Of Fur and Ice

by Andrea Marie Brokaw

  “No,” I whisper back.

  She sighs and picks up her beer. “I didn't think so.” Despite expectations, she doesn't go on to ask me why not. “But it isn't just Lyly. There are others who are worried about you.”

  “Why?” What about me could possibly be worrying anyone else?

  Emma takes another drink before she answers. “It's your scent. No one can identify it. That makes them nervous.”

  “And justifies a complaint?” I shake my head. “What is a complaint anyway?”

  The cigarette dances in little loops. “A call for action against you.”

  “Action?” I squeak. I've been shivering for a while now, but now there's more reason for it than being cold.

  “We're not wolves,” Emma states with gentle calm and an extra pull of nicotine. “No one's going to eat you. If she proved her case, which doesn't take much against a non-den member, it would be more a question of banishment.” She tosses the butt of her cigarette onto the ground, crushes it out, then picks it up again so she can throw it into a trash bin. “And, no, we can't send you anywhere. Banishment would just mean none of us are supposed to talk to you. She'll have to do a lot more to prove you're deserving of it now that you're a den member, though. Banishing a den member requires some very serious harm being done. Don't eat anyone, and you should be fine.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “That wasn't so bad, was it?”

  Tod beams at me as we pull away from the party where I was introduced to and welcomed by the parent den.

  “No.” For being on display for two hours straight, it was remarkably low on the stress scale. “And I like Emma a lot.”

  Sam pipes up, “Everyone likes Emma!”

  I don't know about that. People who find themselves on her bad side probably don't like her in the slightest.

  “And everyone liked you,” Tod says merrily.

  Which seemed true for the most part. A few of them acted confused as to why I was being embraced so quickly and there were one or two people who seemed worried about it. Nobody came across as antagonistic, though. Even the people who were mentioning my scent appeared more curious than anything.

  I consider mentioning I know what Lyly is up to. But when I look over at Tod, who has started singing along with the radio like he did on the way in, I find I just don't have it in me to slaughter his good mood.

  Snowflakes start to drift down as we drive, and they continue to float down overnight. Despite the fact there has been snow on the ground the whole time I've been here, this is the first storm I've seen. Not that it's much of a storm by local standards. Just two feet of accumulation. The roads aren't even closed.

  Sam pokes her head around my door about lunchtime, telling me to get out of bed and come to the rec room for a movie marathon. Obediently, I trudge down, sitting on the floor between Bryce and Seth, letting my friends and the movies lift my spirits.

  I can't say why the snow has depressed me. It's not as if I dislike snow. I suppose it just drives in that I'm trapped somewhere far from home. It's not a bad place to be trapped, but...

  Drawing my knees up, I wrap my arms around my legs and try not to feel the urge to cry.

  “What's wrong?” Seth whispers.

  Shaking my head, I concentrate on following the movie. The tears fade into the background as Seth places an arm around my shoulders. Letting myself be drawn against him, I soak up his warmth and his scent, which is part boy and part cat and all wonderful. And I start to feel content again....

  At least until the door opens and Warren walks into the room. His eyes fall heavily on me. He nods once in greeting, not smiling even though I smile at him. Then he continues on his way to the stairs, leaving me wanting to weep again, even though I don't know why.

  I go up a while later, telling everyone I don't feel very well, even though I doubt they buy it. If nothing else, I'm sure I don't smell sick.

  There's a gift basket sitting outside my room: a collection of little bottles from Bath and Body Works swimming in slivers of pink paper. The assortment, which reeks of leopard, comes with a note card. “Please, we beg you, hide your stench.”

  Interesting. When Seth smells feline, it's comforting and sexy. When Simone does it, it's gross.

  I take the present inside, and I use a few of the bottles in the morning. Lavender and rose. No point in letting them go to waste.

  There's another gift when I wake up, slid under the door. It's a letter from Mr. Atherton asking me to stop by his office. I assume he can smell the scents when I pop in, but I don't mention anything about them before sitting in my usual seat.

  “You wanted to see me?” I ask him.

  He gives me the same gorgeous smile he always uses. “How was your weekend?”

  “It was all right...”

  He nods. “I hear you were adopted.”

  Holding up my hand, I show off the ring. “Yep. I'm officially a fox.”

  He studies me for long enough that I start to feel nervous and lower my hand, letting it clasp the other hand and go to my lap. One thumb taps against the other while I wait to see why he's looking at me like that. “What?” I ask when the silence drags on too long.

  “I like the foxes. I think they're good for you.” He takes a breath.

  “But..?” I lead, knowing there's a “but” in the sentence.

  “But I'm worried about what the pack will say if you turn out wolf.”

  My thumb stills as a cold hand grasps at my stomach. “They haven't shown any interest in me,” I whisper.

  “Not yet,” he agrees. “Because you aren't wolf yet. If you are...”

  “What will they do?”

  He takes his time to answer. “Most likely, they'll force you to chose between breaking with the den or being shunned by the pack.”

  “Shunned?”

  “No one in the pack would be allowed to associate with you,” he clarifies.

  I bite my lip as I process that. “Would that mean I'd have to leave school?”

  “Of course not.” He seems confused by the question.

  “But if you're not allowed to associate with me...”

  Folding his hands together, he smiles sadly. “I haven't been a member of the pack for ten years.”

  “Really? Why?”

  I regret blurting the question as I watch a wave of pain pass over Mr. Atherton's face. It was intrusive and obviously brought up bad memories. And it just wasn't appropriate. I'm one of his students. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean-”

  “No,” he cuts me off. “It's alright.” Leaning back in his chair, he gives me a long look. “The pack is a very controlled society. The leaders have a lot of rights that people raised human can have trouble accepting.” His gaze falls nowhere near me, nor anywhere in this time period. “Let's just say they asked for something I wasn't willing to give them.”

  Maybe I don't want to be with them anyway...

  “So, if I'm shunned, I can stay, but the other students...”

  “They wouldn't be required to ignore you in class,” I'm told. “But they wouldn't be allowed to socialize with you.”

  “Not that any of them like me anyway,” I mutter.

  Mr. Atherton's eyebrows go up. “What do you mean?”

  My head shakes. “Nothing.”

  “Has someone been giving you trouble?” he wants to know.

  “No, not really.” Warren was sullenly glaring at me through breakfast, but that hardly seems like something to tattle to the principal over.

  “If someone does, and you don't want to tell me about it...” he says slowly, his gaze steady. “You could go to Warren. They listen to him.”

  I can't help it, I burst out laughing.

  “What?” Mr. Atherton watches me in incomprehension.

  “Nothing.” Folding my arms, I lean back in the chair. “Hey...” Something occurs to me as I stare at the edge of the desk, bringing my eyes up to my companion again. “How well do you know Warren anyway?”

  Mimicking m
y pose, he studies me for a while before he replies, “He's my godson.”

  “Your cousin's kid?” I ask, remembering what he told me about his cousin the day we met.

  “The same.”

  Probably knows him fairly well, then. Maybe well enough to know why Warren seems torn between liking me and barely tolerating my existence. I open my mouth to ask something about that, but Mr. Atherton silences me.

  “Let me cut you off before you start,” he says. “If you have questions about Warren, then you're going to have to ask Warren.”

  But I don't want to ask Warren.

  Glum, I nod and look down at the desk again.

  “Is there anything else you want to talk about since you're here?” Mr. Atherton asks.

  With a grunt, I shake my head. Yeah, I'm being bratty, but I can't seem to help it.

  We sit in silence for several moments before his phone rings. “I'll let you take that,” I mumble, rising to my feet.

  I'm through the door before he's through telling me goodbye.

  There's a vial sitting at my desk when I get to class. Perfume. “Anti-skunk Medicine,” a handwritten tag proclaims. I smile. It's not a cheap perfume. Way too much money is being spent on me. And the leopard girls must have devoted the whole weekend to thinking up presents. How sweet.

  I try to focus on class, but the teacher is a wolf; and that makes me think too much about what Mr. Atherton was telling me. There's no way I'd turn my back on the foxes for the pack. Which means, if I turn out to be wolf, there's a decent chance I'm going to find myself ostracized from every wolf in school.

  Remembering what Warren said about having to stop his dad from killing someone, I hope that shunning really is all they'd do to me.

  I wonder if Warren would stop staring at me if I were to be shunned. Or would it only be Nice Warren I'd lose?

  My eyes go to his usual spot in the dining hall when I go to lunch, but I've beaten him in.

  As I walk by Simone on my way to my table at lunch, she brings out a can of air freshener and makes a dramatic display about spraying it behind me. Her sidekick Rina keeps her eyes on the ground, but waves her hand through the air like she's shooing away a bad odor as I pass. Maybe she's playing along with Simone, or maybe she just can't stand the aerosol; it's hard to tell.

  “What the hell was that about?” Bryce asks me as I sit down. The bear's the only member of my group who is here already. In fact, there are only about half a dozen people in the room period. Were I Simone, I would have waited until later to try to ridicule me. Or maybe waited a few days. Spreading all these attacks on my scent out over a week or two would probably have been more effective than throwing everything at me all at once. It would have made her seem less unhealthily obsessed too.

  “Insecurity,” I tell him, opening my milk jug with a sharp twist.

  “Is it bothering you? Should I go smack them around some?”

  I laugh. “Only if you're going to do it anyway. It's not bothering me.” Oddly enough, this is true. “It's almost a compliment really. I'm important enough to Simone that my very existence is driving her crazy.”

  The bear chuckles, a deep and rumbling sound. “I suppose that's one way to look at it.” His eyes watch her dubiously though.

  Hastily, Simone hides the can in her backpack and kicks it under the table as Seth and Amber walk into the room. Rina stares down at their table, not even looking up at her friends as they sit.

  Ah. That's why Simone didn't wait. She has the sense to hide her actions from Seth. And Rina is obviously cowed enough not to tell on her, but Amber wouldn't be.

  “Hey, Bryce?” I put my forearms against the table and lean over them. “Do you know why Mr. Atherton was kicked out of the wolf pack?”

  “Something about an arranged mating I think.”

  “Arranged mating? Do you mean what I think you mean?” Staring at him, I marvel how calm the bear is about the concept.

  He shrugs. “They figured the world needed more little baby wolves from his line. So they picked out someone for him to mate with. But he was all, 'She's not my life mate.'” His eyes give a dramatic roll. “Not sure what difference that makes. It's not like they were asking him to marry her, just to...” He clears his throat. “You know. Make little baby wolves.”

  “Yeah...” So he got kicked out of the pack for refusing to breed with the woman they picked out. “Who's his life mate?”

  “How should I know?”

  I shrug. “Just wondering if his objection was because he knew her.”

  Bryce shakes his head. “Never been any hint of a woman around him.” He stabs his fork into the pile of mashed potatoes on his plate. “More likely he's gay.”

  That would explain it. And maybe he just didn't want to tell me because he thinks staying in the closet would be healthier for his career. Or it's simply none of my bee's wax. But for some reason, I just don't peg him as gay. And something in his expression earlier gave me the impression he was thinking about someone.

  “I can't believe you,” Sam proclaims from behind me. “Did you really just imply that the only reason for not doing a random female is homosexuality?”

  Bryce shifts a little. “I didn't say he couldn't have met his life mate.”

  Our friend puts her tray down and pulls out the chair next to mine. “Wolves mate for life,” she tells me. “And when the males meet their mate, they know it. Instantly. And don't usually have much interest in anyone else afterward.”

  “And the woman?” I ask. “Does she know it?”

  “Nope. Not fair, is it?”

  No... Although I'm not certain who it is more unfair toward, the woman who doesn't know what's going on, or the man, who has no choice whatsoever. The woman can presumably walk away. And in Mr. Atherton's case, may have.

  Talk shifts to chemistry when Aliah shows up with questions about our current assignment and when we're done eating, she and I go to the library to work on it some. Because of that, I'm running a tad on the late side for my afternoon class and am the last person to make it to the meeting place by the skate barn. I get there to find everyone staring at the side of building.

  Drawing nearer, I realize Warren is literally growling about whatever everyone's gawking at.

  The instructor is nowhere to be seen.

  Finally rounding the building to get to the point were I can see the main attraction, I stop dead in my tracks.

  Written in letters five feet tall are the words, “Micky is Stinky.”

  “Oh, come on!” I exclaim, appalled. “She can't possibly think that rhymes!”

  Warren's eyes snap from the barn to me. “Who can't?” he demands.

  A shiver spills down my spine as I look at the wolf. He hasn't seemed this wild since the night I met him. It scared the hell out of me then, and it scares me now.

  “Michaela...” He takes a step closer to me. “Do you know who did this?”

  If I thought the anger simmering in his voice was directed at me and not Simone, I would die of terror on the spot.

  “Someone with no talent for using the English language,” I banter, trying to stay calm. “I could think of fifty worse things she could have written, all of which would have sounded better. And that's just on the spur of the moment. If I took the time to actually try to write something...”

  He's gotten so close that one more step would have us pressed against each other. His breath is warm on my face, the mist from it floating around my cheeks.

  “Warren...” I whisper.

  “What?”

  “It's not worth being upset about.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  I don't know how long we stand there, our eyes locked together and the rest of the world nothing but a curious blur on the edge of my notice.

  “Michaela!” the instructor calls, walking briskly in our direction. “Mr. Atherton wants to see you.”

  My mouth twists. “Someone defames me, and I'm the one getting called to the principal's office.”


  “Are you going to tell him who did it?” Warren wants to know.

  “Probably not.”

  He follows me as I start toward the building. “Why?”

  “I'm not bothered enough to care if she's punished.” I shrug. “I'd rather have something to blackmail her with.”

  “You're going to blackmail this person with the threat of telling Mr. Atherton who she is?” I'm not sure, but I think there may be some admiration in his tone.