— Kaden —

My father nodded.

“Okay, from what I saw, spirit wolves are rare, but have not always been so. They are distinguished by their white hair on their head, but that does not cover all their body like an albino. They have two predominant eye colour, either a very pale pink, or violet—I believed I’ve seen the term lilac being used somewhere,” he told me.

“White hair, not tricoloured?” I asked.

“One of the main signs of hybridization seems to be visible in the tip of their hair gaining a different colour.”

“Oh, okay. That tracks.”

He nodded. “They are known to have a strong connection with spirits, ancestors, land, incorporeal beings, nature, the list goes on. They were known mostly to be the communicator between the living and the dead. Between the corporeal and incorporeal. Many were seers, and were versed in divination. They were often summoning beings from the neither, guardian spirits of forests, that type of thing.

They got the attention of werewolf society around the time of Romulus and Remus. Later, Romans really got into getting one or two of them in their packs. They were the ones guiding the spiritual aspect of society. Back in the days when spirituality was such a big thing, being capable of doing what they could was huge.

Some stories said they could allow one to talk with the gods.

As their popularity grew, it turned into a sort of gold rush to get your pack one. A lot of their tribes were attacked. Many were sold as slaves. Most packs treated them well, but it didn’t change the facts that they stole most of them, oftentimes as babies even, to take them away from their homes.

Some of their tribes made pacts with our kind, trying to control at least where the children were going, and also to keep some of their population so that they would not breed themselves out.

That’s around the time when the term Luna came to be. Spirit wolves had a reputation of being particularly beautiful, and a lot of Alphas married them. Well, back then, we were not called Alphas—I think the most common term I’ve seen would translate to chieftains. But Lunas became a thing then. Only back then Lunas were exclusively spirit wolves, I believe. It’s just that the term stuck and changed meaning with time.

Anyways, it’s also around the time when experimentations with interbreeding were becoming a thing. But as you know, hybrids of all kinds tend to not end well for most. A lot of younglings are deformed or feral. It’s always easier when there is human blood involved, but still. Though, for the, it’s not the case, and there are fewer chances of stillbirth too.”

“Just not as strong,” I noted.

“Generally so,” he admitted. “Which is also why spirit wolves grew in popularity. It doesn’t happen with them.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m not sure how this works—all texts were written before the discovery of genetics and DNA—but apparently, they don’t have bad side-effects. They intermix perfectly. With anything.”

My eyebrows went up.

“Not only that, but their woman didn’t seem to have many birthing issues either, the pregnancies much safer than any others. So do keep in mind that there were periods in history were one baby out of two would die, and women prepared their possible funerals every time they got pregnant.”

“But not spirit she-wolves?” I guessed.

“No. Not only that, but some text suggests that the young would not inherit half-legacies.”

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“You know how every child gets fifty percent of their DNA from each parent, right?”

“Sure.”

“Well, I don’t know how this translates into modern terms, but apparently their children don’t inherit half of their parent’s potential, but all of it.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know, and I don’t know if it’s the truth or not, but what I know is that they believed it to be true.”

“Ah, which meant they went all-in into acquiring some and trying this out,” I suggested.

“Pretty much. If they’d been hunted before, it was nothing until the word got out about this. Especially the women. Many of their tribes ended women-less and died out this way. And it also got a lot of people nervous because generally, mixing blood meant that there was always a limit to what the child would inherit…”

“But not this time,” I finished.

“Not this time,” he confirmed. “Some groups went pretty hardcore into eliminating all possible threats. At some points, any hybrids were killed, no matter the results, but spirit wolf hybrid had a pretty high reward on their heads. It became so dangerous that most would not associate with them, even their own kind. They were more feared than the plague. But some zealot decided that taking all spirit wolves altogether would take care of any possible future threat too.”

“Which is why they are believed to be instinct now,” I guessed. “Either they mostly are, or they pretend they are, not to attract any attention to them.”

“It’s as good a guess as any. Plus there is the little thing that they are believed to be more magically infused than a lot of other creatures, so selling their body parts on the black market for potions and the like became a big thing.”

“Like with dragons?”

“Sorta, yes. I read some pretty disturbing things in there. I found one guy describing how to cut the limbs off, tongue, eyes, teeth, hair, anything sellable, while keeping the host alive. How to breed with it, and how much blood to take and sell without killing it. It’s nightmare fuel.”

“And things like these were common?” I asked a little queasy.

“I don’t know how common,” my father told me. “I know that there was a time when ceremonies were performed with seven candidates when a spirit she-wolf was pregnant with a girl, and one of the males would develop a bond, not unlike our mates, and then he’d be allowed to take her. And for a long time, it was seen as one of the greatest blessing a wolf and a pack could be given. That is until the hunting got so bad that having one in their midst had become known as an unavoidable death sentence, because it was pretty much a guaranteed they would be attacked for it. With time, only the strongest or the biggest fool tried this.

They have been victims of a lot of experimentation too, some supernaturals had them raped and forced breeding with all sorts of monstrous things just to see what would happen, and they would take the young from the mothers at birth, never to be seen again.

So I’m not exactly surprised if she’s truly a spirit wolf, that she’s not really keen on broadcasting the information.”

“Man,” I said, gliding my hands over my face.

“I know that right now, she would be worth a pretty penny on the black market. And contrary to other species, her being a hybrid, would only make her that more valuable,” my father said. “And if what you said is true, and she’s a second-generation hybrid. Man, those are even rarer. Especially if the other part is something different. The bigger the mix, the higher the value.”

“Does it means she’s powerful?” I asked him.

“Possibly. But again, all this could be bullshit superstitions from the past. We don’t really know.”

“But if the information gets out, superstitions or not, it might not matter,” I said.

“No, because value is all about perception.”

“Damn,” I said.

“They are seen as the greatest gift and the worst curse. Which means that to some, you’re the luckiest and most blessed guy on the planet, and to others, you’re utterly fucked.”

“And right now, there is a bunch of assholes in the Brotherhood who think I might have started a war just to go magical artifact shopping and buildup power.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to know you got yourself something even better than that. They love it when someone is not obedient, docile, and power gathering.”

I laughed humourlessly.

“So, what will you do with her?” my father asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you could be borrowing a lot of trouble by having her around. You still have the option of not going with it. You can reject her and move on. You could also go for a power grab, this would be an excellent time for this.”

“No,” I said. “On both accounts. I’m not gonna bend over because some people might not like someone. I never did this and I never will. And second, a power grab is not something that I can just do for myself for fun. There would be repercussions for this, for my pack, for her, for my family. It’s not worth it.”

My father nodded. “It’s all nice and stuff, but that might not be how things will go.”

“I know.”

“You love her?”

“I barely know her.”

“Yes, but you could be heading through hell for her.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t think I’m considered weak. No one in their right mind would attack here just for fun.”

“Probably not,” he said with a smirk.

“Maybe this is the best place for her to be safe.”

“Maybe,” he conceded.

“She said that I needed her and she needed me, and that if she didn’t come with me, she might possibly die.”

“A vision?”

“Something like this.”

“You think that’s why she needs you, why she might die?”

“It’s as good a guess as any,” I admitted.

“Do you know why you need her?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have details. But I do know that my soul has been damaged, and she helps heal it.”

My father’s eyes widened. “How?”

“I’m not sure, and I don’t think she really understands what has happened either. I think it might have been linked to how she affected me before we met. She said my soul is brittle and could be shattered. That it needs to heal. That she can feel it heal when we touch.”

“So a rejection now could be bad?”

“I might not survive it. Not at the moment at least.”

“So whatever you choose, it might be better to wait, at least for you to heal.”

“It would be wiser.”

He nodded pensively. “But all this, it goes beyond that,” he told me.

“How so?” I asked.

“Nothing is ever so simple, son. You might not want to make this political, but it’s going to be. However you approach this. And especially in the present climate. Getting a spirit wolf involved in the game could easily make this far more significant than this pesky little power vacuum. There was a small scrambble for power, sure. But her, she could start something far bigger. She’s a Helen of Troy. What you’re doing could be for your health, or her protection, or your feelings for one another, but in the end, there is a strong possibility that this won’t matter, and how you’re going to deal with this, could not only define this pack, but a lot more, and possibly beyond werewolf society.

Maybe we’ll be lucky and it won’t be too significant. Maybe the times have changed enough for making her not as valuable as she would have once been, or maybe the fact that the world has not seen the like of her for at least two centuries will make this all the more significant.

The thing is, we don’t know. And you gotta make sure whatever you choose, you’re okay with this. All the way. Because once you start to go down that path, there might be no turning back.

Whatever you choose, remember that it won’t just affect the two of you.”

“I know that,” I said irritated. Didn’t I just say something like that a few minutes ago? “But I can’t just make a decision out of fear of what may or may not happen.”

“True.”

“Would you dump her if it was you?” I asked him.

“I don’t know what I would do?” he said truthfully.

I nodded. “For her, there are probably two main options. One, stay in hiding, the other, ally with power.”

He nodded.

“I’m not good with hiding,” I said. “And I can’t do it. Not with a pack. But I could do the latter.”

“You could,” he agreed.

“But that would mean to expose her. Take a risk.”

“It would.”

“I guess that part should be her call,” I told him.

“It probably should. But before you offer her options, you should know what you want to do.”

I nodded. “Whichever she chooses, I’ll do what I can to help her with this.”

He nodded.

“I don’t know where this would lead us though,” I admitted.

“I think I know,” my father told me with a smirk.

I looked at him questioningly.

“I saw how you look at her?” he told me.

“Isn’t that how most living things with dangly parts look at her?” I told him.

He barked in laugher. “Probably,” he admitted. “But it goes beyond that doesn’t it?” he asked me.

I shrugged.

“You might not have noticed, but I do have a mate. I know how this part is played, I know how hard it is to resist.”

I shrugged again. “We’ll see,” I said and got up.

My father scoffed at me, but got up too.

“Whatever your decisions, both of you. You have my support. I’ll do what I can.”

“I want to borrow these,” I said pointing at the books. “I need to understand what I’m getting myself into.”

He nodded and we packed the books in a bag.

“Take good care of that girl,” he told me before I left. “I saw how spooked she was at dinner. I doubt someone in her position has never faced some serious shit.”

I nodded realizing the full implication of what that meant.