My Best Friend's Werewolf

27 Karma?

As I'm walking up the porch Eliza is still sitting on the swing. Silently I take a seat beside her. "Hey."

    She doesn't move. "How was your walk?"

    "I ran into Xavier."

    Her eyes look over me. "You're in one piece."

    "That doesn't prove anything."

    Her nostrils flare. "Why won't you just give him a chance?"

    "Why won't you think about your family?"

    "Because my family didn't think about me."

    I grab the decorative pillow next to me and dig my nails into it. "They're freaking out about you."

    "What about when I was little? They lost me for ten years. They could have prevented that but they didn't. You know it."

    Eliza's parents used to be criminals. They did time in jail and were drug addicts. After Eliza was born, her dad got her mom hooked. The state took Eliza and a family from our church raised her for ten years, until her parents were given custody again. That family moved away a few years ago. My mom taught Eliza during that time. That's why we're friends.

    "They changed for you."

    "It doesn't change the fact that I'm still made fun of for their sins. Told I'm going to be like them. You know how many sports and programs I've tried. Their past always catches up to me. But here it's a clean slate. No one knows about any of that. I may not be werewolf like them, but I feel accepted. Don't you want that for me?"

    I chew on the inside of my mouth. I do want that for her, but not here, not when a sociopath is feeding her lies so she'll stay with him. This doesn't only affect her. I want to meet my baby bother when he's born. Is that selfish? "I don't ever think like that about you. Neither do my parents. Or all the families at church who saw you grow up. Isn't that enough? Isn't even the love of one person enough?

    She shakes her head. "They still know."

    Howls and barks ring through our ears. Down the driveway races two wolves. We stand up as they bound up the steps.

    One shifts into a naked Xavier. "Lupraus. Inside."

    Eliza grabs my hand and drags me in the house. "Our room." As we're rushing toward the stairs, Xavier snatches Eliza dragging her away from me.

    Glass shatters from all the windows, reminding me of a horror ride in Orlando I went on last summer, causing me to scream out of reflex; wolves soar through the windows as they break the glass. A broom closet is a few feet to my left and I run for it only to feel claws running down the front of me as a black wolf tackles me to the ground. It bares it's teeth about to kill me, I'm sure.

    An image of the other black wolf from the woods in this same position flashes in my mind. I don't think I'll get out of this twice.

    Blue eyes stare into mine as its snout grows closer to my neck. Something twitches in me—my nerves snapping.

    As I wait for the wolf to kill me something uncomfortable happens. Claws become fingers. Fur recedes to skin. The snout draws back to a human face the eyes the same ones that were a part of the wolf. The only other trace of the wolf is the black hair that this very naked male who's lying on top of me has on the top of his head.

    "I'm your mate, " he whispers. Oh— I catch my brain. I better watch it, or soon I'll be swearing like a sailor in my head.

    I swallow. "Uhh. . . hi."