A/N: I'd like to apologise for the lack of updates recently. My internet connection died and has only just been revived. But things should be back on track now. As ever I'd love to know what you think about the story. Do you want the rating to go up to 'M'? I'm currently at a point where that would be a logical progression, but it's up to you! Enjoy!

Caleb, hearing Pogue's voice in his head too, looked in confusion at the two pairs of eyes steadily resting on him. "What the hell is going on?"

The biker rolled his eyes. Do you want to explain, or should I?

Kai closed her eyes, the musical purr starting to vibrate in her chest. Pogue watched in amusement as Caleb visibly relaxed; having been exposed to the soothing quality of the sound before, he recognized its effect on his brother. 'You may tell Caleb all that you know. I would try to appease the pain of my wound.'

Pogue nodded sympathetically as she twisted to examine her aching paw after freeing Caleb's hand. The long-haired brother released her tail and sat back on his heels, watching her with a crooked smile. After a moment, he began to relate his adventure of a few nights before, explaining that their new, sibling-like relationship came from their closeness during the exchanges in their minds, and taking the tale up to the point of his coming into the forest to see what else Kai could, or would, show him. There he stopped, looking down at her again.

"And that's that, I guess."

Caleb stayed quiet for a moment before hesitantly reaching out to gently touch Kai's ear. She looked up from the blisters with calm eyes, dulled slightly by pain. 'Yes?'

"I'm sorry." He said out loud, before: I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you.

'You are forgiven.' With a flash of rueful irony, 'You were not the only one startled by the Change. Perhaps this shape was not the wisest choice, but it is the most comfortable.'

Caleb looked at his brother, who now had a hand on Kai's tail again, and Pogue grinned sheepishly in response. The eldest of the Sons sniggered, then caught on to what she had revealed. "You mean you can take on other shapes?" Grunting at himself, he began to repeat the question in his mind, but Kai interrupted him.

'You do not have to use mind speech, if it discomfits you. I can understand you, though I cannot form words myself.' Grateful, Caleb waited for an answer, which came shortly. 'I can take on other forms, yes, but my first Change was into this body, and it fits me best.'

Pogue, who had been silent until now, interposed. "What else can you be?"

She looked at him, her eyes bright with keen intelligence, and took a moment to inspect the woods around them for movement before replying. 'I am always Kai, my friend, although my body changes. However, I shall reply in the spirit you intended. I can become any animal I desire.'

The brothers caught their breath. The possibilities were astounding. Caleb was the first to recover. "Show me."

Kai's tail began to twitch sinuously from side to side and her lips wrinkled to show the faint glitter of sharp teeth. The boy, suddenly aware of the air of feral menace that seemed to cloak her in this body, gulped. "Please?"

After another moment of intimidating, cold silence, the panther rose to her feet and shook off their hands. Putting her hind paw gingerly on the ground, she hissed at the pain. They felt nothing at all in their magical senses, but before their eyes the wound began to heal, the skin lightening from angry red to pink, before soft black hair grew over it in a strange wave, as though someone had rubbed an ink pen over the spot. Then she backed into a clear space and for a moment was still, her glittering green eyes closed.

They watched as all the muscles in the powerful body suddenly went rigid, locking her into a kind of exquisite agony. The familiar pulse of her Power washed over them, and as they stared, the black hair began to recede into smooth skin, and they clearly heard the crunch and grind of bone on bone as her tail melted into a longer spine, her legs straightening and lengthening with sickening cracks of her joints, her cheekbones protesting with painful creaks as they shrunk to human size, her jaw grating into place. Finally, human Kai knelt before them, panting. And completely naked.

For Pogue, to whom she had mentioned it on their first meeting, it was less of a surprise. To Caleb, it was a shock, and not an unpleasant one. Both boys, however, felt familiar heat stirring low in their bodies and shifted uncomfortably; it was a natural reaction, and an uncontrollable one, but they were still embarrassed. Kai rose to her feet with fluid grace that seemed more noticeable now that they knew it came from her animal side, wholly unconcerned by her nudity. She looked at them and studied their hunched postures before a wicked grin, the first of that kind they had ever seen on her usually reserved face, stole over her lips.

"What would you see?" Her strangely formal English was still heavily overlaid by a husky growl, making her voice sound smoky and warm, like the burn of well-aged whiskey.

Caleb was silent, but Pogue sat up straighter, eyes gleaming. "A wolf." The elder boy rolled his eyes; Pogue's obsession with the creatures was a remnant of his father's gift to him on his thirteenth birthday – a motorized scooter that was an aesthetic replica of the Harley his father rode, which they had jokingly called 'The Wolf Cub'.

Kai nodded, going back down onto all fours. Her head sunk towards her chest for a moment as she closed her eyes in concentration. She felt herself dropping through that empty, hollow space where she was everything and nothing, and her lips moved. Be wolf. Then the wave of soft Power, and the transformation began again. Her spine shortened with a grinding sound that set their teeth on edge, her skull flattening and elongating, her shoulders rounding down into slender forelegs. Lastly her hair grew to cover her entire body, until a thick, shining coat of coal-black fur replaced it. The tall, lithe wolf opened green eyes to stare at them, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she panted gently.

Caleb was the first to speak. "Can you change color? Or are you always black?"

The enormous creature paced towards them, settling on her haunches with the tip of her tail on Pogue's foot, and one paw on Caleb's. 'This is my pack's color. Those of us from my village with the Gift chose, when first initiated, to always remain thus. It is a symbol of our bond.'

Pogue reached out a hand to gently smooth the glossy fur along her back. "It's striking."

Kai looked at him, baring her sharp teeth in a wolfish grin. 'Of course. The women amongst us would agree to nothing less.'

"How many are you?" Caleb asked quietly.

The wolf faced him, silent for a long moment. Finally, 'As many as we are.'

Frustrated by her evasiveness, he frowned and opened his mouth, but the clawed paw flexing gently on his foot made him shut it again; despite Kai being human, he had already seen that she had the instincts of a panther when in that body. It would be, he assumed, no different when she was a wolf.

Pogue was frowning too, as though he were deep in thought. Caleb fidgeted while he waited for his brother to figure things out; despite his typically biker-guy appearance and occasionally loutish attitude, Pogue was far from stupid. He was laconic, but when he did say things, they were usually worth listening to. Unless, of course, his temper got the better of him. Finally, the long-haired Son looked at the patiently waiting wolf, which was a study of stillness compared to Caleb's unusual restlessness; it was a sign of the eldest brother's inner turmoil.

"Why didn't we feel anything when you healed yourself? We can feel it when you Change, but then I got nothing."

The reply was in a faintly amused tone. 'Because my Power is different from yours. I do not feel when you are utilizing your gifts, but I can smell and taste it. Your Power is directed outwards; even when you use it to make yourself fly,' she nodded at Caleb, 'you are using it to push against the air around you. Most of my Power is directed inwards; the Change and my other abilities affect primarily my body, and so the Power dissipates within me. However, the Change also alters my surroundings, as the very air trapped in my lungs at the moment of the transformation is changed to be most effectively used by my new form. That is why you feel the slight hint of Power, but nothing more.'

This matter-of-fact explanation of why their Power was so easily felt stunned the brothers. It had never occurred to them that they could mask their 'signature' ripples of magic by changing their focus inwards.

After a long silence, Caleb spoke up. "We should tell the other two. They should know. It's unlikely, but if anything like Chase was to happen again…" He didn't need to finish. The ability to sneak up on a magically-armed enemy could be priceless.

Kai stiffened, but Pogue got there first. "It isn't just our secret, Caleb."

They looked at the wolf, and the steady green eyes were piercing in their commanding intensity. 'Tyler may know, but Reid...' she was silent for a long moment. 'He is unpredictable.' She said at last. 'I shall inform him in my own time. Now you will tell me about your Power.'

Caleb wanted to argue, but one look at the powerful creature beside him, with her wild, proud glare and regally raised head, decided him against it. As Pogue began to explain to their friend, he gave a resigned sigh. He knew from past experience, after all, that it was useless to argue with a woman.