“I do. She was old and very fat, even though we kept trying to put her on diets. I think we took her to a vet once?”
“We did indeed. Do you remember the diagnosis?”
Andromeda seemed to puzzle over it for a long moment before she shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
“That’s okay. I only remember because your aunt thought it was the most hilarious thing and told the story pretty much any chance she could get. The vet said she was diagnosed with being too good of a hunter, and she would need to become an indoor cat instead of being allowed to play in the dilapidated barn in the afternoons.”
Andromeda’s eyes went wide. “Wait, wait, I do remember that! We all joked that she was meant for a pack, or that she learned from us.”
“That we did,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. It was a small thing, sure, but it made me so incredibly happy. Bit by bit, Andromeda would find herself again. It would be hard working through the wounds the brothers left on our bodies and in our minds, but she was taking the first steps to do so. Man, once things calmed down, I would have to find a shifter therapist for all of us. God knew we needed it. I supposed we could try a human one, but having to keep so many secrets and also not having them understand our duality seemed like a recipe for disaster.
“You said something about my aunt...”
“I did,” I hedged, perhaps a bit more cautiously than I needed to. Like most of us, Andromeda’s backstory wasn’t exactly full of roses and sunshine. We all made do and got through it together, but it wasn’t easy.
“I... I didn’t live with my mom, did I? Or my dad?”
“No, you didn’t. They died fighting the usurper. Like my dad did.”
Such news could be pretty shocking. After all, it was one thing to be an orphan, but it was another to forget you were an orphan, then suddenly learn it when you’d only just remembered you’d had a cat. Thankfully, Andromeda did not seem that rattled. Instead, she gave a slow, measured nod. I’d never realized how much we wolves tended to communicate that way until Ven started mimicking us.
“Your scent just changed,” Andromeda said, her brow furrowing. “Penny for your thoughts?”
She was remembering idioms already? Another great sign. “Just something funny about Ven.”
“Ven? That’s your mate, right? The human?”
I made a so-so gesture with my hand. “Maybe not entirely human, but, yeah.”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “Her genetics are a bit of a mystery, but it’s nothing urgent. Ven is Ven no matter what species she is.”
It was impossible for my thoughts not to go to my love. Sometimes when I looked at her, it was hard not to be in awe. Never in a million years had I thought I would deserve someone like her. Honestly, I still wasn’t sure I did, but I certainly wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I was happy to accept that I had definitely pulled above my league. She would probably disagree with me because she always undervalued herself.
“Did I have a mate?”
“No, you didn’t. For a while I thought there might be something brewing between you and Tabitha, but then...”
“Then the warlocks happened.”
“Yeah. That’s pretty much the long and the short of it.”
“So, I like women?”
I raised my eyebrows, a bit taken aback by the question. While I had been plenty confused when I’d woken up from my curse, I’d remembered my sexuality. Sure, it had taken me a couple of days to remember the actual word for it, but I’d been aware I was acutely attracted to women.
“As far as I know, you like hunters. The more skilled they were, the hotter they were to you. What’s between their legs never seemed to matter much.”
“It’s hard to imagine that. Sometimes I feel like I’m still just a wolf in the most insane dream.”
“I understand, believe me.”
“But I do know I loved my aunt. She did her best.”
“That, she did.”
“I wish… I wish…” She trailed off again, and dutifully ladled soup into her mouth. I didn’t take it personally. Really, I wasproud of her for saying as much as she had. It did seem like she was coming back into herself, even if she couldn’t remember who she did or didn’t fancy. “I wish she was here right now. I wonder how long it’s been since we even talked.”
