Page 32 of Alphas Never Hide

“Yousound surprised,”Isaid finally.

“You’vebeen sniffing the ground for a while now.Ithink you’ve snorted something that’s made you high.”Heglanced around the area, as if looking for the plant.

“I’mnot drugged,”Isaid. “Ijust don’t get why you’re surprised.You’rea shifter.Ofcourse you have magic.”

“Ichange into a faun.Nothingmore.That’sit.”

“Faunsare an ancient supernatural race.Theolder the race, the closer those shifters are to theEternalMagic.”

“Someone’sbeen googling,” he said.

“Imay have looked up some stuff onSupenetwhen you were seeingDoc,”Iadmitted.Supenetwas a section of the internet dedicated to supernatural beings.Ididn’t know how they kept mundane humans out of it, but it seemed to work.Thankfully, it was easy to use, orIwouldn’t know anything about his kind.

“Listen,Imight look like a faun, butIdon’t have their magic, okay?”Hischeeks darkened.Hetugged off his glasses and started cleaning them on the hem of his shirt. “Mydad was a mundane, so my genetic makeup is pretty watered down.”

“Whywould you think that?Supesmate with humans all the time.”

“Andmagic is dying,”Ryleysaid. “Thereare too many mundanes in the gene pool, it’s getting diluted.I’ma prime example of everything that’s wrong with the magical world.”

Itsounded like he’d heard that bullshit so many times he believed it.Someonehad lied to him about his own magic.Ihated how many bigots there were in the world.Iwished supes weren’t like that.Wewere so much stronger together.Buteven my asshole brother thought there was a hierarchy of supes with wolf shifters at the top.Hewas wrong for thinking that, but he’d have spread those same lies about bloodlines and gene pools.

IdoubtedIcould changeRyley’smind in one conversation, butIhad to try.

“That’sa lie.Aslong as one parent is a supe, the child will be a supe too.Sciencehas proven it.”

Ryleycrossed his arms over his chest. “Sure.ButI’mweaker.Mysenses aren’t as strong.Idon’t have magic.”

“Beingable to shift is magic.”

Hewaved his hand through the air, as if to wipe away whatIsaid. “Youknow whatImean.”

Ididn’t, but what else couldIsay? “Whattype of magic do full-bred fauns have?”

“Iknow what you’re doing.”Hefrowned. “You’retrying to find out what magics other fauns can do so you can attribute this, whatever this is, to my imaginary magic.”

“Humorme.”

Hetapped his foot.Iwas still in my wolf form, so hewas taller than me.Theperfect height for him to stare down at me.Iwasn’t intimidated.HowcouldIbe when he looked so…

Ididn’t need to think about him being cute or adorable.Nope.Thosethoughts needed to shut the fuck up.

Iwaited.

“Ugh.Fine,” he bit out.

Hisface was flushed, andIsuspected he was angry about things that had nothing to do with me.Still,Ihated how uncomfortableI’dmade him.Ihad the urge to tell him it didn’t matter.ThatIdidn’t need to know.ThatIcould look it up onSupenetlater.

Exceptitdidmatter.

Ifwe were going to get any closer toRobbietoday,Ineeded to know.Now.Andit would be a hell of a lot faster ifRyleytalked to me.Ithad nothing at all to do with me hatingSupenet.Sure, the creators tried to make it foolproof sinceIwasn’t the only technophobe in the supe world, but it still took me a ridiculous amount of time to unearth answers.I’donly found the most basic listing about fauns, which is whyIdidn’t know much about their magic.Ihadn’t gotten that far.

“Faunsare musical.Thatwhole flute playing thing?That’strue for the purebreds, whileIcan’t play a flute to save my life.Butfauns are mostly known for their relationship with the natural world.Faunscan feel if the earth is damaged or thriving.Mymother described it as a visceral sense of knowing, deep inside where their magic lives, whatever that means.Theyhave a profound connection to nature in other ways too.Youdon’t want to playhide and seek with other fauns in the forest, believe me.Thosebastards can hide like no one else.”

Andthere it was, the answer, even ifRyleydidn’t realize it.Ialso had an answer to my earlier unspoken question about his interest in technology.He’dturned his back on his magic and found a career in something as far away from nature as he could.

Butfor now, the important thing was that whole connection-to-nature bit he mentioned.Iwanted to explore that a little more, butRyleywas still talking.

“WhenIwas about six, the elders took me on a hike.Itwas just after my dad died from a sudden cardiac arrest, soIthought they were being nice, trying to cheer me up.Thenthey all just disappeared, and it was like the trail vanished right along with them.Later, they said it was a rite of passage that every faun had to go through at that age, butIwas lost out there for days.Needlessto say,Idid not pass their test.”Hewrapped his arms around his stomach and slumped forward a little.