Hunters' Shadow (Book one of the Hunter Chronicles)

Chapter Eleven (Edited)

He uttered a low growl of disbelief and, unconsciously, she took a step backwards, the base of her back pressing against the mattress. "It has to be a mistake!" she repeated; this time appealing to the doctor who hovered in the background, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

"There's no mistake," Blake growled, preventing the Doc from answering. "You're a wolf. It's written there in black and white." He gestured towards the blood test results. He was breathing hard, but somehow, he kept his voice calm; the legendary patience she'd heard so much about showing through.

Still, she had to resist the urge to place the bed between them.

"You're either a rogue. In which case I should have killed you on the spot the first day I found you -" She flinched at the word kill. "- or you belong to another pack that's out there searching for you right now. By law that means I'm effectively guilty of kidnapping you, and keeping you from your Alpha. Either way, your presence here puts my pack in danger."

In danger? Groping for sense, she countered: "I would know if there was a wolf running around in my head. I'm guessing they're a little hard to miss, right?"

Blake raised his eyebrows.

"If there was a wolf talking to me, I think it would probably jog my memory just a little bit, don't you?" She blanched at his unyielding expression, her mind racing. "Believe me-" she continued desperately, "- if there was a voice in my head right now, I'd have told you about it! I'd think I was going crazy! Maybe I am going crazy -"

She broke off, appalled at where her train of thought was leading her. Surely, she wasn't considering believing them? Scrambling for some way of proving their insanity, she dredged up a conversation she'd had with Jenni about Alphas just yesterday. "Isn't your wolf supposed to be able to sense other wolves? Talk to them? Jenni told me an Alpha can make the wolf inside submit to them."

Blake looked uncomfortable, the black in his eyes fading slightly. "Rothan hasn't sensed a wolf in you," he admitted.

"Of course not!" She flung her hands in the air, exasperated. "Because there isn't one! There's no wolf inside my head!" This wasn't happening. After everything that had already happened to her tonight, this wasn't happening.

"This is impossible... you're wrong!" She threw her protest towards Doc, who shook his head in puzzlement. He reminded her of a scientist studying an experiment that wasn't behaving quite as expected.

He approached the bed clutching the test results and - frustrated that neither of them was listening to her - she snatched the sheet of paper from him. Ignoring the sting across her palms, she studied it carefully. There had to have been a mistake.

The official-looking document was full of many scientific phrases, percentages and other numerical readings she didn't understand. An official looking logo in the corner of the sheet told her that the tests had been undertaken by a company with inside knowledge; Lykoscorp.

Lower down the page the traditional white blood count, triglyceride and blood sugar readings were joined by the one phrase that stood out clearly in thick black ink. It read:

'Lupus Verspellis - 99.999% match.'

Latin, of course it had to be in Latin. She squinted, trying to dredge up any memories at all of the dead language. Lupus meant wolf; she knew... Verspellis... to change? Or shape changing?

She blinked.

Languages weren't her best subject, but even an idiot could translate. To put it simply - Werewolf. Holding her hand over her mouth she began to laugh hysterically. This was just ludicrous.