Sharks and Wolves

Digging is What We Wolves Do Best. What's in Your Closet?

Ryan's ears perked. "Northerners tend to articulate their vowels," he said, sounding hopeful that we might be right. "We might actually be dealing with a Schaefer relative..." He face drained again and he collapsed onto his lawn chair.

"What did she look like?" Brody asked.

"Uh," I took a moment to remember her image, "long brown hair," I began to call off. "It looked natural, too. It was medium brown, like it had black and gold mixed into it. Many natural highlights..." I sighed, thinking about the gorgeous color. I could imagine combing my hands in her long, luscious hair. "Amazing green eyes, too, like a deep green, almost moss colored. She was mild skinned, not too white and not too dark. She was about this tall," I motioned my hand at elbow level. "She was on the shorter level. 5'4 without heels I guess."

"Leroy had blond hair with blue eyes, so did his wife, Marge or something like that. Neither of them carried brown or green eyes. Maybe one of his sons married a woman who did. I'll have that checked out. He had three sons, Leroy Junior, Daniel, and Craig. I bet one of them could be Kayla's father, if she really is related. We need to be cautious about this." He ordered, eyeing all of this. "I'll talk to the elders about this, listen to their insight, and send someone out to do some investigating on the family." He paused while he kicked glass shards away from his feet. "So aside from Kayla's origins, Emma really hired an attorney?"

"I know. It surprised us, too." Derek replied. "What's an attorney going to do? It serves no relevance to our traditions. She's going to drag us into court for nothing. It's going to get so complicated. What are we supposed to tell the judge? He or she won't understand werewolf traditions! We need to settle it in our own way."

"The problem is," Brody mused, "is how to get Emma on the same page. She's set on keeping your child away from you."

"She has no right," Ryan peeved, enclosing his hands into tight fist until his knuckles turned white. "Carly is rightfully ours!"

"Caley," Derek and I corrected.

Ryan shook it off. "Caley is a part of this pack, she's our blood. Just because Emma left doesn't mean she can take off with another member, especially our next-on-line. That's kidnapping! Caley belongs with us!"

"Whoa boys," suddenly a female intervened. She opened the screen door, broom in hand and started to sweep the glass shards into a small pile while finishing her thoughts. "She left on her own accord, with the elder's 'blessings'. The environment was way too hostile for her," she said, giving me a pointed look with disappointed hazel eyes. "And you never had a claim on her," she pointed out. "You never marked her. Therefore she didn't and still doesn't have any obligations to you."

"Shut up Melinda," Ryan snapped, glaring at her but she stood over him with a knowing look. Melinda was always right. Under her bleached scalp was a Master's degree in business and natural women's intuition. She just shook off his insult and continued to sweep until she gathered a perfect mountain of glass, then kneeled down and scooped them up carefully in her hands before dumping them in the garbage can she had dragged closer to the door. With a small clash of glass, she closed the lid of the tin can for good and wiped her wet hands on her shorts, not a drop of blood smearing on the denim as her flesh was un-pierced and unscathed.

"But she has my child! I have some rights to that. I am Caley's father," Derek objected. Again Melinda shook her head.

"Until the birth certificate says so, you're not even related." She said. "Trust me, Derek. I went through the same thing with my ex," she mentioned. Ryan's hands closed into fist thinking about the abusive man that had hurt his sister. Melinda laid a loving hand on Ryan's tense shoulder, massaging it with her fresh French manicure. "I'm not here to crush your hope but just to tell you the truth. If you continue going at this delusion you're not going to get anywhere. First and foremost you need to prove Caley is yours instead of speculating. Get a DNA test done." She sat down on the arm of the lawn chair, crossing her long, tanned legs and lifting her sandal clad feet in her hair. "Finally, you should know this isn't pack business. This is between a man and a woman. You have our support but that's as far as we can go without crossing the boundaries, figuratively and literally."