Free Wolf and Prejudice (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 2) by Theodora Taylor Page A

many of his diary’s manuscript pages had now “disappeared.” As a Lupine History post-doc, she knew whenever a set of ancient records were found with a few missing pieces, that usually meant the wolves had gotten to them and gone through them first, or some other paranormal force—but in this case, she had her finger crossed for the wolves.
    The North American Lupine Council was near fanatical about keeping evidence of their existence out of the human purview, and very few universities even dared keep a secret wolf collection. When they did, it was usually in fairly libertarian places like Alaska, South Dakota, and New Hampshire, states that liked their freedoms and weren’t as scared of the North American Lupine Council as others.
    “You found them,” she said to Matt, leaning forward.
    “I think so. Or at least a few manuscript pages one of our wolves smuggled out of the secret collection at the University of Baghdad back in the nineties before the first Gulf War. My Arabic isn’t that great, but I scanned it and put it through a translator and this passage caught my eye.”
    Matt pulled a few photocopied pages out of a manila folder.
    “If the translation program is working right, he talks about coming upon the village of King Fenris the Serious, which he finds puzzling, because the king is actually quite jovial. Fadlan is only received because the villagers think their queen, who he describes as ‘a beauty, dark of skin,’ might be interested in talking with him, because he also has dark skin. She speaks Old Norse, but in a dialect that is often hard for him to understand, and she won’t tell him where she came from. And she is said to have three children, but he only meets two of them, a boy and a younger girl. But he says she also has a rather large wolf puppy that stays crouched at the queen’s feet and seems to be afraid of humans. The king and queen, who he describes as ‘happy with each other in every way’ receive him for three nights. But then the queen tells him though she’s enjoyed his company, it is best he move on before the next full moon. She tells him it is very important he and the Vikings he is with sail in a different direction than they originally planned, saying something to the effect of though they themselves are tame, she cannot be so sure about the village to the north of them that calls no man king. They take her advice, but later on, one of the Vikings manning the ship Ibn is on says he suspects the foreign queen, the king, and their entire village are creatures of legend, ones who transform from human to animal in the light of the full moon.”
    Alisha’s eyes widened and she took the translated pages from him. “That’s her. I’m sure of it. I’m getting closer.” But then her excitement dimmed when she remembered what he’d said when he’d sat down. “How could there possibly be any bad news?”
    “I was hoping you’d see it that way.” He grimaced. “The bad news is the funding for your fellowship here has just been pulled and as of next semester, you’ll no longer be employed by the University of Alaska.”
    “What!?”
    He raised his hands defensively. “The only reason I’m here telling you this is because I thought it should come from a friend as opposed to the head of the department, who’s still pissed at you for pissing off the new King of Colorado.”
    Alisha’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me this sudden defunding doesn’t have anything to do with Rafe Nightwolf.”
    Matt lifted his shoulders up and down. “What did you expect, Chloe? His family is one of the most influential wolf dynasties in the United States. He has a seat on the council and the Nightwolf trust gives millions of dollars to the wolf residency program so shifters can attend state colleges all over the U.S. and enroll in wolf-based classes. He’s not a guy you want to piss off. And you basically announced that you plan to write an entire book about the woman who left him for a