His Soft Fur
● XXIV ●

My dad was taking me to school. I can’t drive at all anymore. I was grounded before, but now I’m never allowed to go anywhere. I sort of understood that without needing to be told. My parents haven’t talked to me about it yet, but I know they’re going to.

“Can I go to work with you today?” I asked him.

“You haven’t asked that since you were six.” He said, and was slightly amused by my question.

“I don’t want to go to school today.” I admitted.

I still felt a little out of it. But I just didn’t want to go.

“You wanted to yesterday.” I didn’t say anything as I played with my fingers. It was quiet between us for a second. Then my dad spoke. “You’re not...being bullied, are you?”

“No, it’s not that.” I sighed. “Everyone’s just going to talk about all the deforestation and ‘fight the power’ and I’m over it now.” I explained to him.

“Looks like you got the determination knocked out of you.” He laughed, but I didn’t. “Too soon?” He glanced at me.

“Can I go to the library?” I asked instead.

“You can go to school.” He said. “And then when school is over, you can come home.” That was his segway into the “you’re grounded for life” conversation. I deserve it.

“I can get a ride home.”

“With your mom.”

That’s it. My life is over. I knew this was happening. I looked out the window quietly and tried to enjoy the low stress. Once I get to school, I know what comments will start happening.

Mom picked me up from school. She hasn’t done that ever since I started driving so she was excited. She asked me about my day and all that other stuff she does at home. Then we went out to eat which was a nice thing to do.

I didn’t want to tell her about what’s been happening lately.

Not the secrets about the wolves, but how everyone is stressed about the protests and all that. I’m just seventeen. I don’t know if I want to live the life of constant protests and all that. I mean, I think Conrod will get his way and that’s it. All the tourists will show up and we become a huge city.

I don’t want to say I gave up, but I’m just tired.

I want to spend time with Ty without worrying that something will happen.

Mom let me sit outside for a while. It started snowing again today. It doesn’t look like it will be bad but the weather changes a lot.

All the wolves came by, the white one running over to me to rub against me. He was much happier than the rest to see me outside. I know they were just passing through, but it was nice to see them.

Two of them rushed up to me when they saw the treatment the white wolf was getting. The other two were sand colored, and they were quick to push the white wolf out of the way to get to me.

The twins don’t need to jump for attention.

Another one tried to push his way in between. He was the smallest of the group, and was a lighter grey. As small as he was, he was still a big animal.

I can’t have all of them crowd around me. The doorway wasn’t that big.

“You guys are crazy.” I couldn’t shield myself from all the fur. They continued to fight with each other to get to me.

The others were laying in the yard. Well, the black wolf was sitting patiently. The pale pink wolf beside him was laying down, his eyes closed.

I pushed on one of the wolves to get him to back away from me so I could breathe. One of them had his head on my lap, and the other did his best to squeeze next to me.

The white wolf was just watching since he got shoved out of the way by his brothers.

I think Channing would kill me if I suggested giving them collars. I liked the idea though. I would love to keep them as pets.

My dad would never let me bring wolves into the house.

Just as I thought about my dad I saw his car turn into the driveway. If I wasn’t in trouble before, I was now.

He was out of his car in seconds. “Gabriel!”

“Dad, I’m fine.” I tried to tell him but he stayed by his car, a little stunned because there were eight wolves in the yard, four of them close to me. “They won’t bite.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He didn’t believe me.

“You can pet one-”

“I’m not touching them.” He said as he took slow steps over to me. The others began moving out of the way so he could walk up to the steps.

The pale pink wolf got up and stood next to the black one.

All of a sudden, he howled.

The other wolves turned to him quickly and they were dead silent. I don’t know what happened, but it seemed like all their hairs were standing on edge.

“Really?” Dad stopped walking to turn to the pack of wolves. “In broad daylight.”

“They’re nice.”

“Get inside.” He looked at me sharply. “I’m tired of you playing with animals and bringing them here.” He said as he walked by me to go inside. “Like the raccoon incident all over again.” He mumbled but I heard him.

“I don’t bring things home anymore.”

He turned to point at the wolves that had piled up on one of them. The pale pink wolf was being smothered by his brothers. Except the black wolf who wasn’t watching.

I followed my dad inside the house and closed the door behind me. The wolves were still making a fuss outside, but I couldn’t stay to watch.

“You have got to stop being nice to those animals, they will continue to come back here.” Dad complained as he put his stuff down. “I don’t want to keep seeing them in my yard.”

“They’re friendly. That’s why they come over so much.”

“Knowing you, you’d bring them in the house.” He said.

He isn’t wrong. I would try to bring them in the house, but knowing him he wouldn’t let me.

I considered telling my dad about the wolves before, how the Martin brothers are special and can turn into the wolves that everyone is seeing around. I almost told him, too. It’s not my secret, and I shouldn’t say anything.

But lately, I’ve been more than just tired of everything. I feel a weight on my shoulders but I shouldn’t feel like that.

This isn’t my secret.

But knowing what I know does stress me out.

“So, uh...” I started quietly. “There’s another protest tomorrow.” I wanted to put that out there as my excuse to go outside.

“You probably have other things to worry about.” He didn’t seem to care that I wanted to go outside. It’s because he knows how this conversation will end.

“I was thinking that-”

“You could stay home and do your homework? I was thinking that, too.” He said.

I wanted to groan and go ask mom but she wasn’t going to say yes either.

I heard everyone at school talking about another protest and pissing off the construction workers. That might stall them but it wasn’t going to do anything. They just said they were going to make it fun this time so I can expect some... shenanigans to go on, as my dad would say when he’s especially annoyed.

“I’ll be in my room.” I said quietly.

“Great choice.” Dad told me as I left.

I’m going to be stuck in this house for the next year and a half. I’m going to go insane. I don’t like being inside. I want to be anywhere but inside the house. I wasn’t raised like this!

I went up to my room and closed the door quietly behind me. When I turned, I saw Ty sitting in my chair. I covered my mouth quickly when I heard myself about to shout from being surprised.

He can’t do that!

“Did you sneak into my room?” I asked abruptly, whisper yelling as I went over to him.

“You left the basement door unlocked-”

“What if my parents had seen you?” I panicked and hit his arm. “I’m already in trouble, you could make it worse.”

“I had to tell you what just happened.” He was smiling.

He never gets that excited. He was laughing even before he could tell me, so this was going to be good.

“Don’t be mad.” He started, trying to stop laughing. Why would I be mad if he’s laughing about it? “Brendan has feelings for your dad.” He said.

I drew back as I let that sink in.

“You mean like-”

“Yeah.”

I covered my mouth. That’s what all the howling was about. Brendan found his one. And it’s my dad! I didn’t want to laugh, but I thought of all the torment that Brendan was going to get from me because I know this, and it’s going to be amazing.

“My dad isn’t a dog person.”

“That’s what makes it funnier.” He laughed.

I haven’t seen Ty smile this much ever. He was laughing, too. And to say he isn’t a happy person was a lot. But he’s always so nonchalant about things that seeing him laugh this hard can be exciting. I was laughing because he was laughing.

Also because Brendan wants to be my dad’s wolf. That will never get old.

Ty tried to stay over. There was that one time my dad came in my room so I had to push Ty off my bed, but after that we were in the clear for the night.

We just kept quiet.

He was reading a book, and I laid next to him because I was cold.

“My brothers are coming home.” Ty said.

“Your older brothers?” I looked up. “They’re really coming?”

“Well, it’s almost break. And then my oldest brother wants to make sure my parents aren’t really going through what we think they’re going through.” He explained.

“I always thought of Channing as the oldest.” It’s going to be hard to see him as the little brother.

“Everyone says that.” Ty said. “Even when the others were home, they thought Channing was the oldest. He just doesn’t like being babied.”

“I feel like he grew up too fast.”

“He’s leading a pack of werewolves.” Ty closed his book. “He definitely had to grow up for that one.”

“He’s always been that type though. The silent but can lead a whole army kind of person.”

“Believe me. I know.” Ty agreed with me.

“It must get tiring to take care of all of you.” I will always feel bad for Channing. He always has a plan for everything.

But with what’s happened and him leading his brothers, he’s had to change plans. He doesn’t deserve this, neither do his brothers.

“Conrod found him at the library.” Ty mentioned to me for the first time. “Apparently, Conrod has been losing a lot of money lately.”

I snorted at the comment. It’s nice to know something is working. “Did he want to reason with Channing?”

“Actually, yes.” Ty was surprised just as much as I was with his answer. “He didn’t beg or anything, though that’s what Cina told me. Conrod tried to buy us out.”

“He knows things but can’t say anything.”

“And as long as we still turn into wolves, Channing won’t want anything except for him to stop.” Ty said.

I sat up in bed and pushed my hair back as I looked down at Ty.

“So this is a good thing.” I was happy. “Conrod might actually back off.”

“I guess.” Ty shrugged. “I mean, he has other projects he’s going to start on.”

“All the protesting is working so it means we can handle it.” I was actually excited. Who knew that a pack of wolves and a group of self righteous kids could make a difference.

Granted, I’ve had two accidents trying to snoop around and do things I’m not supposed to but I thought this was great.

“I can’t believe you’re that happy about this.” He said as he looked up at me.

“You’re still having fevers, Ty. Soon that will calm down, too.”

He agreed with that one because I’m right. He has a fever right now because the temperature dropped. I bet Jackie can’t sleep, Cina’s probably anxious, Brendan can’t move without getting dizzy, and the twins are clutching each other. We all know Channing’s not going to sleep because of the night terrors. It gets worse when the weather gets worse.

Once their problems stop, I’m sure the weather might not hinder them as much. They won’t be forced to shift.

I was happy.

“Come on.” I shook him. “You were actually smiling today.”

“Yeah, because after all that teasing and mocking, Brendan’s about to go through what I went through.” He opened up his book again. “He deserves it, too, after the things he’s said to me.”

“He’s not going to...try to break my parents up, will he?”

Ty looked up towards me again but this time he didn’t have an answer to my question. It seems like one of those we’re going to have to wait and see type of thing. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

“We’ll come back to that.” I said when Ty didn’t answer me.

I went to turn off the lights in my room and got into bed next to him. He still wanted to read but I put his book away because we both need to sleep. He’s tired and I’m tired.

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