Kierra

"This isn't farmland, so I can't grow anything for you or yours. I don't have the connections that Ava does either, so what can I possibly offer that will make this place available to me?"

Blue eyes go up and around as well, hands going into his pockets.

"It's already available to you. Part of it is my offering to the Silver Wolf as an apology to what one of mine has done. And you do have connections, just look at those you have made with the animals you care for. You are the wolf of prophecy, you're destined to bring change."

Aww hell. I forgot about that stupid thing.

"From what I recall, that 'change' can be good or bad. What if it ends up being bad?"

He beams at me, which makes me nervous.

"I've talked with Alarico, I know what you're wanting to do."

Seems to know more about me than what he's been letting on, that's for sure.

"Yes, but that could always backfire and go horribly wrong. I could make things worse in attempting to do good. And just because my coat color is all weird, that doesn't make me any better than any other. Giving up part of a house just as an apology is a bit much, it was hardly your fault someone chose to do what they did. I don't blame you."

He inclines his head, but I'm clearly getting nowhere.

"You didn't ask about my sister."

Looking up, Gabriel looks at me and cocks his head.

"Do I need to?"

A look of exasperation is what he gets, making him smile. So he can't say I'm trying to hide anything, I explain. Pretty sure he knows anyway though.

"My little sister's a Vampire, as I'm sure you're aware of by now. I wish she'd stay with me more, but I’ve got a feeling she won't be around much. From what I've heard, she's working on things where she is."

The look of curiosity is obvious, so I know he wants something, but I'm not going to give it unless he asks, so I just roam my gaze around the room. Surprisingly, the Alpha doesn't ask. I'm sure it will come up later though, especially if and when his wolves learn of it. Speaking of which...

"Do your wolves know?"

"Know what?"

Green eyes dart back to him, looking up at his amused face. I frown, not all that amused by his being coy.

"Who I am and that I wish to own this house."

Gabriel ponders for a moment. Right, as if he really needs to think about it.

"They know who you are, a few are hanging around, curious. After rumors started flying, the old stories came up and into question, many of the new wolves don't know just who or what you are to the animal community, while others do."

My brow furrows, becoming a little nervous.

"Hold up, 'the animal community'? Thought it was just the wolves who had a thing with the Silver?"

He shakes his head a second, then stops, his own expression changing to inscrutable.

"It started with the wolves of course, but it was said that others would go to the Silver in times of need. A mystic for the collective. Base form is wolf, yes, but most Shifters and older Were packs and even loners have tales and stories of deeds from past Silvers."

I give him a grave look, my uneasiness growing.

"They all need to know and realize I am not those people. I'll give help when able, sure, but I'm not any more important than any other. I haven't even been one of you guys for a whole month yet, it's not like I have the wisdom of the ages here, jeez."

He cocks his head and gives me a considering look.

"Perhaps not the wisdom that most would assume, but you aren't dense or slow. Maybe a little naive, but it should already be obvious that you attract many, having different species living within your home."

My lips purse. He clearly doesn't know me if he doesn't think me dense or slow. Hell, even I can admit that I am sometimes, as I'm sure right now is one of those times. And we’re not even going to touch on that naive part.

"A couple showed up because they were curious, sure, but the others just sort of fell in my lap."

The Gray Alpha gives me soft eyes, which makes me all the more nervous.

"And you don't think that was on purpose? Because they weren’t meant to? To help guide and show you?"

My hands sink into my hair as I tousle it, nails all a'frenzy on my scalp to ease the prickling feeling. Body becomes antsy with needing to move. Pacing helps, but only a little. Really don't care for the philosophical stuff spoken at me. Don't mind my doing it to others, but it makes me feel as if I'm not in control when it's told to me.

Before the male wolf can say any more, I walk outside and lean on the porch railing. My face pointed to the ground before looking up, trying to orient myself, I ignore him as he walks out to stand next to me.

"From what the others have said, the last Silver was around some hundred years ago and overseas, right? They didn't just die, did they?"

Gabriel shakes his head, features looking a little remorseful.

"No, he didn't just die. He was hunted down and killed. It's unclear as to just who killed him, but the whole country was in unrest, and just like here, there are many who do not want things different than how they make them. The Silver Wolf as a whole is a mark, a symbol of change, a hated concept for those who don't want it."

Once again that damn prophecy seems to have come full circle. Stiffening my spine, I turn and look at the Gray Alpha, this pack leader, and ask a very important question.

"And what about you? Do you want change; good or bad? Are you prepared to deal with the consequences that will come from my actions? From the actions of my sister?"

He looks a little startled at that but recovers nicely.

"So your sibling being the one in the Vampire telling is true as well, I take it. Amazing, isn't it, how things turn out the way they do?"

I grow spiteful, resentful even, instantly. The spurt coming out of nowhere and hitting hard. Reaching out, I touch his cheek and slip inside his head, he doesn't flinch or pull away as I share with him both mine and my sister's pain upon entering his cursed world. Talk about being bipolar.

“I wouldn't call it amazing, not with how we came to be."

Images filled with pain and agony, fear and uncertainty, heartbreak and loss. I share it all with him, everything that my sister and I went through that very first night. I don't show him what happened to her specifically, but I play out my side.

The fight and fear I went through during my encounter with Anthony, the walk home with the uncertainty of where my sister is, or how I could get to her. The pain of being chewed on and hearing your own bones break. Feeling helpless at the hands of something that shouldn't be real.

When I move to pull out of his head, he envelops my hand and holds it to his face. Meeting my eyes head-on as he delves deeper, looking for more. Closing off my thoughts, I show him what he's looking for, now uncomfortable that I'm being held in his head. I didn't know that was possible to do.

With my feelings and emotions cut off, he watches with only his own to steer him. Looking over events that happened all the way to my encounter with his friend, Joshua. Making a small sound of protest, I try to pull away.

Concentration broken, my thoughts and emotions break through, showing him what I went through at the hands of the Werewolf sent to kill me. I struggle to break away, not wanting to go through it again with a passenger, but he dives ahead, watching and feeling it all. My heart is pounding hard in my chest as a sob is ripped from me, a cry of denial.

Gabriel finally breaks off at the part where the opposing wolf had turned tail and run. I scramble away, forgetting that I'm against the railing. Pushing away from it almost blindly, I dart down the steps.

Falling to my knees at the bottom, my stomach heaves and empties its contents into the grass. Hot tears make their way down my cheeks, my emotions in such turmoil that the air and ground around me turn frigid. Thick frost grows on the already dead grass blades.

"You had no right!"

My words feel raw as I shout at him, still bent low as I try to keep my insides from exiting through my mouth. The mild temperature drops and a strong breeze picks up, blowing my hair around me. While we'd been inside, dark had started to descend, so it had already started to get cold, but now I've added my own icy anger to it.

His heat comes up at my back. My claws grow and I growl, warning him to back off.

He doesn't.

Of course not.

Spinning, I lash out but touch on nothing but air. The Alpha’s large frame has moved to be at my back once more, he wraps his thick arms around me, holding mine down.

"Easy. Calm down."

"You had no right! Get off me!"

My back is held tight against a hard body. Man is all corded muscle, no soft give. My heart is still thumping out a panicked rhythm as I struggle to free myself, beating like a wild thing.

He holds me as if I'm just a squirming child, which is just all the more aggravating. Frost starts spreading on his arms, but he pays it no heed, ignoring it while he buries his face in my hair. His whispered words of meaning me no harm fall on deaf ears as my teeth grow, feral growls slipping through.

"I'm sorry, I needed to know. I had to know what really happened, I needed to know his death was just."

That manages to seep through, but I'm still not happy.

"Then you should have asked, you had no right to go through me like that."

I can feel his smirk.

"Yet you had every right to attack me through your magics? Making me feel the pain you and your sibling went through? Do you think everyone who becomes a Were is brought over with champagne and chocolates? Open your eyes, girl. None of us had it easy, and you made it through with your family intact, most do not."

My anger is only rivaled by my shame and embarrassment. I can only keep it for moments longer before it sputters out to nothing. He's right, in my showing him, I didn't pull back anything at first, so it pretty much was an attack.

Here I am acting as the injured party when I struck the first blow. My struggles slow, then stop altogether, becoming still in his arms. Isn't until now that I realize I've been picked up off the ground, held above it as I'm wrapped in the cocoon of his arms.

Not limp per se, but I do relax so I'm not so stiff. He shows no inclination of setting me down, so I clear my throat.

"You can put me down now, please."

Never liked being lifted off my feet. Not afraid of heights, just of falling and knowing I'm too damn heavy to be picked up.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Can hear the amusement in his voice, even with it muffled by my hair. Can't see him, but I turn anyway, feeling and looking contrite. His heartbeat against my back is strong and sure, body heat damn near overwhelming as it pulses around me.

"It is, I won't try to attack you again. You're right, I was acting like a child, and I apologize."

He nods, but still makes no move to release me.

"Thank you for the apology. Now call down your animal."

My brow furrows in confusion, not understanding what he's talking about. The Alpha’s grip is strong, unyielding. There's no getting away unless I want to start inflicting damage.

"What do you mean?"

It's then that I hear a low, deep growl. Looking forward once more, a long-legged animal is stalking out from the dark foliage. Ears back, lips pulled up over long sharp teeth, and a look of awaiting death in his light brown eyes.

Oh...shit.