10. Ylfa
Patrick pushes theold rusted gate aside as we step into the abandoned garden, and Butch was right. This place truly is desolate. Rows upon rows of homes that once belonged to billionaires, but now they’re all forgotten in time.
The front yard is overgrown with wild bushes. Weeds grow between the flagstones, and I bet this garden had once been immaculate. I spy a derelict pool full to the brim with leaves and debris, and I envision the rich bastard who used to live here sipping a martini by the poolside, his beautiful wife beside him with her implants and plastic smile. I bet he was a banker or something and had it all...
But now he’s dead.
I’m surprised the billionaires never vanished into space once shifters took over. Even if they did manage to escape the planet, they wouldn’t have lasted very long. Space is inhospitable.
It seems the humans truly are gone, and what a crying shame. They really stood no chance. We just took over. Our own scholars claim we killed them off gradually because we’re larger and breed faster. But I feel as if there’s a little more to the story.
They had weapons of mass destruction, nukes, everything; yet they were killed off by men who can shift into wolves.
Something doesn’t add up.
One day, I will get to the bottom of what really happened.
We find a busted-up front door that leads into the house, and now we enter the foyer of the grand mansion, our feet echoing off the dust-covered floor.
Hunter gives a low whistle, peering down at his feet. “Marble... These rich humans had taste.”
I shake my head. It humbles me how he tries to look impressed by all this human extravagance, when he, too, lives in a home just as nice.
But I’ll be damned... This home is something. They even have a swirly staircase that leads to twenty bedrooms.
“Dibs on the master bedroom,” I call out.
Hunter smirks, leaning close to my ear. “All the more space for you and your mates, hey, petal?”
My core quivers, and I push him away because we have an audience.
Brianna’s eyes flicker around the room, and I bet she has never been in a house so grand. I bet she doesn’t even own a house...
“Can you believe people actually lived like this?” Theresa remarks, staring up at the high ceiling.
Brianna sighs. “No... I can’t. Just something else the wolves have taken from us.”
I want to point out to her that not all humans lived like this over a hundred years ago. In fact, many humans were starving, while billionaires had their yachts, private jets, etc., etc.
But I hold my tongue because it’s pretty much the same with wolves. We don’t have luxury yachts and private jets, but some of us are definitely better off than others.
Electricity and running hot water, for one, and access to a better education.
There’s a stuffed wolf in the living room, and my body tenses. It’s pretty large and has strange markings.
It was a shifter. One that met its end by the gun of some trophy hunting billionaire. He must have assumed it was an ordinary wolf at the time... Maybe. There was a point when humans became aware of the existence of shifters, and attempted to hunt us all into extinction.
Not that it worked out for them in the end.
Chelsea bares her fangs, drawing her knife when we see the stuffed shifter. Annabel turns five shades lighter, but Tiffany stares at it, her face deadpan.
The humans, however, look a little smug. Brianna even laughs. “Well, well, well. I think I found my favorite room...”
An awkward silence follows. Chelsea looks as if she wants to slit Brianna’s throat again.
Brianna smirks and moves around the living room. I notice the wide berth she keeps from us again. All three of them stay on one side of the room, and it’s going to take some time before we truly come to some agreement.
Why do they keep so far away from us? Do we smell or something?