Anyone who was seeing the "change" for the first time would think it looked like the victim was seizing. The first time it had happened to David, Paul had tried to treat it like one, rolling David onto his side and cushioning his head. It didn't really matter; David just thrashed and hit his head and arms and legs against things anyway. David's body tensed and spasmed. His eyes rolled back in the sockets until only white was visible. He grit his teeth with enough strength to break them – thankfully each time it had happened so late into the change that the werewolf's advanced healing had repaired any damage. At the moment, David had his back arched, all of his weight balanced on the back of his head and heels. Paul felt completely helpless every time David went through the change; he was powerless to do anything but watch. It looked so painful to Paul, but David never had any memory of it and the creature he turned into always seemed fine once the change was complete.
Now, David's face was twisting and contorting into a horrid grimace. His nose and jaws stretched, the skin pulling taught as his snout extended. At the same time, his arms and legs were elongating. Under the blanket that David had draped over himself for modesty's sake, a tail was beginning to protrude from his coccyx. It wouldn't take much longer now; the entire change took less than two minutes, total. Fur began to bristle out from his pores; his ears became pointed and shifted so that they were higher up on his head. Countless other tiny changes took place all over and inside David's body.
Slowly, he began to relax and settle. The werewolf rolled over onto its side, stretched out on all fours, and shook itself. Standing up, it came to the door of the cage, reached between the bars, tugged on the lock, and snapped it open. It was a false lock. The werewolf had broken so many over the years that Paul had gotten one that just pulled open when tugged with enough force; David had never noticed.
xoxoxo
Wolf used his head to push the door to his cage open. Human's father stood in front of the cage, watching him. Human's father spoke to him; Human's father rarely said anything to him. "I need you to do something for me." Wolf cocked his head and tried to sidestep Human's father. He really didn't have any interest in what he had to say; Wolf had more important things to deal with right now and such a very limited amount of time before the morning. But Human's father grabbed him by the arm. Wolf was tempted to growl at the human, but decided that would just result in bad things. "Please, David's done something stupid."
Wolf let out a snort of air from his nose. Human did many stupid things.
"Please. Do you know what a bear trap is?"
Bear trap? Wolf thought about that. The concept was familiar. He wracked his memories. Somewhere, buried in the bottom of his mind was a faint memory from when he was a child: before he and Human had become two. It was a movie: a little girl and her father. Her father helped animals, the same way Human's father helped people. But the movie was not about the little girl. No, the movie was about her cat. But the cat had nothing to do with the bear trap. There was also a little boy in the movie and a badger and a witch. The badger had stepped in a bear trap. The bear trap was an angry metal jaw that tore flesh. Wolf had seen bear traps outsid of movies before. In fact…Wolf looked over to Human's collection of weapons meant for hurting unhumans. The wooden crate that held the bear traps was empty.
"That's right. Those are bear traps." Wolf looked at Human's father. Human's father was gesturing to where the bear traps should have been. "David heard that there's a werewolf in the area – you need to be more careful about being seen – and he set bear traps in the woods. I need you to find them and set them off before anyone gets hurt." Wolf thought that over. He really needed to get to his mate; something told him his mate had had the baby. But what if his mate got hurt in one of the traps? And while he didn't really care for other humans or unhumans, he didn't want any of them getting hurt in the traps, either. Grunting in resignation, Wolf bobbed his head at Human's father. "Good. Thank you. There are five of them. You need to drop a weight or something in the center of it. But stay clear of it, or it can seriously hurt you. I don't want David getting hurt." It hurt Wolf a little that Human's father was only concerned about David. What if Wolf had stepped in one of those traps? Would Human's father care that Wolf got hurt? Or only that David got hurt? Not that Wolf would be dumb enough to step on one, but still…once upon a time, Human's father had been his father, as well.
xoxoxo
Tracking the path Human had taken through the woods was not as simple as Wolf had expected. He couldn't smell Human any more than he could smell himself; his smell was one of the only things that didn't change during the full moon. Thankfully, Human wasn't the best at traversing the woods and had left a clumsily obvious path for Wolf to follow: broken branches, bent sticks, streaks in the dirt where Human hadn't picked his feet up well enough. Good thing there weren't many predators over humans in the food chain or Human would have been tracked and eaten by a predator many years ago.
The first trap Wolf came across made him curious. He'd never gotten close to one of the traps before and he really couldn't understand how something so innocuous could be so dangerous. He looked about for a minute trying to find a rock to drop on the trap. This area of the woods was surprisingly clean, though. Unless he wanted to dig, Wolf probably wouldn't find a decent sized stone. Instead, he reached up into a tree and ripped down a thick branch. He poked at the trap trying to trigger it; he wasn't entirely certain how they worked. When the stick hit the circular pad in the center of the trap, it snapped up, the two sides coming together in a loud, scary crash, shattering the branch where the teeth had dug into it. Wolf was usually pretty brave about most things…which was why he was glad there was no one around to see him jump at the sudden noise and movement of the trap. Wolf held the broken end of the stick in front of his face; it was about as thick as his bicep, but even still, the trap had completely sheered off the end. As good as Wolf's healing was, it wouldn't be able to repair that kind of damage. It couldn't work quick enough to knit a severed limb back together. Wolf shuddered before taking off to find the other four traps before something else did.
xoxoxo
When Wolf got to his usual spot in the woods outside Kurt's home, he was quick to see that Kurt was not alone. An older human, about the same age as Human's father, sat on the porch steps next to Kurt. Wolf seemed to have some vague recollection of this man pinning him in submission against a wall. If the memory wasn't enough to make Wolf nervous, the fact that he was holding a rifle, was. Wolf knew rifles. Human's father used to keep one with him whenever Wolf was around. He didn't carry it with him anymore; instead, he kept it mounted on the wall behind his chair in the cage-room. "Just in case" he had said.
As always, Kurt seemed to spot Wolf right away. It was somewhat bruising to Wolf's ego that a human, with an almost non-existent sense of smell and sense of hearing, and poor eyes not attuned to minute movements, could spot him so readily. Kurt smiled and stood up. The other human stood as well, but he did not smile. Kurt placed his hand on the second human's shoulder. Reluctantly, the man lowered his weapon. Wolf dropped to his front paws, trying to make himself look as small and nonthreatening as possible. He padded slowly out from the woods; maybe if he seemed docile, he wouldn't seem as frightening. When he got to Kurt, he lolled his tongue out and butted Kurt's hand with his forehead, doing his best puppy-dog impression.
His earlier premonition had been correct; a simple glance at Kurt showed Wolf that there was no more baby in his belly. There was an unfamiliar scent all over him, though; some kind of living creature spent a lot of time in Kurt's arms. So that is what my son smells like. Wolf pressed his nose closer to Kurt's chest, trying to inhale as much of his son's scent as possible. He smelled like happiness; there was no other word for it.
Wolf let out a rather undignified "yip" – a staccato bark of excitement. "Would you like to meet Alex?" Alex. My son's name is Alex. Wolf let out another "yip" in affirmation. Kurt turned to the other human. "See, Dad? I told you he wouldn't be territorial about his own son. He's excited to see him." Dad? So this was Kurt's father.
"Just 'cause he's "excited" doesn't mean he won't tear him to shreds the second he sniffs him."
Kurt moaned in exacerbation. "He's not dangerous. He's just a big ol' foofy, aren't you?" Foofy? Wolf wasn't familiar with that term, but it didn't sound insulting. He nuzzled against Kurt's side, trying to reassure Kurt's father that he wasn't a mean Wolf. The old man seemed a bit leery, but stepped aside and allowed Kurt and Wolf to pass. Wolf had never been in a different house before. All he really knew of houses was what he could gather from Human's sparse memories, his own hazy memories from before he and Human had split, and his own room in the basement of Human's house. He was a bit surprised to see that not all houses were barren walls, concrete floors, and cobwebs. So many smells. Wolf sniffed at everything as he passed by; some smells were warm and earthy, some were tangy, some were people-scents, and a lot were very chemically. There was one scent that smelled strongly of pine trees but had an acidic overtone to it.
Kurt led him through the kitchen, the hall, and up a flight of stairs. The carpeting under his feet fascinated Wolf; it was like soft grass. The stairs that led from Wolf's basement in Human's house to the outside were rough and scratchy: flaking concrete that hadn't been re-poured in decades. There were photos on the wall over the stairs. Wolf recognized Kurt and Kurt's father in the pictures, but there were several other people he felt he should recognize as well. A skinny male human that seemed to tower over Kurt in one of the pictures; a girl, who was dwarfed by Kurt and the tall human, in another picture; a collection of human males all wearing the same red and white outfit.
Most of the humans in that particular picture had funny looking faces; he had a strong feeling they were dirty or wearing – what was it called? Makeup? And then he noticed a face he knew he should recognize but was actually slightly shocked to see; Human was in the picture. Human smiled broadly, his cheeks scrunched up and his teeth showing. Human was happy. Human wasn't happy very often, Wolf knew at least that much about him. Human was sad about a lot of things; about being a werewolf, not having a mother, not having a mate, having an "ugly" body (at least in Human's opinion), he was self-conscious about everything he said and everything he did in front of other people, and he was terrified about the future. Wolf felt slightly bad for him. But on the other hand, not bad at all; Human would kill Wolf if it were possible, so why should Wolf care?
Wolf spent so long looking at that picture that Kurt had to clear his throat to get Wolf's attention. Wolf turned away from the picture and bounded up the rest of the stairs to catch up with Kurt. Kurt stood in front of an open door, revealing his bedroom. Wolf probably would have spent as much time examining his mate's den as he had the rest of the house if it weren't for one tiny little thing. One very tiny little thing. At the foot of Kurt's bed was a small topless cage. Inside the cage was a small, fuzzy ball of fur. Wolf crept closer, trying to go slowly. He knew he could be intimidating; he didn't want to scare his baby. When he saw how still the baby was, how even its breathing, he realized the his little pup was asleep. He stood then, and peered in at his son as he slept peacefully, flattened out on his stomach. There was a small whimper; Wolf was about to bend down and lick his son – comfort him – when he realized that the whimper had come from himself. "You can hold him if you like."
Kurt smiled up at Wolf, his eyes wide and bright and encouraging. Wolf bent down, nuzzling the baby with his nose. The baby smelled like the fruity chemicals Kurt doused himself in. Wolf began vigorously licking the baby until the smell was clean and natural. Wolf opened his mouth and wrapped his jaw around Alex's neck. Moving away from the crib slightly, he headed towards Kurt's bed with Alex but stopped when he heard a sharp gasp.
"Wolf! No! You have to be gentle with him." Kurt took Alex from Wolf's mouth and cradled him in his arms. "Hold him delicately, in your arms, like this." Kurt showed him by cradling Alex close to his chest. Wolf puzzled that over in his mind. To him, that way of holding Alex made absolutely no sense. If I get attacked, I can't run fast on all fours with a baby in my paws. I also couldn't fight back an attacker without my claws. No. Babies are supposed to be held in the mouth. Wolf took Alex back from Kurt, using his paws as Kurt insisted. He then lifted Alex back up to his muzzle and held him in his mouth by his scruff again, demonstrating the proper way of carrying a baby to Kurt. Wolf leaned in towards Kurt and pushed his muzzle towards Kurt's face, trying to get Kurt to take Alex in his teeth. Humans use their paws for everything; it makes more sense to hold the baby in your mouth. Kurt turned his head away and took Alex back in his hands. "Gentle, Wolf." Kurt held Alex to his own face and began smothering the newborn in kisses; he was starting to get fidgety from getting passed back and forth and jostled so much. As Kurt kissed Alex and rubbed his face against him, Alex started smelling like fruity chemicals again. Wolf moved in close to his baby and mate and began grooming them both with his tongue, trying to clean them of the fruity smells, while Kurt continued to plant kisses on the baby's face. This was his family; this was happy. If Human weren't so full of anger and resentment he could have happy too.
xoxoxo
The movie Wolf was thinking of was The Three Lives of Thomasina, one of my favorites.
The photo Wolf was looking at was of the McKinley Titans after their championship game.
When you post questions in the reviews, I try to get back to you about them (unless you don't have an account…then it's really hard). However, more often than not, the response is going to be along the lines of "wait and see," because so far everything people have asked is already planned to be addressed somewhere in the story. Feel free to continue asking questions, though!
For the several people who asked about Alex being in wolf form…wait and see. That'll be addressed next chapter.