"Something other than a wolf."
I said it out loud, just to confirm it was as insane as it sounded the first time.
It was.
"Something other than a wolf," Maren confirmed, with the energy of a woman reading a recipe rather than rewriting someone's entire identity.
"Like what?" Marcus asked. He'd moved to stand near the bookshelf, arms crossed, expression carefully neutral — Beta mode fully engaged. It was the most comfortable I'd been with him in the room since I'd recognized his face, which was ironic, because what Maren was saying should have been making me deeply uncomfortable.
Mostly I was just tired. The kind of tired that sits behind your eyes.
"The historical record is incomplete," Maren said, turning a page. "The Ashveil purge was thorough. Most primary sources were destroyed."
