“I’m not saying it wouldn’t be hard, but if we were honest with everyone, maybe they would come to accept us over time.” Another sigh. “I just find it hard to go to school every day worried if today’s the day someone like Maria Abruzzo is going to tell everyone that I’m different, that I’m not who I say I am, that I’m living a lie…”

Argus had been listening quietly, a slight smile creeping over his face as the others talked. “It would keep people away. No one would mess with us if they knew what we could do to them.”

Phyllis, who had been listening intently to what was going on, spoke up. “That’s true, Argus. People would fear you. But that’s not the same thing as acceptance, and I think that’s what you all want, isn’t it?”

“Maybe we could move to a city, like Vancouver or Toronto,” offered Harlan. “There are so many other kinds of people in the big cities that we could just blend in. We’d still be different, but that would make us just like everyone else.”

“That’s a good idea,” said the ranger. “But then we’d have to leave Redstone, and I don’t think any of us, myself and Phyllis included, could stand to be away from the forest for any length of time.”

Tora noted that the ranger had said they would all move to the city, not just the pack. It was a touching gesture, especially since they all knew that the ranger and his wife loved the forest as much as, or perhaps even more than, the pack did. And so Tora felt obligated to make another suggestion. “We could return to the forest,” she said. “We could live there, and no one would bother us…and we could visit you whenever we wanted.”

Tora thought that Ranger Brock would be the one to argue her point, or perhaps it would be Phyllis, judging by the expression of fear on her face at the thought of seeing all of them leave at once. But it was Argus who raised an objection, which was ironic, since he’d been the one to seriously consider leaving the pack for the wild just a few short months ago.

“We can’t do that,” he said. “At one time I thought we could, but it’s no longer an option. We saved the forest once.” The pack had not long ago chased off an unscrupulous logging company and stopped it from clear-cutting the forests surrounding Redstone. “Who knows when we’ll have to do it again? But if we have to, we’ll need to be here—as humans—to do it.”

No one said anything for several moments, as if they were all considering the options: to live in the forest, or move to the city; to keep the secret, or let it go.