Page 113 of Ice Wolf
“What is going on? Talk to me. Are you trying to tell me I’m some furry creature?”
As if in response, my dad placed his iced tea on the table, taking his time to rise to his feet. He moved slowly toward his huge bookshelf. He had hundreds of books, most of which I’d read. Strangely enough, when he pulled one free, I heard a slight click.
He moved a section of books at one time. What? Like they did in the movies.
There was a safe located behind. As he pressed in numbers, I glanced at my mother once again. I’d been all over the bookshelf. Why hadn’t I discovered the safe before? Oh, this was getting weird.
Mother still had a polite smile on her face, but I knew it was as plastic as the one I’d had when walking into the house.
Dad retrieved a plain brown envelope, leaving the safe open and heading in my direction.
Slowly.
“We’ve been meaning to talk to you about this for some time now. Your mother and I simply couldn’t find the right time or a real reason to,” Dad said as he placed the envelope in my hands.
“Maybe we’d hoped that you’d never need to learn the truth.” Mother’s voice was so soft and comforting.
“Then when I heard about Saint, I knew you were the one who could empathize with him the most.” Dad laughed and he returned to his seat. “Granted, I wasn’t expecting that after all this, Saint would end up being someone special in your life. Fate has a way of bringing people together.”
“Fate? He’s not special, Dad. He’s just… my fake fiancé.” Maybe if I spouted off the concept enough I could believe it.
“Open the envelope, dear,” Mother told me.
I bit my lower lip and stared at it for several seconds. Why did I know instinctively that whatever was inside would change my life forever? And maybe not in a good way. I peeled the flap, reaching inside. It was a single photograph. Black and white, the picture was grainy, like one of those old-time photos when cameras were first introduced.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Just allow your eyes to become adjusted to the light,” Dad suggested.
I looked again, blinking a few times. Finally, the haze began to lift. There was a huge figure standing off in the woods near some sort of shack or maybe a house. Only he wasn’t human. I blinked again until my brain kicked in what I was looking at.
“A werewolf. I mean a shifter. A wolf shifter. What is this, some kind of joke?”
Mom and Dad had that look between them once again. At that point, I felt the world as I knew it crumbling around me.
“No, punkin,” my dad said, the use of the old nickname from when I was a child less than comforting. “That’s your great-great-grandfather Sam.”
My mind started playing music, a little quiet children’s song about some crazy blue shark. That had occurred from time to time just after I’d heard the song during a children’s read-along event at the library. It was meant as a comforting tool, a way of keeping me grounded if things around me were getting particularly hairy.
No pun intended, but I’d say this was extremely hairy.
Exhaling, I placed the photograph on the envelope, patting it a few times. Maybe I was using some kind of magic spell to wish this all away. However, I could tell by the looks on my parents’ faces that the explosive news was just getting started.
“What?” I managed to croak out.
“It’s not as bad as you might think,” Mother started.
“Not as bad,” I repeated. This wasn’t just an episode of theTwilight Zone. Oh, no. This was way worse.
“Sam, your great-great-grandfather, was a good man, an excellent pack leader from what I was told as a child. He kept his pack out of trouble while heading into the new age.”
“New age. Are we talking remaining human?” Was I really asking legitimate questions about this insanity? Oh, yes, I was.
“Exactly. The pack was interested in going more mainstream. Life as a shifter wasn’t easy. Men used to mistake them fortraditional wolves all the time. Hunters can be brutal. That’s when interbreeding began. What you would call interspecial coupling today.”
“Interspecial.” This was just getting better and better. Or I was just going further off the deep end.
“Exactly,” Mom interjected. “They fell in love with humans, realized they could have children and life moved on.”
