Wow. It's Chapter 9 already and I'm still dead excited about writing it... that's a good thing, because I really want to know how all my ideas will weave into the story... but, for now, enjoy this chapter. It was interesting how you who reviewed the previous chapters guessed from the very beginning that she would actually discover other shape shifters there... it's what I planned from the beginning, but it seems to be too obvious... but, well, enjoy anyway :)

Chapter 9 - Interrogations

"Lee! Oh, I'm so glad you're back home!" Rebecca ran towards me the very instant I crossed the treshold. She embraced me and squeezed me like I was the Prodigal Son finally returning home.

Well – and it seemed like she was not bothered at all that I was not completely human. Which was probably normal, she was married to a shape-shifter, after all.

"Becky, I'm so sorry.", I blurted. "I thought I'd had it under control now, and I didn't want to endanger you or scare you... but...but..."

She put her finger to my lips. "Shh. Nobody blames you."

"I do.", I negotiated. "I shouldn't have come here. It was such a foolish idea. I should have made sure..."

"Lee. It's alright. We're glad you're here and... we are quite surprised of this new turn of events..."

Just as if on clue, Mikala came over from the living room.

"Leah! Welcome back. I'm truly glad to have you here again. You ought to tell us everything."

I frowned. Was I allowed to tell – everything?

But... they were part of the supernatural, too, and there was no Alpha's command specifically hindering me from telling anything. Jacob had kept his vow that he would not steal anyone's will from him – or her. It had worked all the years. We followed him out of our free will, and I knew from first source that this pleased him immensely. He was a good Alpha. I smiled at the thought.

"Well? What about it?", Mikala pressed, his face intense and curious.

"Mika... won't we go sit down in the living room? What kind of host are you?", Rebecca scolded her husband and nudged him tenderly.

"You are right, darling. I'm sorry, Leah. Don't mind my curiosity."

We stepped over to the living room where we sat on the canapee.

Mikala sat across from me in an old armchair, gazing into my face expectingly.

I breathed a deep breath and looked first at Mikala, then at Rebecca. "Ok... how much have you guessed about me already?"

"You're a werewolf.", Mikala laughed, still a little impatiently.

"Right. I am. Oh, to be honest, I'm only... a shape-shifter. That's a bit complicated to explain... and it's not that important anyway..." I was still trying to figure out how much I could – and should – tell them. Probably, the supernatural world was stretched out farther than they knew – just like it was for me. I'd never thought there were shape-shifters except for us and the Children of the Moon – the real wolves. I shook my head.

"Could you explain nonetheless?", Mikala asked.

I sighed. "Fine. I'll try. Well... our ability to shift shapes – from human to wolf, and back of course – is passed on genetically. Only the descendants of the first shape shifter, Taha Aki, pass the gene on.

And... for some reason, I have inherited it, too. If you like, I can tell you the whole legend of how we came to be shape-shifters, but maybe another time."

Mikala nodded in agreement. "And... what's the difference between shape-shifters and... uh... real werewolves?"

I laughed. I'd heard that term more than once already. What was it that made us the unreal wolves?

"There are other werewolves whose ability is not passed on genetically, but by infection. That's where most werewolf legends are coming from. You might have noticed I am not limited by full moon nights."

Was there really something like pride in my voice?

"Right. Uh... when you said "our"...how many wolves are there?"

I frowned. "I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell. There are things like... pack secrets that we are obliged to keep."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Well... there are some. Many of whom you know, Rebecca." I looked at Becky, who had listened quietly until now.

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes. I do only give you one name, though... your brother is the Alpha wolf of my pack."

The pride again. I hadn't known I really was so fond of our pack...

Rebecca gasped. "Jacob is a werewolf?"

"Yes." I watched her emotions as she processed that.

"Oh. That's something I need to wrap my head around."

"There's much you need to wrap your head around. After all... the Quileute stories you knew all along and never believed are all true."

Before Rebecca could reply, Mikala joined the conversation again. "I've got another question, still. Do you know...why you're changing? What's the purpose of the Quileute shape-shifters?"

I hissed involuntarily, as always when I was reminded of the reason why I had to put up with all this shit. All this shit I was more fond of than I'd thought myself...

I answered by asking another question. "How much do you know about the... er... other creatures in this world?"

"I know the Hawaiian legends. Spirits, however good or bad, are most of these."

"The man-eating spirits?", I asked.

Mikala raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You've read that story, didn't you?"

"Yes. The man-eating spirits are why you exist, right?"

"It's not only that purpose.", Miakala explained. "It's tribe protection in general. The man-eating spirits are – or were – one of them, but we protect the people from every other danger, as well. Thanks to us, our tribes here live in peace most of the time."

It was in his voice, too – this pride to belong.

"Up until recently, we were able to defeat whatever enemy entered our territory. But... there's something strange and creeping about what's going on now...", he mused silently, not too low for my ears, of course. It seemed like he was murmuring it to himself.

"I was going to come to this part.", I interrupted him.

"There is a...species that our people call the Cold Ones...", I went on. Rebecca looked up from her thoughtful stance. "I've heard that one.", she said.

I didn't want to tell the whole story now, so I decided to simply trust that they were tough enough for the truth. And, of course, that I was tough enough to keep calm, too.

"They are known to themselves and to the world's stories as... vampires." I spat the last word, supressing the disgust and the shaking that went along with it.

My audience gasped in shock, as I'd expected. I knew how odd it was, even when you lived with the supernatural, to wrap your head around yet another aspect of that scene you hadn't been aware of.

"Yes. They exist. And that is why we phase. We are the only creatures that can destroy the bloodsuckers."

Mikala looked at me like he wanted to say something, but I hurried to go on and tell Seth's theory.

"No, I believe that you can't take them down. You were obviously made to fight spirits or evil human foes. But you were not made to destroy vampires. - That's only a theory, of course."

The face of the man was suddenly grave again. He looked into my eyes and suddenly his expression was ruefully.

"Leah, you are right. Your theory fits. And you were also right this morning, when you accused me to be lying. I was lying to you, about... the car crash. About my friend."

"I figured that out, too. Keeping the supernatural a secret means lying to everyone you love except those who are in it. I know that." While I spoke, my voice grew softer, understandingly. I wanted to let him see my sympathy for his situation. I could empathize in a way. I'd lost someone very close to me only a few years ago. I knew the pain. But of course, beside the pain, there was the rage, burning against the creatures that had stolen life again, triggering the instincts of the wolf self to avenge, to rip the lifesucker to pieces. I looked into Mikala's face and there, between the pain in his eyes, was the same fierce anger, too.

And I suddenly knew we would be fighting here, side by side, wolves and dogs, until Hawaii was safe again.

Rebecca left the room to look after Kaili, whom she brought back to the living room alongside with a teapot.

Mikala ran out of questions eventually, or he already had enough to process.

Kaili stretched on Rebecca's lap and pointed her tiny fingers in my direction. With a smile, Rebecca handed her over to me.

"Mikala?", I adressed him after another short while. He looked up from his thoughtful reverie.

"Now you know my story... and I am quite curious about yours."

"Ah. Right." He smiled at me, though his eyes still held the grief and the rage. I sipped at my tea and looked at him in expectation.

"Where should I begin?", he mused silently. "You know how we came to be, right?"

I nodded. "What about your pack? How does it all work?"

"Quite easy. You said you've got an Alpha – it's the same with us. He's leading us and all that. We communicate by speaking to each other in human voices, as you have heard yourself. That's quite helpful if we have to cooperate."

I interrupted him by laughing triumphantly. It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction. "We can top that. We can hear each others thoughts when we're wolves."

His eyes bulged. "Really? Huh, that's something."

"Yes. But it's also quite disturbing. We can't decide what we want to tell the others. Everything, even the personal things, is heard by every other wolf in the pack." I flinched.

"Oh. I see. And... it's really like voices in your head?" His curiosity reminded me of Pili, and now I knew where the boy got it from.

"More than that. We can sort of feel it... at least almost. We see through the other's eyes."

I could tell Mikala was impressed, but I wanted to know more about his species.

"What's it like for you to phase? Does anger work as a trigger, too?"

"Yeah. It's quite the same as your phasing. It happened to me in the past, that involuntary shifting when something caught me off guard. I've got it under control quite well now... but it took me a while." He smiled at me in understanding. I smiled back and shot another question at him.

"So you're sort of inheriting it from your ancestors, but not genetically...?" I trailed off to hear his explanation.

He nodded. "Yes. It is sort of a ceremony. Before the ancient dog man dies, he would summon his dog spirit into a charm woven from hair of the dog's body. This charm is then burned along with some hair of the heir, who is in general the closest relative to the dog man. The dog spirit is released from the charm and enters the one to whom the hair belonged."

"Wow.", I breathed. There was much more superstitious, ritual air to it than to my heritage. It was almost creepy, hadn't I been this tough.

"What if someone dies... you know, before that ceremony? Without the chance to transfer the spirit?"

"The spirit is transferred at the time when the dog man decides to retire and lets go of his dog spirit. The heir – or heiress – is initiated soon after that decision."

I'd wanted to hear him out, but the addition of the heiress distracted me naturally.

"What about the heiresses? What does it feel like to them? Don't they get a choice?"

Mikala looked like he didn't get the point of my question. "Why would they want a choice?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't get words out.

"It is a privilege and an honor to be a tribe protector. Everyone would freely trade everything they have for it."

I shook my head in confusion and felt the bitterness creep up to me again.

"I didn't get a choice. And I wouldn't have taken the choice if I would have gotten the options."

He looked at me as if I had lost my mind. "Why?"

I so not wanted to explain this to him, but it seemed like he needed to understand.

I looked down and played with Kaili's hair. "Well. I don't get any older. I have to-"

"You...what?"

"I am not aging. None of us are. We go through a growth spurt... I mean, I'm twenty-two years old now, and I look like that, but I'm... not going to change. As long as I am phasing, I will not age." I spoke the last words through my teeth. "I have to share my mind with a bunch of guys, because, for crying out loud, I am the only female there. Speaking of female, I'm not even that anymore! I'm menopausal, nothing is changing at all!"

I blushed deeply after those words had slipped out.

"Oh.", Mikala replied and looked down. "It is... not like that for our tribe protectors. They lead a normal life, they are aging and having families. Being a dog man – pardon me, a dog woman, of course – is just like a normal job to them, a complimentary duty. Besides their patrols and the fights against enemies now and then, they live their lives in a normal way. Why should they not choose this path? Should they rather let their tribe die?"

I realized that tears streamed down my face. I knew those tears. They were an expression of the burden my fate brought to me. It was hard to learn that there were women in the mythical world from whom I'd thought they shared my fate, but who could live their lives just fine. Just like they were normal. So it was only me again.

"Leah, I am sorry. I didn't want to disturb you."

"I'm fine.", I choked. "So... what happens if... a dog is killed in an accident?", I asked to distract myself.

He dropped his gaze to the floor. "They're lost."

"Oh." I wasn't the only one suffering here. That didn't change my pain of course.

"Well... our legends say that the dog spirits escape the dying body. But without a host, they would wander in the spirit world aimlessly. We don't know what happens to them."

It sounded intriguing. There was something close to the Quileute legends and the spirit world the Spirit Warriors had travelled in. I wondered if it was the same.

Kaili stirred on my lap and I let her pull me out of the supernatural for now. I'd both heard and told enough of this for now.

Rebecca sensed the end of the conversation and stood. I looked at the clock. "Oh, crap. Pili's classes are almost over by now. Should I go get him?"

Rebecca nodded. "If that's okay with you. I don't want to ask too much of you right now..."

"No, that's fine. I need distraction anyway. Does this...stuff never creep you out?" She hadn't said much in our discussion, but she'd listened with a composed stance and truly interested in everything I told her.

She smiled. "I wonder why I never suspected anything when I was living at home in the reservation. It's so obvious, now I know... No, it doesn't creep me out. I know from the beginning that Mikala is something more than human. It took a while to get used to that, but by now..."

I smiled back at her. "It takes some toughness to get by with this. You're so good at it."

She embraced me warmly. "So are you. Heaven knows, you're so much better, so much tougher than me... oh Lee, it's so amazing what came out today."

I could agree, though it wasn't what I'd planned. Not at all. Still, I couldn't be irritated about it anymore. I wondered why it was so natural and relieving to be in that world again, to know all the secrets. How was that fair? I didn't know. But I would shove it aside for now and spend an afternoon with Pili.