I held onto Abel's hand as we entered the gym. The committee had rented out the whole thing for the night for us to meet. The supernatural community.

It was a little freaky to be the only wolf there, but once Creek's family saw me, they immediately ushered me over to their seats, demanding I sat with them. So, I sat between Creek and Abel. It felt like I had my own little tribe where I belonged.

Everyone was seated in groups, and it was obvious. Cal and Fred were sitting were Fred's family in front of the Creek clan. They didn't take up nearly as many seats. I figured one of the older women there was Fred's mum. Fred took after her a lot. Same hair, skin and eye colour, same nose, same high cheek bones, same petite frame. They shared that airy prettiness too. Like they didn't actually touch the earth when they walked but hovered above it. The way they moved was fluid like dancers.

Creek's sister Liza turned around in her seat and smiled at me. "Good to see yous two here."

"Creek made us come," Abel said and then grimaced. "I mean, we also wanted to come but he like... Convinced us to come."

"Abel's saying, that Creek assured us it'd be good if we came," I said, patting Abel's leg.

He eased up a little and half-smiled.

"It's good you've got a translator now, Abel," Liza said with a chuckle and turned back around.

"I'm not getting in as much trouble now anyways," Abel murmured and kissed my cheek.

"Honestly, just tell me to shut up if it becomes a bother."

"You could never become a bother." He said it so softly, as if I'd break if he put even a slight edge in his voice. My hand had been resting on his knee, and he gently threaded his fingers in between mine.

The meeting started with an older woman introducing the issue and why we were gathered. Basically, it was a run-down of the rules everyone should follow when it came to the media, and it could be boiled down to; don't talk to the media. I was a bit bored and zoned out until a voice I recognised cut right through.

"... But there are wolves here and all those victims look to have been mauled by beasts."

I snapped out of it and saw Liam standing, wearing his dumbass cap and staring right at me. He even sported a smirk. A smirk. While talking about murder victims.

"Oh, that's bullshit!" Abel exclaimed. "This is just a bigoted rant from a bigot."

"No murders before that wolf of yours moved in, were there?" Liam countered.

"Settle down, the both of yous," the woman by the stand loudly said into the microphone. "Now, since there's been claims of it being wolves, let's have the representative for the wolves come with a defence." She looked right at me.

A huge knot formed in my stomach, and I rose to my feet, the whole gym turning almost violently silent.

"I'm... I'm Gael. I'm twenty-one years old and I go to uni. I study painting and printmaking. I've got a dog named Dave. My boyfriend is Abel. I've got friends here. We watch telly, eat junk food, and go on hikes. We like to drink beers in Fred and Cal's back garden." I took a deep breath and looked down at my wringing hands. "I turn into a wolf two days a month. In the forest away from people. I hunt rabbits." I looked back up at the speaker. "I'm a regular-ass kid and I'm the only one getting these questions. And I'm the only wolf here. I hate public speaking. I hate violence and blood and... And..." I looked around the crowd. The people who knew me weren't afraid of meeting my gaze with love, small nods and small encouraging smiles. The rest though? It was hard to say what they saw when they looked at me.

And I was fucking done.

"Oh, absolutely fuck this," I growled and made my way to the aisle between all the seats and stomped right up to the exit, before turning back towards the crowd. "This is bullshit, and this is why there's no wolves here."

Abel had made his way through the people and to the aisle, hurrying after me out of the gym. The second the door closed, he burst out laughing, grabbed me, and pulled me into a tight hug.

"That was fucking awesome, Gael," he said through laughter and pulled back, taking my face in his hands.

"I hate public speaking," I replied in lack of something better to say. I didn't think it was awesome. I thought it was pathetic. I could've said all those things Mags had said but instead I flipped the bird at everyone.

Abel softly kissed my forehead. "You didn't say anything that wasn't true. They needed to take a hard look at themselves, and you just held up a mirror for them. You're just a regular person, like everyone else, and their biases is colouring you in a wrong colour."

"It's not fair," I said with a cracking voice.

"No." His voice turned soft; the edge of the laugh entirely gone. "Come on." He put his arm around my shoulders and guided me out to the carpark and to his car.

"Do... Do you think Creek's family took offence?"

"No. Creek's mum was already fighting for you the second you left. They're coming in a minute. We're going to the Creek's now for a much better meeting. I think the community is very split. There's the whole peace treaty thing that demands your safety, whole others wanna disregard it and are being... Assholes about it all. It's not your problem though, it's theirs. The peace treaty is airtight, and a lot of shit would happen if someone broke it."

"I wanna go home."

Abel nodded and looked back at the doors. "What about the Creeks?"

"I want. To. Go. Home," I growled. "I don't wanna be around anyone. I wanna go home." I was almost stomping my foot, throwing a full toddler-tantrum in the car park.

"Gael," Abel said softly. "These are your people. Let them support you. Don't pull away."

The doors to the gym opened and the Creeks came out followed by Fred's family and Cal.

"Come on, we're going to the Creeks," Fred called out and jumped into Cal's truck, not even waiting for me or Abel to reply.

Creek's mum's car was parked besides Abel's, and she just ruffled my hair on her way past me.

I was dumbfounded. Speechless. I opened the door to Abel's car and got in without a word. Abel followed and glanced at me before putting the key in the ignition.

"We're going to the Creeks."

I nodded. My stomach was turning, and I was sweating buckets. I hated losing control of my emotions. I wanted to be this calm and collected person at all times, and when I wasn't I'd obsess about it for weeks. I'd have this tight feeling in my stomach, I'd fidget a lot more than usual.

And nothing would make that shit feeling go away, but time. Eventually I'd get over it but sometimes it would re-emerge when I was trying to sleep. It'd haunt me and it'd make me feel like shit. I was such an anxious mess and I wished there was a way out of it.

We arrived at the Creeks and Abel immediately grabbed my hand, keeping me close while people filed into the house. I was parked on the couch with some tea with Creek and Abel on either side of me.

"Thank you for having us, Mrs. Creek," Abel said.

"I've told you so many times, boy, it's Maura. Mrs. Creek was my mother-in-law." She had this high-pitched giggle. It was cute. And Creek had gotten their smile from her. Their whole face shape changed when they smiled. Their eyes disappeared into thin slits, even more so with Maura than Creek.

"We need to start thinking critically now," Maura said, turning more serious. "We cannot let history repeat itself here."

"You think it's that bad?" Creek asked and arched a brow.

"Honestly, baby, we can never be too careful when wolves are involved. It's so very easy to gang up on someone who's alone. So, we better make sure, Gael isn't alone."

"You don't have to do anything," I muttered, staring down at my tea.

"We actually do, Gael, and it's not just because you're a good boy. It's because this town needs to be held to a certain standard. If we let this go, it could become a slippery slope. Know the old saying, 'first they came for the socialists'?"

I nodded.

"If we say nothing now, then eventually, they'll come for us. We live in a world that is unkind and unknowing about our existence as something not human. We cannot be silent when there's injustice done."

"Amen, reverend," Creek said with a low voice, but loud enough for his mum to hear.

She snorted and sobered immediately, sending a glare her kid's way. "So Gael, there's many layers. One layer is you. One is us. We've got to stick together as a community."

"We're only as strong as the weakest link," Carson Sr. said.

"That's cheesy," Creek muttered.

His dad sent them a look that Creek didn't respond to in any way.

"So... What do we do now?" Abel asked. "If someone's coming for Gael, I..."

"No worries, hon'," the woman who looked exactly like Fred said. "We'll do some protection spells on Gael's house."

I couldn't stop myself in time. I perked up and "Spells?" just flew out of my mouth.

Fred snorted. "Yeah, Gael, we'll do magic."

Okay, if I absolutely had to think positively about all of this, at the very least I got to see some magic. There'd be spells on my house.