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Chapter 21

Dean

Rolling over in bed, I could hear my phone vibrating, but it wasn't on my nightstand where it always was when we slept. I sat up in bed and glancing at the clock, I saw that it was late. Two-eighteen was too late for a run-of-the-mill phone call. Tripping slightly, getting out of bed to check the pockets of my jeans, I finally found my phone. Whispering, I answered it, trying my hardest not to wake Grace or the kids.

"Are you okay?" I breathed, answering Sammy's phone call.

He whispered as well, obviously unwilling to wake his household, "For now, but I just saw a fucking werewolf on our road."

"What?" I almost shouted, turning away from Grace. "When?"

"Just now," he said, still forcing his voice to whisper.

I jumped to our window that faced the barn and the field, with Sammy and Serra's house peeking out behind the tree line. I stared into the night, willing my eyes to focus and see beyond what was in my range. It was impossible, but I watched for movement anyway. "You know it was a werewolf?"

Sammy agreed, "Yeah. For sure."

I started pulling on my jeans, the phone pressed between my shoulder and my ear. I glanced at Grace, who still snored lightly. "You still got eyes on it?"

"No," Sam was saying as his breath echoed into the phone's speaker. He was running downstairs. "We made eye contact and it took off into a field."

As I did the same, I trotted into the kitchen and glanced at the calendar over the coffee pot. "Sammy, it's not a full moon," I said, confusion hitting me. "Maybe it was a coyote or something."

"Dean, I swear to God," Sam said, his voice reaching full volume as he dug through something, obviously now downstairs. "I think I know what a werewolf looks like."

I shook my head, dropping to my knee as I opened the gun safe in the floor of the dining room. I got the combination wrong the first two times and out of frustration, I slammed my hand down on the hardwood. I was out of practice. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down to get the combo right the third time. "I realize that, asshat, but how can it be shifted if it's not a full moon?"

He shook his head, "I don't know, Dean, but I'm telling you, I know what I saw."

Finally, I was able to pull the door open of the floor safe and I grabbed my favorite pearl handled .45 that matched Grace's gun. Grabbing a clip, I loaded the weapon and turned off the safety, standing in front of the sliding glass door and staring out into the night. "You have any silver bullets left?"

Sam continued to glare towards the field that he saw the monster disappear into and shook his head. "No, I thought you had a few left in the Impala."

"We haven't needed them since the rougarou when we met the girls," I said, fingering my gun. "I think we used the last of them that night."

"Great," Sammy said quietly. Moments passed silently as both of us were on alert. Finally, Sam took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. "I guess this confirms that the woman from the shop is a werewolf."

"Awesome," I said, shaking my head. "Which means there are more."

The sun took forever to rise that morning as I sat on the chair, staring out into our field. I could hear Glory start to cry, waking Grace and Liberty. Unwilling to relinquish my post until the dawn, I let Grace take the girls back to bed with her. About an hour later, Everett got jealous and joined the group in our bed. Satisfied that the morning had come, finally, I stood and stretched, putting the safety back on my gun and using my foot to close the floor safe. It shut with a satisfying "thunk" and I spun the knob with my toes. Padding though the kitchen, I stashed my gun on top of the refrigerator, out of reach from tiny hands, and walked back up the steps to Grace and the kids.

She was feeding both of the twins at the same time (trippy as hell, let me tell you) and Lib was asleep on my pillow, drool pooling around her chubby cheek. Glancing up at me, she smiled lightly and whispered, "Hey stranger. How long have you been up?"

I kissed her and sat in the chair by the window. I was unwilling to tell her exactly what went down while she slept, but I knew she would just push into my mind to find out the truth if I didn't. I sighed at rubbed my face, still foggy from the long night. "Sammy saw a werewolf last night," I said quietly.

"What?" Grace whispered, "where?"

I gestured to the open window as summer breeze flowed through. "On the road in front of The Small House," I said, sighing. "You were right. She's a monster."

"You think it was the woman from the shop?"

I shrugged. "Who else could it be? Unless it was one of her family. Remember, she mentioned that they move around a lot because her 'brother' is in the 'Army'?" I said, using my fingers as air quotes. "There's probably an entire pack."

"But it's not a full moon," Grace said, furrowing her eyebrows. "How can they be shifted if it's not a full moon?"

Shaking my head, I shrugged again. "I don't know. Maybe some hybrid we haven't heard of yet? We've been out of the game for three years, Gracie. Things could have changed." I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Staying up from two in the morning on was harder than it used to be. I was getting old. "I don't even have any silver ammo left. I think we used it all on the rougarou back in the day."

"Great," she said, looking down at the twins as they suckled.

Liberty stirred then, rolling her head and opening her big green eyes to stare at me. Her hair was a shambles; curls were stuck to her face with drool and she attempted to push the blonde from her mouth. "Hey, Meatloaf," I whispered. "You're a thief. You stole my spot."

She grinned at me, bouncing her way down the bed. "Feef!" she cried gleefully as she bounced towards me. I held out my arms and allowed her to jump into my arms. I caught her and she wrapped her little arms around my neck.

Glancing back at Grace, I lifted my eyebrows at her. Werewolves go after kids first.

"I know," she answered my thought.

She saw you guys come to the shop.

Nodding, she repeated herself. "I know."

I took a deep breath and stared at my eldest daughter, lying in my arms. Flicking my eyes back towards my wife, I pressed my lips together tightly. I guess we're going hunting. We've got work to do.

…

Grace was safe in the bunker with the kids as I left for the shop. Sammy called in to work that day to stay on the property to keep an eye on everyone and my plan was to follow up with the woman and the Nova Wagon. Walking into the shop, I flipped on the lights and glanced towards my bay. Nothing looked out of order, so I continued my routine of opening the shop.

Doug came in about fifteen minutes later, carrying a stack of paperwork and setting it on top of the counter. "Hey, Deano," Doug greeted me as he walked past. "Loan cleared. Sign all this and she'll be yours by the end of the month."

I grinned, walking towards him and extending my hand, "Hey, man. Thanks."

"No, thank you," Doug said, shaking my hand. "I'm glad this all will be in capable hands." He paused, putting his hands in his pockets and stared at me as I flipped through the books. "My daughter says you and your family are some of the best people she's ever met."

I turned back to Doug and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Your daughter?" I asked, confused. "Who is your daughter?"

Smiling, Doug answered, "Alana." He was positively bursting with pride. "Best doctor this side of the Mississippi."

I tilted my head and smiled, recognition hitting me. I had never put it together before, but they did share a last name and had quite a few facial similarities. Realizing that we had told Alana everything there was to know about us and what we were, I eyed him carefully, wondering if Alana had passed on the information. He smiled at me, handing me a pen. If he knew, he didn't look like he did.

I smiled and took the pen and I started signing away.