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Chapter 3
Cat shook her head in irritation. The constant quiet hum of voices in the back of her head was annoying, like the distant buzz of thousands of bees. If she hadn't been used to walling out the thoughts of others since she could first remember it would have surely driven her nuts. As it was it was a constant readjustment of her mental blocker, like these signals were sneaking in at a different frequency. God couldn't these people think quieter? Yet a little part of her was thrilled. These really were her people, which was why it was so hard to block them out. She shook her head again and caught her granddad giving her a quizzical look.
"Sorry Grandpa." She smiled sheepishly and gestured to her head. "People think LOUD around here".
The look of confusion faded into amusement, touched with something else she couldn't quite identify, affection and.fascination? "Your mother always told me you could pick up the mental channels so young, but I never really thought. How old were you when that first happened?"
She shrugged. "Since I was really small. Really, really, small. Mom? When did I first tell you about it?"
Her mother cocked her head in though, tucking her long legs under on the couch. "I think you were 5, maybe six. You were six when Sherman came to visit to give you lessons."
Her daughter brightened. "Is he going to come around? He's cool." She stopped, baffled at the amused looks that passed between her grandfather and her mother.
"What?"
"Honey - Sherman has been appearing and disappearing at random ever since I was a boy. You can be assured he'll come and see his protégée as soon as he knows you're here."
"Great! While I'm waiting can I get a sandwich?"
"Sure. There's fixings in the fridge"
Sophia fixed her father with a steady stare as her daughter raided the fridge in the next room. He stared back. The 16 years of her "exile" had been kind to Matt Donner. Still the Sheriff, his strength had solidified into a rock like power, more bear than Wolf to the outside eye. His hair was lightly pattered with grey, and there were a few more wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, but to all outward appearances he seemed the same as he had the last time she had seen him, five years ago, in New York. He hadn't been able to risk leaving the town again since then, afraid of both the chaos that seemed to erupt whenever he left and the chance of the Alpha setting someone on him to track down his elusive, reject daughter. He looked back at her, drinking her in with his eyes. She had turned into everything he and Marie had ever hoped for. The woman opposite him was elegant and composed, slender and athletic, holding her 33 years with grace and pride. The long legs tucked under the couch cushions were lean and muscled and her hair poured in a mink like sweep down her back. She was still built like a dancer, or a runner and bringing up Cat single handedly had not led to any obvious physical signs of change. And her mind.well she had taken every opportunity and run with it. Just as he would have always wanted.even if it hadn't started out that way.
16 years earlier
"You're what!?"
"I'm pregnant."
Matt Donner glowered down at his 17 year old daughter in disbelief. "How can you be pregnant - I mean..."
"It just happened Daddy, I didn't mean to."
"But - Sophia!"
She gazed up at him with huge, tear filled brown eyes and Matt felt his fury waver. Distractedly he ran his hands through his hair and turned to the rooms other occupant.
"And what do you think about this?"
Sherman shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "It's biology."
Matt stared at him, his breath coming in short, angry pants. "It's biology. Great. My 17 year old daughter gets pregnant with Lucas Cate's child and all you can say is - it's biology! How helpful is that!?"
Sherman cocked his head to one side. "And how do you know it's the Cate's boy anyway?"
Matt stopped in his pacing, momentarily nonplussed. "Who else.Sophia, it is the Cate's boy's?"
His daughter sat up on the couch, one hand hovering protectively over her abdomen. "No Daddy, it's mine. My child - your grandchild. And as far as I'm concerned it has no connection with anyone else in this town."
Present Day
And that was the last she would ever speak of it. Over the years Matt heard a thousand rumours about why his daughter had felt the desperate urge to run as far away from Wolf Lake as possible, and why Vivian had never sent someone after her as she had the errant Ruby. The whole Pack had tacitly agreed that if she hadn't flipped by her 17th birthday, she obviously was never going to, and it was far better for a half bred to leave the town where she was always going to be treated as a reject. Especially since Sherman and her father would vouch for her silence to the outside world. Only a few rumours may have mentioned that Luke Cates sleeping with and then abandoning her might have had something to do with it. And not one of those rumours mentioned the child. And when the Town had let ago she had fled as far as she could and never came back. Unexpectedly Sherman turned out to have contacts and a serious amount of money held in stock, and despite all their refusals had insisted that Sophia use them. She had spent the first year staying with an old Native American woman in New York, as she home schooled, graduating with excellent SAT scores and then in an act of purest defiance had taken both her and her child as far away as possible. As far away as possible in this case being the University of Cambridge in the UK. Six years of veterinary medicine at undergrad, then once she qualified she started all over again - 4 years at Harvard, on the Health Sciences and Technology MD program. And every summer she had worked for wolf behavioural programs tracking the Wolvens genetic "cousins" across the Tundra and in captivity.
Sophia snuggled further down into the soft cushions of the couch opposite her father, for once content just to do nothing. Her job as the Head Veterinarian of the Northern Road Sanctuary in Colorado didn't leave her with much free time. And what she had was preoccupied with her own personal crusade, the creation of an accelerant to complete the flip. At the beginning it had been for Cat, but after it was obvious that her daughter was unlikely to have any problems flipping, especially after a childhood brought up next to her canid relations, it became a crusade to try to prevent those graves in Wolf Lake cemeteries from multiplying. Using her daughter and her own blood as a culture she had made some amazing discoveries, she was so close to nearly fixing the formula.and then Cat started having her dreams again. Vivid, bloody dreams, but it wasn't until she started seeing her own Grandfather's dead body in those dreams that her Mom finally agreed to take them back to Wolf Lake.
And here she was, back in the town she had run thousands of miles from, holding both her own secret and that of her daughter and knowing that very soon, for the survival of the pack, both would soon be common knowledge. And she only hoped she hadn't left it too late.
Chapter 3
Cat shook her head in irritation. The constant quiet hum of voices in the back of her head was annoying, like the distant buzz of thousands of bees. If she hadn't been used to walling out the thoughts of others since she could first remember it would have surely driven her nuts. As it was it was a constant readjustment of her mental blocker, like these signals were sneaking in at a different frequency. God couldn't these people think quieter? Yet a little part of her was thrilled. These really were her people, which was why it was so hard to block them out. She shook her head again and caught her granddad giving her a quizzical look.
"Sorry Grandpa." She smiled sheepishly and gestured to her head. "People think LOUD around here".
The look of confusion faded into amusement, touched with something else she couldn't quite identify, affection and.fascination? "Your mother always told me you could pick up the mental channels so young, but I never really thought. How old were you when that first happened?"
She shrugged. "Since I was really small. Really, really, small. Mom? When did I first tell you about it?"
Her mother cocked her head in though, tucking her long legs under on the couch. "I think you were 5, maybe six. You were six when Sherman came to visit to give you lessons."
Her daughter brightened. "Is he going to come around? He's cool." She stopped, baffled at the amused looks that passed between her grandfather and her mother.
"What?"
"Honey - Sherman has been appearing and disappearing at random ever since I was a boy. You can be assured he'll come and see his protégée as soon as he knows you're here."
"Great! While I'm waiting can I get a sandwich?"
"Sure. There's fixings in the fridge"
Sophia fixed her father with a steady stare as her daughter raided the fridge in the next room. He stared back. The 16 years of her "exile" had been kind to Matt Donner. Still the Sheriff, his strength had solidified into a rock like power, more bear than Wolf to the outside eye. His hair was lightly pattered with grey, and there were a few more wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, but to all outward appearances he seemed the same as he had the last time she had seen him, five years ago, in New York. He hadn't been able to risk leaving the town again since then, afraid of both the chaos that seemed to erupt whenever he left and the chance of the Alpha setting someone on him to track down his elusive, reject daughter. He looked back at her, drinking her in with his eyes. She had turned into everything he and Marie had ever hoped for. The woman opposite him was elegant and composed, slender and athletic, holding her 33 years with grace and pride. The long legs tucked under the couch cushions were lean and muscled and her hair poured in a mink like sweep down her back. She was still built like a dancer, or a runner and bringing up Cat single handedly had not led to any obvious physical signs of change. And her mind.well she had taken every opportunity and run with it. Just as he would have always wanted.even if it hadn't started out that way.
16 years earlier
"You're what!?"
"I'm pregnant."
Matt Donner glowered down at his 17 year old daughter in disbelief. "How can you be pregnant - I mean..."
"It just happened Daddy, I didn't mean to."
"But - Sophia!"
She gazed up at him with huge, tear filled brown eyes and Matt felt his fury waver. Distractedly he ran his hands through his hair and turned to the rooms other occupant.
"And what do you think about this?"
Sherman shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "It's biology."
Matt stared at him, his breath coming in short, angry pants. "It's biology. Great. My 17 year old daughter gets pregnant with Lucas Cate's child and all you can say is - it's biology! How helpful is that!?"
Sherman cocked his head to one side. "And how do you know it's the Cate's boy anyway?"
Matt stopped in his pacing, momentarily nonplussed. "Who else.Sophia, it is the Cate's boy's?"
His daughter sat up on the couch, one hand hovering protectively over her abdomen. "No Daddy, it's mine. My child - your grandchild. And as far as I'm concerned it has no connection with anyone else in this town."
Present Day
And that was the last she would ever speak of it. Over the years Matt heard a thousand rumours about why his daughter had felt the desperate urge to run as far away from Wolf Lake as possible, and why Vivian had never sent someone after her as she had the errant Ruby. The whole Pack had tacitly agreed that if she hadn't flipped by her 17th birthday, she obviously was never going to, and it was far better for a half bred to leave the town where she was always going to be treated as a reject. Especially since Sherman and her father would vouch for her silence to the outside world. Only a few rumours may have mentioned that Luke Cates sleeping with and then abandoning her might have had something to do with it. And not one of those rumours mentioned the child. And when the Town had let ago she had fled as far as she could and never came back. Unexpectedly Sherman turned out to have contacts and a serious amount of money held in stock, and despite all their refusals had insisted that Sophia use them. She had spent the first year staying with an old Native American woman in New York, as she home schooled, graduating with excellent SAT scores and then in an act of purest defiance had taken both her and her child as far away as possible. As far away as possible in this case being the University of Cambridge in the UK. Six years of veterinary medicine at undergrad, then once she qualified she started all over again - 4 years at Harvard, on the Health Sciences and Technology MD program. And every summer she had worked for wolf behavioural programs tracking the Wolvens genetic "cousins" across the Tundra and in captivity.
Sophia snuggled further down into the soft cushions of the couch opposite her father, for once content just to do nothing. Her job as the Head Veterinarian of the Northern Road Sanctuary in Colorado didn't leave her with much free time. And what she had was preoccupied with her own personal crusade, the creation of an accelerant to complete the flip. At the beginning it had been for Cat, but after it was obvious that her daughter was unlikely to have any problems flipping, especially after a childhood brought up next to her canid relations, it became a crusade to try to prevent those graves in Wolf Lake cemeteries from multiplying. Using her daughter and her own blood as a culture she had made some amazing discoveries, she was so close to nearly fixing the formula.and then Cat started having her dreams again. Vivid, bloody dreams, but it wasn't until she started seeing her own Grandfather's dead body in those dreams that her Mom finally agreed to take them back to Wolf Lake.
And here she was, back in the town she had run thousands of miles from, holding both her own secret and that of her daughter and knowing that very soon, for the survival of the pack, both would soon be common knowledge. And she only hoped she hadn't left it too late.