Free Wolf Tales 12 by Kate Douglas Page A

Anton, but her magical abilities are already far beyond yours.”
    “What magical abilities?” He swung away and paced a few steps, turned and glared at Eve. “She’s good at mindtalking and I have a feeling she can block me, but . . .”
    “But you have absolutely no idea your daughter is reading your thoughts during much of the day, and quite often at night.” In a rapid-fire monologue, Eve interrupted Anton and set his mind reeling. “Did you know that she is a beautiful black wolf with golden highlights when she shifts? That she has taught herself to read the ancient language? That she communicates with the unborn babies within the pack? Did you know your daughter worries about you, about your responsibilities as their leader, and wants to do what she can to ease your stress? Did you—”
    “Stop. Please . . .” He held up his right hand. Pleading? Begging for her to stop, because . . . Anton’s legs suddenly gave out and he found himself sitting in the grass with his head between his knees and Eve standing over him, laughing softly.
    “I’m sorry, Anton, but you of all people cannot afford to keep your head buried in the sand. Your denial of reality helps no one, least of all your daughter. Lily is an unusual child.”
    “I knew she was special, but I had no idea. . . .”
    “But you should. You need to know what your daughter is capable of. There is much to that child even I don’t understand, but she is good. She is pure of heart and soul, and all she wants to do is make you proud, to ease your life, to be a good daughter. Right now, being a good daughter means she has undertaken a quest that will change the lives of all of you, including the hundreds of Chanku who are still lost.”
    He raised his head, blinking. “Hundreds? Shouldn’t there be more? By now, I would imagine thousands, if not millions of our kind across the globe.”
    Eve shook her head and sat beside him on the soft grass. She took Anton’s left hand and turned it over, running her fingertip over the lifeline on his palm. Over and over again, as if the subtle repetition soothed her thoughts.
    “You’re right. There should be millions, but very few survive. Chanku have been hunted throughout the ages, destroyed by those who fear their amazing abilities. Those first star-voyagers who settled on a primitive Earth tried to blend in, but their differences made that impossible. They did not want to be seen as gods—they merely wanted to be left alone to go on with lives that had been upended when their world died. They felt they would be safer in small groups, so they spread out across the earth, using various gates that allowed them to travel on the astral.
    “Some were the original Gypsies, the Rom. Others came to the North American continent and became spirit guides to indigenous peoples. Wherever legends of shapeshifters abound, Chanku are generally the source, but not all of those early travelers survived. Cut off from their packs, their lines died out. History and circumstance have not been kind to Chanku.”
    Eve paused, her expression pensive. “The diaspora that Liana knew of was the second migration, and it was really quite small. Only a few survived the long march from their Tibetan home. They had lost access to the nutrients their bodies needed to shift, and they’d forgotten about the gates, the pathways that gave them easy access to the astral plane, and thus to other parts of the earth.”
    “The gateway Lily found in the cavern beneath my home?”
    Eve nodded. “The same. They were established millions of years ago to give the first Chanku access to different parts of the world via the astral, but through cataclysm and pure happenstance, their locations were lost. Your friend Igmutaka? He is the child of shapeshifters who were part of the very earliest migration out of Tibet, Chanku who chose to stay in their animal form. He was born a cougar and tapped by the Mother as a spirit guide, but without any knowledge of