Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 4) by Ariana Hawkes Read Free Book Online Page B

someone ran into the back of me. I was pretty upset, because it was a new car, and I’d been saving for it, like, forever. Anyway, Josie jumped out of the car and argued with the guy. He made some misogynistic comment about women drivers. Well, she went around the front of his car, lifted it up about three feet, and slammed it back down again.” She chuckled. “It was quite something. And then, of course, I knew.”
    “You make it sound like you’ve had a lot of experience of werewolves?” Marianna nodded.
    “Silver City, Black Peak City, all around Gila, and all the way to east Arizona is were-territory. There have always been werewolves here, as long as anyone can remember.”
    “But why here? And why doesn’t anyone know about them?”
    “Here, because this is sacred Native American territory, and they’ve always feared and respected shapeshifters. Wolves are also sacred to them, and they wouldn’t harm them. As I’m sure Rob’s told you, this is the only place in the south where wolves are found nowadays. Us invaders have been wiping them out for the past nearly 400 years. Werewolves hide in plain sight among the wolves here, and, for the most part, they co-exist happily. The reason why people haven’t heard about werewolves is that it’s a closely guarded secret. It’s human nature to destroy anything we don’t understand, so it’s been a mission for werewolves, and the few humans who know about them to ensure that no-one from the outside world finds out. I know about them because I’m a local. Most of the people who were born in Silver do. They were our classmates, so we were around when they shifted for the first time; when they went through growing pains that we could only imagine; when they had periods of crazy aggression, and our parents had to warn us not to take it seriously.”
    “And why are werewolves coming here from other countries?” Isabel asked. Marianna gave a heavy sigh.
    “This is something that I don’t approve of. Josie is a special case. Her family is keen to leave their history behind, to stop being werewolves. The poor thing doesn’t even speak the family’s native tongue, because nobody will teach it to her. They’ve bred with humans and tried to dilute their legacy, but in Josie, it’s still strong enough to make her life difficult for her. She needs to be around her own kind, as all werewolves do, so she put a lot of effort into finding the job for Rob here. That’s not to take away anything from him. He’s amazing at what he does.” Marianna took a sip of her tea. “But the werewolves from other countries – they come here because their own packs are dying out, due to smaller and smaller gene pools. They hear that Silver City is a sanctuary for them. But when they arrive, they sometimes don’t understand, or even respect our ways, and the effort we’ve put into keeping this were-territory a secret for so many years. That’s why the recent disturbance has weighed so heavily on the town. If the gossip doesn’t stop soon, the national media’ll get ahold of it, and before long, it’ll all be over. Our local media has a news blackout for anything to do with werewolves, but the big papers aren’t going to be so charitable.” Marianna stopped, two vertical creases appearing on her forehead.
    “These giant wolves that have been turning up lately – they’re all foreigners, right?” Isabel said.
    “Yes, I’m afraid so. They’ve been doing things like running around during the day and getting themselves seen and shot by Rob and his men. It breaks my heart when he talks about them, how they’ve evaded capture, and how one of them even broke into the conservation center. He’s so stressed, trying to work out what’s going on, and Bill, Josie and I know, and we can’t tell him.”
    “That wolf, who someone saw running around in the city,” Isabel said, haltingly. “I think that was Peter. It was the same night that I saw him transform. I only saw him