We’d been driving non-stop on the interstate for twenty hours from Texas to Montana. We were less than five hours from First Montana Pack now.

Our bus was full of unmated young adult wolves and a handful of young, mated pairs. It was an awkward situation at first since the male wolves couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off Kendra and me.

I knew we were beautiful, but there were a number of gorgeous women in their own pack, so it seemed a little awkward to have them staring at us.

Finally, a young she-wolf of about twenty-two came to sit across the aisle from us and struck up a conversation.

Her name was Flora, and she was friendly and smiled a lot. She had soft blonde hair and light blue eyes with pale skin. Even her eyebrows and eyelashes were blonde. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks.

She also asked a lot of nosy questions that were none of her business.

“Are you adopted?” she asked Kendra.

“No,” Kendra answered.

“Why do you look so differently from your sisters?” she continued to pry.

Three of my sisters and I had varying shades of red and brown hair. We were all tall and had brown or green eyes. But Kendra was different. She was short with long black hair and violet eyes.

Our mother had thought once that she was switched at birth, but a DNA test had proved she was our blood relation.

“It’s how the goddess made me,” Kendra shrugged.

“That’s as good an answer as any,” Flora said.

“I’m an orphan,” she continued.

“We didn’t have adoption in the old pack. The orphans were servants there. I wonder if the new pack will make us servants, too. Jesse says they won’t, but I’ve never seen orphans treated kindly in a wolf pack.”

“I suppose you haven’t met many packs,” I said to her.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Only three, really,” she considered.

“Most packs aren’t like MacKenzie’s pack anymore. They’ve finally progressed past the dark ages,” I informed her.

“Progressed how?” she asked me.

“Pack members have a choice in jobs. Women can be warriors. Women aren’t forced to relocate to their mate’s pack. If the female is a higher rank than their mate, the mate comes to live with them. There are even a couple of packs with female Alphas,” I listed off a few.

Flora whistled, “Female Alphas? That’s impressive. Most packs are reformed you say?”

“There are only three others in the Americas besides MacKenzie’s and Martin’s packs that believe humans and orphans, among others, are beneath them. Unfortunately, they are unwilling to revise their outdated laws and cling to prejudice and hate,” I explained.

I sat by the window and was talking over Kendra’s head to Flora. When I noticed the corners of Kendra’s mouth lifting into an amused smile, I knew what that meant.

I lifted my head and looked around us. The other young wolves on the bus had crowded up as close to us as possible to listen attentively to our conversation. Had they been living under a rock? They seemed to know nothing.

I made eye contact with another young she-wolf, and she asked, “Do you know Alpha Tristan and Luna Jane?”

“I’ve met Tristan Martin a few times. He was polite and respectful to me and my sisters. He’s a few years younger than us. He should be just eighteen now that I think about it,” I answered.

“He wasn’t anything like his father,” I recalled.

Kendra interjected, “Luna Jane is an orphan, too, and was treated as a servant in Alpha Martin’s household. When Tristan and Jane discovered they were true mates, his father tried to force them to reject each other and beat them both. They refused to reject each other, so he tried to kill Tristan to force her to reject him.”

I looked up to see everyone on the bus listening to her with rapt attention. Kendra rarely spoke so much. She continued the story without looking back at everyone, telling the tale of Tristan, Jane, and their journey to Montana.

She concluded, “That is why all of you are on this bus, leaving your homes to find a new one. You needn’t worry. You will all find better lives there.”

They went back to their seats and started discussing the information that Kendra had revealed.

I watched Kendra for a while then turned to look out of the window.

I spoke in a hushed voice, “How did you know all of that?”

“Kasia told me,” she answered.

“And who is that?” I inquired.

“Luna Jane’s wolf,” she replied.

I turned to look at her and narrowed my eyes, “How do you know Jane’s wolf, Kendra?”

“Circe knows her.”

I turned back towards the window and stopped questioning her.

Circe was Kendra’s wolf. All of my and my sisters’ wolves were special in some way. Even we didn’t know the full extent of it, but Circe seemed to know everything.

There was no point in wondering exactly how the information was gained. If Circe said it, then it was true.

Four hours to go. Now, even I was interested to see Tristan again and meet his Luna.