***

I couldn’t believe we were back to this again.

“Listen, I really appreciate your opinion and all, but I’m not the first Seer or whatever it is you think I am.” I sat at a dainty looking table while Michelle filled my plate with a ginormous heaping mound of the best smelling spaghetti my nose ever encountered. The bread, whose timer had beeped just as Rachel was throwing out the L-name, smelled even better.

“What I believe is the truth,” Rachel said, her British accent making it sound extra haughty. “It’s all I am allowed to believe.”

Since my mouth was stuffed full of noodles and meat sauce, I raised my eyebrows at Liam, requesting a translation.

“Aunt Rachel Sees truth,” he explained around a mouth full of bread.

Truth Seer. I knew there had to be one of those out there.

Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t full-on crazy, which I quickly started to suspect.

“And the truth as I See it is this: You, Harper Lee ‘Scout’ Donovan are Lilith, the first Shifter." Didn't she mean Seer? "The Daughter of the Creator. Artemis. The moon, sent to watch over the night.” I started to protest, but she cut me off with a look that said there would be sever repercussions should I open my mouth. “Do you wish to hear the truth of your story?”

I wished to hear her say she was just kidding.

“Scout is the moon.” Liam’s tone said he also found Rachel’s mental stability suspect.

“And God’s daughter,” I added helpfully.

Rachel didn’t seem fazed by our sarcasm. “He goes by many names. God is merely the most popular.”

“I’m Southern Baptist. Let’s stick with ‘God’.”

“Well, then, when God created the earth, he left its care to his children. His son resided over the day, bringing brightness and warmth to all those who lived beneath. Later, that son would go on to make his own choices which would lead to the Thaumaturgics and Immortals, but in the early days, he was nothing more than a light unto his people. His sister, on the other hand, protected the creatures of the night, looking after each of them with warmth and compassion.”

“Especially a wolf,” I said, figuring this was how her story matched up with the one I already knew.

“Yes,” Rachel said. “Every thirty days she would leave her heavenly home and walk amongst her people upon the earth. Wolf, the first of his kind and the most fierce of the night’s creatures, walked with her on each visit. Over the years, their affection for one another grew, until they could no longer bear to be apart those other twenty-nine days. That is when they petitioned The Creator, your God, for a chance to be together forever.”

“Oh wait. I do know this story.” Marie gestured with a whisk she was using to make some sort of batter. “The Creator said they could be together, but there was a price to pay. Lilith could never return to her place in heaven, giving up the care of the night to her brother. Both of them were made humans, except on the one night when her brother was allowed to rest. On that night, they Changed into wolves so they could watch over the land.” Marie spooned a bite of batter into her mouth and broke into a huge grin, obviously pleased with both her knowledge and whatever it was she was making.

“You forgot the part where they both became mortal,” Michelle added. “But their spirit was supposed to live on. They would be reborn over and over again, becoming the eternal leaders of a new race of people.”

This was so not the story Talley told me.

“That’s great and all, but I’m not Lilith. And anyway, I thought she was the first Seer. What is this crazy first Shifter business?”

“What sense would it make to have a woman become the first Shifter if no female Shifters exist?” The way she asked made me feel like I was being taken to task by a stern British headmaster who believed strongly in corporal punishment.

“They changed it? Turned the first Shifter into the first Seer to keep the power tipped in the Alpha Female’s direction?”

“What do you think?”

I thought it would take a lot of effort to change a hand-me-down story. “If Lilith was the first Shifter, where did Seers come from? Are they dusk and dawn personified?”

“The servants of the night, which shone on high with the Moon, were sent to Earth to keep her company and protect her.”

The servants of the night, which shone on high… “So, you’re a star?”

Rachel smiled. “Yes, or I suppose you and your fellow Southern Baptists might call us fallen angels.”

A pair of grey eyes met mine from across the table. I expected to see more of this-lady-is-batshit-crazy, but it was replaced with thoughtfulness and…

Crap.

“You don’t seriously buy into all of this, do you?”

“It makes sense.”

“In what crazy, topsy-turvy world does this make sense? Bizzaro-Shifterland?”

“The one where a girl who shouldn’t be a Shifter, is. The crazy world where that girl Shifter can Change at will and hold her wolf form for an infinite amount of time.”

I wanted to pound my head against the table. Why was I the only one to realize how stupid this all sounded? I wasn’t the reincarnated anything, let alone God’s daughter. I mean, God doesn’t even have a daughter.

“I suppose there is no use in me pointing out that you can also Change at will and hold your wolf form for an infinite amount of time?”

“Of course he can,” Rachel answered. “He is Wolf. He bares the mark on his hip.”

“The only thing on his hip is that stupid paw print tattoo.”

Rachel’s face was smug. “It’s not a tattoo.”

“Yes, it is.” I looked at Liam. “Tell her.”

His non-response said everything.

“You told me it was a tattoo.”

Liam put down his fork and leaned onto his elbows. Most people would have looked comfortable and compliant in the same pose, but not Liam. Maybe it was muscles which had always been massive, but became more clearly defined over the winter as he chopped down half the forest and trained with unwavering focus. Maybe it was the set of his jaw or firmness of his mouth. Or maybe it was the intensity of his stare. Whatever it was, there was no doubt Liam was the exact opposite of comfortable and compliant. “I never said that. You assumed, and I let you.”