"Why have you been reading him?" Jamil asked.
I shrugged. "I'm lupa of a werewolf pack, but I'm not a werewolf. There are no good books on werewolves, so the best I could do was research real wolves."
"What else have you read?" he asked.
"Of Wolves and Men, by Barry Holstun Lopez. A few other books, but those were the two best I've found."
Jamil smiled, a quick baring of teeth. "You have just made my job a lot easier."
I frowned up at him.
"The formal greeting is like one friendly wolf greeting another. The point is to get the nose back here," he touched the hair behind my ear, gently.
"Do you rub the cheek along the other person's cheek like a real wolf would do? I mean in human form, you don't have any glands on the cheek to help you scent mark another wolf."
He looked down at me, solemn almost, nodding. "Yes, you do rub cheeks even in human form. Then you bury your nose in the hair behind the ear."
"How big is Verne's pack?" I asked.
"Fifty-two wolves," Jamil said.
I raised eyebrows at him. "Please tell me that I don't have to rub faces with every single one of them."
Jamil smiled, but it left his eyes serious. He was thinking something. I wanted to know what it was. "Not with all of them, just the alphas."
"How many?"
"Nine," he said.
"Doable, I guess." I looked up into his thoughtful face and just asked, "What are you thinking so hard about, Jamil?"
He blinked at me. "What -- "
"Don't tell me it's nothing. You went all solemn and thoughtful about five minutes ago. What gives?"
He stared down at me. The concentration in his dark eyes was almost touchable. "I'm impressed that you bothered to research natural wolves."
"That's the third time you've used the term natural wolves. I've never heard it before."
Jason rolled off the bed to his feet. "We are real wolves part of the time. We're just not natural."
I looked to Jamil, and he nodded.
"So calling you guys real wolves is an insult?"
"Yes," Jamil said.
"Anything else to watch for?" I asked.
Jamil looked at Jason. They exchanged a look that made me feel excluded. Like there was some unpleasant surprise coming and no one was telling me.
"What?" I said.
"Let's just do the greeting," Jamil said.
"What are you guys hiding from me?"
Jason laughed. "Just tell her."