Callas groaned after hearing Sam's reply, leaning her head back against the back of the sofa with her eyes closed. There was a part of her that wasn't sure how much more she could take. In fact, she surprised herself with how well she was taking in all the information that Sam and the others were telling her. Albeit, it wasn't the strangest thing she had heard, Henry said weirder things to her before during their late-night Skype and call sessions. Sometimes she wondered if he was a A.I. or maybe just computer generated considering some of the things he rambled on about were far too strange. But, then again, he wasn't as strange as Will, or as strange as the sight of seeing her brother transform or 'phase' into a wolf. That was a thing, apparently. Reed wrapped his arm around the back of the sofa again, squeezing her left shoulder, while resting his head on the right side of her head, with a small chuckle. A sigh left her lips as she continued to stare at the ceiling. It was crazy for her to think that a completely different world existed out there, that only a few people knew about, and now she was one of them, and that it had been kept hidden from everyone else.
"You guys have scents. That's so strange. I don't even know how to process that. The only one who smells nice out of all of you is Quil, and I'm only saying that because I spoke to him after he had a shower after P.E. once, because it had been cancelled due to the rain, although, that could have been Paul or Jared seeing as they were there too, but, I'm going to say it's Quil and hope it was Quil. I'm mean... sure, Reed smells okay too, but that's because he lives with me so I'm used to it, and Anya has candles on like all the time so we all smell relatively like an ocean breeze." She brought her head back up and stared at the fireplace. "Yeah, okay, Seth you smell okay too. Jake, you don't. It's gross. Like please take a shower." Her nose scrunched up. "The only reason why I'm not throwing up or gagging is because I have Reed separating the two of us and I can still smell Emily's cooking."
"Freaking out?" Reed asked her shortly after she finished her sentence.
"Just a little bit. It is obvious?"
"Yeah."
"Can someone else take over from talking because I'm going to start crying if you don't."
Sam shook his head, gaining his concentration back. "Yeah, okay then. Um, continuing on with what I was saying... The senses of shape-shifters rival those of vampires. Like vampires, we can see, hear, and smell things from miles away. Our sense of smell is adjusted to help us identify our one enemy, vampires. It is heightened in other circumstances, like when Seth was able to hear your heartbeat before you fainted, but we certainly know vampires at a distance, finding their smell sickly sweet and repellent."
Callas turned her head to Seth. "So, at the dance when you said you had the best hearing out of everyone—?"
"Improved hearing." Seth nodded.
"Do you all have a special ability?"
Paul shook his head. "Not all of us."
"So, you don't?" Paul shook his head at her again. "Who does?"
"Sam has what we call 'alpha command'," Embry finally spoke up after sitting in silence. "We basically have to listen to him no matter what, but even more so with the alpha abilities." Callas finally understood why he couldn't tell her anything.
"So, all that 'it's not your place to say' or 'Sam won't let you' was because he's got the ability to be bossy? Well, that's unsurprising." She looked towards Sam with a sarcastic smile before looking back at Embry. "I'm not going to apologise for my behaviour back at the house, I had every right to be pissed, but maybe my words of encouragement might have been a little overboard."
"A little?" He chuckled.
Reed snorted a laugh. "You know we all heard it, right? Being able to read each other's thoughts." Reed gritted his teeth at the end of the sentence, aiming his words towards Embry more than anyone else. Callas wasn't sure what his deal was with Embry. But they did promise 'no more secrets' so she had her fingers crossed.
"You know I can't help it," Embry defended.
"But you could try a little bit harder to keep your thoughts to yourself."
Callas side-eyed Seth, hoping he'd tell her something, but he only looked away from all of them, and instead, played with Zeus's ears, petting him, letting Zeus rub his face on his shirt. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled to him. "Your ability must suck when it comes to those two."
"It does. But not just with them," he whispered back, only taking a quick look at her with a shy smirk before he turned his attention back to Zeus.
"I heard that." Reed pinched Seth's shoulder, not really wanting to punch him.
"Don't hurt my beta." Callas slapped his hand away.
"What?" Both Reed and Sam choked out, Reed was more hiding a laugh while Sam was thoroughly confused.
"Yeah... now that I know about the pack, calling Quil and Seth my beta's sounds weird."
"I'm not even going to ask for you to explain that." Sam held his hands up, laying back against the back of his sofa.
"Good, because I wasn't going to. But, who is the beta, anyway?"
Jared grinned. "That would be me."
"I somehow... doubt that. But, sure, Jan."
Jared's grin dropped and he rolled his eyes. "Go back to being scared."
"Can we move on and finish answering my question?" Callas looked away from Jared.
Embry tore his gaze from Reed and answered Callas, "Well, you know Seth has improved hearing, Jared has improved eyesight, and Sam... Leah has improved speed and Jake has 'alpha voice'. It's different to Sam because Jake was born an alpha, but he didn't take on that role until a few years after joining the 'brotherhood'."
Jacob laughed to himself. "So, Cal, the omega is actually an alpha. You also forgot to mention I'm the strongest wolf."
"You're still the runt, Jake. Besides, I'm sure Reed could take you on easily."
"Why would you say that?" Jacob tilted his head, crossing his arms.
"He's my brother, we rep the Quinns, not the Blacks," she answered before furrowing her eyebrows at how natural she sounded when she spoke about it. "Can... we get back to the actual explaining now?"
Sam nodded. "About time." He sighed, sitting up more. "Although we find vampires scents to be repellent, we can get used to the smell. Seth and Jacob have both spent time with the Cullen family, so they are more comfortable around them."
She shuddered. "I don't know how I feel about being so close to vampires."
Sam nodded understandably. "Following on from our individual abilities, although Jared has the best, our eyes are extremely sharp and we can see very far. It's about ten times better than the average human, and twice as good as the average bird of preys, while vampires can see into the invisible spectrum of light. Even as we are now, we can recognise a vampire, rather easily. While you see the characteristics of paleness, eye colour, and... beauty, to us a vampire appears reflective and angular, almost like moving crystal."
"That's... strange."
"Be that as it may, it helps us know who to hunt and kill," Sam concluded. "In our wolf forms, we tend to show the general behaviour of our titular animals, though we retain our human intelligence, memories, and character, up to and including showing our human eyes." Callas nodded, not entirely understanding that. "Pack members are also telepathically linked with each other, enhancing our coordination during hunts and fights but allowing us little or no privacy at any time." He glared at Reed and Embry for a second before looking back to Callas. "The alphas of two different packs—such as Jacob and myself—are able to communicate telepathically, and can control what thoughts we share, while the subordinates of different packs don't show this ability. So, I can't hear Seth or Leah, considering they joined Jacobs pack." She hummed in response, letting him continue, "The dominant male, the alpha,"—Sam pointed to himself then Jacob—"can force the other pack members to obey orders against their will. So, can the Beta, though he can't command his own Alpha. That's why they couldn't tell you anything before."
"So, you're bossy?"
"An alpha's status is related to lineage," Sam rolled his eyes, ignoring Callas as he spoke over her, "with me being the exception due to Jacob, because he was born an alpha but he had no interest in leading the pack. However, should a genetical alpha be unavailable, it is possible for a pack to select a new alpha from, possibly, its ranks."
Jacob nodded his head, turning to look at Callas as he added, "Though possible, it is not known whether a lower-ranking pack member can challenge the alpha for status. No one has tried. I never used my voice to impose my will on my pack mates, even if I do have a stronger power than Sam."
"Yeah, and we aren't the only ones with gifts." Sam breathed out deeply. "Bella is what we call a 'shield', she can block other abilities from affecting her. She can also shield a pack if she focuses on the alpha."
"Do they all have gifts?" Callas raised an eyebrow.
"Not all of them, no." Sam shook his head. "But, getting back on track, the term 'shape-shifter' is only for the direct descendants of Taha Aki who have actually phased. So, the Uley pack, the Black pack, Ephraim Blacks pack, and I guess, the Quinn pack, if your father was one of us, although he might have been a part of a different pack." He shrugged. "Even those who have the right genetic makeup and potential to phase, not everyone does. It all depends."
"On what?"
"Well, Carlisle discovered that we have twenty-four pairs of chromosomes, one more than a human and one less than a vampire, but the same number as vampire hybrids. It could be passed down with the Y-chromosome, given that majority of us are men, aside from Leah, which could indicate that it's the X. Or, alternatively, it may be that it is passed regularly by both sexes and that testosterone may be needed as a co-inducer for the shape-shifting complex. Together with whatever external trigger needed for phasing is—with Leah having a high concentration of testosterone in her bloodstream."
"I don't need a science lesson, Sam. I know how genes work." Callas crossed her arms over her chest. "Are we almost done? I'm getting a headache."
"Just a bit longer. We can tell you the other stuff tomorrow if you're up for it?" Sam suggested.
"Maybe..."
"Getting back to what we first talked about, not being werewolves, that is, the Children of the Moon go along with what people usually associate with werewolves: they only transform during a full moon, and create other werewolves by infecting a human with a venomous bite, much like a vampire, rather than genetically like us. Though they are not harmed by silver bullets. According to Edward, Bella's husband: 'There aren't very many of them left. Caius has had them hunted into near extinction'. If I recall correctly."
"Caius?"
"Another vampire," Embry commented. "He's like royalty to them, the vampires I mean, he's a Volturi."
"Bless you?"
"I didn't sneeze?"
"Oh. Well, what's a Volturi?"
"A coven of vampires in Italy." Jacob scoffed.
"Italy? The one place that has loads of crosses, mirrors, garlic, and sunlight?"
"Callas, where do you even get your information from? Wikipedia isn't reliable."
"I read books, Jake, maybe you should try it sometime."
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Crosses don't affect them, they show up in mirrors, they can eat garlic, well, they don't really need to eat, and they don't burn in the light."
"I need to lay down," Callas mumbled as she got up.
"You okay?" Reed got up as well, looking at her worriedly.
"Yeah... Yeah, I uh... This is a lot to take in, so, I'm going to sleep on it." She nodded, sending him a tired smile. It wasn't a complete lie. It was a lot to take in, and there was no doubt in her mind that there were more things that they hadn't got around to telling her about. They had only scratched the surface of the new world she was thrown into.