It didn't take us long to reach my house. Thankfully, my step daughter, Jess was out with friends; supervised by a werewolf guard of course. Apparently my kidnapping this latest time had really paranoid my mate. Aiden, the fire touched boy we had adopted, was at Darryl (the pack's second) and Auriele's house being tutored by Auriele. While Lucia Arocha; our packs accountant, and her husband Joel; pronounced Hoel, a Tibicena; don't ask, were out on date. Leaving only the Arocha's pet dog, Cookie, and my cat Medea in the house. Which was for the best really if I was bringing a young werewolf home.

Evan trailed behind Ben like a sad puppy as they approached my home. Ben for his part hovered protectively close to the boy, providing reassurance to him. I'm not even certain Ben even noticed he was doing it. I led them into the living and sat down on one of the comfortable chairs. Evan curled up on the couch opposite from me and Ben plopped down beside him.

"Can you tell me what happened Evan?"

Light green eyes rose to my face, but avoided my eyes. He opened his mouth to reply when his nose twitched and his mouth closed. I saw the question rise to his eyes, a question that many people have asked me. He opened his mouth to ask the question.

"No, I'm not a werewolf," I answered before he could ask. I almost felt bad when his eyes widened to the size of saucers and the smell of his fear sharpened. "I'm not a Jedi or Fae. No mind tricks for me. I just get asked that question a lot."

Evan's fear lessened to a tolerable level that didn't leave Ben twitching. The child gave me a wary smile at the Star Wars reference. Then he nodded as if he understood the truth of my words. Then he began his story

"My mom and I were coming home from my lessons. She smelled the blood first. It was coming from several of our neighbor's apartments." He started shaking. "She told me to wait by the car and if things seemed bad I was to run. My mom promised she'd find me if that happened." Gingerly he touched his shoulder as if it pained him. "I heard the gunshots and felt her pain." His fist clenched against his shoulder, I bet it was the same shoulder his mom had been shot in. "She told me to run, and I did." His shame and frustration was strong enough to smell. I was pretty sure if he had stayed to help he'd have been hurt, his mom would have been driven to protect him and she would have been hurt worse.

I fought the urge to comfort him. There were things about his story that had red flags in my mind. First, his story meant he had been changed before this incident; maybe by his mom. Second, he, a young wolf and his mother had been living in the Tri-Cities, under the packs nose, and no one had noticed. That was hard to manage without help. Everything Evan said was the truth. I could taste it in his words, but who knew better than me that telling the truth wasn't the same as the whole honest truth. I glanced at Ben to see if he had caught, but was more focused on Evan's distress than his words.

"So you weren't changed recently?"

The question surprised him. "No."

Truth.

Evan's stomach growled loudly across the silence. The first rule to living with a werewolf was to never starve them. My foster mother was fond of adding, 'or he might ask you to stay for dinner'. She always said that before she gave her husband; a werewolf, a loving look. I gave Ben a pointed look and he got up and went to the kitchen to make Evan some food. Once Ben was gone Evan's fear came sliding back. It was almost as distressing to me as it was to Ben, who made a choked sound in the kitchen. Until a soft sound came from under Evan's couch, startling us both.

The poor boy jumped a little as Medea, my Manx cat, crawled out from under the couch with a meow. She looked at me with silted eyes first then she turned her gaze on Evan. I'm not sure what the boy made of my cat, but I knew she had sized him up as fair game. Medea was kind of an oddball, anyone powerful she considered her minion and thus was required to pet her. She flowed off the floor and right into Evan's lap, purring before he could even object. The silly cat stuck her nose almost in his ear and purred at him demanding he pet or scratch her. Evan stared at the cat, he was stunned and awed by my tailless cat.

"You have to pet her now." I informed him. "She won't leave you be unless you chase her off."

Tentatively Evan reached up and scratched my cat behind her ears. That brought her purring up a notch. "I've never heard of a cat that could stand our kind."

"I don't think anyone has." I could have kissed my cat. Slowly Evan's fear evaporated as Medea purred and nuzzled him. I schooled my expression so I could ask the questions that needed to be asked. "Evan I'm sorry, but I need to ask more questions about the incident."

He nodded.

"Do you think the attack was aimed at you a werewolf?"

He bit his lip and thought about it. "I don't know."

Truth, but some instinct told me it wasn't the full truth. "Was there anything that stood out to you? A car, someone you didn't recognize, a smell."

He thought about it and nodded slowly. "I smelt three human males I hadn't smelt before, and there was some kind of magic in the air."

His words had me sitting up a little straighter. For a new werewolf sorting through scents and finding important ones; especially when there were so many scents to sort through, was very difficult. An apartment building would have a lot of scents intermingled from all the people who lived there both past and present.

"You wouldn't happen to know what kind of magic?" I knew from experience that the different sources of magic have different smells, and from the look on Evan's face he had more than a passing experience with magic. Interesting.

"I can say for sure it is not witch magic, white or dark, I've never been around vampires so I can't say if it was there magic or not. Fae," he paused and was very thoughtful. "It didn't really feel like it Fae. It felt like werewolf magic, but thicker, denser than that. Some Fae have magic that is like our magic. So I can't say for certain." He shrugged. "I don't really have a pack so I can't say for sure if it's one or another, but I think it was one of those two if not a combination of both."

I watched Evan carefully. He had told me a lot and nothing about the question I had asked. Most werewolves don't learn to discern the different types of magic until they are much older or are regularly around magic. This child knew more than the average wolf. It was this more than anything else that made me ask,

"How old are you, Evan?"

"Ten."

Truth, "How long have you been ten?"

He gave me a half smile. "I was born ten years ago. I'm not Fae or anything other than werewolf."

The truth of his words temporarily stopped my train of thought, but not for long. "Who taught you how to be a werewolf and about magic?"

"My mom." Even a human would have hear the pride in Evan's voice.

His mother again, then I remembered him saying that his mom had smelted the blood first. "Is your mom the one who changed you?" It fit. If his mom had come home after being attacked and then attacked her son when the first full moon forced the change they both could be werewolves.

A plate smashed in the kitchen. It was hard to tell if Ben had dropped it or if he had crushed it. But if the anger coming down the pack bonds was anything to go by, I'd say he crushed it. Evan got startled by the sound while answering so I missed it when he answered at first. But he repeated more firmly, and this time looking at me,

"My mom did not change me. How I was changed doesn't really matter in the long run." He held himself up straighter. "What matters is my mom. Can your pack help me find her? Can we rest here while we try to figure out what happened?"

For someone so young, he was very well spoken. I let out a small sigh as Ben came back into the room with a plate laden with a massive steak sandwich. He sat down next to Evan and handed the boy the plate.

"As it happens, a while back I made a declaration that our pack would protect our territory and those in it. Including anyone who asked for protection." I didn't add within reason. "So long as you do not harm anyone in the pack or under the pack's protection and you follow the leaders in the pack. I will introduce you to them later. Yes, you may stay and we will help you find your mom then protect you guys." Chances were Adam would bring them into the pack. It was actually really weird that there was a female and a child outside of pack.

Relief made Eva sag into the seat. Ben grabbed the plate to prevent the boy from dropping it on Medea until Evan gained enough presence of mind to hold it without dropping it.

"Eat." I told him and made it command. Evan didn't even blink before falling on his food ravenous.