My true appearance definitely startled the Wolf Pack, although everyone had gasped, a silence piercing across the room for several moments as they took it in. This town wasn’t so large a town that I worried too much about what they thought. Revealing myself to be a human and a lord might have some risk elsewhere, but this was already a town of rejects.

A woman stood up and threw a finger in my direction. “It’s your fault!”

Her words startled me, but they seemed to open a floodgate for the rest. Other people began to stand up as well, shooting accusatory or hateful looks my way.

“You gave her that power!”

“You brought here!”

“She’s the reason we’re cursed!”

“Curse?” I asked, but my voice was lost to a torrid of angry shouts.

The wolfkin stood, as the crowd was quickly becoming hostile. Some people were clutching things in their hands as if they were a moment from throwing them.

“You should have let her die.”

“You’re the reason we suffer.”

The mayor looked confused for a moment before shaking his head. “No, these were catkin who built it. They were the ones who were doing...”

His voice broke and he stopped talking.

“What did they build?” I demanded starting to walk toward him. “What were they doing?”

The mayor let out a sigh. “I need to show you something.”

He stepped down from the table, his head lowered in defeat, his tail down. The people remained silent as they watched him walk up to and then past me, heading to the door. I looked at the four wolfkin and then gave a nod, following behind him.

“When were you going to tell us you knew lady death?” The pack leader whispered as we left the end.

“I didn’t know.” I shrugged. “I’m sorry I kept what I knew from you, but it was safer that way.”

The wolfkin looked around at the icy and still somewhat hostile stares of the foxkin and then shuddered. “It might have been safer had you kept it in.”

“We don’t have time,” I responded. “We need to understand what happened.”

The group of us walked out of the inn, following the mayor to see what he had to show.