by Brent Miller
“You love her?”
“Yeah, I think I do.”
“Say no more. If she’s important to you, I can be civil.” He smiled. The two of them had had plenty of deep and emotional conversations; that wasn’t uncomfortable for them. What was always weird, though, was finding a way to end them.
“Yeah, okay,” Tyler accepted, “thanks.”
They both laughed as Tyler closed the door and walked back inside.
“Mom,” Garrick called as he walked into the house. She ran up and hugged him, squeezing him tightly enough to restrict his breathing. A mixture of anger, relief, and worry was painted on her face as she pulled away and looked at him, but the expression settled into sadness.
“I’m so sorry,” she told him, but he had no idea for what. There was no trace of the anger he’d expected. “Why didn’t you answer my calls? I was so worried, Garrick.”
“I’m sorry,” he choked. He wanted to tell her the entire truth, but he knew that wasn’t a possibility. The hunters were gone, at least for a while, so it was probably safe to tell her everything, but he wasn’t willing to take the risk. Instead, he just decided to tell her as much as he could without putting her in danger or revealing the truth about werewolves to her.
“Something bad happened,” he told her. “Last night.”
“What’s wrong, Garrick? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine.”
“What happened last night?”
“Mom, please. Let me talk. Okay?”
“Sorry,” she responded with a nod. She still had her hands on his arms, and he gently moved them. His eyes already filling with tears, he led her to the living room and sat on the couch.
“Some men broke into Brooke’s house. I don’t know what they wanted, but her dad tried to fight them off. They killed him. Her mom, too, as she ran away.”
His mom’s eyes fell with a knowing sadness. It was no surprise she’d already heard of the attack – which probably accounted for her being so scared about his location.
“They didn’t find whatever they wanted,” he continued. “I don’t know who they were, or what they wanted, but they knew them, because they went to Cailean’s house next. They shot Mrs. Phoenix. Aldric fought them off, but… He was shot. He’s dead. Mrs. Phoenix is in the hospital. She’s going to be fine, but she’ll be in there for a while. I was there with Cailean this morning.”
“I’m so sorry, Garrick,” she sympathized, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Finally, the bottled-up tears poured down his face, and he couldn’t respond. He’d tried to be the strong one for the others, and he’d managed to keep his emotions hidden, but he had no more reason to. His mom wrapped her arms around him as he cried.
Garrick lay in his bed with Hayden. Wanting to spend the night with him after everything they’d been through, she’d snuck out of her house for the night. Even in the darkness and complete silence, having her next to him was comforting, and it was possibly the only thing that was keeping him sane.
Cailean and Brooke were sleeping in the living room. When Garrick had tried to bring the idea up to his mother, she’d suggested taking them in.
“Garrick,” Hayden whispered. He didn’t respond for a moment, just letting the beauty of her voice resonate in his head.
“Yeah,” he finally replied.
“I love you.”
He pulled her closer to him, relieved to have her in his arms. More than once that day he’d thought he could lose her. When she and Brooke had run, there had been other hunters stationed in the woods. Garrick had taken out the main force, but there were four more wandering around in case they ran. They had ambushed them and stabbed both Hayden and Brooke with silver.
Tyler had taken two of them out, but the third one had cut his arm. They’d knocked him down. Cailean was barely able to get there in time. If he’d been a few seconds later, or if Tyler hadn’t been there, things would have ended differently. She’d told him the story on the walk home from the hospital and he’d panicked as if it were happening in the present.
Wishing it were possible for her to get closer than she already was, he held her in a tight embrace. He turned and kissed her.
“I love you too,” he told her.
They’d been through a lot, but looking at her in the faint light shining in through his window, he knew that he could take on the world. Even with all the pain he’d been through, he wouldn’t change a thing about his life.
He was Garrick Elliott. He had the best friends in the world; a group who would support him through anything. He had a girlfriend that he couldn’t possibly adore any more.
For the first time in a long time, he was proud of who he was. As he lay in that bed with Hayden, he was thankful for the scratch which had changed his life. He was Garrick Elliott, and he was a werewolf.
Epilogue
Garrick watched with renewed hope as the moon rose into the sky. Though he’d controlled it once, Garrick wasn’t completely sure he wouldn’t become a wolf – and he knew his friends would. Inside, though, he knew that he had won the fight, and the wolf was no longer vying for supremacy. Garrick believed that he’d be able to teach his pack to control it as well, but there hadn’t been time yet. So as he led his friends to the woods, all of them walking in a group. Though Aldric wasn’t there, his guidance still resonated in him as Garrick scanned the area, carefully looking and listening for any sign of humanity.
“Here,” Garrick directed. The pack spread out, preparing for the moon to reach its zenith. Preparing to, for the first time, fight the change. Garrick watched the silvery orb crawl through the sky with a sense of mysticism, admiring its shine.
Cailean was the first to transform. Based on his own method for regaining control from the wolf, Garrick assumed being a purebred would only make it more difficult for his friend. Cailean fell to the ground, gasping as his bones, slowly and audibly, fractured. His teeth grew to twice their normal size as his mouth, along with the rest of his face, elongated to accommodate them. His claws broke from his nails, and his palms grew, encompassing his fingers until his hands had become paws.
“There has to be an easier way to do this,” Brooke choked through clenched teeth. The words were obviously agonizing to force out. Garrick searched his mind for advice to give them. How was he supposed to teach them how to do something that he wasn’t sure how he did himself? Garrick turned his gaze toward her, preparing words of encouragement, but Brooke was already on all fours – and twice her normal size – by the time he could even begin to speak.
What was he supposed to tell them? That he had mystical conversations with the animal side of himself? When he zoned out, he went to a magical forest where he saw his canine counterpart and conversed with it, and that they somehow understood each other?
Hayden fumbled to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. He hugged her close, and she fell into his arms. Her ears grew to a point, and her nails sharpened into claws.
“It’s okay,” Garrick comforted.
“No, I have to try,” she argued through the tears that streamed down her face. Garrick squatted down, bringing her with him. Gently, he lifted her hand from his shoulder and placed it on the ground.
“Let go, Hayden. I’ll think of a better way to help all of you. This won’t work.”
“I’m sorry,” she cried. He lifted her face and kissed her. Weakly, she kissed him back. When he stepped away, he saw her left shoulder expand, and the other one quickly followed. Her knees changed to support her new legs as her appendages became those of a wolf. Garrick affectionately pet her head as the others walked up to him, a sense of confusion in his eyes. Maybe the wolf versions of his friends were unsure of what he was – or at least wondering why he didn’t look like they did.
“Alright,” he muttered to himself, “it looks like I’m spending the night keeping them at bay.” Garrick took a deep breath as he took his shirt off, tossing it to the ground. For the first time, he actually didn’t mind allowing hi
mself to change because he knew that he was in control.
Not willing to ruin every pair he had, he’d also removed his jeans. He’d learned from his last transformation that they wouldn’t be destroyed, like any clothes the others wore, but he didn’t want to tear holes into every article of clothing that he owned.
He watched as his nails grew and sharpened. Still human in shape, his hands grew slightly larger than normal and became coated in fur. He watched as the muscles in his arms began to bulge out, just before his arms themselves grew to accommodate them. Hairs started to grow, coating his arms in a thick layer of fur. His chest expanded. His stomach, the first part of his body which wasn’t completely coated in fur, was also the part which showed that his skin itself darkened and stretched with the change. His feet maintained their shape, mostly, but their size did change to support his new, bulkier form. In the same fashion as his arms, his legs grew, muscles and tendons showing themselves clearly before the entirety of the leg was coated in fur. His canines grew in his mouth and his ears came to a point.
“That was my favorite pair of boxers,” he muttered under his breath, looking at the scraps around him. He kicked his jeans toward the suitcases the others had brought.
His pack gathered around him, waiting for him to move again. Garrick raised his head, facing the sky, and howled.