4: Jack - In The Pack by Carys Weldon Page A

could take his sister, see how it went. But I knew if it didn’t go well, I’d be the one put down. There wouldn’t be any walking away.
     
     
    That would buy me time, if nothing else. I said, “Why don’t you tell me about her?”
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “As you know,” Hood said, “we want to see what happens when you breed with a lupus-born female.”
     
     
    I didn’t say, that seems unnatural to me. I knew it set unnaturally with him, too. We were of one accord on that. But Hood’s work, all he wanted to prove and disprove, hinged on that one experiment. The fact that he put his sister on the line absolutely astounded me.
     
     
    Here’s a kicker. He said she was lupus-born. She believed she was. But now...I question all genetics. Call me a cynic. Nothing at Lobos is as it first seems. I mean, think about it...why would the pure-born want to breed with the freaks of their existence? Something isn’t quite right about that. Call me wary.
     
     
    Telling me to fuck his sister, that was definitely screwed up. Especially when I heard on one hand that he was a fucking supremacist, and knew on the other hand that he was biting humans and creating unnaturals himself. It didn’t jive.
     
     
    “Why your sister instead of one of the others?”
     
     
    That was the crux of the discomfort between us, I knew.
     
     
    He picked his words carefully, chopping up his answer between working his jaw. “Well, first of all, she’s about to come into her first change.”
     
     
    That surprised me. “She’s young?” It never occurred to me that she was a teenager, but I had to wonder...how old?
     
     
    His eyes flashed. He said, “You’re not old.”
     
     
    Early twenties. Almost over my Olympian prime. Kind’ve funny that I was almost a has-been and I wasn’t much over twenty. Stupid.
     
     
    Hood was a good-looking man. Not that I was looking, but I suddenly had an interest in his genetics. Maybe I should have before, after I found out what his bite had done. And before you go and get all weird on me and say that this smacks of incest all of a sudden, let me explain what I learned about the DNA dump that bite caused.
     
     
    There is a basic lupine DNA that all wolves have. A bite drops that plus a hormone enhancing combination of other secretions. Male stuff, since I was bit by a male. Thank God I wasn’t bit by a female. I might have found myself exhibiting more feminine traits. That would have been a much harder adjustment.
     
     
    So, there was nothing in his bite or the change in my system that would connect genetically like a brother to sister breeding. That part of the DNA was not transferred.
     
     
    Yeah, I was catching up on Genetics 101. You should, too.
     
     
      I’ve wondered, since then, if he selected several specimens, put them through the paces, and I graduated top of the class...which seems more likely than me being the only one. Maybe the others had been assigned to other females. I’m not privy to that info.
     
     
    He explained, “I think you’ll like her.” Quickly, he added, “She’s nothing like the women here.”
     
     
    “What makes her different?”
     
     
    He had a hard time putting her into words. That, more than what he said, conveyed how hard it was for him to offer her to me.
     
     
    “What’s her name?”
     
     
    “She lives in a place called Pack City.”
     
     
    I’d heard about the place already. Wolf preserve. Acres and acres, miles of natural habitat, protected by the government. I let him tell me about it.
     
     
    “I go there sometimes to think, and clear my head.” He got more comfortable, offered me a drink, took one for himself. The fact that he prolonged telling me her name said volumes about his reticence--like he was still thinking of retracting the offer, if I gave the wrong answers during that last interview.
     
     
    I tried not to let it bother me. I work well under