Maggie laughs. She doesn't cackle. She laughs. “Careful. I wouldn't use that word around others of your kind. Even Nickolas here is fighting to suppress his irritation." “My kind?" I ask. That seems to be her answer, then? “Yes," she says. “You are, beyond question, a wolf shifter. Of that much I am entirely certain." There it goes. The last bit of doubt. I'm not a human. Every friend, classmate, teacher, co-worker, boss, or acquaintance I've ever had was a different species than me. The only body I've ever known is a disguise. All at once, I seem to have lost some great innocence. My life until now was a childhood, no, a cubhood. I'm not a human. I'm something strange and dangerous, which I do not understand. If I go back to St. Louis after this, how will I go back to the life I had,

