Eyes of the Wolf

29

My father didn’t seem intent on asking me any questions when I got home. This boded ill, I thought, so I made a point of making him dinner. We had tortellini with alfredo sauce. Afterwards we played old Mario games on the old Nintendo, which he won as Luigi, and got all the way to world seven before he died. I couldn’t get past the swirly sky castle thing, and the only reason I had gotten that far was my warp flute thingy.

“So you been okay, Maya?” he asked me, leaning back in his rocking chair. “You scared me a bit this morning.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just…things aren’t going too well with Niko, is all.”

“Does he hurt you?”

Why did everybody ask me that? “No, he doesn’t hurt me. He’s reckless, but he’s never hit me.”

“You don’t have to keep dating him if you don’t want to.” When I looked my father in the face, I could detect no smugness, no “I told you so.” It was just advice, from a dad that cared for me very much, even though he had never asked for me. I snuggled against his side and rested my head on his bicep.

“Having a boyfriend is crazy stuff, Dad.”

“I know it.”

I grinned up at him. “A boyfriend?” I teased. He laughed.

“No, but I think there are difficulties on both sides.”

“How do I break up with him, Dad?”

He was quiet for a moment after this. “That’s something you have to decide, Maya,” he finally replied. “Communication will work the best though.”

I wanted to give him a smart-alecky comment to that too, but I knew too well what he meant. My dad and I parted on good terms for the night, but I felt guilty as I picked up my phone. Niko had gone through so much to protect me, and I wanted to break up with him. Should I do it now, or wait?

The decision was a difficult one, and one I decided to postpone. I plugged my phone into its charger. Best to wait and know than get it over with and regret it later.

:o3

“She returns,” Drake commented as I sat with him and Chris. “Did you study for finals yesterday, or did you stay home and cling to the floor of your house, thankful to be alive?”

“Huh?” I looked to Chris, who was glaring ice spears at him. I assumed they hadn’t fully repaired their odd friendship yet.

“She got home just fine,” she spat across the table. Drake’s eyebrows bounced up once and came back down again within a second, and it seemed only to infuriate her more.

“C’mon, Maya,” she said, gripping my upper arm and standing. “We’ll leave him here and he can be superior by himself.”

“I’m not done eating,” I protested levelly.

“If you eat that you’ll get sick anyway. Let’s go.”

“Chris, settle.”

“Maya…” She was on the verge of one hell of a hissy fit, I could see. She wheeled, apparently content to leave me behind if I was going to be difficult, and then froze. I glanced up at her, and then followed her line of sight. Outside the cafeteria, in the parking lot, was a familiar dirty blond werewolf boy.

“What the hell’s he doing here?” she said. I got up.

“Let’s go, Chris. He can be superior by himself,” I said soothingly. She turned a bewildered look on me before craning her head around until it faced Drake, who seemed just as confused by my change of heart as she was by the presence of one of Niko’s pack. Not that she would think of it that way, I corrected myself.

I turned an apologetic look to Drake, who just raised his eyebrows and shook his head at his lunch tray. Poor guy.

“What’s he doing here?” Chris hissed in my ear.

“I don’t know.” We threw away our Styrofoam trays.

“Is he sending messages now?”

“Adam?”

“Niko, you idiot.”

“Not that I know of.”

We reached the door and went through under the watchful eyes of one of the yard duties. I was pretty certain that they didn’t know the student body well enough to know that Adam was not one of the students, and therefore not welcome. I was trying to decide if that was a good thing or not.

“Maya.” Didn’t he ever say hello? He glanced at Chris.

“Can you gimme a sec?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes theatrically and went over to a bench several yards away.

“You need to be very careful,” he told me, his voice low and quiet.

“I knew that.” I couldn’t help snapping a bit—I was working hard enough hiding the limp, and Chris had been demanding an answer to why I wasn’t wearing my new shoes anymore. I wasn’t planning to tell her that one of them had been shredded by a giant wolf, and my foot along with it.

“The wolves are still looking for you, even though James ran them off yesterday.”

“Why are they looking for me?”

He hesitated. “Not all wolves are very keen on having a human hanging around.”

“I got that much already.”

“It’s a really long story. James is more able to tell you why, much better than me.”

“Can’t you tell me a bit? I have a right to know.” As he leaned against the hood of a Tahoe, I probed, “Why are you here at my school anyway?”

“Your phone was off.”

“It’s always off at school.”

“That’s not my problem. You asked why I’m here, and I told you.” He gave me a gaze that I was sure was meant to subdue me a bit, but it only managed to get me more irritated. “I’m telling you to be careful now, because they might have gotten to your home already.”

“What?” At my home already… “What about my dad?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is he in danger?”

“I don’t know.”

I glared. Panic was beginning to set in, and I was half ready to demand that Chris drive me home. But then she would be in danger too…

When had Adam’s hand gone to my shoulder? I looked down at it, then glanced up at him. I wasn’t against its being there at the moment, though; I had a strong feeling that it was all that was holding me upright right then.

“I’ll see if James can get somebody to guard the house.”

“The woods are right across the street,” I murmured, staring without focusing at one of his shirt buttons. “It would be pretty easy for somebody to hide in there.”

“Probably,” he said gently. It occurred to me that he had most likely already figured as much. God, he was one of the wolves—No duh he would figure that out.

“Do you have a ride home?”

“Chris’ll probably take me.”

“The girl with blue hair?”

I nodded. He hesitated.

“I’ll see if one of the wolves can pick you up. I don’t want any humans involved.”

“There are humans involved,” I reminded him. He sighed.

“Yes, and they’re both in a lot of danger. Bad enough that one of them is completely innocent. Are you allowed to leave with somebody that’s not family?”

“Leave school?” He nodded. “I’m eighteen. They assume that I drive myself.”

“Okay.” He turned to leave.

“Why can’t my dad come pick me up?”

He looked back at me. “Didn’t you want the reason they want to kill you?”

I bit my lip. “Yes.”

“One of the pack will pick you up.”

:o3

It turned out that I didn’t just get a pack member. I got James. He showed up driving a huge dually pickup. I had worried that I wouldn’t recognize the person they sent.

Well, no need for the worry, I guess.

He had to lean across the front seat to help me in—even with the little step under the front door, I was still having trouble. The alpha seemed to have no problem or impatience with having to help me lean out and close the door without falling. Still, the aid he had to provide had me blushing.

We pulled out of the parking lot in silence. He was a smooth driver, and even with the usual frustrations a high school parking lot will inspire in more experienced people, he was alert to almost everything. He didn’t seem as violent and hot-tempered as a pack alpha should be, I thought.

“How are you feeling?” he inquired conversationally.

“Fine,” I answered.

“I know your foot was hurt, and you had a hard landing yesterday. Are they healing well?”

“They’re still a bit sore, I guess.”

“There are three wolves in charge of guarding your father and you. I’m sure you will know them when you see them. They’re trustworthy, and plenty strong enough to hold off a couple of wolves. If they are outnumbered, one of them will be able to come and get pack help, and they are also within hearing distance.”

“That’s good,” I said, more to fill space than anything.

There was silence for a mile or so.

“The wolves after you are from a nomad pack,” he finally began. “They learned to distrust humans from their alpha and his mate. Several years ago, a woman took an alpha of ours into custody, under the reasoning that the people hiring her needed to know if the human wolves were truly dangerous or not.” He paused, slowing at a yellow light. “Back then, all the packs were united under one alpha, to help keep everybody informed of what was going on all over the continent. If there was a rogue wolf, all the packs would know, and he could be dealt with. It was this alpha that the woman got ahold of, an extremely dominant wolf named Leaf.

“Somehow, during his stay in some government cell, she earned his trust, and when his pack came to help him escape, he changed her. She became Frost, his mate, and the alpha-bitch of the continent. Angered at his choice to harbor one who was such a danger to the packs, several sub-alphas split from Leaf’s control.”

He paused again.

“She wasn’t very loyal to him. Even she called him the traitor, as many packs did. He trusted humans, and she believed that humans would forever be a danger to wolves. She taught her pack this mentality under the nose of her mate, and she and a group of followers would travel and check up on packs, making sure that they didn’t have humans with them. Any human they found in the company of a wolf pack was killed.”

“Why not change humans?” I queried.

“She didn’t believe those who got friendly with wolves were trustworthy, even if they were made to be wolves themselves.”

“But wasn’t she?”

“Yes, and she held everybody to her standard. She was mad,” he added simply. “But she had enough power that she still got away with these inspections. She even came to packs that had broken off from Leaf.

“He eventually found out what she was up to, and tried to stop her. The wolves beneath her turned on him, and killed him. Many more packs broke away from their power. Her pack's territory was confiscated, leaving them to wander like rogues. There are many, though, that still follow her.”

“Who do you support?” I asked, then felt myself blush. The question had come out before I had really figured out how I wanted to phrase it.

I almost believed he wouldn’t answer. He was silent for another mile or so.

“I believe,” he said, making me look away from the window, “that some humans can be trusted. I do not believe that any human should be killed instantly for associating with the packs. We are part human ourselves; what right do we have to cast ourselves away from them?” He glanced at me and smiled. “Obviously some of us can still get along just fine.”

“I still haven’t told anyone,” I threw out there.

“I believe you.”

We travelled in silence for another several minutes. I could see trees.

“Is the mindset different between bitten and born werewolves?” I wondered aloud.

“Perhaps,” said James. “It used to surprise me that other bitten wolves were so fearful of humans. I think they believe that they are much more different than they once were, as humans. They fear that their personality is so changed that they would be noticed. The world they knew is much more alien.”

“Is that how you felt?”

“Perhaps. I made the effort to stay in my old life at first. Apparently wolves don’t do that, not usually.” He turned into my neighborhood. “I haven’t regretted it, though sometimes I wonder at the repercussions left behind. How it affects…those who were involved. But I am happy now. I am glad I was changed.”

I saw a glimpse of silver in the trees.

“Those born as wolves, I think, have the potential to be much more open to human interaction. They have no real experience in the human world, so they are not as afraid of mingling in it. Being in contact with it. It’s both good and bad, I suppose. Being so naïve as to how their world works.”

He pulled over at the grass opposite my house. A figure in baggy gym shorts emerged on the other side of the fence.

“Niko?” I called, opening the door. He grinned, and I noticed that the slices all over his throat had healed to pink lines. He hopped the fence easily and scooped me out of the car. My hands scrabbled over his shoulders for a handhold, a task made difficult by his lack of a shirt.

“I’m on guard duty,” he said to me, closing the truck door with a shove of his other shoulder.

“Aren’t you still healing?”

“I’m already healed. If any of those wolves come here, they won’t recover so easily.” His smiling as he said this sent unpleasant jitters up my spine. Usually such big talk wouldn’t bother me, but I knew that Niko meant exactly what he said.

“Paint, have you forgotten that her father is home, across the street?” growled a voice from the other side of the fence. Roger stood with his arms crossed in front of him, a scowl carved plainly onto his face. “He’s not supposed to know we’re here.”

“I know, I know, shut up, Roger.” I saw Roger stiffen visibly at the name as Niko put his nose to my temple. “Were you worried?” It didn’t sound teasing. I couldn’t place the tone exactly.

“About you?”

“What else?”

“I was worried.”

He dropped his nose to my shoulder. I felt his body tense.

“Niko, she needs to get home,” James reminded him sternly. I wondered what on earth Niko’s problem was. He seemed to be in the same mood he had been in when he had sent me home the day before.

*He’s territorial,* came a familiar voice in my head. I saw the gold shadow sitting amongst the trees. *He smells other males on you, and it makes him cranky.*

Niko followed my line of sight. I saw his upper lip twitch, and the gold wolf dropped to his belly and rolled onto his side.

“Niko, settle,” I whispered. He glanced at me, seemingly undecided as to whether his attention should be on me or the other wolf. “Niko,” I warned. He huffed and put me down.

“Go ahead and get inside,” he directed me. I cast him a skeptical look.

“Don’t cause problems. We need to protect her, not kill each other,” I heard Roger snarl at him.

“Shut up, Mr. Rogers,” Niko growled back, making sure to emphasize the latter half of the command. I heard more growling as I went inside, and hoped that my father and I really were safe.