Warren appreciated the perfect life he now possessed. He just doubted it would last. He chided the cynic in him for being unappreciative as he walked his and Tamara's dog, Tulle--a Boston Terrier / Beagle mix who had to sniff everything within her path.

"That tulip smells the same as the last one you smelled," he told the dog, bending down to give her short coat a pet. "And, anyway, tulips don't even smell, do they?"

Yes, life was good. No, great. He'd just been promoted to head ad designer in his department at his advertising firm. Tamara had moved in with him six months ago, and their relationship had deepened. He'd decided it was time to pop the question. But, first, there was something Warren had to tell his girlfriend of two years.

It was time to come out of his closet and admit he was bisexual. If he and Tamara were going to spend the rest of their lives together--and Warren didn't plan on getting divorced--then she needed to know everything about him. He wanted no surprises after they said 'I do.'

He thought about their honeymoon as he and Tulle strolled down a walkway domed by hedges grown in arches.

"What about Queen Charlotte Islands, hmmm, girl?" The dog just sniffed another tulip and ignored Warren.

But he thought a trip to Haida Gwaii might be just the thing. He'd never seen the islands of his ancestors, though Grandma had told him what she remembered of Moresby. Even though he lived in Richmond, relatively close to the place of the Hadia Nation, it might as well have been a world away.

Particularly when he was a kid, and he and Gran had to make due on her tiny pension and some left over from his parent's insurance. He'd been a Surrey boy back then. How far he'd come, he mused.

Little Tulle stiffened, and the short hairs along her spine stood up. She curled her lip and focused forward as she let out a low, warning growl.

"What's up there?"

Warren held the leash tightly and shielded his eyes against the harsh glow of the globular streetlamps. At first, he saw only darkness and hedges, but then something shifted in the shadows. Something with massive shoulders hunkered low at the end of the walkway. It rose up a bit, and he caught a glimpse of pointy ears atop a shaggy head.