Chapter 16

Arriving home I didn’t expect anything to be out of the ordinary. I expected our large brick house to stand there towering over me, like it always does, the driveway empty, the room’s dark. There was nothing to celebrate and my parents hadn’t informed me of any gathering that we were hosting, so when I arrived home to a driveway so full I had nowhere to park and music blasting so loud I could hear it out on the street I knew there was something wrong.

My first reaction was to check and see if I was at the right address, though it wasn’t easy to mistake the mailbox that my brothers and I had decorated with various drawings when we were little for someone else’s.

I confirmed I was at the right house after I searched for the hidden key I kept under the flower pot that was under my window. After hours of trying to decide where I should put it that had seemed like the best spot. Now that I had found it, proving that I had not gotten lost and imagined our drawings on the mailbox, it was time to go inside.

Slowly I walked up the stone walkway that my brothers had constructed to get out of being grounded once. I peered in through one of the large windows which unknown people where dancing in front of.

Cautiously I pushed the heavy oak door open and dropped my backpack on the floor from shock. In the house balloons, happy birthday and congratulation signs were plastered everywhere. We had already celebrated my birthday though. My parents must have come up with some really creepy idea. I was already scared to find out what it was.

“Surprise!” Everybody screamed at me. I searched the crowd trying to find some familiar faces but I couldn’t even find one. I saw a black haired tall man who looked at me expectantly and a blonde woman whose expression mirrored his. There was a teenager my age that was looking pretty uncomfortable as if trying to find a way out, and I heard a baby crying.

“Umm, hi!” I said waving. In reply there were choruses of hi’s and hello’s, but the woman continued staring. I couldn’t place her expression though. I saw expectance, nervousness, regret and disappointment in her eyes.

“You don’t have any other reactions?” She asked me turning fully towards me and I felt her gaze pierce through my body.

“I don’t really know how to reach to this.” I told her truthfully as I saw a look of familiarity show on her face before it returned to normal.

“I expected a girl like you to have a much better reaction.” She told me, still glaring at me as if she was trying to search for something.

“Like what?” I asked her.                                            

“Definitely a reaction that was less confused. I was expecting you to recognize the scenario, at least see some familiarity, but you showed nothing. You’re just like everyone else! I cannot believe we thought you to be…” She trailed off. I was about to start panicking when I finally saw two familiar faces. The faces of the two people who had put me in this awkward position.

“Why, hello Margaret! We see you have met our daughter Ashley.” They greeted her, well more like my dad did while my mom just stood there bobbing her head back and forth.

“I have, and it’s been a disappointment. I thought she would be extraordinary and instead-” She gestured towards me, “I get this.” My parents looked at her in shock.

“She does have more too her though. You haven’t seen her in wolf form yet, and she is still to mature.” My father told her trying to save everything that was possible. I on the other hand was confused. They were telling this woman about me being a wolf in a completely relaxed manor, like it was natural.

I taped him on the shoulder as if demanding that he stop talking which awarded me with three people glaring at me in total force. My father just shook his head and turned back to Margaret as a reply.

“I sure hope so.” Margaret answered harshly causing my parents to bow their heads. Looking around I noticed that almost everyone had also had the same reaction to her tone, while I felt no impact of it.

“Ashley! Give in to your wolf!” My mother whispered to me.

“My wolf doesn’t want to do anything.” I replied to her and she slowly raised her head back up.

“You felt no impact of that at all?” She asked me returning her look of alarm again.

“No I didn’t feel anything.” I told her waiting to see the reactions my answer would get. Now everyone in the house had turned to listen to the conversation. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.

“Hmm, maybe the girls got more use than I thought she would. I hope to see you very soon.” Margaret told us smiling a completely sincere smile. With that she glanced at her steel watch and left. I couldn’t help but wonder if she had unnatural mood swings.

“What is all this?” I asked my parents now who had finally greeted me, gesturing at the group that had gathered closer to listen, while the others had vanished.

My parents exchanged dissatisfied glances, probably because of my very rude question, but at the moment I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to know what this party was about.

“It’s a happy birthday and a congratulation party all in one.” My mom smiled hugging me.

“What are we congratulating?” I asked her.

“The fact that you finally talked to someone about your problems who wasn’t in this family.” She informed me.

“How do you know about that?”

“Mrs. Wolfe called us.” She stated like it couldn’t have been any more obvious.

“I knew I shouldn’t have talked to her. She probably thinks I’m some freak now and was telling you to take me to a therapist.”

“No, you did the right thing!” My dad interjected. “And now we are here to explain the second part of your shift.”

“You’re going to explain in front of all these people?”

“Yes, we are because you see they are werewolves too.” He told me, and I sighed from relief. That explained why they were so clam talking about me being a wolf in front of Margaret.

“That means Mrs. Wolfe was right about there being more werewolves.” I commented, not being able to get myself to say more.

“Yes, she was, and do you know how she knew that?” He asked me and I just shook my head that I didn’t.

“She’s a werewolf too!” He smiled as she came up behind him.

“So that’s why you didn’t think I was crazy?” I asked her trying to process the information I had just been given. If there were this many werewolves just here, I couldn’t begin to imagine how many more there were in the world.

“Exactly-” Mrs. Wolfe started saying something before my dad tried taking over earning a scowl from me.

“We’re also really disappointed in you for taking the matter in your hands. You should have waited for us to explain everything” My dad told us from the side.

“You weren’t going to explain anything.” I told him before turning back to Mrs. Wolfe.

 “-But you have to remember that not all people are werewolves. Most of the world’s population is human and they aren’t as understanding as I was. You have to keep our race a secret. You can only reveal what you are to people you know are werewolves. For example if you told you friends what you were now, that would be a catastrophe.” She finally finished after being interrupted.

 “So it was good that I told you and not my friends?” I asked her making sure I chose well.

“You could have chosen them; it wouldn’t have ended up well though.” My dad told me taking over the explaining.

“So what would we call this large group of werewolves?” I asked. I mean we had to have a name, like a group of dogs was a pack, a group of sheep was a heard and group of geese was a flock…

“We are called a pack just like any group of wolves, but stay away from real wolves. A meeting with them could be terrible for both sides. Last time we met there was a war between real and werewolves. Both sides lost hundreds of wolves.” My dad answered and I thought about making fun of being called a pack like dogs were, but decided better of it. Instead I just asked another question.

“Hundreds? There are that many werewolves?”

“Yes there are about two thousand of us living around the world in different locations. For example there is a pack that lives in Montana.” He told me, cutting a little short on what he was going to say after Mrs. Wolfe started glaring at him. When he stopped talking there was a moment of silence, so I continued asking questions, hoping to annoy him. I had the upper hand this time, he couldn’t tell me he wouldn’t answer in front of this many people, and even if he did someone would answer instead of him.

“Why are the meetings so catastrophic?”

“Real wolves can easily tell the difference between one of themselves and one of us. Our loud movements stick out verses their quiet ones. They are sly while we are noticeable and obvious. We’re happy if we can just protect our land and survive through the full moons, while they live and survive as wolves. We’re also larger than they are which makes us even easier to tell apart from them.”

“They’ve just learned to hate us?”

“Well some of our ancestors got into a fight with them when they tried living with them and ended up scaring off pray and smashing the wolves. When they caught something they stole their food, living space and killed their youngsters.”

“Why did they do it?”

“We don’t even know that. Nobody told us the reasons why they did what they had done back then, but everything has a reason to it. They were most likely trying to fit in, but ended up making things worse.”

“I understand why they wanted to fit in. It’s not fun being alone.”

“That’s exactly why we don’t understand why they joined the wolves back then. It’s not like it was only a few people who were werewolves. There were hundreds of us even back then.” He informed me, starting to get tired of my constant questions.

“If there were hundreds of us back then already then where did our species come from?” I asked him smirking. Just when he thought I had run out of questions, I came up with a new one. Frustrated he turned to my mom and I recognized that they were having one of their silent conversations again. I would have to ask about that too.

“We’re not exactly sure, but every pack has a group that is trying to figure it out.” My mom answered this time, but before I could ask another question she continued. “You need to attend to wolf school longer than the other to have a chance at making the group. Yes you will have to attend this school too, and no you are not attending it yet.” My mom finished with a sigh sparing us a few questions. I opened my mouth to ask the next one but Mrs. Wolfe cut in.

“Don’t exhaust your parents any further or you’ll be over informed to be on this stage.” She told me. “You have two more questions, use them wisely.”

“Okay so number one when you stare at each other, but stay silent are you communicating somehow? Tell me everything please!”

“When we do that we communicate eternally, kind of like you and your brother can accept ours in stronger since we are… married. It means that we can talk to each other in our heads.” My mom answered.

“Another extraordinary talent!” Margaret, who had showed up in the middle of the conversation exclaimed from the side. Ignoring her I asked my second question.

“Last but not least what stages?” I asked them, as they earned some awkward glances from Margaret and Mrs. Wolfe.

“The ones we told we told you about last time. The three stages in which you get to know more information in each.” My mom told me worried.

“Oh yeah!” I exclaimed recognition showing on my face.