Haden and Kane greet each other, walking back into the kitchen. I can hear their voices but can’t make out anything they are saying.

I stand in my ever-growing puddle, wondering if it’s okay for me to just leave. I start to walk towards the stairs when Kane pokes his head around the archway and commands, “Ama, come here.”

“Can I change first?”

His expression hardens as he looks me over and sighs, “Normally that would be best but Haden is here to check your wounds.”

They weren't wounds anymore. They were barely scars, all things considered. I chew on my lip, debating if it's worth it to argue and decide against it. I drop my belongings on a chair and walk over and into the kitchen.

Haden is leaning against the island at the center, his arms folded loosely across his chest; he cuts an imposing figure as he stands a head taller than even Kane though he is far leaner. He has a large bushy beard so dense and unkept that I can't see his lips.

His dislike of humans is evident as he regards me with distaste. “Your lack of attire makes this quicker. Turn around.”

I bristle at his sharp tone but do as ordered. Turning my back to someone so hostile has my fight or flight instincts in overdrive. Kane steps in front of me as if he thinks I may bolt out the door. He's close enough that I can feel the heat radiating off him, though we aren't touching.

I try not to think about the fact that moments prior I had wrapped myself around him like a koala. I feel my face heat and look down at my toes.

Harden’s gruff voice brings me back to the present. “It looks fine. Don't even know why he had me come here. Though why'd you waste your time to heal one of them is beyond me, Kane. I don't even know how you can stomach touching it.”

I know that I am the ‘it’ and though I knew he hated humans, I wasn't prepared for him to be so outright about it. It’s clear why Alpha had asked if it had been Haden or Anil who’d hurt me; Haden also seem to have no qualms about harming a human.

Kane clears his throat and seemingly ignores the jab. “If she doesn't require your attention then there's no need for you to stay longer,” he says in a level tone.

Haden makes a strangled sound something between a growl and a laugh. “What a waste of pack resources and with your healing almost as potent as Alpha’s.”

I don't hear Haden move but when the front door slams shut hard enough to make me flinch, I know he's left. I look up at Kane who is gazing over my head towards where Haden was. Sensing my eyes on him Kane looks down at me, his expression guarded. “It's good you are fully healed.”

Has he been worried about it? Part of me wants to believe that but I push that partway down and frown. “Do all of you just arbitrarily hate humans?”

I think back to the unfinished story of Sute. Clearly, those men in the forest were Shifters and were going to do something terrible to her.

“It's more complicated than that,” he grumbles in reply.

“Enlighten me, then.”

Maybe it's my tone or the fact that he's realized anew that I'm standing half-naked in his soaked t-shirt, but his expression darkens as he scans me and replies, “You should change now.”

“That's it?”

“What's it?”

“Why'd he come to check on me if he'd rather me dead. He was ordered to?”

“Yes.”

I stare up incredulously, waiting for him to continue but when it's clear that he has no intention to, I scoff, “God, and why didn't you just let me die then? Haden said it was you who helped me.”

If I'd understood correctly, from Haden’s comment, it was Kane who had healed me. Some part of my mind melted at the knowledge that it probably meant he’d been licking my thighs but I brush that aside and scowl up at him.

“You'd rather be dead, Ama?” his harsh tone and the directness of the question catch me off guard. The brave face I’ve put on waivers. I don't know what he sees, but something in my expression causes him to look away and clear his throat.

“Haden’s mate was killed almost seventy years ago. The human hunters had probably never seen a creature so big. She’d been out hunting herself. It's hard but not unheard of for human weapons to take one of us down. They killed her and took their trophies. Haden found her beheaded and skinned a few hours later.”

My stomach rolls and I cover my mouth as bile rises up my throat. I cannot begin to imagine that horror. I believe that ‘mate’ must be something similar to ‘wife’ so the fact that he had found his wife’s body in such a mangled state…

I stumble back and run over to the sink, emptying the contents of my stomach there. I turn back to look at Kane as I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. He hasn’t moved but is watching me closely.

It hits me then that he said 70 years ago. “How old is Haden?”

Kane shrugs, “I’d venture around 150, give or take a few years.”

My eyes bug at the number; the man doesn’t look more than 50. Kane sees my surprise and continues, “Shifters live a long time. Not forever, but long enough. Well, assuming nothing kills them.”

I raise an eyebrow and turn back to the sink to rinse out my mouth. When I’m finished, I sigh, “Well I’ve seen your healing abilities with my own eyes. You werewolves are pretty resilient.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He snorts a sound that is so uncharacteristic for him. “We are hardly werewolves. If anyone else heard you say that, they would be highly insulted.”

“Isn’t that basically what you are?” I ask, a shiver suddenly running up my spine. Standing here in just a wet shirt is starting to make me cold.

“No, actually. Werewolves are something else,” he replies, walking towards me.

“Wait, what?” I ask as he takes me by the elbow and steers me towards the stairs. I am grateful for the change in topic. I don’t want to think about Haden or the horrific death of his wife.

His lips quirk up but he doesn’t stop or look down as he guides me up the stairs. “It’s a bit like you saying that a donkey and a horse are the same. Or a lion and a tiger, or perhaps better a dog and a wolf. They are certainly similar, they can even breed together, but they are not the same.”

“I’m going to need more than that!” I exclaim, for once actually interested in all this Shifter stuff. As we reach the second floor, I ask “Are you the dogs or the wolves?”

This time he stops and looks down at me. Though his face is serious his eyes are dancing. “The wolves..err, werewolves are… normal compared to shifters.”

I cock my head to the side. I’m pretty sure we can both agree that neither is normal. I open the door to my room and walk in. I haven’t moved the clothes from the bag by the door.

Kane comes in after me and before I can even attempt, he lifts the bag off the ground and deposits it on the bed.

Turning back to me, he explains, “They look like normal humans, and when they transform they look like normal wolves. In either state, you would not suspect them to be anything abnormal. In that way, they blend into society far better but that’s also made them increasingly rare.”

“So they live in, like, cities?” I ask, walking over to the bed and pulling out a change of clothes.

“Probably more like small towns to have better access to rural areas for hunting but yes, with humans. But the gene is recessive so they’ve become increasingly rare after so many centuries of cross-breeding with humans.”

I think he can feel my growing fascination because he holds up his hands in surrender. “If you want a lesson on werewolf genetics you´d be better off asking the doc.”

Just the thought of Haden makes me cringe; I’d almost succeeded in pushing all thoughts of him out of my mind. “No, that’s alright. But that’s interesting to know.” I press, wanting to continue with this line of questioning, “So werewolves and humans more often than not just make more humans. What about werewolves and shifters?”

“I’ve never met one. We don’t tend to mix. Most shifters see them as an inferior version.”

“And yet shifters will mate with humans,” I mutter, thinking back to his explanation on half-breeds.

“Yes, well, those are rarely consensual and often short-lived.”

I look down at the clothing in my hands and sigh. His words remind me of yet another story I’ve heard recently and should probably now hear the rest of it. All Kane seems to have are horrible stories.

“I’m going to change. Can you wait here? I want to hear the rest of Sute’s story.”

He nods and moves over to lean on the wall by the bed as if it hasn’t occurred to him to sit down. I shake my head and quickly change into dry clothing. I come back out with a towel wrapped around my head and sit on the side of the bed.

“So… Sute went into the woods and was caught by some men, or shifters, I’m guessing?”

Kane nods his head and begins again, “The leader liked what he saw and took her and kept her and raped her.” He pauses for a moment, his expression growing stormy. I hold my breath watching him. Clearing his throat he continues, now staring ahead and reciting it like a story he has memorized.

“After two months of an endless nightmare, Sute was prepared to take her own life when the shifter smelled a change in her; she was pregnant with his child. He might have let her kill herself otherwise but the half-blood in her womb was of value to the Beta of the pack. It would help him secure his place.

“So Sute was kept under close watch until she gave birth and almost died in the process. She was allowed to keep her child and she raised that child in the pack, all the while being treated like dirt. But, she protected that child, shielded him from the hate so he had no way of knowing. He never knew the hurt or hate she endured for those five years with the pack. And then one day she left with him. She had convinced the Beta to let her son learn of the outside world, saying it would make him more valuable. So he granted her five years to let the boy learn before returning.

“With the boy by her side she made her way back to Mr. Ahane and Mr. Ahane welcomed them. He asked no questions and cared for the boy as his own. Mr. Ahane was truly a good man. But the years of Sute’s absence had not been kind to him. His leg never fully healed and he was often ill. Two years after their return, Mr. Ahane passed.

“If that were not enough, shortly before the boy’s eighth birthday, in response to the Japanese attack at Peral Habor, Sute and her son, along with the rest of their friends and neighbors, were taken away to a camp.” Kane suddenly stops, his voice has softened to almost a whisper by the end. I look up from staring at my lap and see his eyes are closed.

I remember learning about the Japanese internment camps in World War 2. How they were forced from their homes, made to abandon their whole lives, and when they were finally freed, most had nothing to return to. I wonder if that’s the end of the story but I am curious to know. I want Sute to have a happier ending. “What happened to her and her son after the camp?” I ask.

“She died. Her suffering was too great, and she couldn’t hold on any longer. So, Ama, I understand your hatred. It’s deserved.” He pushes off the wall and stands in front of me. He is towering over me but I’m not afraid.

His expression softens as he adds, “I was young during the internment camps. She thought we would have a better life and couldn't have known we were trading one prison for another. She couldn’t have known her husband would die or we would be locked up. People she knew from before were suspicious of her after all those years away but when everyone has nothing and is forced to rely on one another, petty grieves give way or break the tenuous peace.”

I can only stare up at him now. This whole time he’s been talking like he was relaying a story from a book but now…

“She was accepted back, probably at Mr. Ahane’s insistence, though I was always other, even with the kindness he afforded me. I was clearly not just Japanese and so I was part oppressor and much as oppressed.

“Even after everything, when we could finally leave, there was nothing to return to. None of the others had anything either. Our homes and businesses had been seized by the governments. Fuck, there were other families living in our homes. And after begging and pleading and fucking humiliation we ended up back with him again.”

“You’d have to be at least eighty years old,” I say but as soon as the words leave my mouth, I think of the fact that Haden is supposedly well over 100.

As if the horrors he is relaying have no effect on him, he shrugs and replies evenly, “I don’t look at day over forty, though.” But there’s no humor in his voice and his eyes are burning.

I see it then - that all this rage is always there, simmering below the surface. His lip curls up and when he speaks again, his tone is flat, each word carefully chosen and spoken so as to not betray any emotion. “She died a year later. She just gave up. I was eleven. I left my father’s pack shortly before my twentieth birthday.”

He searches my face, but I’m not sure what he’s looking for. He must not find it because he sighs and takes a step back. “I want you to know that you are justified in your anger. Just as Haden's is, you also have just as much of a right to hate all of us. You have been wronged and I am not blind to it though it is beyond my power to change it. But, at least for my part, I will not be the cause of any further hardship if I can help it.”

He doesn’t wait for me to reply as he leaves, shutting the door behind him. It was only a few days ago that he told me not to mistake momentary kindness for genuine concern and yet he seems to be showing just the opposite. No matter what he says he is not like Anil, but that does not make him any less dangerous.