Wolf's Pack (Wolves Next Door #3) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,22

necessarily make you bad. Just makes you different. Besides, it's not like we're beasts or anything."

"Truer words have never been said," he told her, flicking his eyes over to look at me. "You've got a good kid, Alpha. And I'm serious about standing with her."

"Why?" Ashley asked from behind him.

Vic turned toward her. "Because that kid has the same look in her eye as you do, Ash. She's not scared of anything. Not bears, not humans, and not the cameras all around us. I also happen to think that the few years I had as a human have helped me survive more than my companions growing up as true-born bears. No offense or anything."

Ashley was slowly nodding. "Well, don't think that sucking up to my niece is going to get you a place in the pack."

"Wouldn't dare," he promised. "Put your hackles down, woman. I'm not here to pick a fight. I just want a real home. That's all, I swear."

Ashley flashed him a smile and turned to claim her chair. "I'm just trying to convince my family that you really aren't a problem." She turned at the sound of the back door opening. "And it looks like dinner is served."

CHAPTER 8

* * *

Dinner wasn't bad. The food was good, but the company was tense, so we betas were all being just a little more careful with what we said tonight. No promises, basically. The bear tried his hardest to be enjoyable company, but Ian, Lane, and Ashley were making it hard. Not that they did anything wrong, but Ian was acting like the Pack Alpha, Lane was acting like a fated mate, and Ashley? Well, she was acting like she had a crush on the guy. Vic just let it all slide off. It was actually rather impressive.

Unfortunately, I had no idea how to make any of this easier, so I took over refilling glasses and removing plates. Seth helped, but Pax just watched the bear intently. At one point, I had to nudge him before Vic got the wrong impression. My best friend was being just a little too intense for a polite dinner.

However, Gabby seemed to like the guy, and once she took over, there was nothing the rest of us could do. She started telling Vic all about her play, and then about Samantha, who was her first friend at school. Naturally, Vic recognized the girl's name - she had been on the news for a bit. It didn't take him long to figure out that Gabby and her friends had been the ones to defuse the whole situation with the video, and the man was honestly impressed.

The way to get Elena's approval was to approve of her kid. Vic seemed to, which made Lane stop glaring. Pax eventually managed to turn the conversation to inter-shifter concerns, directing his questions to Bridget, and they weren't the easy kind. Things like if we could cross infect each other if there was an accident, and such. Bridget said it wasn't likely. It seemed, like the rest of us, she'd spent the day researching.

"So," Bridget said as I cleared the last of the plates away, "this isn't exactly dinner talk, but from what I've found, our version of lycanthropy and the bear mutation of it - which is called arcanthropy - are very similar. Since we're already infected, the bear version would have no way of infecting us. Think of it as being similar to how humans used cowpox to immunize against smallpox. Same idea. Two different versions of a disease that is much too similar. Doesn't matter what version of therianthropy a person has, it automatically makes them immune to the others. Lycanthropy is simply the most prevalent."

Gabby just raised her hand. "Greek," she said.

"Literally," Bridget teased. "The first part of those words are all from Greek roots. Lycan means wolf, as an example. I don't speak Greek, but I do know the medical terms, and they came from that language. Just trust me that the shifter virus is basically the same thing in different flavors of animal bodies."

"Is there proof of that?" Ian asked.

Bridget nodded. "Yep, although it's not considered a credible source. Seems the Germans played with our kinds a bit in the Second World War. Injecting one type with the blood of another. Their records say that no one gained the ability to be more than one shifter type. Cross-infection isn't a huge worry. Now, with that said, none of these sources are peer-reviewed or