Pedro rubbed his temples as he sat on the couch, trying to work the migraine out of his head. The room was filled with so much raw emotion that it was almost hard to breathe. Roxy was in the corner on the verge of a panic attack, terrified about the hunters coming back; Sam was doing her best to comfort her while also tackling similar feelings; Leif was worried about Drew now that his status as a direwolf might have been leaked; and Drew was stewing in guilt for what he’d done. It was a complete mess.
“I-I-I was just trying to save him! I didn’t mean to shift! A-and the camera crew, it was just bad luck! Th-they… this’ll still be fine, right? Surely people will think it was just a hoax?” He was pacing back and forth, rattling off any sort of justification he could think of.
Pedro sighed. “Maybe. The fact that it was a live feed lends it a little more credibility, but it’s certainly not impossible to stage something like that. The real kicker is that it was the news channel. They were covering something completely unrelated, there’s no reason for them to stage some costume prank. On the other hand, I saw the footage. They didn’t capture the moment you saved the old man, so on that point it’s your word against his.”
“And the people on the sidewalk who saw,” Leif interjected, anxiously chewing on a fingernail. “And all the people on the bus. And the people at the protest. And anyone on the news crew who might have been looking. And-” He cut her off with a glare. “S-sorry.”
Pedro stood up and turned back to Drew. “Look, the Council will find some way to cover this up. I’m sure something like this has happened before, and Dewsbury is pretty small, as far as towns go. Not that many people would’ve seen the footage, especially considering it was mid-day news. Hell, maybe even the human government will step in. If werewolf society is revealed, it’ll cause mass panic, and that doesn’t help anyone. Someone will put a stop to this, so don’t stress. You were trying to do a good thing, kid.” He put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. Drew took a deep breath and nodded his head.
“It- It’ll- It’ll help th-the hunters…” Roxy muttered, holding her head in her hands. “Everyone will freak out ab-bout werewolves a-a-and they’ll be looking for someone to f-fix the problem. Th-they’ll come for us and- and n-no one will stop them. They’ll g-g-get me again and-” She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes snapping wide. “No… no, no, no, no, no!”
“Roxy, that won’t happen!” Sam said, firmly squeezing her mate’s shoulders. “No one’s gonna get you, okay? You’re safe with us, I promise.”
Roxy growled and aggressively shrugged Sam off. “I don’t need you to protect me! I-I can… I can protect myself!” Her voice wavered, as though she wasn’t convinced of her own words. “I-I-I just…! Fuck! Why can’t things be normal?! This is all supposed to be over and done with!”
“I’m sorry, Rox,” Drew said, looking like a kicked puppy.
Roxy shot up to her feet and stormed over to him, shoving Leif out of the way when she tried to step in. Her eyes flashed amber and she lashed out, slugging him right across the jaw. He didn’t even try to block or dodge it, he just let it happen. A loud crack rang out and he stumbled backwards, landing against the table with a thud. For the next few seconds, the room was silent save for the sound of Roxy’s heavy breathing. She didn’t go in for another hit, but her eyes didn’t go back to their usual brown, either.
“...Did that make you feel better?” Drew eventually asked, rubbing his jaw.
Roxy stared back at him silently. Her fists clenched open and shut, over and over again. Pedro was worried that she wasn’t done, and prepared to step in before she could really hurt anyone, but she finally deflated with a sob. “No.” She dropped to her knees and ran her hands through her hair as tears started to fall. “Fuck, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he grunted. “You’ve got a hell of a right hook.”
Roxy just let out a guilty whine in response. Leif stood there, looking back and forth between the two like she couldn’t decide which of her packmates to comfort, while Sam crawled over to give Roxy a hug. Pedro sighed through his nose. At least the worst of it seemed to have passed. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try and cool some bad moods, and this seemed like a good time to show them something he’d been meaning to share.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, leaving the room and walking out to his car. He unlocked the door and opened the glovebox, grabbing the box that rested inside before returning.
“I’ve got something for you all,” he said, getting their attention. He flipped open the lid and reached in, taking out four of the small balls that rested inside before handing one to each of his packmates.
Leif peered at the metallic object curiously. “What is it?”
“Something that will hopefully make it a little easier to find each other should the hunters try anything again,” he explained. “They’re basically GPS trackers.”
Roxy sniffled and wiped her eyes. “What, so you’ll be able to see our location at all times? Isn’t that a little creepy?” She cracked a weak smirk.
He chuckled and shook his head. “No, the battery only lasts for twenty four hours.” He pulled one out of the box and placed the rest of them down on the coffee table. “What you do is, when you feel like you might be in danger, you twist the two hemispheres in opposite directions, like this.” He demonstrated, and a green light started blinking on the top of the ball. His phone loudly chimed in his pocket “It sends an alert to any phones connected through the app, sending them your location and letting them know something’s wrong. Then, you swallow it, so no one can take it from you should something happen. It’s been designed to pass harmlessly through the digestive tract. I’ve been working on this with one of my Council contacts ever since the kidnapping. Well, I only really came up with the idea, she did all the designing and programming.”
“Pedro, this is genius!” Roxy exclaimed. “Only, what if we don’t get the chance to turn it on before we’re attacked?”
“Well, the idea is that you would use it when you feel even a little bit like you’re in danger, to reduce the odds of getting caught off guard and not being able to activate it in time. There’ll obviously be quite a few false alarms, but there are a lot of spares, so it’s okay. I’d rather deal with a hundred false alarms than not be notified when something actually happens. I… I don’t want a repeat of what happened to you, Roxy.”
Roxy nodded, staring at the device in her hand. “If we’d had something like this that night, I… They might still have gotten me, but…”
“We could’ve found you and gotten you out before you even woke up,” he finished for her.
She was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “It’s too late to think about the past now. But, if this can stop even one person from going through what I went through, then it would be worth it.” She shot Leif a meaningful look. “Especially now that you’re in the firing line, too. I don’t think they’d try the luring play twice, but now that Drew’s status as a direwolf may have been leaked, we can never be too safe.”
“I’ll be okay, Rox. We’ve all been training hard this past year, and with these little things, we’ll never be more than one notification away from each other. They aren’t getting any of us without a fight.”
“Damn right. Whatever happens next, we’ll be ready for it,” Sam said. “No one’s hurting my pack like that again.”
“The hunters have been quiet these last few months, ever since we broke Roxy out. There have been less kidnappings, less of my colleagues disappearing or turning up dead from hunts. They’re biding their time, waiting for an opportunity to strike, and this might be just the thing they’ve been waiting for.” He looked around at each of them. “We need to prepare ourselves. I have a feeling things are only going to go downhill from here.”
—
It started off slow. For a few days there, Roxy had actually allowed herself to think that everything would turn out okay.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
First it was clips from the news report, of Drew’s wolfish face reverting back to human on live TV. People made jokes about it, called it a hoax, or generally didn’t pay it too much mind. It seemed like that was where things were going to end, until a bunch of people started tweeting about the clip out of nowhere, saying that they’ve seen similar things to what was depicted in real life, but either thought it was just their mind playing tricks on them or were to scared to say anything out of fear of sounding crazy. The weird thing was that the sudden influx of tweets was coming from all around the world. How a clip could go from barely having any traction outside of Dewsbury to suddenly having a worldwide audience overnight, Roxy would never know. She could only assume the hunters had something to do with it.
From there things only got worse. More and more reports were coming in from people who claimed to have seen shapeshifters. The reports ranged from simply changing eye colours to full blown shifting, and everything in between. There were news articles and conspiracy boards arguing back and forth as to if it was all real or just an elaborate prank as, aside from Drew’s little accident, there still hadn’t been any other reputable footage of a werewolf. Some people were excited about the possibility of werewolves being real, but most people were scared. Scared of the hypothetical threat they presented, being objectively more physically powerful than humans. This fear was jumped on and magnified by popular right-wing grifters, who used the hysteria and confusion to spread their own false narratives about werewolves, and further their own means in the process. It was the type of thing that the hunters could only benefit from, and it spread like a disease across the country, and then the world.
The mass-fearmongering even reached the relatively left-leaning Dewsbury. Drew had to stop going outside out of fear of being harassed, even by people he’d known for the past year of living here. There were a lot of new people in town who’d come hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who started it all, which only succeeded in furthering his isolation. And it wasn’t just Drew anymore, either. Accusations had started to fly, people suspecting their neighbours of secretly being werewolves based on arbitrary things like their height or amount of body hair. Their pack was even in the firing line, when a picture that someone had taken of the four of them together made its rounds on social media. People were pointing out that Drew was the one from the clip and thus accusing the rest of them as being werewolves as well. Sam in particular was hounded on quite a bit when people from highschool started sharing testimonials about her, talking about all of the ‘weird’ and ‘unusual’ things about her that might have been signs of her true nature in hindsight. Now, a lot of them were actually because she was a werewolf, but some of them just ended up being poorly disguised insults, and Roxy could barely resist the urge to go off at them. That wouldn’t help anybody, especially when they were trying to lay low.
Pedro was keeping them all up to date on what the Council was doing to try and counteract the spread of misinformation, but it seemed hopeless. They’d already accepted that werewolf existence was all-but revealed at this point, so instead they were just focusing on damage control. The fear and disgust that hunters had already instilled in the population made it difficult, though. People were afraid of change, of what they couldn’t understand, and it didn’t get much harder to understand than literal shapeshifters. Actual werewolves began speaking out, sharing their experiences with the hunter’s hatred in an attempt to appeal to people’s hearts and show them that they aren’t monsters, they just want to live like everyone else. It resulted in some small pockets of support, but it was mostly swept up in the wave of self-righteous hatred that the hunters were puppeteering through the hands of god-fearing preachers or right-wing politicians.
Eventually, the Council had no choice but to speak out directly, confirming the existence of werewolves in a formal and public setting, instead of the informal testimonials that other werewolves had been giving. It meant breaking the secrecy once and for all, but if it could somehow mitigate the damage already being caused to their reputation by the hunters, it would be worth it. Roxy sat on her couch with bated breath, holding Mr. Slinky as tightly as he would allow without getting annoyed to try and quell her anxieties somewhat. Her dad was there too, along with his boyfriend, who only knew as much as the general public at this point. They’d been trying to sway him towards the side of werewolf-positive, but without knowing for certain what his stance was, they didn’t want to risk letting him know that his boyfriend’s daughter was a hybrid, and that most of her close friends were werewolves too. That could end badly, especially with all the fearmongering going on. People were literally getting attacked in broad daylight just for being suspected of being werewolves, and the last thing they wanted was for that to happen to one of their own.
“A few hours ago, someone claiming to be a representative of the ‘Werewolf Council’ released a statement to the public. This Council is apparently a global body of leadership for the werewolves, with representatives from each of the six major continents. The video was sent to all major news channels across the world, with the request that it be played live to the public, so we will be sharing it with you all now.”
The screen changed to a still image of an old, smartly dressed white man, sitting in front of a plain background. He was exactly how you’d expect a werewolf to look, with broad shoulders and a massive white beard. Honestly, Roxy thought he looked a little bit like a buff Santa Claus. Without any sort of fanfare, the video began.
“Hello, America. My name is Nicholas Carter. I’m speaking to you as the North American representative of the Werewolf Council. As I’m sure you all know, in the past few weeks, the existence of werewolves has become more and more apparent to the general public, with people debating back and forth as to the legitimacy of the video that started this whole uproar, as well as the accounts of people claiming to have seen werewolves themselves. Ordinarily, we would have attempted to cover up such a simple mistake by one of our own in order to preserve the secrecy we have maintained from humanity for all these years, and while we did attempt to, the virality of the video made a cover-up all but impossible.
“Werewolves are real. There is no point in hiding this fact anymore. There are people out there who are able to take on the shape of a beast at will. We have lived alongside humankind for millenia, growing and developing together, and for much of that time our two species coexisted in peace. Many of our ancient customs involve humans, and humans have always been part of werewolf packs, even back then, when our population was large enough to accommodate an all-werewolf community. Today, we are barely one million strong, spread thin across the entire world. We’ve been hunted and ostracised by those that believe our strength makes us dangerous.
“Any werewolf that reveals a hint of their true nature is at risk of being hunted down and slaughtered like an animal, the culprit never receiving justice for their evil deeds. Even just by filming this video, I’m putting the lives of myself and my family at risk. There are thousands of unsolved murder cases just in the US alone, that are the result of innocent werewolves being killed for the crime of existing. The direwolves, the last direct descendants of our ancient ancestors, have been culled down to near extinction, with only two known individuals remaining. These aren’t animals, they’re people, just like any of you. We’re people. We have friends, families, hopes and dreams. We want nothing more than to live out our lives in relative peace. Of course, like all things, there will always be bad werewolves, those who want to use their abilities to cause harm to those weaker than them. They do not speak for us, and we do not condone them or their actions, as much as those who hunt us would like you to believe we do.
“They spread lies about us, claiming us to be nothing more than vicious monsters in order to justify their gruesome and inhumane treatment of our people. I have lost many friends and colleagues to their blades and their bullets, as have so many others. You’ll rarely meet a werewolf who hasn’t lost someone to the hunter’s genocide. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces. They kill without remorse, not hesitating to execute even the youngest of our children. They are the Sons of the Black Sun, the infamous organisation behind the kidnapping of Roxanne Kindley last year. Roxanne is not a werewolf. She is human, just like most of you out there watching this. She was taken off the street and abused, treated to the most inhumane conditions possible, in an attempt to wear her down and break her, make her pliable and receptive to their evil ideas. They wanted to turn her into a soldier for their hunt. She is not the only victim of this dark and sordid manipulation, hundreds of people are taken by them every year, wiped of their original selves until they are nothing more than faceless weapons. We werewolves do our best to fight back against this horror, but we can only save so many of their prisoners before it’s too late. Roxanne was one of the lucky ones.
“I implore you, do not believe the lies you hear about my people. We are not inherently dangerous, just as any human is not inherently dangerous. We will defend ourselves if need be, just as you will, but no right-minded werewolf seeks the violence they claim we do. The young man who was filmed in his half-shifted form, the one that started all of this, he was only in such a state because he was trying to save an elderly man from being hit by traffic, or so we’ve been informed. We can coexist and live alongside each other peacefully again, if you would give us the chance, and together we can fight back against the injustice that has been wrought upon both human and werewolf by the Sons of the Black Sun.
“Thank you for listening. I hope what I’ve said today has made some difference.”
The video ended. Roxy let out a slow breath. “I… can’t say I was expecting the name-drop there.”
Chris laughed, like the heavy nature of the account hadn’t affected him at all. “I guess that makes you a celebrity, huh?”
Roxy didn’t reply. She hated being seen like that, like her experiences at the hands of the hunters made her some sort of poster child for an anti-hunter revolution. So many people had suffered much worse than her. She knew why Mr. Carter mentioned her, though. She was a living example of the horrors that the hunters commit on a daily basis, and at this point, most of the country had at the very least heard of her kidnapping, so it was an effective way to get the point across. It just wasn’t what she wanted to be remembered for. She wanted to be remembered for what she did, not what she survived. The news report continued.
“What an emotional message there from Mr. Carter. We will discuss the implications of what he said in a moment, but first, we must address the elephant in the room. Can what he said be believed at all, or is this just more fuel for the hoax fire? Are werewolves actually real? Well, attached to the email was also a video of an apparent werewolf, shifting from his human form to his wolf form, seemingly submitted as definitive proof of werewolf existence. Here it is now.”
The screen changed again to a video of a half-naked man, only a pair of boxers protecting his dignity from the world. He was given the go-ahead by someone behind the camera, and began to shift. His blue eyes shone. His bones cracked and groaned as they moved. Hair sprouted all over his body. He grew a snout and a tail, teeth lengthening into deadly fangs. The whole transformation only took a few seconds, ripping his boxers to shreds in the process. Where once stood a man now stood a majestic grey wolf, shaking out his newly grown coat. The video ended there and the newscast continued.
“After such a clear video of a transformation, combined with Mr. Carter’s words, it seems hard to deny the existence of werewolves now. So, where does that leave us? Well, we here at the Dewsbury News are erring on the side of werewolf-positive. Our little town is the epicentre of where this all began, after all, and with Mr. Carter’s account mentioning a certain resident by name, it’s hard to find fault in his words. After what happened to Roxanne Kindley, I find it hard to imagine that anyone’s trust in these so-called ‘hunters’ is very high. Mr. Carter’s account brings to mind the 2007 Dewsbury Forest Killings, where young parents Deborah and Marcus Reed were found murdered deep in the woods outside of town, leaving behind their three year old daughter, Samantha. Could these poor, innocent parents have been werewolves? Deborah and Marcus were reported to be kind, neighbourly individuals by those who knew them, certainly not the dangerous beasts the hunters wanted to paint them out as. Interestingly, Samantha, now eighteen, has been frequently sighted around Drew Basterfield, the confirmed werewolf who started it all. Could she be one as well?”
The screen shifted to a still image from the video of Drew’s mistake, clearly showing that Sam was present at the time.
“Speaking of Mr. Basterfield, it is now confirmed that he was indeed trying to save an elderly man that day, just as Mr. Carter said. Multiple people who were there at the time have reported as much, as well as the elderly man in question, George Montgomery, who has lived in Dewsbury his entire life. He had this to say:”
The screen changed to an interview with Mr. Montgomery.
“Now, of course I was startled at first. I had just been shoved off my feet! I was just about ready to go off at that boy for being so reckless, until I realised what he’d done. He saved my life! Whoever was driving that bus should be fired! That boy helped me back onto my feet and asked if I was okay, and that’s when I saw that freaky face of his. Looked like a man and a dog had some sort of affair, it did. I was shocked at the time, but now that more about these so-called ‘werewolves’ is coming out, I understand why he looked the way he did. The bottom line is, he saved me. He’s not a monster just because he looks like one, and I’d wager the same goes for the rest of his kind, too!”
Stolen story; please report.
The screen changed back to the newsroom.
“With everything we now know, it’s hard to see these people as bloodthirsty monsters just because of their unique abilities. Still, we cannot predict how the rest of the world will react without our unique perspective. We can only hope that these marginalised and persecuted people are treated with respect and can finally live peacefully, as they so desire. In other news, –”
Her dad shut off the TV. “Well, that was stressful.”
Roxy couldn’t agree more. She wasn’t expecting Sam to get called out like that, but at least the news was trying to paint werewolves in a good light. She side-eyed Chris, expecting him to bring up that Sam was mentioned, but he seemed completely unphased, giving Damien a comforting smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Let’s get some takeout, yeah? Get our mind off of things. I’m sure this will all blow over soon.”
—
It did not all blow over soon.
Despite the local news’s relatively positive perception of werewolves, that energy had a hard time instilling itself in the rest of the population. While Mr. Carter’s words did have an effect, it was negligible in the wake of the tidal wave of misinformation. People were just too scared of the threat that werewolves posed to the status quo, and so far, the government had done nothing to quell their fears. Some people called for werewolves to all be hunted down and slaughtered, others called for them to be rounded up and put into camps, separate from all of the ‘normal’ people. In the middle of that were people like Roxy and her friends, who were fighting tooth and nail, fang and claw to make sure their voices were heard over the deafening call to genocide. Eventually, the government would have no choice but to listen to one side or the other, and if the person in charge wanted to stand any chance of being re-elected, they would go with the most popular option.
Individual states were already making up their minds, introducing legislation that would require mandatory blood tests before anyone could cross their borders, work certain jobs, or even just leave the house. They wanted a list of every werewolf they could find in case the order came down. Naturally, most people didn’t stand for such a breach of freedom, even those who wanted werewolves gone. In those places, werewolves and werewolf haters found themselves marching together in protest against their state government. In other states, Mr. Carter’s words had more of an effect. Legislation was in the works to hopefully protect vulnerable werewolves from further persecution. They hadn’t said exactly how they were going to do that just yet, but the support was appreciated, regardless.
Washington, thankfully, was one of the states that seemed in relative support of the werewolves, no doubt due, at least in part, to Roxy’s presence there. Her kidnapping had been front page news there before it spread to the rest of the country, and Mr. Carter dropping her name in his declaration might have managed to inspire some sort of state loyalty among the senators. Still, the state was no safe-haven, and Dewsbury was no exception, despite the leanings of the local news. While there was a higher ratio of supporters to detractors compared to the rest of the country, the detractors were still a big problem, petitioning to have Drew exiled from town - if not outright killed - along with every other werewolf they could get their hateful hands on. Their entire pack was on their hit list. They didn’t care if someone they suspected was actually a werewolf or not. Better safe than sorry, in their eyes.
That was how Roxy found herself screaming chants into a megaphone as she and her friends marched down the main street along with dozens of other werewolf supporters, counter-protesting the anti-werewolf protest that was currently blocking the entrance to the town hall. She hadn’t organised the protest, but as one of the reluctant faces of the anti-hunter (and therefore, pro-werewolf) movement, she was still pretty much leading the crowd, which was equal parts terrifying and empowering. Her bad leg was aching like a bitch, she had a pounding headache from not wearing her glasses, and her ears were ringing so loud she was sure they were receiving permanent damage, but when she heard those supportive voices behind her, felt Sam and Leif guarding her at either side, she knew she could keep going for as long as it took. Drew was somewhere in the crowd too, hanging back in case his faux-celebrity status got him recognised and targeted by one of the anti-wolf protesters.
Not all the werewolves in the crowd shared his fear. Sam in particular was done hiding her nature, marching proudly next to Roxy with her fur and fangs bared for the world to see. If they were all gonna get targeted regardless, there was no more reason to stifle herself for the sake of secrecy. She was a werewolf, and she was proud of it. Her attitude was shared by others following along in the protest, including Pedro, Clarissa, and Dr. Parker, which was pretty much the entire werewolf population of Dewsbury, as far as Roxy knew. They all wore their fur proudly as they marched. Pedro in particular had a lot of stake in this protest. He’d lost his job once they found out he was a werewolf, and with no laws protecting them from unlawful discriminatory termination, he was stuck for the time being.
They finally reached the town hall, where a crowd at least three times as big as theirs was protesting, waving picket signs and hurling slogans, screaming their hatred to the heavens in an attempt to get the mayor to listen and force the werewolves out of town. A heavily armed police line was keeping the crowd in check, holding their increasingly aggressive outcry back from actually setting foot on town hall property. The sight of the riot police made Roxy nervous. They were equipped with armour, shields, batons, and who knew what else. It was obvious that the police were no fans of werewolves from the way they’d treated Pedro, and it occurred to her just how little provocation it would take for those weapons to be turned on them. She suddenly found herself wishing she wasn’t the one holding the megaphone, but unfortunately, the woman who’d organised the protest was nowhere to be found, so it looked like she was on her own for this one. All she had to do was shout some slogans at the town hall and rally those behind her without getting overwhelmed by the other crowd. Easy, right? It was just meant to be a show of support for the werewolves, a demonstration to the mayor that not everyone wanted them gone. There was no way it could go wrong.
Right?
Things were okay for a little while. Once the larger crowd noticed them and started throwing aggression their way, the police quickly mobilised to set up a barrier between the two groups. Roxy would’ve appreciated this, were it not for the fact that most of the police were keeping a closer eye on them than the anti protesters, despite the fact that the antis were the ones hurling most of the verbal abuse. She tried to ignore them, encouraging her fellow protesters to do the same and just focus on their signs and slogans, but there was only so much she could do to control the hundred-odd person crowd when insults like “dog-fucker” and “furry freak” started being thrown around. People on both sides were getting caught up in the mob mentality of it all, being riled up by those around them and in turn riling up others as well. Roxy was trying to stay calm, but it was difficult when people were screaming in her face, accusing her of bestiality and other horrible things because of who she was dating.
It all came to a head when some asshole from the other side threw a rock over the police line, straight at Roxy’s head. She was on edge, expecting something to happen, so she didn’t have any problem catching it out of the air, but that didn’t stop her side of the protest from lighting up with righteous fury in response. Sam was snarling, clearly only just managing to hold herself back from fully shifting. Roxy held her wrist tightly, partially to stop her from doing anything she might regret, and partially because she simply needed her close, a comforting and familiar presence for her to lean on as the situation rapidly deteriorated around them. People were screaming and shouting, throwing things over the line and pushing against it, so caught up in their anger that they couldn’t see the police preparing their weapons. By now all of them were turned towards the pro-werewolf protesters, shields bared and ready to strike.
Something tapped her shoulder and she flinched, dropping her megaphone. It was Pedro.
“This is getting out of hand!” he yelled, struggling to be heard over the din of the crowd. “We need to find our pack and get out of here!”
Roxy couldn’t agree more. She pulled on Sam’s wrist till she was crouched enough for her to speak into her ear. “We’re gonna split! Do you know where Leif is?”
She’d lost track of her once the havoc started, but hopefully Sam’s extra height would help in finding her. The blonde looked around a bit before locking onto something. “There she-!” Her eyes went wide. “Oh no.”
Roxy’s stomach dropped and she followed Sam’s gaze to find Leif, struggling against one of the riot police as he held a tight grip on her arm. “Get the fuck off me, pig!” she yelled, driving her knee up into his groin. It wasn’t nearly as effective as Roxy had hoped, and only succeeded in pissing the man off even more. He pulled a small can off of his belt and sprayed something directly into Leif’s eyes. Even at her distance, the capsaicin was burning Roxy’s nostrils, so it was no surprise when Leif stumbled to the ground, thrashing and screaming.
Roxy charged forward without thinking, power surging through her muscles as she jumped at the cop and drop-kicked him right in the chest. He flew backwards into the other crowd and the other riot police descended on her like dogs to a bone. She didn’t give them time to get to her, grabbing Leif and pulling her to her feet before running back to her mate, Leif clutching her hand like a life-line. They needed to leave, and fast.
Sam got the message, not even bothering to strip before fully shifting. Her clothes were ripped to shreds as her body grew and changed shape, revealing her true form to the world in all its fur-clad glory. People on all sides were forced backwards to make space for the massive wolf that had suddenly appeared, her golden coat shimmering in the sunlight. She let out an awesome roar at the police and anti-wolf protesters, sending them stumbling back in rightful fear. They should be scared, Roxy thought. They just hurt her pack. They should consider themselves lucky for just getting away with soiled pants.
The entire protest was frozen in stunned silence at the display. Roxy took advantage of their surprise, bringing her wolf to the surface and using the strength it gave her to haul both herself and Leif onto Sam’s back in one swift movement. Leif was facing backwards, her face buried in Roxy’s shoulder as she desperately clutched the back of Roxy’s shirt, effectively hugging her. “Fuuuck, it burns!” she moaned.
Roxy held onto her with one hand while the other took hold of Sam’s mane. “Just hold on a little longer. Sam, c’mon girl!”
With her passengers safely secured (as much as one can possibly be while riding a wolf with no saddle), Sam took off, deftly dodging protesters as she sped away from town hall and down the street. The police finally shook off their shock and pulled out their riot guns, peppering the three girls with a hail of rubber bullets. Roxy kept her head down and prayed as the projectiles whizzed by, a few finding their mark and hitting Sam, if her yelps and the pain Roxy felt through the mark was anything to go by. Anger burned in her chest but she ignored it, determined to get somewhere safe so that she could help Leif.
The wind rushed out of her lungs as a bullet suddenly struck her in the back, hard enough to shatter ribs had it not been for the durability granted to her by her wolf. She sucked in wheezing lungfuls of air as Sam finally turned a corner and got them out of the line of fire. The way she was limping had Roxy worried, but she kept pushing forward in spite of whatever was wrong, and eventually they made it back to the Walkers’ house.
Sam jumped the fence to the backyard before finally collapsing in a panting heap on the grass, sending Roxy and Leif tumbling down with her. Roxy quickly pulled herself up and ran over to the hose, turning it on and carrying it back to Leif, who was still whimpering and doing her very best not to touch her eyes.
“Here,” she said as she handed the nozzle over. “Rinse your eyes out with this and try to keep blinking. I’ll go get some other supplies.”
Leif nodded, holding the hose over her eyes and deflating with relief. “Oh my fuck, that’s so much better.”
Roxy made her way over to the panting beast that was her girlfriend, placing a gentle hand in her mane. “Are you okay, Sam? Do you need anything?”
She let out a weak whine, which roughly translated in Roxy’s head as ‘No, but ouch.’ Satisfied she didn’t need any immediate attention, Roxy went inside and pilfered around until she found a small towel, some soap, a pair of scissors and an ice pack. She made her way outside and back to Leif’s side. “Alright, sit-rep. How’re you doing?”
“My entire face feels like it’s on fire and it hurts to breathe,” she stated matter-of-factly, her voice rasping and weak.
“Alright, you’re doing good. It’s still gonna hurt for a while, but just focus on your breathing. I’m gonna wash your face with some soap to try and get the oil off, okay?” Roxy explained. She was so glad that she took the time to research what to do to treat pepper spray before the protest. She already knew the basics of ‘rinse your eyes with water,’ but if not for her research, she’d probably be trying to douse Leif in milk right now.
Leif pulled the hose away and Roxy got to work, rubbing soap all over the other girl’s face and being careful not to get any into her painfully red eyes. After a few minutes of gentle scrubbing, she rinsed off her face with water and checked in again. “Any better?”
“A-a little. Still fucking burns though.”
Roxy winced. “Yeah, sorry. It’s just gonna suck for a while. Here, lay down with this ice-pack, it should help with the heat.”
Leif did as she was told and Roxy finally took the time to inspect the rest of her. She sighed, noticing the orange substance staining her shirt. “Some of it got on your clothes. I’m gonna have to cut your shirt off, is that okay?”
Leif blindly gave her a thumbs-up. “You just do what you gotta do, doc.”
She worked in silence, cutting the fabric up with her scissors until she was able to remove it without getting it near Leif’s face. She was grateful she wasn’t the one in her friend’s position right now, for more than just the obvious reasons. The last time someone cut a piece of clothing off of her, it didn’t exactly end well, and the less she was reminded of that day, the better.
Leif spoke up as she worked. “Hey, Rox?”
“Yeah?” she responded.
“I just rode your girlfriend,” she snickered.
Roxy snorted. “Good to see your sense of humour survived.”
“Are you okay, though? I thought I heard you get hit with something on the ride.”
The injury started throbbing with a vengeance now that she had been reminded of it. “I’ll live. Sam got hit way more than me. Speaking of which, I should go check on her. Are you good for now?”
“I’m good.”
Roxy nodded and got up, moving over to her girlfriend. “Hey, Sam. How’re you feeling?”
The wolf didn’t respond, but the frantic panting she’d been doing when they arrived had slowed down somewhat. She slowly shifted back into her human form, revealing several nasty purple bruises on her skin that had been previously hidden under her fur, including one on her face, which was swelling up something awful. She rolled onto her back, cracking a weak smile. “Not great, I won’t lie.”
Roxy sucked a sharp breath through her teeth. “You should probably ice those.”
“Eeh, I’ll be fine.”
It was a little bit later that Pedro and Drew made it back to the house. The three of them were still catching their breath outside, though Sam had begrudgingly put some clothes on after Roxy brought some out for her. Leif’s condition was steadily improving. She could actually see now, but her eyes were still swollen and red, which scared Drew to no end. He’d apparently been too deep in the crowd to see what had happened, only realising something was wrong after Sam transformed and made a scene. Pedro spent the next thirty minutes fretting over their injuries and apologising for his former coworkers as if it had been his fault. He assured Roxy that there wouldn’t be any repercussions for her drop-kicking that cop. Despite his unlawful dismissal, he still had a couple of friends on the force that were taking his side, and by extension, his pack’s. They would make sure nothing would come of it, apparently. Roxy questioned the legitimacy of that claim, but was grateful for the reassurance, regardless.
Sam’s nasty welts thankfully didn’t take long to fade, and by dinner time her face was pretty much back to its normal proportions. Roxy wasn’t so lucky. Her healing factor wasn’t nearly as good as Sam’s, and by this point she was barely even able to move without a spark of pain from her back lighting up her nerves. The bullet must have messed with her whip scars or something, because the sensation was far too familiar. She was doing her best to stay calm and comfortable though, enjoying a slice of pizza on the couch with her legs in Sam’s lap.
“Hell of a day you guys had, huh?” Carol asked.
“I’ll say. I still can’t believe the lady who organised everything just handed me the megaphone and bailed! What the hell was her problem?” Roxy complained.
“Pretty sure she wasn’t expecting actual werewolves to show up to the protest and got psyched out. I saw her leave at pretty much the same time Clarissa and I showed up with our wolf side showing,” Pedro said. “You did a great job though, Roxy. I’ve seen a few protests in my time, and for a first-timer doing her best to lead, you made a good impression. Drop-kicking that asshole was very Stonewall of you.”
“As if I’d let him get away with what he did.”
“I wish I’d seen it,” Leif complained. “That dude was a jerk.”
Pedro chuckled. “Honestly, even if you hadn’t, someone would’ve. Just be grateful you didn’t do any actual damage, or you’d be in a lot more trouble. If it had been me I might have broken his jaw, and don’t even get me started on the Dire-Duo.” He gestured lazily at Sam and Drew.
“No comment,” the blonde replied through a mouthful of pizza.
“Pepper spray him, see how he likes it,” Drew muttered bitterly.
Leif nudged him playfully. “I’m fine, you don’t have to be so grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy! I just…! I wish I’d kept a better eye on things instead of hiding away in the crowd.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up too much. I did call him a fascist pig, so it was kinda my own fault. And I tried to kick him in the nuts. Twice. He only sprayed me the second time.”
Drew chuckled and shook his head, looking at her with adoration in his eyes. “You are incredible, you know that?”
She scratched him behind the ear and his leg started twitching with barely stifled kicks. “Of course I do, have you met me?”
Pedro’s phone started ringing and he fished it out of his pocket, eyes widening when he saw the caller. “Sorry, I’ve gotta take this.”
He walked out of the room and Roxy took the chance to settle further into the couch. She was probably going to end up sleeping there, if her back kept giving her trouble. It was just too much of a pain to move, and with the amount of walking she’d already done today, her leg wasn’t in tip-top shape either. She regretted leaving her cane at home. Sam, the absolute angel, sensed her discomfort and wordlessly started massaging her thigh, working the pain out of it. What she’d do without her, Roxy didn’t know.
She spent a little time texting her dad about her day, updating him on whatever he hadn’t already learnt from the news. He was a little worried for her back, but otherwise seemed in decent spirits. Chris was apparently still indifferent on the werewolf issue, as far as he could tell, so that was… a plus, Roxy supposed. Indifference was better than hatred, after all. Still, a little support would’ve been nice, considering the day’s events. He made her dad happy, she reminded herself. That was the important thing.
Pedro finally came back in, looking rather taken aback. He clapped his hands and everyone looked over.
“So, I have some news.”
—
Roxy finished shoving her assorted belongings into the suitcase and somehow managed to get the zip to close afterwards. Excitement burned in every inch of her body as she stood up, grabbing her cane along the way. She had a hunch that she would need it in the days to come. She’d never even been outside of Washington before, but now, she was going all the way to the other side of the world. The Council had requested the pack’s presence at their current hideout in Australia, for reasons none of them knew yet. Whatever the reason was, Roxy was ecstatic at the opportunity. Not only was it effectively an all-expense-paid holiday to a country she’d never been to, she also got to go with her pack! The only downside was that she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone where she was going, just that she was going. Despite the fact that werewolf society was no longer a secret, it would still be bad news if the Council’s location got leaked to the hunters.
With one last look around her room, she took a breath and shut the door, realising that she probably wasn’t going to see it again for a long time. That was okay, though. Whatever this next chapter of her life was going to bring, she would take it in stride, because she was Roxy goddamn Thura, and nothing was going to keep her down.
She carried her suitcase and cane down to the kitchen, where Chris and her dad were waiting to see her off, as well as a certain furry gremlin who started circling her feet the second she touched down on the first floor. It was almost as if he could tell she was going away. She laughed, setting her things down and picking him up. “Aw, are you gonna miss me?”
He let out a mournful mew in response. Roxy sighed. “I’m sorry, little guy. I’ll be back!” She gave his little nose a kiss and set him back down. He stayed by her side, dutifully scent-marking her leg as she walked over to her dad, wrapping him in a big hug. “I’m gonna miss you so much!”
He took a deep, shaky breath as they held the embrace tightly, not knowing how long it would be before they would see each other again. “You make sure you text me every day, okay?” he asked, pulling back and looking at her with tears in his eyes, hands resting on her strong shoulders.
“I will, dad. Take good care of Mr. Slinky for me, and send a picture of him every day as well!”
He chuckled wetly. “Of course, sweetie. You’ve grown up so fast.”
That finally got the waterworks to start. They hugged again, swaying back and forth and soaking up every last morsel of affection they could get before Roxy’s ride arrived. “I love you, dad.”
“I love you too, Roxy. ငါ၏လှပသောမိန်းကလေး.” He kissed her on the side of the head before they finally separated. Her Burmese was still too sketchy for her to understand his words, but honestly, she didn’t have to. The meaning got across all the same.
“You’re going to Sea-Tac airport, right?” Chris asked once the emotional moment had ended.
“Seattle-Tacoma, Yeah,” Roxy replied, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “Our flight’s tomorrow morning, but it’s a long drive and we wanted to get a head start. There are a lot of protests going on in Seattle right now that might slow us down. Why?”
He shrugged. “Just curious. Thought you might go to a closer airport.”
Roxy just hummed in response. In truth, she didn’t actually know why they were going all the way to Seattle for the flight. The Council was the one that organised everything, including the tickets, so that was just the way it was.
There was a knock on the door and Roxy knew the time had come. It was time to leave home, to set out on her own and see the world with her own eyes. With one last parting hug to her dad, Roxy opened the door to the smiling faces of her pack. It was time to go. She took a deep breath.
This was it. Nothing would be the same after this point. The only way to go now was forward.
Roxy stepped out the door.
—
The man with the scarred face put down the receiver and ended the call. He smiled. “The birds have finally left the nest, it seems,” he muttered to no one in particular.
It was close now. So close he could taste the victory on his tongue. Not long now, and Samantha Reed would finally be within his grasp. The revenge he’d waited 50 long years for would finally be at hand.
“The night of the Bloodmoon approaches, my children. Finally, the beasts of the night will receive their penance, and it will be glorious.”
He laughed, staring out at the late night skyline of New York. It would be glorious indeed.