like being interrupted. "It was around thirty years ago." Time doesn't mean the same to werewolves as it does humans. To any other werewolf, I am still a child. As is Mark, even though he is over fifty and an alpha. He has had to work hard to get where he is, even though his father was alpha before him.

"And how old are you know?" Alistar asks, his voice holding more than just curiosity. I clench my teeth but answer his question. "I'm thirty five. As I was saying, I have known about my werewolf and lycan shifting abilities. As for the whole tiger and bear shifting thing I didn't know until your son threatened the life of my friend."

I half expect a look of apology to pass over Alistar's face. Instead, all I see is surprise. "You shifted at such a young age? Usually the change doesn't happen until much later in life." He pauses for a moment. "I imagine it was caused by witnessing your parent’s death. As for your ability to shift into both lycan and werewolf, I assume that is because of your parents. One of them will have been a werewolf while the other a lycan. It is not unheard of for offspring of the two to be produced, though it is rare that they gain both forms. Which one of your parents was the werewolf? Perhaps I knew them."

I give him a sharp look. "I'm afraid your assumption is wrong, Alistar. Both my mother and my father were werewolves. I saw their wolf forms before they died. Your information is wrong and I would hope that, in future, you will not sprout your theories about me in my direction."

Mark clears his throat and nudges me gently with his elbow. I only raise my eyebrow at him and grunt an incoherent response, to which his reply is a sigh. "I apologise, Alistar. Ester has had a stressful past few days." 

I glare at him but he ignores me, so I turn my face to Alistar and try and look friendly. He pales slightly at my stare. Hmm. Guess I need to work on my friendly face. "No. I should apologise Mark. I meant no disrespect. Please accept my apology Ester." I nod once, which must have had some hidden signal telling him to continue.

"I suppose if I had known that sooner, it would have seemed stranger." He pauses for a moment. "May I ask, how did you shift into a bear and tiger if you didn't know you could? Or was it just instinctual?" He seems to be genuinely curious, but I bite my lip. I don't feel comfortable with sharing Taini's existence with him. I trust Demetri and Mark, but Alistar is a stranger to me. He may not be trustworthy. In fact, he may not even believe me.

"Ester. Come now. Mark trusts this man and you trust Mark. You should tell them. They will know what it means."  I sigh to myself. I don't understand why she just can't tell me what it means. "I am forbidden," is her only reply. Forbidden? By who? I wait patiently for a few moments, but she doesn't reply.

I sigh to myself again and begin talking. "No. It was not instinctual. The truth is I was told I had the ability to shift into other creatures. Now this may sound crazy, but it is the truth." I take a deep breath and blurt out quickly, "a voice in my head told me I could." There. I said it. It doesn't sound crazy at all.

Alistar gives me a look as if that's exactly what I am and out of the corner of my eye I see Mark and Demetri give me similar looks. Yeah. Not crazy at all.