A Shifter Among Wolves

Chapter 2

---Paige's POV---

I was still quite shocked about what had happened in the forest. One minute I'm walking around in my animal form, looking at my adoptive brother and his friend, the next thing I know his friend goes wolf, literally, and chases me up a tree.

They couldn't be Soul shifters; my parents had said that I was the last one. It didn't make sense. I paced around my room, trying to focus so I could find the answer. Frustrated and tense, I walked over to the desk and sat down while I opened my book.

After six years in the orphanage, learning forms, I started to use that book to write my findings in it. How my form was different from the normal animals, drawings of how they looked like, etc. It made me relax and calm down. I sighed while turned the pages in the book. This was another reason for being called a freak.

The magical book wasn't readable for anyone else but me. Others have to get my permission to read in it. It was a quality that I loved, otherwise the owners from the orphanage would have looked very strange when they read the words hunter, soul-shifter and...

Werewolf.

Of course. Hindsight showed all the tiny clues I had missed or had noticed but simply ignored, like John scenting the air when we first met. Most likely he was trying to make sure I was indeed human, like they presumed.

I let out a small chuckle. What were the odds for me to find werewolves at the exact place that I would live in? A sigh escaped me while I closed the book and went in my bathroom to clean up my face. I was still relatively pale when I glanced in the mirror.

Just then, I heard Nick entering the house downstairs, calling my name. Oh, crap. I can't let him know my secret and he thinks his secret is still safe. Ok Paige, you can do this. Nice and deep breathes.

It was then that I noticed his odd scent; it was a mix between human and wolf. The same scent that I had found in the forest, looking for a wolf pack. The odd mixture made me wrongly assume that there had been wolves around, but were chased away by a human presence. Now I knew the truth; the wolves were simply hiding among the humans without their knowledge.

Wiping the cloth over my face, I thought back of the odd comment Nick had made. So the pack that they were talking about was their own pack; a pack of werewolves. I sighed while thinking it over.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Nick said behind me, making me jump. I spun around quickly and he stared at my face.

"Paige? Did something happen? You look quite pale..." he trailed off while I felt the blood drain from my face. What should I tell him? Oh hey, it's nothing really, I just walked around the forest, changed into an animal and you guys scared the living daylights out of me by going wolf? It sounded insane even in my head.

Nick was still looking at me with a worried look in his face. He slowly pulled me towards my bed and made me sit on it while I took a deep breath.

"It's just... I was walking in the woods when I was startled by a cougar-" I started and felt Nick tense immediately. "Did it hurt you? Are you alright?" he said while he looked at my arms and legs, like he wanted to make sure that I hadn't been mauled.

"I'm fine, but the cougar was pissed off for some reason and snarled at me before it feigned an attack." I said, my voice slightly wavering by the memory of him turning into a wolf. I was hoping that he wouldn't do that now, because he was shaking rather badly.

"Hey, relax. I'm fine."

He looked down at me and smiled, but I could see that he was focused on something else. Then his gaze turned curious. "How do you know that much about cougars?" he asked.