Masked SheWolf (MSW book 1)

Chapter 9 - Michael

JUNE 2022 UPDATE: Go read "Lucy", a spinoff of the Masked SheWolf trilogy, now updating on Wattpad, and its "Behind the Scenes" companion book that includes character profiles and a complete recap of the trilogy, as told by the characters in interview format.

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The next morning at breakfast, the parental units are informed of last night's run-in with the wolves. Their reactions are exactly as to be expected; alarmed and anxious. When Dad is usually like this, he is a very bad listener, so it's a struggle to calm him down and slowly explain everything that happened.

"Are you sure they didn't suspect a thing?" Dad checks, after we've assured him over and over again that we're safe.

"Yes, Dad," I repeat patiently. "I'm sure."

"I'm just checking," Dad says. "Alpha Underwood is anything but dumb. It's easy for him to catch on. We have to be more careful than usual."

This seemed a bit hard to process. I mean, how much more precautions can we take? We already limit our contact to people outside the family, we barely go out without one of our own, and even in our home, I am treated like a boy most of the time and expected to behave like one no matter who is around. If anybody was listening in on our conversation right now, they still wouldn't be able to know that I'm a girl, because we never acknowledge it out loud. They'd just think we're hiding something.

"What else can we do?" Daniel voices my thoughts, sounding as confused as I feel.

"We can't have them suspect anything," Dad tells us. "At the moment, we can get away with the excuse that we're still not used to each other, but that won't be good enough after a while. At the very least, you boys will have to be civil. It might even be good that you form ties with them, though of course, not deep enough to reveal secrets."

My brothers and I stare at each other to make sure we all understood the same thing. By their expressions, I'm guessing we did.

"So... you want us to be friends with them, but not bestfriends?" Danny asks, a hint of sarcasm seeping through his voice.

Dad catches his incredulousness and frowns at him. "There's no need to use that tone," he says. "You boys know very well what we would have to do if we can't coexist with the Silver Moon Pack. This is theirland, not ours. We'd have to leave. Your mother and I are already looking into unclaimed territories in case we have to take off on short notice."

The news is more of a shock than it should be. My dad always plans ahead with everything, and it's really no surprise that he would have an emergency escape plan. But it's still astonishing that he would uproot us so... easily; like it's no big deal, when in fact all of us have loved living here since we moved.

Out of the five of us, Connor is probably the only one with some faint memories of our family's life before I came in the picture. But after that, keeping my gender secret became a priority for them. He was six years old when my parents left the Redwood Pack. But he still always gives the impression that he loves living here more than anything.

"Dad, we can't just leave," I try to object. "Our whole life is here."

He gives me a pointed look. "Which part of it? Your friends? Your relatives? Your hometown?"

I wince at the reminder. Daniel and I may have been the only ones to have been born here, –right in this very house in fact– but it still feels like our hometown. When it comes to relatives, Mom and Dad are the only ones we have. They never even talk about the rest of their immediate family members. As for friends, we don't have any real ones other than each other because of this very reason; at any moment, Dad might make us all move.