“Graeme, welcome back. Do you really feel you’ll be comfortable in a transitional position here?” Andreas spoke from his more formal posture sitting behind the antique desk. He looked up at Graeme over his glasses.

“I think it’s the best thing right now. I’m glad the elders agreed,” Graeme replied, although truthfully, being in this office again made his skin itch. Old memories—none of them good—were clawing to get out. But he would be strong and forge past them. He had a renewed purpose being here now, and he was determined to be strong for his mate.

“Yes, well this is all remarkably unexpected. I suppose we have to find our way through it. How is Miss Cady?”

“She is doing well considering,” he said.

“Wonderful.” Andreas gave him a tight smile.

“Are you going to enlighten me about the alyko’s involvement?” Graeme asked.

Andreas paused in the middle of flipping a page on his desk before allowing the page to rest flat. He removed his glasses and stood, walking around the corner of his desk to rest on its edge before he spoke.

“One of the lead researchers at Eliade is not someone whose name is in the media. Penelope Winter. Have you heard of her?” Andreas asked.

“As in the Winter alyko family?” Graeme asked.

The Winters were a notoriously powerful alyko family that had splintered off from a lycan pack in Louisiana. They had far more alyko members than any other family in history, and they chose to live amongst humans—entering into different careers to help society with their unique abilities while keeping those abilities secret, of course.

Understandably, a Winter alyko succeeded at whatever profession they chose to enter, and they were spread across the continent. Graeme wouldn’t be surprised if their influence had gone global by now, though he hadn’t kept track of them.

“Oh, come now. Don’t you think ‘Winter witches’ has a better ring to it?” Andreas tilted his head in amusement. “Science and magic aren’t at odds. Our witches liked to say that their magic was also a kind of science, am I right? Is it so hard to believe a Winter would be in charge at Eliade?”

Graeme watched Andreas without responding. The old man was right. The alyko often insisted that theirs was a deeper, or different, insight and awareness into the natural world—that there was nothing unnatural about it.

A memory surfaced in Graeme’s mind of when he and Greta were young. They were outside Maggie’s little cottage watching butterflies swirl upward around them in the air. Greta had been upset about something that Graeme couldn’t remember now, and Maggie had called on the butterflies to gather in hopes that it would make her smile.

“Maggie, it’s so beautiful!” young Greta had exclaimed, eyes sparkling. “But how do you do it? How do you speak to the butterflies? Is it your magic?”

Graeme remembered watching Maggie thoughtfully as he always did, being a quiet child. Greta was always boisterous enough for the both of them.

“Is it magic when the birds flock together in the air and fly the same way or when little tiny ants carry huge spiders along with them? Is it magic when we breathe into our lungs the very air that the trees exhale?” Maggie had asked patiently.

“No,” Greta squeaked. “That’s just nature, Maggie.”

“So is this, Miss Greta,” Maggie had smiled.

“But then why can I not speak to the butterflies like you, Maggie?” little Greta asked.

“Ah, well I imagine you could if you felt the breath of the butterflies like I do,” Maggie replied.

“How do you do it?” Greta asked again.

“The Moon Goddess gave me the gift of feeling the breath of butterflies and calling on them for company. She gave me the gift of speaking to the trees and invoking the wind. Just like she gave you the gift of your wolf,” Maggie explained.

“But I haven’t gotten my wolf yet,” Greta argued, as she was still too young to have shifted into her wolf for the first time.

“Ah, but you will, my love. You will,” Maggie hummed.

Graeme blinked back to the face of the elder in front of him. Andreas and others like him argued against there being anything scientific or natural about the alyko. The hate and distrust that had brewed for the alyko over generations was precisely because they were deemed unnatural, so why was Andreas making the opposite point now?

Andreas continued. “Witches of course have an entirely different insight into the natural world, which coincides with the insight needed to achieve the human virus’ ultimate goal,” he said. “Of course, we don’t care all that much what the humans do to each other. Saving the planet, if that is truly the mission, is something we would also benefit from. Fewer humans in general would be welcome, should that be the only outcome. The question is why is one of their experimental subjects suddenly paired up with you?”

“My mate is not a threat, Andreas,” Graeme replied in a voice so low that the warning in it was unmistakable.

“And you know this how?” Andreas’ voice lowered to match. “We are being targeted for some unknown reason, Graeme. Her presence here proves it. You leaving destabilized us, and we appear weak, which has brought this external threat to our door.”

“Is this what I’m here for? A lecture?” Graeme asked, his jaw clenching.

“I hope you’re here to help us strengthen the pack,” Andreas folded his hands in his lap.

“Have you considered that her presence may mean that as well? Strength for the pack?” Graeme tilted his head now. “I somehow imagined I would be forced to consider an offer from the elders to take up the role of Alpha with a Luna now by my side.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Andreas’ eyes narrowed before he returned to his place behind the desk. “I don’t think our pack members would be comfortable with an outsider in such a powerful role either.”

“She is my mate, not an outsider,” Graeme growled through his teeth as Andreas smirked at him over his fingers.

“Shall we talk about what you can do here for us?” Andreas asked. “Few know about a small research team here in the council created a few years ago. It’s led by a young lycan named Zosime,” Andreas said.

“Her name doesn’t sound familiar,” Graeme said.

“She was a stray who wandered in from the Grimm. We found she held considerable… skill that could be put to use,” Andreas answered.

“An outsider,” Graeme’s chuckled. “Andreas, are you familiar with hypocrisy?”

“She’s not the Luna of the pack, Graeme,” Andreas answered. “And she is very bright. I’d like you to consult with her about their project.”

“And what project is that?” Graeme asked skeptically.

“The alyko files.”