Leroy's wound needed stitches.
I'd kept it as clean as I could, and wolf saliva helped the blood clot a little bit, but it wasn't a cure-all or magic. Go figure. You'd think a werewolf would have a bit of magic. Unfortunately, the only thing we could do was go back home and grab a first-aid kit. At least we lived in the twenty-first century, I guess.
It didn't take long for Leroy to start lagging behind as we ran. I had to urge him to keep going; we were several miles away from home, and the smell of blood was in the air.
When we were finally near the house, I stopped to look at him. He shook his head and limped away. We both knew it was better if he was in his human form for this. Fur didn't allow for much space to treat wounds, and the stitches would rip if he shifted back later, because his skin and muscles wouldn't be in the same place. We'd have to do it all over again.
I quickly got dressed when I was back in my human form, but Leroy was still naked; he'd sacrificed his shirt to tie around his leg. The gray cotton was dark with blood.
"Get up," I said, coming over to grab his arm.
He pulled away. "Let me put on some pants first."
"Being naked is the least of your—"
"Trae, please."
I sighed and helped him pull his pants over the blood-soaked lump on his leg. I would have thrown him into the house butt-naked if he hadn't been wearing a pair of loose shorts. He leaned heavily on me as we walked. Every step took effort. I sped up as we came into the backyard, and the back door flew open. Shaun came running out. "What the hell happened?"
"Didn't we tell you to stay inside?" Leroy growled.
"You gave me puppy eyes and pushed me. There's a lot of room for interpretation." He took Leroy's other arm. "But seriously, what happened?"
"Wolves," I said.
"Werewolves?" Mae asked. She held the door open for us but looked at the trees behind us, eyes flicking back and forth.
"No," Leroy grunted as he dropped himself onto the couch.
I sighed again. "Leroy . . . Shaun, help me get him to the kitchen."
Mae turned around, staring. "The kitchen? Why aren't we calling 9-1-1?"
"We can't." I pulled my brother up from the couch. "There's a first aid kit in the top left cupboard. Get it for me, please."
She hesitated only for a second before running to the kitchen and finding the kit. While she opened it and looked for supplies, I lowered Leroy to the floor and washed my hands. Then, I panicked. I knew how to do this, but I'd never done it myself—I'd only watched my dad do it.
Mae removed Leroy's shirt and poured water onto the wound. Leroy groaned and leaned his head against the cupboard. When he saw the look on my face, he said, "It doesn't need to be pretty, Trae."
"I know," I said.
"Don't you have any pain relievers or whatever?" Shaun asked.
"You can give him some, but we can't wait for them to start working."
We also couldn't wait for me to gather my nerves. Leroy had lost too much blood already. I grabbed the suturing needle and got to work. It was definitely not pretty. Neither were the words coming out of Leroy's mouth, but he made it through.
As I was bandaging him, Mae said, "You took a pretty big risk bringing him here. When you say you 'can't' call an ambulance, do you mean you can't, or won't?"
"Can't."
Shaun filled a glass of water and handed it to Leroy, who emptied it instantly and motioned for him to grab another.
"Werewolves can't go to the hospital because we're not human," I explained. "Our DNA isn't human. And don't ask me for details because I'm not a biologist, but even some of our features aren't human."
"Like what?" Mae asked.
"Our ears, for example. They're somewhere between human ears and wolf ears. That's why I can hear better. It's not magic. It's biology."
"Okay, I seriously need a picture of that someday," Shaun said. "Or at least an anatomical drawing. What does it look like? How do you know this anyway?"
I shrugged. "Someone probably studied werewolf anatomy once. My dad told me and his parents told him, so . . . who knows? All I know is that we shouldn't go to the hospital if we can avoid it. We can't risk them finding anything strange. They'll want to do all sorts of tests, and before you know it, they're shipping us off someplace to figure out what's wrong with us."
"What isn't?" Leroy muttered.
"Well, at least you're not dead."
He huffed weakly. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now eat and go to sleep. I did all I can."
"I'll make him something and put him to bed," Shaun said.
Leroy pulled a face.
"Okay, good luck," I said with a smile.
Shaun was already grabbing a pot. Leroy asked what he was doing, but he was ignored. I could sense a disagreement coming, so I turned and walked over to Mae, who had moved to the back door again. She flinched when I appeared by her side but relaxed right after, thankfully.
I leaned over to look outside as well. There was nothing to see. "Are you worried the wolves will come here?"
"No," she said. "I'm just . . . thinking."
"I guess you have a lot to think about."
She huffed. "Yeah."
"Do you wanna leave?"
She looked out again for a moment, then said, "No. I—no. I don't want to leave. Can we go upstairs?"
I nodded and led her up. Thinking she wanted to be away from Leroy and Shaun, I stopped at the top of the stairs, but then she asked where my bedroom was.
"Oh. Uh, this one." I pointed to the first door on the right.
The only other two rooms were Leroy's and the bathroom, which was attached to my room. They weren't very big rooms, but they fit a bed and a closet, and that was all we needed. Mine was pretty simple in design, with wooden furniture and white walls. The sheets were green. Mae's eyes rested on them before moving on to my walls, where I had put up a few of my drawings.
I was glad I'd had the forethought of keeping my stuff off the floor in the hope that Mae would come by soon. Only the stool in the corner had a shirt on it. I considered grabbing it but decided to leave it.
Mae had something else entirely on her mind. "How does it work?"
"Sorry, how does what work?"
"Us being soulmates. What does it mean? I was talking to Shaun earlier, and he said Leroy is not interested in men, but he still chose Shaun."
Her tone was more curious than interrogating now. There hadn't been a lot of time for her to get used to me in my wolf form before we heard the wolves, so I wasn't sure if she was okay with it now. This was a good sign. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd said "fuck this" and left.
I cleared my throat. "We . . . we believe Mother Nature chose him."
"Shaun said it was Leroy's instincts."
"That's—" I sighed. "Leroy isn't very religious. He doesn't think Mother Nature exists, which is fair, I guess—to each their own—but we've always been told that She chooses our soulmates, so that's what I believe. I don't see how the concept of soulmates can even exist if there isn't a god or . . . some force or something that chooses them." I shook my head. "Anyway, that's not your question. What it means is that you're . . . fit to be my life partner, basically. It's a bit weird that Shaun and Leroy are soulmates, actually, and we're still trying to figure that out, but I think they just don't need to be attracted to each other to be happy together. Maybe they will, eventually. Maybe their bond will make them more open to the possibility or something. I guess only time will tell."
"Do you think we would have been soulmates if we weren't attracted to each other? Are we attracted to each other because we're soulmates?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't think that's something we need to question, because we are attracted to each other."
"Alright." She nodded slowly. "This is . . . a lot, but I'm starting to understand. The evidence is hard to ignore—well, the evidence of you being a werewolf, that is. I still find it difficult to grasp that we're soulmates. I don't question your conviction, or even the truthfulness of it, but it's not easy to imagine being someone's life partner when we've only known each other for a few weeks."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I nodded.
She stepped closer to me and raised her thumb to the corner of my lip. Her touch left goosebumps on my skin. "There's some blood," she whispered.
"Shit, sorry," I said, moving away as I wiped my mouth. "I really know how to fuck up a date, don't I? It was already bad enough, and then I run off to fight a bunch of wolves? This must've been an awful night. You can leave if you want."
"Trae, I said I don't want to leave, and it's late. I will stay."
"Okay."
"Also, I thought it was very brave of you and your brother to go out and protect us from the wolves. Thank you."
"Oh, I—of course. They shouldn't even have come here. We've been slacking. The wolves didn't know they were on our territory. It won't happen again."
"For your sake, I hope it won't. That was no paper cut. Will he be alright?"
"We heal fast."
"Good." She raised her hand to my face again but not to remove blood—she grabbed my jaw and got on her toes to kiss me. "I'm sorry for reacting so strongly. I jumped to conclusions and freaked out, but you didn't deserve that."
I was frozen for a second. "I, uh—it's . . . it's fine."
"No, it's not. Like you said, you would have been alone for the rest of your life if I had rejected you. I'm not committing to a life-long relationship, don't get me wrong, but I would like to have a second date."
I smiled. I couldn't have stopped myself even if I wanted to. "I'll make sure the second one isn't a complete disaster."
"That shouldn't be too hard. You've set the bar quite low."
"Wow. I guess I deserved that."
"No, I'm joking. Thank you for telling me. Honesty is important." She put her arms around me, head on my chest. "Can I sleep next to you tonight?"
I stared at the top of her head before returning the hug, smiling so wide my cheeks hurt. "Of course."
I'd be an idiot to say no.