cup of tea.
“ I am,” answered Nashoba with calm seriousness.
“ And you?” asked Akala, her eyes shifting to where Haley sat anxiously nibbling on the end of a cookie.
The girl simply nodded and placed her cookie back on her plate. She’d managed to knock more crumbs on herself and the table than she got into her mouth, and she picked at these to avoid meeting Akala’s accusing glare.
“Justin, who I understand is Haley’s brother, said something about a tribe. What’s that all about?”
“ He is my brother,” said Haley, “but he’s not entirely right in the head. He was a good kid once, if you can believe it, but lately there’s been a shift in his personality. I don’t know what happened, but he’s gotten mean and dangerous. I told him I didn’t want to see him around here anymore, and I really didn’t think he’d bother you. I swear I didn’t know he was hanging out around the B&B.”
“ We are all of the Choctaw tribe,” explained Nashoba. “Were-kind are more common than you might realize, although we are spread throughout the country and we tend to keep mostly to ourselves. Few of our kin choose to live in large cities, and others prefer the privacy of remote wilderness camps where they can live more openly. We chose a semi-public life because we are equally in touch with our human sides and don’t want to lose the generations of socialization our ancestors gave us when they settled here.”
“ And you’re the Choctaw leader?”
Nashoba nodded solemnly. “Although my blood line is not pure Choctaw, I have lived within the tribe my entire life, and have only recently come into my position as alpha. As such, it has fallen to me to ensure that our people are cared for and kept safe.”
“And that’s why you’re seeking a… what did Justin say? A mate?”
“ That word means something other to our kind.” Nashoba’s voice was soft and full of patience. “While you may hear it as something crude and sexual, for us it’s more of a life partner. When wolves mate, we do so for life. It’s the pairing of two souls in an eternal bond of love that we believe goes beyond death. Something that the common definition of marriage doesn’t even do.”
“ You lied to me,” said Akala. “You brought me down here on false pretenses and failed to tell me about your ability to change into a wolf whenever you wanted to. I mean, don’t you need a full moon for that?”
“ We have far more control over it than that,” answered Haley. “The moon has its effects on us, certainly, but we can choose to shift to either form almost any time we choose.”
“ Put yourself in our position, Akala. How do you think people would react if we posted things like Wanted: Werewolf Bride on the internet? Would you have ever responded to me if there had been a single small disclaimer on the bottom that explained what I really was?”
Akala pursed her lips and begrudgingly shook her head. “No, I would have emailed it to my friends to show them what a crazy thing I’d found.”
“That’s exactly why we needed to keep this from you until we knew we could trust you. There’s no way of being able to prove that I would have told you when the time was right, but you have to believe that.”
“ So you thought the time was right for us to fuck a few times before I learned your big secret?” Akala spat.
She looked at Haley and felt suddenly ashamed of her angry words. Still, she felt betrayed on a deep level after giving herself up to Nashoba in a way she’d never intended.
“We’re not bad people.” Haley’s voice was small and squeaky; nothing like the boisterous woman who’d first welcomed Akala into her B&B. I wish there was some way we could show you that we have nothing but the best intentions here.”
A war raged in Akala’s mind. One the one hand, she wanted to yell and scream over how they’d misled her and abused her trust, but on the other was this heartbroken and ashamed young
“ I am,” answered Nashoba with calm seriousness.
“ And you?” asked Akala, her eyes shifting to where Haley sat anxiously nibbling on the end of a cookie.
The girl simply nodded and placed her cookie back on her plate. She’d managed to knock more crumbs on herself and the table than she got into her mouth, and she picked at these to avoid meeting Akala’s accusing glare.
“Justin, who I understand is Haley’s brother, said something about a tribe. What’s that all about?”
“ He is my brother,” said Haley, “but he’s not entirely right in the head. He was a good kid once, if you can believe it, but lately there’s been a shift in his personality. I don’t know what happened, but he’s gotten mean and dangerous. I told him I didn’t want to see him around here anymore, and I really didn’t think he’d bother you. I swear I didn’t know he was hanging out around the B&B.”
“ We are all of the Choctaw tribe,” explained Nashoba. “Were-kind are more common than you might realize, although we are spread throughout the country and we tend to keep mostly to ourselves. Few of our kin choose to live in large cities, and others prefer the privacy of remote wilderness camps where they can live more openly. We chose a semi-public life because we are equally in touch with our human sides and don’t want to lose the generations of socialization our ancestors gave us when they settled here.”
“ And you’re the Choctaw leader?”
Nashoba nodded solemnly. “Although my blood line is not pure Choctaw, I have lived within the tribe my entire life, and have only recently come into my position as alpha. As such, it has fallen to me to ensure that our people are cared for and kept safe.”
“And that’s why you’re seeking a… what did Justin say? A mate?”
“ That word means something other to our kind.” Nashoba’s voice was soft and full of patience. “While you may hear it as something crude and sexual, for us it’s more of a life partner. When wolves mate, we do so for life. It’s the pairing of two souls in an eternal bond of love that we believe goes beyond death. Something that the common definition of marriage doesn’t even do.”
“ You lied to me,” said Akala. “You brought me down here on false pretenses and failed to tell me about your ability to change into a wolf whenever you wanted to. I mean, don’t you need a full moon for that?”
“ We have far more control over it than that,” answered Haley. “The moon has its effects on us, certainly, but we can choose to shift to either form almost any time we choose.”
“ Put yourself in our position, Akala. How do you think people would react if we posted things like Wanted: Werewolf Bride on the internet? Would you have ever responded to me if there had been a single small disclaimer on the bottom that explained what I really was?”
Akala pursed her lips and begrudgingly shook her head. “No, I would have emailed it to my friends to show them what a crazy thing I’d found.”
“That’s exactly why we needed to keep this from you until we knew we could trust you. There’s no way of being able to prove that I would have told you when the time was right, but you have to believe that.”
“ So you thought the time was right for us to fuck a few times before I learned your big secret?” Akala spat.
She looked at Haley and felt suddenly ashamed of her angry words. Still, she felt betrayed on a deep level after giving herself up to Nashoba in a way she’d never intended.
“We’re not bad people.” Haley’s voice was small and squeaky; nothing like the boisterous woman who’d first welcomed Akala into her B&B. I wish there was some way we could show you that we have nothing but the best intentions here.”
A war raged in Akala’s mind. One the one hand, she wanted to yell and scream over how they’d misled her and abused her trust, but on the other was this heartbroken and ashamed young
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