by Devyn Dawson
After lunch we showed Sam the way to the guest rooms. She picked a room with brown walls and an enormous pine canopy bed. I’d always been a fan of that room because of its huge marble fireplace.
“You’re about the same size as Shaynie; I’ll grab some jeans and a sweater for you out of her room. Maybe you and Chrissy can go to the mall and pick up some clothes if you’d like.” I stood at the doorway as she walked in the room. “There should be shampoo and stuff in the cabinets in the bathroom. Estelle put a toothbrush and some toothpaste on the counter for you. Relax, everything will be okay.” I tried to reassure her in the very awkward situation.
She walked towards me stopping at the doorway. “Abel, thank you. I’ll be done soon.”
Chapter 3. Wolf
“The wolf said, “You know, my dear, it isn’t safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone.”
~ Little Red Cap - Grimm’s Household Tales
I heard Alistar, the pack’s Irish Wolfhound, baritone bark informing us that Chrissy pulled up. I stood on the porch watching her get out of Parker’s Prius. When he left with Pru to find the General’s murderer he told Chrissy she could use it while he was gone. Her puffy pink coat with white fur trimmed hood stood out against her freshly colored hair. She had her hair cut short and colored black on the bottom with white on the top tipped in hot pink. I loved the free spirit of her personality and how she expressed herself. She recently quit her job at Ta Ta’s and started work at a wildlife rescue with the help of Dolly. Her boss sported a Mohawk which was usually multiple colors. He’d told Chrissy the animals didn’t complain about his hair, so he wouldn’t complain about hers. I knew not everyone could pull it off, but she could.
She looked up and sent me a question via thought. “Hey Mr. Greatness is everything cool?”
“So far.” I thought back. “You look so cute. Is that a new jacket?” I said as I met her on the bottom step.
She leaned in and kissed me on the lips. “It is. I love that about you, you’re so observant. While we’re handing out compliments; you don’t look too shabby. I’m loving your new casual rock star look. You know that though.”
I pulled her to me wrapping my arms around her back. I put my hand behind her head as I kissed her. Her lips were cool and tasted like bubble gum as my tongue explored the velvet moistness of her mouth. We stayed like that until we heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Are you planning on playing tonsil hockey all day or coming inside?” Oakley asked with his mischievous grin on his face.
“Hmmmm, I don’t know. Tonsil hockey was pretty appealing,” I said and took Chrissy’s hand leading her up the porch.
“Oh stop Abe,” she said giving me a fake punch in the arm. “We were on our way inside,” she said to Oakley.
We went into the man cave for some privacy. We brought Chrissy up to date on everything we knew about Sam.
“It sounds like we need to tell Sam what is about to happen to her. Don’t you agree?” Chrissy said.
We nodded our head in unison. “I agree. It’s bad enough she doesn’t even know who she is or where she’s from. I’ll go get her and we’ll tell her together,” I said as I stood up and headed to the guest room end of the house.
The first thought I had about Sam is how she cleaned up pretty good. She smelled of soap and blood. She still looked tired; I could see the dark shadows under her eyes. “Sam? Chrissy is here. It looks like I was right about Shaynie’s clothes, they fit you perfect.”
“Yeah, thank you. Your girlfriend isn’t mad that I’m here or anything is she? I don’t want any drama or to bring any drama to you.” She took a final look of herself in the mirror.
“Oh no, she’s fine. Come on, I’ll introduce you. I think you’ll like her.”
After we did our introductions, Chrissy and I sat down on the loveseat, Sam on the couch and Oakley in a big overstuffed chair. To the average person it would look like we were old friends enjoying a conversation, Cokes in hand and little mini sandwiches that Estelle insisted on bringing us set up on the coffee table. There was nothing normal in what we were about to talk about.
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly before changing Sam’s life forever. “Sam, I’m sure you’ve noticed a big open sore on your body somewhere,” I said to her.
“Yeah, how’d you know that?” She asked and her eyebrow started twitching as she stared at me.
The wolf in me was trying to mind over matter, telling myself she doesn’t know better than looking a werewolf in the eyes for more than a few seconds. She wasn’t challenging me. Oakley leaned forward, giving me a semi-bug-eyed look while whispering to me to keep my cool. “I have a very keen sense of smell.” I shook my head back and forth. “Not that you smell or anything, well, kinda but not in a bad way. I smell blood on you and open flesh.”
“Oh gross. You’re kidding me? I showered, I promise,” she said as she slinked back on the couch.
“No, no. Nothing like that. Okay, hear me out and everything will make sense. Oakley is actually going to do a demonstration. I find it easier with a visual.”
Oakley’s eyebrows lifted as he shrugged his shoulders at me.
“I’m going to take off my clothes,” Oakley announced.
Sam looked shocked and scared, she went to stand up. “I don’t know what’s going on around here, but I’m not into that kind of thing. I know that.”
“I promise you Sam, everything is okay. It will really make sense in about five minutes.” Chrissy tried to reassure Sam that we weren’t some kind of kinky weirdoes.
“This is a little more embarrassing with everyone sitting around staring at me. You want Estelle to pop you some popcorn for the show?” Oakley asked. I’d never seen him get self conscience about shifting before. “I’ll leave my boxers on.”
He stripped down to his boxers. “You seriously have skull and crossbones on your boxers?” I sniggered at him.
“I love these boxers.” Oakley said pretending to be shy by crossing his arms across his torso covering his man parts and bending his knees inward. “Here goes nothing.” Oakley said and dropped down on all fours behind the pool table to let it obscure her view. In less than a minute he was completely shifted and walked across the room.
“OHMIGOD!” Sam screamed. She started panting heavily hyperventilating before she all out fainted.
Chrissy ran over, sitting on the couch and putting Sam’s head in her lap. “Abe, grab a washcloth and wet it with cold water, please.” I ran into the bathroom grabbing one of what Dolly called, the guest towels, knowing she would kill me if I got anything on it. Chrissy took the towel from me, giving me a peculiar look. She wiped Sam’s forehead whispering to her that she was going to be okay. After a minute or so she opened her eyes; looking around and seeing Oakley the wolf on the floor next to the couch. Sam scampered upright and pulled her knees to her chest.
Her hazel eyes wide as saucers and her finger pointing to Oakley. I noticed she was physically shaking. “Th-That is a w-wolf” she stammered.
Chrissy put her arm around her shoulders trying her best to comfort her. “It is also Oakley. You’re not in any danger, I promise.” She pulled her in for a hug since Sam was obviously freaked out. “Oakley, why don’t you shift back so we can talk to Sam?”
I grabbed his clothes tossing them in the hallway so he could shift back in privacy.
It took us the next hour to convince her we were werewolves and that we didn’t hurt humans. I could tell that Oakley was getting tired of the conversation and wanted to move forward with the next task… telling her she is one too.
Chrissy had returned to her spot on the couch next to me, thinking jokes to me to see if she could make me crack. Oakley sat in the chair in one of his stoic poses. I did my usual fidgeting in my seat, a habit I did when I was nervous. I held Chrissy’s hand, letting it go and putting my arm across her shoulders, back and forth until Oakley and Chrissy started screaming in my head to stop. The world was a lot quieter bef
ore people started talking inside my head.
“So, that wound we asked you about earlier, we think you’ve been bitten by a werewolf.” Chrissy said.
“What? You think a werewolf bit me? What the hell? You’re kidding right?” Her questions were coming out faster than we could answer so we kept shaking our head in reply. “Oh hell! That is why I’m here isn’t it? Someone bit me and then was too chicken shit to tell me what they did and sent me on my merry way. I don’t believe you, there is no way I’m a werewolf. I’ve been drugged or something. ” Sam shook her head back and forth. “It can’t be real, it just can’t be,” she said as she looked up at us with eyes brimmed with tears. “What happens next?” she asked in defeat.
“Well, we need to try to heal that bite. We also need to try and figure out who you really are.” Oakley said to her.
Chrissy cleaned up the wound and packed it to absorb up some of the infection that had started. She felt that in twenty-four hours we’d be able to use a regular bandage on it. It was mid-afternoon before we finished up and let Sam go back to her room to rest. I could see the events of today had taken its toll on her.
Oakley paced back and forth on the front porch. I could hear the boards creak under his weight with each step. Chrissy and I sat on the porch swing with a big wool blanket to keep us warm. “You’re going to wear the wood thin if you keep walking back and forth. Don’t ever tell me that I’m fidgety, Mr. Fidget.” I pulled Chrissy closer to absorb more of her body heat.
“This is getting out of control. I don’t know who is doing this but I’m going to find out, and when I do, I’m teaching them a lesson they won’t soon forget.” Oakley said, stopping in his trek. His chin lifted as he took a whiff of the air. “It smells like it’s going to rain. Just what I need, rain to wash away the evidence.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I was hoping Sam would be able to take us to where she was bitten. I wanted to try and track the biter by his scent.” Oakley said as he grabbed the screen to the front door. “It’s getting cold out here kids, let’s go see if Sam is up and try to figure this out before it starts raining.”
Sam met us in the man cave looking less pale and more alert. “I’m not sure if I could get us back there,” Sam said to Oakley.
“Well, we’re going to try. First we’re going to Big Bob’s and we’ll pick up your scent and follow it. Did you walk there or did you get a ride?” Oakley asked.
“I walked. You’re going to pick up my scent like a regular dog does?” She asked in astonishment. I could see the corners of her mouth twitching to smile.
“I know right?” I said giving a little laugh to the irony of it all.
Chapter 4. Fox
“But the fox would listen to nothing, and said, there is no mercy to be had. You must die.”
The Fox and the Geese - Grimm’s Household Tales
We tracked her scent for three miles to a big wooded area. Her scent was easy to find but we never picked up another wolf.
“All I’m able to smell is that urine stuff the hunters put on to mask their own scent. If you ask me, it brings out their smell even more. Disgusting” I said as we continued to track the wolf responsible.
Eventually we found a small tent with some soup cans but we didn’t pick up anything else. “Look Oak, I don’t think we’re going to find anything.” I shine my flashlight on the ground to get a better view.
Oakley raised his head looking around as though he heard something. “Sam and Chrissy, here’s the keys to my truck.” He tossed his keys to Chrissy. “It’s getting cold out here; I can hear Sam’s teeth chattering. Abe and I’ll take a look around and see what we will come up with.” He turned and looked at me to get my approval.
I kissed Chrissy’s forehead before they headed to the truck. “Something doesn’t smell right,” I said to Oakley. We both walked around the perimeter of the campsite taking note of the scent, filing it away. “If it were lighter out here, I’d get up in that tree and look around.”
“Yeah, something is off. I’m picking up a supernatural vibe, how about you?” Oakley stopped, dropped to the ground, and leaned all the way forward until his nose was practically in the dirt. “This isn’t good Abe.” He pulled a sandwich bag from his pocket and dug out a sample of the ground for analysis later. Thunder rolled and lightening crashed. I heard Chrissy scream. “Let’s get outta here, I know she hates storms.”
As we approached the truck we could tell Chrissy was doing her best at drowning out the thunder by blasting the stereo.
“Stop!” Oakley yelled. “Get in the truck with the girls. I heard something over there.” He pointed to the tree line on the other side of the truck. “If I’m not back in five minutes, take the girls home. I’ll catch up with you.” He thought to me.
“I’m not leaving you out here alone, Great Wolf or not,” I said to him. “Chrissy, we’re going to check something else out. If we aren’t back in the next couple of minutes, take the truck home. We’ll shift and run home. Before you start questioning me, please just do it.”
“Okay. It will be a little hard to explain to her why I’m leaving you when she doesn’t know we can think our thoughts to each other.” Chrissy thought back to me.
“Please don’t make this complicated, just go if we’re not back.” I thought to her.
Oakley and I headed over to the trees, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Sitting on a tree stump staring back at us was a red fox. “He’s cute.”
“She is. That cute little fox is Mili. She usually runs with her sister Issie and they just so happen to be shape shifters.” Oakley said as we walked closer to where the little fox sat.
As we approached, her right black tipped ear rotated from the front to the side like her own personal radar. She had her winter coat, reddish orange with a white chin and neck. Her bushy tail twitched the closer we got.
“You should see the two of you walking in slow motion. I wish I had a camera with me, I’d totally take your pic and post it on Facebook.” A voice directly to our right said.
Oakley spun around on his heel to catch the owner of the voice. “Issie, I see you’ve left your sister out here as a decoy. Well played,” Oakley said to the raven haired beauty.
I watched her movement as she came closer to us, she walked with caution yet it was graceful and fluid. Her straight black hair hid most of her face until she was directly in front of us. As she tucked her hair behind her ear I noticed two slash marks across her face. The scars did little to distract from her obvious beauty. She had on neon pink and green striped tights, with combat boot that looked like someone went crazy with a bedazzler. Her white leather trench coat, cinched tightly across her tiny waist, hid the presumably colorful outfit she wore.
“The Great Wolf, I presume.” She spun around doing an over dramatic curtsey.
I laughed nervously as I notice Mili leap from the stump and inch in closer to her sister. “I’m Abel, nice to meet you, Issie.”
“What happened out here Issie? I don’t want to hear any of your flim flam either,” Oakley snapped at her.
She twirled around in a circle with her arms out wide doing some little jig at the end. “Oakley, you’re so mean.” She stuck her bottom lip out so far it made her round face look like a cartoon character.
“A girl was left out here in a tent. Who did it?” Oakley asked again.
“Oh herrrrr? She cries a lot. I don’t like girls that cry,” she said as she admired her fingernails.
Oakley leaped over her, grabbed her from behind, and held a hunting knife to her throat. “I’m going to ask one more time, if you don’t answer me I will slit your throat, you little pain in the ass. What. Happened. Out. Here?” The little fox stood next to her sister barking at Oakley.
“Let me go. Come on Oakley, let me go.” She whined.
It looked like he tightened his squeeze on her, looking up to give me a reassurance nod. “Answer me.”
“You’re an
ass. I didn’t see anything. I heard some human girl crying in the tent so I snuck up on her and peeked in on her. I’ve been looking around for her abductor and haven’t seen anything. I didn’t smell another wolf though if that is what you want to know.” Issie said as one never ending sentence, rambling so fast I almost didn’t understand her. Oakley let her go and she flipped her hands on her coat like she was dusting it off.
“Do you have any idea how expensive it is to clean leather? I’ll never get your stench off,” she said haughtily.
“Whatever. I expect you’ll call me if you see anything. No games, Issie.” He folded his knife, sliding it back into its holder on his belt. “Abe, let’s go.” He turned and started back towards the road.
