Roxy stared out the window of the van at the passing scenery, trying to block out the noise of three werewolves and one human loudly belting their hearts out to what seemed to be a playlist of ‘songs that make white people go crazy.’ She was in the front seat and Pedro was driving, while Sam, Leif, Drew, and Clarissa - who was asked to come to Australia as well - were spread out across the seats in the back, currently having a blast with their karaoke. Roxy had tried to join in at first, but she’d never really had a voice for singing, and that was before her vocal chords were all torn up from screaming for a week straight, so she quickly backed out. It was nice to see everybody in good spirits after the stress of the past few weeks, though.

It took a while - over an hour at least - but eventually they tired themselves out and settled in for a nap. Roxy was grateful for the peace and quiet, but it left her feeling a little lonely, seeing her packmates all curled up together in the back seat without her squished in between them. Pedro must have sensed her forlorn energy, because all of a sudden he reached out and ruffled her hair, dislodging her glasses in the process.

“Hey!” she laughed.

He chuckled, putting both hands back on the steering wheel. “Sorry, you looked a little in your own head. What’s on your mind?”

She shrugged. “Oh, nothing. Just… wondering what the future holds, I guess.”

He hummed an agreement. “I’ll admit, it is a little unusual. I can’t remember the last time I was actually called to meet the Council in person. What do you think it’s about?”

“You’d know better than me.”

“Not this time. I’m just in the dark as you. Still, any guesses?”

She could tell he was just trying to keep her mind occupied, but she appreciated it, so she humoured him. He was probably pretty bored himself, after two and a half hours of driving. “Well…” she wondered out loud. “It’s almost definitely got something to do with the big secret getting out. Otherwise I’ve got no idea.”

“You’re probably right. I’m thinking that they might have found some sort of vaccine for the hunter’s super-serum, and want to give it to Sam and Drew to stop the hunter’s plan in its tracks. Only, I don’t know why they wouldn’t have told me about it beforehand, or why we have to go to them, instead of them sending someone to us like they did with Valerie.”

“Do you think she’ll be there?”

“Who?”

“Your lady-love.” Roxy smirked.

Pedro smiled softly. “That would be nice. I do miss her.”

“You should bite her next time.”

He laughed incredulously. “What?”

“The mating bite thing. Like me and Sam.”

He shook his head. “Nah. I’m not so irresponsible as to mark someone when our relationship has barely even started. Unlike someone I know.” He shot her a cheeky side-eye.

“Hey, Sam didn’t know what she was doing!”

He laughed. “Just messing with you, chica. Seriously though, it was some real good luck that you two were so compatible, otherwise that little slip-up would’ve been… quite the inconvenience.”

“What do you mean? The mark isn’t permanent, is it?” Roxy asked. She had no intention of getting rid of it if it wasn’t, but she’d only just now realised that she didn’t know the answer to that question yet.

“Not exactly. It’s just a bitch to get rid of. Once you’re marked, it doesn’t go away unless you and the person who marked you don’t come into close contact for a long period of time. Usually around a year or so. Obviously, quite the annoyance for both parties when it comes to dating after the relationship has ended, and it makes an amicable breakup quite difficult.”

“But that would only be a problem if you were exclusively dating werewolves, wouldn’t it? Humans wouldn’t be able to smell the mark.”

“Hm, true. Though, in your case, the emotional bond would still persist as long as the mark did, so there’s that to consider. And since more and more werewolves are being juiced up on Lunin by the lunar ritual now that it’s been rediscovered, all future mating bites would induce the emotional bond as well as the scent mark. Being responsible about who you bite is important now more than ever.”

Roxy snickered as a thought occurred to her. “What if you bit someone in a fight? Would that induce a mating bond?”

Pedro laughed. “No, there’s a certain degree of choice involved, even if it isn’t entirely conscious all the time. You’ve got to actually like the person you’re marking, it won’t work if you’re trying to chew off their ear or something.”

“Have you ever marked anyone before?”

He was silent for a moment. “Yes. My… my fiancée, Catherine. We were together for seven years before… before everything happened.”

Roxy’s chest tightened. “I’m sorry.”

He grunted. “It was a long time ago. Before that it was my highschool sweetheart. Marked her after just two months together. We were only fifteen, had no idea what we were doing.” He chuckled fondly at the memory. “You might have heard of her. A certain direwolf by the name of Deborah Reed?” His mouth curled into a cheeky smirk.

Roxy’s eyes widened. “Oh! I remember hearing about that!”

“Yeah. Only made it a few months before ol’ Marcus the Magnificent came along and swept her off her feet. It was practically love at first sight for those two, even with my scent still all over her. We ended up forming a pack for most of highschool, so it wasn’t really an issue since we all smelled like each other anyway, and seeing how happy those two made each other, I couldn’t even be mad at him for stealing my girl.”

He sighed and his grip slowly tightened and untightened on the steering wheel. “I lost my first two loves within two months of one-another. Sure, I lost contact with the pack after highschool, but… the love was still there. Debbie and Mark would always be my family. And then… they were just gone, only six weeks after the hunters took Catherine.”

A heavy silence followed his words, undercut only by the sound of the engine, purring along the highway, and quiet snoring from the back seat. Pedro sniffed, wiping a stray tear from his face. “Wow, this…” He chuckled wetly. “This got a lot more emotional than I was expecting. You wanna put on some more music?”

The rest of the four hour drive was spent listening to various pop-punk albums from Roxy’s collection and playing eye-spy once the others had woken up. Night had just begun to fall as they finally entered the Seattle city limits. Roxy took a deep breath. “Ah, home sweet home.”

“Our flight’s at 4am. It’s only 7, so we have some time to kill before we have to check in,” Clarissa said. “Do you guys wanna grab something to eat?”

“Sounds good to me,” Leif replied. “What do you guys want?”

“Any recommendations, Roxy? You’re the local,” Sam joked.

Roxy snorted. “I haven’t lived here since I was five, Sam, and haven’t even visited since I was fourteen. Unless you wanna buy fresh South-East Asian ingredients and imports from my grandparent’s minimart, I’m out of ideas.”

“Why not kebabs?” Drew asked. “There’s a kebab store on every corner of every city block in the western world. It’s like, the law or something. I’m sure we can find something.”

“Sounds good to me,” Pedro said.

They started looking around and eventually found a place that looked good. They went inside and ordered before finding a table. It was when they were all halfway through their meal that Roxy’s phone started vibrating in her pocket. She fished it out and frowned at the call ID. “Why is Carol calling me?”

“Answer it and find out,” Sam said through a mouthful of doner meat.

Roxy shrugged and answered, putting the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”

Whatever she’d been expecting, it certainly wasn’t to hear her dad’s voice, sounding frantic and terrified.

“Roxy! Don’t go to the airport! It’s a trap!”

—

4 hours earlier…

Damien sat on the couch, flipping through channel after channel on the TV in search of something that would distract him long enough for him to forget about his anxieties over his daughter’s departure. She was in good hands, and she was a perfectly capable young woman on her own, so there was absolutely nothing for him to be worrying about. And yet, he just couldn’t let the thought go. Something felt off, and it didn’t help that he didn’t know where she was going. The last time she went away for an extended period of time, she was tortured. The thought of something like that happening to her again was almost too much to bear.

He sighed and switched off the TV. It just wasn’t helping. He could always play the part of the overbearing parent and text Roxy to see how she was, but he didn’t want to annoy her. She was probably having a good time with her friends, and it hadn’t even been half an hour since she left yet. He just needed to get over his fears by himself. He knew they were irrational.

…There was one thing he could think of to get his mind off of things. Chris was upstairs having a shower, and he probably wouldn’t mind it if Damien happened to join him. The thought was exciting, if a little nerve-wracking. It had been a few months, but he was still getting used to the idea of being intimate with other men. Chris knew what he was doing, though, and he was guiding Damien along. He’d come a long way from nervously stuttering any time they took their pants off.

His mind made up and his body thrumming with excitement at the thought, he quickly headed upstairs towards his room. He couldn’t hear the shower running, but that was fine. There was no reason they couldn’t get into bed instead. They would probably both need another shower afterwards, but again, not really an issue. He was just about at his room when he heard Chris’s voice coming from inside, sounding weirdly serious. It seemed like he was talking to someone. Damien would’ve just brushed it aside, but that nagging feeling from earlier was back with a vengeance, so instead he crept up to the slightly-ajar door and listened in, catching the back end of a sentence.

“-the Seattle-Tacoma airport,” Chris said, sounding far more authoritative than Damien had ever heard before, even in the bedroom. He must have been on the phone or something. “The drive is about four hours, so they should get there around seven or eight. Be ready by then, and wait them out if you have to.”

Dread settled in the pit of Damien’s stomach. Chris was talking about Roxy’s group. Who would he be sharing that with?

“I don’t know where their flight is going, no. No, Kindley just said that it was in the morning. She didn’t mention a specific time. She’s travelling with both direwolves, two other potential werewolves, and one confirmed human, so be ready for a fight. Yes, you can make a scene, just don’t let local law enforcement get in the way. If you mess this up, it’s my head that Father Superior will want. No, just the direwolves. Kill the werewolves, and do whatever you see fit with the humans. I would personally prefer it if you left Kindley alive, but if she poses a problem, don’t hesitate.”

Damien’s blood turned to ice in his veins. His heart was pounding, his mind racing with thought after thought, much too fast for him to latch on to any single one. This… this couldn’t be right, could it? The way Chris was talking, it sounded like he was setting up a trap for Roxy and her friends, like he was working for the hunters. But, he couldn’t be. It wouldn’t make any sense. It had to be some sort of misunderstanding. It had to be. The alternative hurt too much to think about.

…And yet, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. The more he thought, the more the heavy truth settled into his heart like the nails being hammered into his coffin. Father Superior was the leader of the hunters, or so he’d heard from Pedro. That wasn’t common knowledge. The only way Chris would know that was if he was a werewolf or a hunter, and considering that he told whoever was on the other end of the phone to ‘kill the werewolves,’ there was only one conclusion Damien’s mind could settle on.

…Oh god. He had to get out of here. He had to warn Roxy before she walked right into that trap and got taken from him again. He couldn’t lose his daughter a second time. He took a step backwards, making for the exit, but ended up stumbling right onto the one creaky floorboard in the entire house. The sound it made as it depressed mimicked the sound of his soul tearing itself in two as he realised he was caught.

“Damien? That you?” His voice was back to its usual emotiveness, but with the context of what he’d heard, it only made his perceived easiness that much more chilling.

Okay. He could do this. He could play dumb for a little bit. Taking a deep breath, he summed up his courage and stepped into the doorway of the bedroom. Chris was smiling at him, but there was something unsettling in his emerald green eyes.

Damien swallowed, his throat dry and rough, and tried to speak. “Y-yeah, hey. I was just… Just came to see if you were out of the shower.” His eyes flitted away as the lie slipped out. Chris’s reddish-blond hair wasn’t even wet.

Chris hummed. “Yeah, I’m all done. Did you need me for something?” Contrary to Damien, his lie slipped out as easily as he breathed. Something twinged painfully deep inside him. Just how much of their relationship was built on lies like that?

Damien just barely remembered that he needed to respond. “N-no,” was all he could manage.

Chris sighed, his expression dropping away into something terrifyingly blank. His eyes became knives, piercing right through Damien’s body and into his soul. “You heard that phone call, didn’t you?”

A pause, a single beat of silence between the two men, and Damien was running.

He could hear the hard pounding of feet on the floorboards behind him as he raced down the stairs, almost tripping over himself. He didn’t need to look behind to know that Chris was gaining. It was okay, though. He just needed to get out the front door, and he would be safe. Chris wouldn’t do anything in public.

He reached the door and grabbed the handle, twisting it. It didn’t budge.

It was locked.

Something hard cracked him on the back of the head and everything went black.

.

.

.

Damien woke to a painful throbbing in his skull, like his brain was trying to break free from his cranium. He cracked an eye open and found himself staring at his own lap. He was sitting on something, seemingly in his kitchen somewhere, if the familiar pattern on the tile floor below his feet was anything to go by. His shoulders ached painfully and something was cutting into his wrists, keeping his arms firmly restrained behind his back. He couldn’t open his mouth. It didn’t take long for him to remember what had happened. A groan slipped from his throat when he lifted his head to see Chris, looting a beer from the fridge and cracking it open before sitting down on the dining table. He turned and paused as they made eye contact, the bottle just millimetres away from his lips. A grin spread across his face and he took a sip, staring Damien down the whole time.

“Oh, good. For a while there I was worried you were dead. You were out for ages.”

Damien swore at him through his gag, glaring daggers into those green eyes he’d trusted so much. This was all happening too fast. Even looking back, there were barely any warning signs. How could a man act so kind and loving one day only to turn around and do this the next?

Chris’s expression turned sad and he sighed. “Why’d it have to come to this, Damien? We had a good thing going! Why’d you have to come upstairs right at that moment? We could’ve been happy! If the trap went well, your daughter would be rid of that freakish beast and we all could’ve been happy together!”

Damien wanted to scream, but all he could do was sit there and grunt, thrashing about in an attempt to break the zip-tie binding his wrists. Chris walked over and grabbed the edge of the duct tape covering his mouth, tearing it off in a mercifully swift motion. Damien took a second to catch his breath before laying into the man he’d allowed into his home and his bed.

“How can you say that with a straight face, you son of a bitch?! You told whoever was on the other end of that phone to kill Roxy!”

Chris shrugged. “Eh, that’s just if worse comes to worst. You’d get over her.”

An anger the likes of which he’d never felt before burned inside him. He wanted to kill Chris. He wanted to beat him bloody and senseless until he was begging him to stop, and then he’d beat him some more. At least with Emmerich, he never actually had to look the man in the eye. But now there was nowhere else for him to look. He could do nothing but stare up at the man who’d wormed his way into his heart, played with it until it was nice and pliable, and then smashed it to pieces. Get over her?? She was all he had left.

And if he didn’t find a way out of this, he’d lose her too.

The anger crumbled and dampened into a pit of sorrow so deep he couldn’t see the bottom. All of the happy moments he’d shared with Chris; their first kiss, introducing him to Roxy, those exciting nights together that made Damien feel more alive than he’d felt in years, it was all just a stupid farce, a ploy so that Chris could get close to Roxy and her friends and spy on them for the hunters. None of it was real. Chris never liked him. He was just a means to an end. The tears started falling, and there was nothing he could do to hold them back.

“It was all just a lie…” he whispered, his voice quivering. “This whole time, you were just stringing me along!”

He broke down sobbing, hanging his head so he wouldn’t have to look at that bastard anymore. He couldn’t stand staring at him any longer. It just hurt too much.

“Oh no, Damien, no… Don’t cry! It’s not like that!” He came over and cradled Damien’s face, wiping the tears from his cheeks. “Yes, it started out as just work, but I really do care for you! Honestly, I’m not even supposed to be romantically involved with you, I was just meant to befriend you! You know how my employers feel about same-sex relationships. Do you really think I would’ve risked that if I didn’t truly care? These past few months have been some of the happiest of my life! We can still be happy together if you want to! We can just forget about all this and move on! I can even call my men and make sure they don’t hurt Roxy when they take the wolves, if that’s what it takes.”

Damien shook his head. “If you care about me at all, call it off! Leave my daughter and her friends alone!”

Chris sighed, backing off and heading back to the table. “You know I can’t do that. Those wolves are too dangerous. I know Sam may seem like a harmless airhead, but did you know that she’s killed people before? Tore their throats out and left them to bleed in the dirt. Eight of them, all buried out there in the forest. We only found their bodies earlier this year. I’ve seen the bodycam footage. It is horrific.”

Damien grit his teeth. He hadn’t known that. He did have a hunch, hanging on his mind ever since she saved Roxy from the outpost, but it wasn’t something they ever talked about with him. Still, he knew Sam a lot better than this piece of shit. Roxy had to kill those people to survive, and he had no doubt it was the same with Sam as well. “It was self-defence!”

Chris clicked his tongue. “Don’t sound so sure. You should see the footage. She wasn’t fighting for survival, she was playing with her food, kiting them around and pouncing from behind. The sheer glee on her face every time she killed one of them was chilling. People don’t understand how dangerous they really are, and don’t get me started on the trash you people call ‘news’ in this town. The blatant werewolf cock-riding going on is obvious. There’s definitely one running things behind the scenes.” He cracked a smile. “But it doesn’t matter. Everyone will understand soon. They’ll see just how dangerous werewolves can be, and then they’ll be begging us to save them.”

“You’ll just be solving a problem that you created! You people are such hypocrites! Think about it! You know that werewolves aren’t actually dangerous, that’s why you’re going to use that super-drug to change them into monsters so you can feel justified in killing them! Can’t you see how wrong you are?! Millions of innocent people are going to die if you don’t call this trap off, Chris! Please!”

The man looked at him curiously. “You know about DX-47? Wow, aren’t you well informed?”

“How could I not know?! Your people experimented on Roxy with it when she was kidnapped!”

Chris paused for a second before his eyes widened in realisation. “Oh yeah! I remember watching the tapes of that.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Man, that Emmerich guy was a psycho. Like, the police report doesn’t even scratch the surface of the stuff he did to her. Truly went way further than necessary. Like, yeah, the whipping is kind of brutal, but it’s something those new street-hires have all gotta go through. It’s like a rite of passage. Everything else, though? I was honestly shocked she didn’t die from some of those punishments. The guy even strapped her into an electric chair at one point! She’s a real trooper, walking out of that as well-adjusted as she did, and honestly, I don’t blame her for smashing his head like a pumpkin. I probably would’ve done the same. Shame about the company she keeps, though.”

Damien did his best to ignore the obvious taunting. He couldn’t believe it took him this long to realise how unhinged Chris truly was. How could he claim to care in one breath and so jovially talk about Roxy’s torture in the next? There was only one more ace up his sleeve, one last hail mary to appeal to Chris’s fucked up emotions. If it didn’t work, Damien didn’t know what else he could do.

“Chris, you don’t understand what you’re doing. If you don’t call your men off, it’s not just the werewolves you’ll be killing. You’ll kill me and Roxy too, regardless of if your men hurt her or not. If you truly care about me, call your men right now and tell them to back down. Please.”

Chris stared at him incredulously. “Wow, Damien. Begging I can understand, but flat-out lying? I thought you were better than that.”

Damien ignored the hypocrisy of that statement and continued. “I’m not lying. Roxy and I are part werewolf. My great-grandfather was one, and we still have the gene inside us. If your people activate the eclipse ritual and use the drug on Sam or Drew, I will die.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Okay, this is getting ridiculous. You’re not a werewolf, Damien. You don’t even have any fangs.”

“Roxy does! Your experimentation drew the dormant gene out of her!”

Chris’s face morphed into a scowl and he grunted, slamming his beer bottle down as he stood up and walked over. He roughly shoved two fingers into Damien’s mouth and felt around. “Look! No fangs! Now stop with the bullshit!”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to provoke someone who was currently holding you captive, but Damien was too fed up to care. He bit down on Chris’s fingers as hard as he could, definitely breaking skin if the taste of blood was anything to go by. Chris howled, yanking his fingers out and punching Damien hard across the face.

“Aargh! Why’d you do that?!” Chris screamed. “What does that achieve?! Do you want to piss me off?!”

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Even dazed by the punch as he was, Damien couldn’t help but chuckle. “What were you expecting? You basically handed me the opportunity on a silver platter.”

Chris growled and came at him again, punching him over and over. Damien could do nothing but sit there and take it, doing his best to stay conscious. Provoking him might have been a bad idea, in hindsight. By the time Chris had tired himself out, Damien was a mess. Blood, spit, and tears dripped from his face onto his shirt. His left eye was swollen shut, and his right wasn’t far behind. He had to breathe through his mouth on account of the blood that had filled his nose and sinuses. Agonising pain throbbed through his entire face with every beat of his heart, but he endured it. He’d never considered himself a strong man, but his daughter’s life was in danger, and he wasn’t going to give up after one measly beating. Roxy never gave up through all her torment, and neither would he.

Chris was pacing back and forth, still fuming but thankfully not seeming like he wanted to go for another round. He wasn’t really paying attention to Damien anymore, instead directing his fury on various kitchen appliances. Damien watched with detached sorrow as he picked up the coffee maker and threw it onto the ground, smashing it to pieces. Taking advantage of his distraction, Damien wiggled a bit, checking if he was feasibly able to get himself off of the chair without being untied.

It seemed like Chris hadn’t bothered actually restraining him to the chair, clearly hoping that having his arms painfully twisted around the back of it would be enough to keep him there. He tried to stand up a little and was pleased to find nothing stopping him. If he wanted to, he could stand up completely and try to make a run for it. It wasn’t an option just yet, though. Chris was still right there, and the front door was still locked. He could probably unlock it with a bit of difficulty if Chris wasn’t around, but it was hopeless as long as he remained. On the other hand, if the door was unlocked, he was confident he’d be able to open it from behind himself and slip out quickly enough to get away, even with Chris still in the room. He just needed one of those two things to happen, and he’d be able to save Roxy. All he needed was a little bit of luck…

Chris let out a heavy sigh and turned back to him. “You know what? Fine. We’re done. If you really hate me that much, I’ll just get out of your life forever. As soon as I hear that the trap’s gone off, I’ll untie you and we can both go on our merry ways. It should be…” He looked at his watch. “Hm. Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes, actually. Unless they got caught in some bad traffic, they should be getting to Seattle at any moment, and from there the airport isn’t far.”

Damien’s stomach dropped. Had it really been that long already? How long was he out for?! He needed to get out of here. Where was that stroke of luck when he needed it?

A mew sounded from the top of the stairs behind him, along with the arrhythmic thumping of Mr. Slinky limping his way down to the kitchen. He spotted Chris and hissed, jumping up to settle on Damien’s lap. Chris glared at the cat.

“Freaky little fuck, aren’t you?” he said, walking over. Damien unconsciously tensed up a little, some part of him expecting another beating, but Chris just grabbed the cat by its scruff in one swift motion, carrying it over to the front door. He unlocked it and threw the poor animal out before slamming the door shut again, turning back around.

He didn’t lock it again. How ironic that a black cat would prove to be the luck he was waiting for.

“Asshole,” he muttered under his breath.

Chris turned to him, eyes locking on like a hawk finding its prey. “What did you just say?”

Alright. Damien had an idea. It was potentially a bad one, but he was running out of options. Mustering what was left of his courage, he spoke.

“Why don’t you come a little closer and I’ll tell you?”

It was quite possibly the oldest trick in the book, but Chris was far from in his right mind. Damien was banking on that unhinged anger to get him through. Sure enough, Chris cracked a lopsided grin and stepped forward. He leaned down and gripped Damien’s chin. “I’ll ask again. What did you just say?”

“Just a little closer, please.” He was pushing his luck and he knew it.

Thankfully, Chris played along. He laughed. “Are you trying to get me to kiss you, Damien?”

Alright, close enough. Time to embrace his heritage.

Damien leapt forward, biting down on whatever he could find purchase on. His sudden weight sent Chris stumbling backwards into the table, screaming as Damien’s teeth ripped a chunk out of his cheek. He pulled back, and then surged forward again with a headbutt, crushing Chris’s nose and hopefully dazing him long enough to give him a chance. Damien jumped to his feet, backing up to the door so he could keep an eye on his attacker. He gripped the handle just as Chris had gotten back up, twisting it open just in time. As soon as he felt fresh air at his back, he turned and ran as fast as he could down the street, laughing as the sensation of freedom rushed over him. He probably made quite an image: bloody-faced with his hands tied behind his back, cackling like a mad person. The streets were quiet anyway, so it’s not like it really mattered.

A quick glance behind him proved that he was right; Chris hadn’t followed him outside. He was safe. Now he just had to stay that way. Thankfully, his destination wasn’t very far.

Even as unfit as he was, it didn’t take long for him to jog his way over to the Walkers’ house. He reached the door and was about to knock when a familiar chirping made him look down. His eyes widened in relief. “Mr. Slinky! You’re okay!”

The cat responded by rubbing up against his legs and peering up at him expectantly. He smiled back. “Sorry buddy. I’d pet you if I could. Gotta get my hands untied first.”

WIth his hands restrained behind his back as they were, his only option for knocking was to kick the door over and over, which, if not for the situation, would’ve made him feel quite rude. It definitely made quite a bit more of a racket than normal knocking would, but thankfully that just brought him help that much quicker.

“Alright, alright! Jesus!” Carol yelled from the other side of the door. Her annoyed expression quickly morphed into one of shock when she opened the door and saw the state he was in. “Oh my god! What happened?”

“Long story,” he said, stepping inside along with Mr. Slinky. “I need to use your phone. Also, do you think you could cut me loose?”

Carol, still in a state of some shock, could do nothing but oblige, finding some scissors and finally cutting the zip-tie around his wrists. He sighed in relief and rubbed feeling back into the indented skin, circulation returning to his hands. “Oh, that’s so much better.”

“Here,” Carol said, handing him her phone. “But you owe me an explanation once you’re done.”

He nodded gratefully. “Thank you. I’ll tell you everything soon. I just have to call Roxy first.”

He navigated to the phone app and quickly found her contact, pressing the call button. He held the phone to his ear as ring after ring sounded out, praying to whatever god would listen that he’d made it in time. “Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up…”

Finally, there was a click.

“Hello?”

“Roxy! Don’t go to the airport! It’s a trap!”

—

Roxy’s stomach dropped. Every werewolf at the table paused and looked at her, the surprise in their faces matching the feeling that was swirling around inside of her. Only Leif seemed unfazed, still digging into her kebab and not noticing the tension of everyone else around her.

“Wh-what? Dad? What’s wrong?”

“You’re not already there, are you?!”

“No, we stopped to eat when we got to the city. Seriously, what’s going on?”

“It was Chris. He’s… H-he’s a hunter. I caught him telling someone where you were going over the phone, setting up a trap for you. This whole time, he’s been spying on us.”

“Oh my god,” she muttered. She glanced over at the still-oblivious Leif, memories of Brooke flooding her mind. She couldn’t believe they’d fallen for it again. Suddenly, realisation hit her like a bucket of cold water to the face. “Wait, are you okay?! He didn’t catch you, did he?”

“I’m… I’m fine, darling. Don’t worry.” Roxy really didn’t like the hesitation in his voice as he said that, nor the way that he dodged the question. “Mr. Slinky’s okay too, if you were worried about him. He’s here with me at Carol’s.”

Well, that was one less thing to worry about, but still. “What… what are we supposed to do now?” The question was directed both at her father and the people around her. Chris had invaded their home, and Roxy had a hunch her dad wasn’t as fine as he claimed to be. If Chris really was a hunter, it wasn’t safe for him to stay at home, and with a trap waiting for them at the airport, they were going to miss their flight as well. Where were they supposed to go?

“I… I think you should go to your phwa’s. Chris doesn’t know where she lives, and it should be safe enough for you to figure out what your next move is. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can. Does that sound alright?”

She took a second to respond, swallowing down her nerves at the whole situation. “Y-yeah, okay.”

“I’m gonna hang up now. I’ve got to figure out how I’m getting to you, and maybe see about getting a few things from home once it’s safe. I love you, Roxy. I’ll see you soon.”

“I… I love you too, dad.”

With a click, he hung up. Roxy glumly set her phone down on the table, staring through it as everything washed over her. Leif finally noticed something was off. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Pedro swore under his breath. “We’re going to have to make some new travel arrangements. And it sounds like we’ll have an extra party member.”

“He… he’s not okay. Something happened that he’s not telling me,” Roxy said, her voice sounding distant to her own ears.

“It’ll be okay, Roxy. He’s your father, he’s not gonna go down so easily,” Sam reassured, grabbing her hand. Roxy hoped to god she was right.

“What was that he said about where to go? Your ‘fwar’s?’” Pedro asked.

“Phwa,” Roxy corrected. “I-it’s Burmese. He means my grandma’s place. She lives in Seattle, and her place is pretty big. Big enough for us to stay at for a few days, anyway. I’m not sure how I’ll explain you two, though.” She gestured at Pedro and Clarissa.

The woman shrugged. “I’m sure we can find a motel to stay at for a couple days while we figure out how we’re getting down under. Helps that we won’t have to pay for rooms for you kids. We’ll just drop you off, I guess.”

“Sounds good to me,” Pedro grunted.

“Easy for you to say. I haven’t talked to my grandma in years, and all of a sudden I have to ask her if she can look after four danger-prone teenagers for an unknown amount of time, three of whom are werewolves who eat three times the average amount on a daily basis?”

“All the more reason to do it. I’m sure she’d love to catch up with you.” Clarissa smiled sweetly at her.

Roxy rolled her eyes, grabbing her phone. “Fine.”

She searched through her contacts until she found the one for her phwa, having gone unused for years until this moment. She felt a little guilty for it, but it’s not like her dad was any better. She knew how bad he was at keeping up with his family. With a deep breath, she pressed call and put the phone up to her ear. It clicked after a few rings and an old, heavily-accented voice answered.

“Hello? Who is this?”

Well, that was just an extra guilt-punch to the gut. She didn’t even have her contact saved. She ignored it and pressed on. “Hi, phwa! This is Roxy, your granddaughter? I know it’s been a long time.” She laughed awkwardly.

“Ooh! Roxy! It’s been so long! How are you? Your voice is so deep now!”

Roxy chose not to address the last comment. “I’ve been good! How about you?”

“Oh, good! Your cousins and aunt are here at the moment, so we’ve just been catching up.”

Roxy’s eye twitched. While she loved her cousins and always had a good time with them on the rare occasion that they saw each other, she wasn’t sure if she could handle that many people bombarding her with questions at once. She was already expecting a few hard-hitters just about her appearance now. She didn’t actually know how much her extended family knew about her kidnapping, so she’d been mentally preparing herself to try and explain that ever since her dad told her where to go.

“What a coincidence! I’m actually in town right now, with a couple of friends. We were headed to the airport, but, uh… something fell through with our flight, so we’ve been looking for a place to stay for a few days while we sort out a replacement or something. I hate to ask, but is it possible you could put us up for a few days? I promise we can earn our keep!”

“Oh Roxy, of course it’s fine! I’d love that! We have so much to catch up on, after all! Your father never calls me anymore, so I have no idea what you’ve been up to lately.”

Oh joy, Roxy thought. “That’s, uh… that’s the funny thing, actually. Dad’s coming up to Seattle as well, so you’ll have some time to catch up with him, too! He’s a few hours behind us, but hopefully he’ll arrive at some point tonight.”

“Oh, wonderful! When are you coming? Have you eaten?”

“Yes, we’ve eaten. We’ll probably come soon, is that alright?”

“Of course!”

“Cool. Uh, we’ll… we’ll see you in a bit, then?”

“Alright, see you soon!”

The call ended and Roxy put her phone away, groaning and rubbing her face. “Oh boy, this is gonna be interesting.”

—

“I don’t wanna do this.”

Roxy stared up at the imposing wooden double doors of her grandma’s house, dreading what was coming. She could already hear the frantic questions now.

“Dude, just knock. It’s not that hard,” Leif said. “Here, I’ll do it.”

Roxy’s hand shot out to grab her arm before she could raise it up to the door. “No! No, it’s fine, I can do it!”

Leif raised an eyebrow. “Then do it.”

“Cut the sass, alright? I’m just… building up to it.”

“Roxy, it’s just your grandma. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Sam said.

“I’m not afraid of her. It’s just that I’m like, ninety-nine percent sure she doesn't know about everything that happened to me last year, so the second she sees my face, I’m gonna be bombarded with questions that I don’t know how to answer.”

“Can’t you just tell her you don’t want to talk about it?” Drew asked.

“I guess? It just… It doesn’t change how awkward it’s gonna be.”

“Hey.” Sam put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be right there beside you, don’t worry.”

Roxy took a deep breath. “Okay, I can do this.” She put her hand up to the door and was about to knock when it swung open unexpectedly and she came face to face with an older Asian woman, around her dad’s age. Her aunt Maiah. They both blinked at each other for a few seconds before realisation flashed in the older woman’s face and she came forward for a hug that Roxy was not ready for.

“Oh, Roxy! I heard you were coming! It’s so good to see you!”

Roxy laughed awkwardly and did her best to return the hug with the woman that she hadn’t seen for four years. “H-hey, auntie. It’s good to see you, too.”

She pulled back with her hands on Roxy’s shoulders and a big smile on her face. “Wow, look how much you’ve grown! You’re taller than me now! And all these muscles, you’ve got to tell me your workout plan!”

Roxy appreciated that she was only pointing out positive things about her appearance, completely ignoring the very obvious scars littering most of her visible skin. She was pretty sure Maiah at least knew about her kidnapping already, but it was reassuring, regardless. Maiah had always been pretty affable and easy-going, and quite good at reading social cues, so it would be good to have her around as a buffer when the heavier questions inevitably started flying with her grandma and younger cousins. She wasn’t as worried about the ones around her age - Eddie and Stella, fraternal twins who were just a year younger than her - but she wouldn’t be surprised if twelve year old Finn hadn’t quite learned social tact yet, and that wasn’t even mentioning eight year old Kaylee, who probably didn’t even remember who Roxy was. Regardless, this night was sure to be interesting.

Maiah glanced over Roxy’s shoulder at everyone else. “Who’re your friends?”

“Oh, this is Sam, my girlfriend,” she said, not realising that she didn’t actually know Maiah’s stance on gay people until it had already slipped out. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to bat an eye, so Roxy continued. “And these are Leif and Drew.”

“Nice to meet you,” Leif said.

“Y-yeah,” Drew added on. Roxy realised that Maiah seemed to be staring at him, and a twinge of worry shot through her gut.

“I’ve seen you somewhere before,” she said, squinting at him. Clearly the patchy stubble he was trying to grow out wasn’t a very effective disguise after all, though Leif had already tried to tell him that. Maiah’s eyes widened. “Yeah, you’re that guy from the video! The werewolf!”

Drew swallowed. “Uh, yep. That’s me.”

Maiah looked him up and down. “Huh. Thought you’d be taller.” She shrugged, seemingly completely unfazed. Roxy didn’t know what she expected, honestly. “You guys wanna come inside?”

They all started to head in, but Roxy hung back, getting her aunt’s attention. “Hey, quick question, but does phwa know about…” She gestured at her face. “All of this?”

“They don’t really watch the news, so they wouldn’t unless your dad told them, which he said he would when we last spoke. But also, I know your dad, so the answer is probably no.”

“Dad never mentioned it, and phwa didn’t say anything about it when I called her earlier, either,” Roxy said, sighing. “Oh boy, this is gonna suck.”

Maiah clapped her on the shoulder. “Hey, I’ll back you up. The twins will, too. If you want, I can go in and tell her while you wait out here?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I can do this.”

Maiah nodded and led her and her friends into the house, through the entrance hallway and into the combined kitchen and dining room, which seemed to be where her phwa was waiting. Her cousins didn’t seem to be present, but she could hear the sound of a TV deeper in the house, so she could hedge a guess as to where they were. They would probably show themselves once they realised she was there.

“Mom?” Maiah said, getting her attention. “Roxy and her friends are here.”

The elderly woman turned to them, a big smile on her face. She came forward and gave Roxy a hug, seemingly without noticing anything awry yet. “Oh, Roxy! I missed you! You’ve gotten so big now!”

Roxy returned the embrace, enjoying the last few remaining seconds of normalcy before she was inevitably reminded that ‘normal’ just wasn’t a thing she could be a part of anymore. “Hi, phwa. I missed you too. Sorry I haven’t really kept in touch.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” she said, pulling back. “You get it from your father-” Her eyes widened. She reached up and touched Roxy’s scarred cheek. “Your face! What happened?”

Roxy let out a sigh, gently removing her phwa’s hand. “It’s a really long story. I take it dad never told you about what happened last year?”

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t spoken to him since the Christmas before last.”

Roxy nodded. “I thought as much. I’ll tell you, just… Do you mind if we get settled in, first? Oh, uh… these are my friends, Sam, Leif, and Drew.”

The attempt to change the subject was clunky and obvious, but thankfully her phwa didn’t push the subject of her scars any further. She greeted all of her friends and they set about picking their rooms. Since her cousins were also staying there, it was a pretty tight fit, but they made it work by shuffling a few mattresses around. Leif and Drew managed to score a room to themselves, while Roxy and Sam ended up sharing a room with the twins. Roxy didn’t really mind. It reminded her of having sleepovers with them when they were little, so it was hardly anything to complain about. They brought another mattress into the room for Sam, but Roxy knew they were just going to share the bed like always.

Once they’d put their luggage away, the four of them returned to the main room. Roxy couldn’t put it off any longer, she had to tell her phwa what had happened. They were joined by Eddie and Stella, but the younger two of her cousins had been smartly whisked away to bed by Maiah. They were a bit too young to be hearing the story Roxy was about to tell. The older two knew the broad strokes that most of the public did, but were clearly still curious, even if they knew to hold their tongues.

They all congregated around the dining table and Roxy began. “Well, for starters, how much do you know about all the werewolf stuff going on?” she asked.

The older woman blinked at her. “Werewolf?”

Maiah sighed. “This is why you need to watch the news, mom. What did you think all those protests in the city were about?”

Evidently, this was going to take a while.

—

The conversation went well, for the most part. Once her phwa was caught up on the fact that werewolves were real and all that jazz, and had calmed down from her subsequent ‘oh my god werewolves are real’ freakout, Roxy was able to explain what happened to her. She explained why she was kidnapped and gave a rough outline of what happened while she was in the outpost. Obviously, she didn’t go into much detail, just saying that she was treated poorly and punished when she didn’t follow their instructions to the letter. Even with her abridged description, she still ended up getting a little overwhelmed at one point. Thankfully, she’d brought some THC gummies along for the trip to help with her anxiety, so she was able to pop one of those and stay relatively calm.

It was pretty late by the time they were finished, so her phwa went to bed, along with the rest of the pack, tired-out from the journey. Roxy, on the other hand, chose to stay up despite how exhausted she was. She wanted to wait until her dad arrived to make sure he was okay. Maiah and the twins stayed up with her, playing cards and making idle conversation to pass the time.

“So, Roxy,” Stella started, drawing a card from the deck. “Your hair, is that dye? The white part, I mean.”

She shook her head, placing a card from her hand onto the pile. “No, it’s just like that now. One morning I woke up, and it was white. We think it’s from stress.”

“Looks cool. Mom won’t let me bleach mine,” Stella said with a pout.

“I’ve been there, you’ll regret it,” Maiah replied. She placed down a plus two card and Eddie groaned. “Speaking of which, how’s your mom, Roxy? I forgot to ask.”

Roxy blinked in surprise. “Oh, dad hasn’t told you?”

Maiah shot her an unimpressed look. “Your dad literally never speaks to us. So no, he hasn’t told me. What is it?”

“Him and Martha split up back in October. I haven’t seen her since January when everything was finalised.”

To Roxy’s surprise, the older woman barked out a laugh. “Ha, good riddance. No offence, Roxy, but your mom was a bitch.”

Roxy laughed as well. “None taken. She was horrible, and we’ve both been happier since she left.”

“Is he seeing anyone else?”

Roxy hesitated, remembering everything she’d learnt that day. Also, she wasn’t about to out her dad without his permission. “It’s… complicated.”

Maiah shrugged and the game went on. Eventually, Sam came stumbling bleary-eyed out of the hallway, making her way over to Roxy and slumping against her.

“What’s up? Can’t sleep?” Roxy asked.

Sam nodded, yawning. “Not used to sleeping in a bed without something to hug. What’re you up to?”

“Just playing Uno. You wanna join in next round?”

She shook her head. “Nah, too tired.”

“I can make you a cup of tea, if you’d like?” Maiah offered. She’d already won that round, so she was free to leave the table while Roxy duked it out with the twins.

“I’d love that, actually. Thanks.”

Maiah nodded and got up, walking over to the kitchen to put the kettle on. Sam sat down on a free chair next to Roxy, supporting her head with her hands in what looked like a desperate bid to stay awake. A part of Roxy felt a little guilty keeping her up like this, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get to sleep herself if she didn’t make sure her dad was safe first.

“Hey, uh… Sam, was it?” Eddie asked.

“That’s what they call me.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get that?” He pointed at his cheek, clearly referencing Sam’s scars.

She shrugged. “Mean werewolf.”

“Woah, really? A werewolf actually attacked you? I thought their whole campaign was that they weren’t dangerous?”

Sam immediately straightened up, no doubt realising that her words could paint her whole species in a bad light if she wasn’t careful. “No, uh… he was… He wasn’t himself, at the time.”

“The hunters have this drug that makes werewolves shift and go crazy,” Roxy explained. “He was one of their test subjects. They just let him run rampant on the streets until Sam and I ran into him. Granted, he was always an asshole, and he did try to kill us both on multiple occasions before that, but he was one guy. Not at all representative of the species as a whole. Most werewolves I’ve met have been perfectly normal people.”

“Damn,” Eddie eloquently replied. “So, you’ve known about all this werewolf stuff for a while then, huh?”

“Yeah,” Roxy said. She nervously looked up at him and his sister. “What do you guys think of all of it?”

Stella shrugged. “I think it’s neat. The world’s a lot bigger than you think, y’know? Also, it’s hard to see them as the bad guys considering what these hunter people are like. We know that they’re bad ‘cuz of what they did to you, so it makes sense that they would also paint the werewolves out in a bad light to make people hate them more. They just seem like people to me.”

“What she said, pretty much.” Eddie said.

“Also, that werewolf from the news clip was pretty hunky, if ya know what I mean.” She waggled her eyebrows at Roxy, clearly unaware that she was a lesbian, and did not, in fact, know what she meant.

“Except for that part,” Eddie added.

“Sorry, Stel, but he’s taken,” Roxy said with a wry smile.

She frowned. “Huh? How do you know? Do you know him?”

“Did you not recognise him?” Maiah asked, bringing the cup of tea back to the table.

“Who?”

“The werewolf from the news clip. He’s asleep in the other room right now.”

“Wait, that was him?! Roxy, you’re friends with the guy?!”

She just shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. He’s not even the first werewolf I’ve made friends with. There are like, three others.”

“I was the first!” Sam exclaimed proudly.

“Oh, you’re one too?” Maiah asked.

The blonde grinned and showed off her fangs, her eyes flashing red for a brief second. “Yup! It’s nice not to have to hide it anymore.”

“You want me to let you in on a secret?” Roxy asked the table. “All of us are actually part werewolf as well!”

“Bullshit,” Eddie said.

“Language!”

“Sorry.”

Roxy flashed her eyes at them and they all jumped in surprise. She grinned. “It’s the truth. Aunt Maiah, don’t you remember your Pho telling stories about his dad? About how he could turn into an animal and stuff? Dad said he remembered.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh! I do remember that! Oh my god!”

“Wait, so does that mean we can all transform and stuff?” Stella asked excitedly.

Roxy shook her head. “Sorry, no. For all intents and purposes, you’re basically human, even if you have werewolf heritage. I can only shift a little bit because of some really specific stuff that happened to me. Long story short, a mix of moon magic and the hunter’s super-werewolf drug drew out my werewolf genes. That’s the running theory, at least.”

“Aw man. Lucky.”

A knock on the door caught Roxy’s attention and her heart leapt into her throat. It was almost midnight, no one would be knocking unless it was her dad.

“I’ll get it!” She jumped up from the table and ran out of the kitchen and through the entrance hall. She didn’t even bother checking the peep-hole before frantically unlocking the door and throwing it open. Thankfully, it was indeed just her dad, carrying Mr. Slinky in his arms. On a much less cheerful note, he looked like someone had used his face as a speedbag. She gasped.

“Dad!” she cried. “What happened?!”

She threw herself at him, wrapping him in as tight of a hug as she could manage without crushing her cat between them. He returned the embrace with his one free arm. “Sorry. I might have lied when I said I was fine.”

She pulled out of the hug. “Quick, come inside. Were you followed?”

He stepped in and she shut the door behind him. He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Chris was gone when Carol and I went back to the house.”

“He did this to you?”

He glanced at her before quickly looking away with tears in his eyes. He nodded.

“I’ll kill him.”

“Roxy, that’s-”

She grabbed his shoulders, tears building up. Her wolf was flaring, the light from her glowing amber eyes reflecting off of her dad’s own brown ones. “Dad. I can’t let him get away with this. He hurt you. He hurt you!”

He finally set Mr. Slinky down so he could cradle Roxy’s face. “Roxy, please don’t put yourself in danger for my sake. He’ll get what’s coming to him in due time. For now, you need to focus on getting to the Council, alright?”

The tears started overflowing, spilling down her face. “Dad. Dad!”

He pulled her close, letting her cry into his shoulder. “I know, sweetie. I know.” His voice cracked, and soon he was crying too.

“I know.”