Werewolf, Steve. Were. Wolf.

Her shy smile as she set the table had his inner voice whimpering. He cleared his throat. “So. The wolf thing.” She grimaced, the smile disappearing, and he almost let it drop.

Almost.

“Yeah. I’ve always been a Wolf.” He could hear her emphasis on the word wolf, and wondered at it. “I was born this way.”

He shuffled his feet. Part of him wanted to get closer, to see if she smelled as sweet as she looked. The other part wanted to remain by the door in case she went all The Howling on his ass. “So all wolves are born?”

She shook her head, looking around the kitchen until she spotted what she wanted. “Nope.” She tucked an uncovered plate into the microwave, her fingers flying over the buttons. “A Wolf can be made, but most in this Pack were born.”

“Oh.” He wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. “Ben’s been one forever, then.” Once the true fear had worn off, he’d felt betrayed. He understood, but that didn’t make the feeling go away. This was a huge secret, but it was one he would have been willing to keep for his best friend.

She stared at him for a moment, ignoring the microwave when it beeped. “Ben couldn’t tell you. The Alpha wouldn’t allow it.”

He scowled. “And Ben always does what his Alpha says?”

Her brows rose. “You’ve met our Alpha? Rick Lowell? Big, scary-ass dude with long red hair and a scar on his cheek?”

Okay. She had a point. “But what about when we were kids? Why didn’t he tell me then?” Hell, he never would have been able to keep something like that a secret, especially from Ben.

She shrugged. “We’re taught from an early age to hide what we are from humans. I mean, would you want to wind up in an underground government laboratory, being vivisected?”

“That shit doesn’t really happen,” he scoffed.

She stayed silent, her gaze on him weary.

“Seriously?”

She nodded. “It happened once, a long time ago, but in the private sector.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Let’s just say that some very useful drugs on the market today weren’t found by accident and leave it at that.”

He took a step into the room as she took one plate out of the microwave and set the other in. “So you guys really do heal super-fast?”

She shook her head. “Nope. That’s all a myth. The legends all say that, but the truth is we’re just people. We scar, we get diseases, we get broken bones that don’t magically get better when we shift shape. We’re a little bit stronger, a little bit more resistant, and our senses are sharper than a normal human’s, but that’s about it.”

“And you get fuzzy around the full moon.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Myth. We can run in our Wolf form whenever we want.”

“Silver bullets?”

“Myth. Regular bullets work just fine, thanks.”

“Wolf’s bane?”

“Ugh. Myth. That shit’s poisonous to everyone.”

“Drinking water out of an animal print to change you into a wolf?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Ew.”

“Wearing a belt of wolf skin under a full moon?”

“Where did you read this stuff?”

He felt his skin flush and just knew he was blushing. He’d had a lot of time in the last few days to surf the Internet. “Wikipedia.”

She giggled. “Well, stop. The only way to change someone is to bite them. We release a special enzyme that mutates the DNA of the bitee.”

“Sounds painful.”

“I understand it can be, under the wrong circumstances. Most people are changed with the mating bite, and I understand that’s…” She smiled, the expression sultry. “Fun.”

He cleared his throat again. He didn’t want to think of her and fun right now, not when he was still vaguely wigged out. “Are you guys allergic to chocolate, like real canines?”

She lifted her brows and the lid on the one plate she hadn’t stuck in the microwave. Instead of the salad he half expected, there was a rich, decadent-looking Black Forest cherry cake. “Human, remember? We’re people who shift into animals, not animals who shift into humans.”

“Are any of the myths true?”

She set the warmed-up plates on the kitchen table, the smell of the meat and potatoes filling the small cabin. “We see well in the dark, better than a human does, but only when we shift our eyes to our wolf’s.”

He took a step closer, drawn by the easy way she spoke and the hunger that gnawed at his belly. Since he’d holed up in the cabin, he’d been living off granola bars and bottled water. “What about the whole man-wolf thing? Is that real?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Tigers do that.”

“T-tigers?” There were more of them?

Graciela didn’t seem to notice his unease. “Yup. The rest of us just turn into animals.” She finished getting all the food prepared while she spoke. “There are Wolves, and Pumas and Tigers, and lots of other shifters out there, each with a unique gift. And the one who rules over us all is the Leo.”

“Who?”

“The Leo.” She took a seat, her hands on the table where he could clearly see them. It was obvious she was doing her best to make sure he was as comfortable as possible with her presence. “He rules over all shifter kind. He’s always a Lion, and he runs the Senate, the ruling body of shifters. He’s the only white Lion shifter, and he has the ability to order even an Alpha like Rick around. So when that white Lion is born, they park his ass on the throne and pray he’s not a complete cabrón.”

He gulped and sat down at the table with less grace than he’d planned. “I thought I heard a mountain lion the other night.”

She nodded. “Remember Belle? She’s a Puma. There’s a town a few hours away that’s run by Pumas, and it has a college campus nearby. Several different types of shifters go there, as it’s one of the few campuses in an area that’s shifter-run in the United States.”

“How many of you are there?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. That’s not one of my jobs, you know? But probably more than you’d believe, less than you fear. We’re just people, Steve, trying to live our lives like everyone else.”

“No, I meant how many different kinds? Wererabbits? Weresharks?” He shivered. “Weredinosaurs?”

She picked up her knife and fork, gesturing for him to do the same. He did, trying to ignore how badly his hands were shaking again. At least he didn’t think he was in danger of passing out this time. “Well, there are Wolves and Pumas, Foxes, Bears—”

“Bears? Like, grizzlies?”

“And black, and kodiak, and Kermode. Yup.”

He wasn’t certain he wanted to hear any more, but he got the feeling he’d need to. Now that he knew about Ben and the rest of them, he had to know. “And?”

“Lions, Tigers—” He felt himself sway a bit in his seat, “—Cheetahs, Coyotes. There are a lot of us, but we all seem to be predators of one kind or another, and always mammals.”

“So no werebunnies.”

“Nope.” She tilted her head and smiled. “Unless they’re Bear bunnies.”

“Do I want to know?”

She took a bite of steak and moaned. “One of the Pack members living in Halle is mated to a Bear whose nickname is Bunny.” She shrugged. “So. Werebunny.”

He actually laughed a bit at that, but he was feeling overwhelmed. He took a bite of steak, hoping to distract himself.

It worked. He moaned at the flavor that burst across his tongue. “Oh my God. I think I’m in love.”

She growled, the sound inhuman. Wolfish.

He carefully put the knife and fork down. “Or maybe not.”

She winced. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just… You’re my mate, and I don’t like hearing you say you love someone else.” She shrugged, blushing darkly. “Or something.”

He blinked. “Mate.” He’d heard that term before, and been way too wigged out to think about it much. And he’d had enough girlfriends to understand what that term meant.

She bit her lip and nodded. “Mate.”

The next thing he knew, his head was between his knees and Graciela was begging him to breathe.