Eyes of the Wolf

21
“How’s everything going over there?”

“It’s going okay,” Niko replied.

“Has Nicole told anybody?”

“Yeah.” For what he was confirming, I was surprised his tone sounded so calm.

“What’s happening?”

“I’m getting lectured, and people are wondering what to do about you.” When I didn’t immediately respond, he said firmly, “Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promise.”

“So is that all?”

“Just about. The worst part about it is Roger breathing down my neck all the time, ‘cause he told me that I would let it slip. It’s okay. He knows whose fault this is, and it’s not mine.” He sighed. “I just wish James would stop encouraging him. It’s bad enough that my parents and sister are harassing me about it, but I don’t need Mr. Do-good tailing me like…like some kind of SHEEP-DOG.” He seemed to be directing that last comment at somebody I couldn’t see. Kinda obvious with the pronounced enunciation in his last word. I shifted the phone to my other ear and directed my snake to my other hand. Tail’s scales were smooth against my hand, and she felt like some kind of thin plastic slithering between my fingers. She loved my hands. My fingers were pretty long, so they were like branches she could…is “climb” an appropriate word? I listened patiently as Niko argued with who I assumed was Roger.

He must be a wolf too, I thought. Wonder what color he is? It’s probably not his hair color—if it was, then why would Niko be silver, when his hair was black?

“Hey Niko?”

“Yeah?” I could hear someone far from the phone yelling, but Niko was ignoring him now.

“Your parents are wolves too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So why does every werewolf story say that you have to be bitten?”

There was a pause, and I heard a door slam. Then Niko said patiently, “Some do. Most of our pack was born, but some of us joined after they had been almost killed by a stray.”

“Almost killed?” That sounded really gruesome. “How do they keep going if they’re almost dead?”

“We heal pretty quickly. Since a wolf generally attacks with its teeth, it gets whatever changes the human all over it, and in its bloodstream. They heal really well from it, and the only way you can tell they were bitten is that they have white mixed in with their fur. And they’re a bit more aggressive. They just don’t have the control we do.”

That’s kinda harsh, I thought.

“Ah well. At least they still aren’t ashamed of their being wolves,” Niko continued, ignorant of my reaction. “Some can’t even manage that much when they were born this way.”

Was that still aimed at somebody I couldn’t see?

And who would be ashamed of being a werewolf? To be able to shift into
something so beautiful…I couldn’t understand it. If it wasn’t for the almost being killed part…

“To become a wolf, do you have to be on the brink of death?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t make sense, does it? But every time we’ve tried just biting a human, they get sick and die. It makes no sense. But that’s the price you pay, huh? But it really sucks that you can’t even have the full control over it. But some do. Our Alpha was bitten, and he’s the strongest in the pack. The only problem with him is his bloodlines.”

He paused again. Nothing sounded this time. Was the door slamming earlier from someone leaving, or someone coming in? Niko sighed dramatically.

“I guess he can’t help that.” Suddenly he stopped, and there was complete
silence from his end. The lack of sound stretched for several solid minutes, and I leaned forward to strain for some noise of any kind. My pulse raced like a mouse’s, until finally sound came to the phone again, but it wasn’t from who I expected. A quiet voice said into the phone, “The Alpha wishes to speak to you. Can you come here now?”

This wasn’t a mouse’s pulse. This was a mouse having a heart attack. I opened my mouth, but felt instinctively that lying would probably be unintelligent…and possibly fatal.

“Lemme…Let me ask my father.”

:o3

In my baggy jeans and a medium-fitting shirt, I pulled my running shoes on and
slid my phone in my pocket.

“Be back in a bit, ‘kay Dad?”

“Alright.” He stroked Iago’s green and yellow feathers. On impulse, I trotted over to him and pecked him on the cheek. “I love you.”

I felt his suspicious stare on my back all the way to the door.

Once out of view of the front window, I picked up a jog and went for the trees. While earlier their rustling was threaded with anticipation and a sort of trust, this time it was like a snowless Narnian winter, where everything could see me, report me. Every animal that sprinted for cover was a wolf with slavering jaws and bared fangs, waiting for me to deviate from the path to their den, where their leader would rip me asunder like a gruesome piñata. This trip was more like my first, where I tripped on roots and fell on my hands until they bled from one big, palm sized scab. One that still hadn’t healed. The stars gleamed overhead like watching eyes, spies glittering over me. My father would be worried.

I felt tears prick at my eyes. Would I see him again? Or would he hear of how his daughter was found in chunks smaller than those in hamburger meat? I tripped again.

A gold wolf waited at the edge of their homes. He was shorter than the other two adults I had met, and seemed, somehow, even gentler than Niko had earlier that day. I didn’t recognize him until I saw his eyes, a bright green. When I got close he walked up to me, tail waving feebly behind him, and I walked up to him, realizing that he must be some kind of guide. He sniffed at my clothes, and then looked at my face.

*Niko is okay,* rang in my head, and I jumped. I had forgotten that he could do that. His body wrapped once around my legs, hips, and back before he came to a comic sort of heel at my left. The difference between him and Jazz’s showdog Belle was almost laughable. Belatedly, I remembered Niko, and immediately felt selfish and guilty. It hadn’t once occurred to me that he might be in danger too. But I felt slightly more at ease due to my companion’s reassurance.

“Thank you,” I whispered, ashamed of my cracking voice. He glanced up at me, his ears popping up briefly before returning to the back of his neck, and he nosed me under the left ear. Unsure of whether that was another kind of comfort, or something inappropriate, I didn’t remark on it. We walked to the village in silence.

We weren’t the only ones on mute. No wolves or people were moving about in front of their houses. It wasn’t until we rounded the corner of one of the houses that I saw what must have been the entire pack, almost all of them in wolf form, looking at me. What must have been fifty or sixty blue eyes were all focused on me, and it was like all of their owners were on point. I knew who prey was. A few growled, but some just dropped to their stomachs and looked bored. But they still watched.

We walked through the middle of them. Niko, Nicole, and Roger stood with James in the middle. It looked like Niko’s hackles were up, and Roger didn’t seem to be in much better condition. But it seemed they were less wary of me or their packmates than they were of each other. Nicole looked like, above all, she would find immense pleasure in spitting on me. When we reached them, Niko glanced once at Roger before walking to me, the jingling on his collar acting like soothing music. He took my hand and kissed my forehead before standing at my side, glaring the gold wolf away from me until it walked to James. Niko squeezed my hand once, looking defiant, but still conveying, wordless this time, that he would not let them hurt me. Or at least, I amended to myself, not without giving them a heck of a fight. Concern made up for its earlier absence, and I gripped his hand hard in return.

*The other wolves are not here to pass judgment,* the gold wolf told me from James’s side. *They just came to see what the fuss is about.*

I wasn’t reassured.

“Maya,” said James gently, and inflections laid over more inflections mixed enough tone into my name that I was expected to go to him, but that he would not hurt me; he was my friend. Niko gave my hand a last squeeze before I pulled away and went to the Alpha.

James loomed over me, but somehow I was not intimidated. His hand rested between my shoulder blades—more of acting like a shawl to all of my shoulder blades—and he led me inside, with the three others in human form following behind, and the gold wolf acting as caboose. The door closed behind us, and James gestured to a chair.

“Sit,” he offered, and tentatively I sat. Niko, Nicole, and Roger sat on the couch, and the wolf sat at the Alpha’s right.

“So, young lady,” he began. His blue eyes caught mine, and held them like hostages. Despite the still-gentle tone, he exuded sudden intensity. “How dangerous are you to my pack?”

I blinked. “I am not dangerous,” I said quickly. “How dangerous could I be? Any one of you could…could…outmatch me. Like a rabbit.”

“Yes,” he agreed, as Niko bristled at my words, “but, like all humans, like all rabbits, you can be difficult to catch. Unlike rabbits, though, you possess a considerable bite. Not literally,” he amended, amused at my incredulous expression. “A human can expose us.”

“Expose…? You think I would tell?” I shook my head quickly. “I wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Why…?” I stopped. Why wouldn’t I? I didn’t know. I just…I wouldn’t. Now that I thought about it, there were many reasons. Not the least of which was that I would quite quickly be considered crazy. However, even without that, I realized, I wouldn’t speak because it was their secret. Not mine. I would honor that.

*Answer wisely.*

“It’s not my secret to tell,” I said. When James said nothing, I elaborated, “I was trusted to know of this without telling anybody. It’s a secret. I’ve never broken that kind of trust.”

James surveyed me appraisingly. He could probably hear my heart pounding. Would he think it was because I was lying, or would he correctly realize that I was just honestly scared for my life?

“What do you think?”

Nicole opened her mouth, but Niko cut her off. “The others don’t know her like I do, sir. Quill does not trust her because she is human, and only because she is human.”

James didn’t respond. He looked to Roger, who met his gaze for a few seconds before looking away again, and then looked to the wolf at his side. Then he looked to me.

“You will be trusted with our secrets,” he informed me gravely. “But know that if we are betrayed, there will be a price.”

I nodded, then worked through the frog in my throat to say, “I understand.”

He inclined his head. “Then we are done here.”