“Roland, do you know who I am?”

The werewolf bared his impressive fangs and answered me with a low threatening growl.

“I see. Well that won’t do at all. I know you are in a lot of pain and we are going to deal with that soon, but first I think we need to have a talk. Or I’ll talk and you can listen. How does that sound?”

Another growl filled the room.

“I know I said that Remy was my first friend here, but you were always my best friend. The best times of my life have been with you and Peter. Remember when we used to have slumber parties and Brendan let us camp out in the hayloft that one time? We told ghost stories until we were all too scared to sleep and we ended up sneaking back into the house after everyone else went to bed. Or the time you nipped some of Brendan’s whiskey and we got drunk for the first time. I never touched that stuff again.”

I talked for half an hour, reliving the happiest memories I had of him and reminding him of the things we hadn’t done yet, the plans we’d made. My power filled the small room and slowly the wolf eased its thrashing and stared at me with tortured eyes. I stopped talking and noticed the silence in the room. It took me a few seconds to realize that the whole house was quiet, everyone was listening to me.

“Roland?”

The wolf let out a short mournful whine, his yellow eyes never leaving mine.

“You were pretty shocked to learn about Remy, weren’t you? But he’s not my only secret.  Remember the other day after the marina when I said there were things I had to tell you about me? Do you want to know what it is – what I can do?”

He blinked and made a small whimpering sound.

I got to my knees and began to inch slowly toward him until Nikolas grabbed my arm to hold me back. “What are you doing? That’s an injured werewolf. He’ll rip you apart.”

“No, he won’t,” I said without taking my eyes off the wolf. “You always ask me to trust you. Now it’s time for you to trust me.”

He held on for a long moment before he slowly released me. I continued toward Roland, stopping at the edge of the mattress to let a stronger wave of power flow over him. “I know it hurts a lot but I’m going to make the pain go away now. You know I would never hurt you, don’t you?”

The werewolf eyed me warily as I reached out one hand. It felt like the entire house held its breath as my hand touched a hairy paw. As soon as I made contact I sent the power pooled in my hand pouring into him. The effect was slower than I was used to but none of my other patients had been a four hundred pound werewolf.

“There you are,” I said when the yellow eyes finally softened in recognition. “You had me worried there.”

The wolf opened his jaws and made an inhuman sound like he was trying to talk to me before he sagged against the mattress and let out a shuddering sigh. My heart broke at seeing my friend in so much pain.

“Shhh,” I whispered to him, laying my other hand on his chest so my power could search for his injuries. It did not take long to find the source of his pain, a silver pellet embedded in one of the muscles around his heart. I needed to remove it if he was going to live. I had never used my power to remove a foreign object but I imagined it wasn’t that different from forcing an infection from the body. I hoped that was the case because Roland’s life depended on it.

I laid both hands over his heart and focused my healing on the piece of silver, trying to shrink it like I would an infection. I felt it twitch but it refused to be moved from the muscle.

The wolf looked up at me with trusting eyes and I gave him a reassuring smile. “I think this is going to require a bit more contact.”

I lowered my body to the mattress amid gasps from the people crowding the doorway, and wrapped my arms around the huge furry body. He did not resist when I pulled him to me and released a torrent of energy into him, directing it to the piece of silver that was slowly killing him. I held on tight as the heat built up in my chest where it touched him and my hands began to glow like pieces of iron in a forge. The werewolf twitched violently when the fire surrounded the silver pellet, slowly melting it and incinerating it into oblivion. The healing fire receded enough to fix the damaged tissue and smother the deadly fever that had started to spread through his body. When I could feel no more injury or sickness, I pulled the power back inside me.

My arms loosened their hold and I sagged against the wolf, more drained than I had ever been after a healing. “Now you know my secret,” I mumbled happily.

After several minutes, I felt the body next to me begin to shrink and lose hair. From somewhere close by I heard shouts and Brendan’s booming voice say, “Holy Mary, Mother of God!”

Arms lifted me and held me against a warm hard chest. “I think she’s just exhausted,” Nikolas said, his voice a mixture of worry and reverence. “Hopefully, all she needs is some sleep.”

So I slept.

*     *     *

A shaft of sunlight across my face woke me up. I raised a hand over my eyes and stared at the vaguely familiar lace curtains and striped wallpaper for a minute before I shifted to look around the room. My eyes fell on the shape of someone sitting on a chair in the corner.

“How are you feeling?”

I rubbed my blurry eyes, feeling like the one time I had a hangover. “I’ve been better. Where am I?”

“At the farm. You weren’t in any shape to go anywhere last night.”

The farm? Last night came flooding back to me. “Roland!”