Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,46
the wolf is always there. Only when there’s severe stress or trauma does the wolf take over; that’s usually to make sure we survive a situation, then the wolf retreats after most of the danger passes and the person can take over again.”
It sounded insane. I eyed him. “So you’ve got – a wolf in your head? All the time? Just – talking to you?”
“Not quite.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “He’s me, just... a wolf. We’re connected, we think and want the same things, just sometimes he’s more observant than I am. He noticed the guys following us this morning, and he sensed that something was wrong with the SUVs at the sanctuary when we went to get you.”
The way he referred to himself and the wolf side as “we” kind of threw me off. “So... there’s no difference between the two sides? Could they get separated or mixed up when you go between... forms? God, this sounds so fucking weird.”
“Mixed up?” Todd leaned back, rubbing his jaw. “Not typically. Sometimes when shifters are turned, instead of born...” He must have seen the “what the fuck are you talking about?” look on my face, because he smiled wryly and started over. “Most shifters are born to parents who are also shifters. On occasion, a shifter could bite a human and turn them into a shifter – what we’d called a ‘turned’ shifter. It doesn’t happen often; usually when a human is mated to a shifter and wants to transform for their own reasons.”
“So their heads are different, if they change later?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to parse all of this new information. I needed some kind of wiring diagram or flow chart to work out all the possible issues and decision points. “But the ones who are turned later, are their kids then born as – as shifters?”
“Yes,” Dodge said.
I looked at all of them, certain I’d missed something. “So there functionally shouldn’t be anything different between the wolf-person relationship based on whether someone was born that way or turned later. Maybe it’s... degrees of awareness? But the relationship between the two entities, such as they are, should be identical. Right?”
“It’s difficult to say,” Deirdre said slowly. “Since a born shifter can’t understand how a turned shifter relates to their animal side, and vice versa. They’re using two different vocabularies to describe a situation where nuance is vital to understanding.”
I frowned as I scooted my chair back, wanting more room so I didn’t accidentally whack Dodge if I got excited and waved my arms around. It had happened more than once in architectural school. “Okay, so let’s assume it’s fundamentally the same but perhaps different... by degrees. There’s maybe... more distance between the two sides for someone who’s turned, because they’re learning to manage a fucking insane change to their brain and personality and awareness.”
All four of them watched me, apparently waiting for the light bulb.
I held my hands out, waiting for them to see it. “I don’t know fuck-all about sorcerers, but if he did something... What if he intentionally or accidentally created more of that distance between the wolf side and the person side? Would that explain why he’s – stuck like he is? And why there’s clearly not a person in charge of what remains? He may not be able to resolve the discrepancy on his own because he doesn’t have the – the vocabulary to understand what changed.”
Deirdre’s head tilted and she went very still, her eyes flashing silver in an eerie reminder of Smith. “Creating more distance between the wolf and the man. That might...”
She trailed off, staring into the distance, while I waited on the edge of my seat for her to proclaim I’d figured out the problem. Miles hardly paused in doing his best to eat his weight in marinated beef, not taking his attention off the food in front of him. “It’s a hypothesis, and one we hadn’t considered. We’ll test it when we get back to the house.”
“We?” The hair on my arms prickled. “I’m not sure...”
“It’s safer at the house,” Dodge said quietly.
“I thought we didn’t want Ms. Bridger to know about all this?”
He shook his head. “She probably already knows you took the meeting yesterday morning, and even if she didn’t... She knows you’re linked with our pack because of lunch. It’s better that way. She’ll hesitate before trying to screw with you, once she knows you’re part of the pack.”