Mother Wolf Ch. 04
Howleen has been in a happy mood since her appointment yesterday. Yeah, she's still freaked out by the idea of having to raise three pups at once. But in the end, the ghoul knows it'll be worth it.
Even though she knows that the bump is barely visible, the wolf has already ditched her regular small top for one that's a little larger.
It seems almost like a regular day for the young werewolf. Except for one thing. Twyla. Her best friend seems to have been avoiding her. Whenever Howleen asks what's going one she only gets 'Nothing' or 'I'll tell you later' from the boogie ghoul. It's now the end of the day and most students have already left.
Howleen was so deep in thought out, that she wasn't looking where she was going and ended up on the ground. She instinctively covered her abdomen as she hit the floor.
"Hey! Watch it!" Gory snaps at her.
"Sorry!" Howleen mumbles as she struggles to get back up.
The vampire rolls her eyes and against her better judgement, helps the wolf up. As soon as the pink haired ghoul is standing, the former Belfry Prep student grips Howleen's arm, leans closer, and stares the younger ghoul in the eyes. "You seem different."
"W-what do you mean?" Howleen starts sweating, fearing that she's already been figured out. And by Gory no less.
"I'm not sure," Gory let go of the wolf's arm. "But there's something about you. You're glowing. What's your secret?"
The wolf just whips her pink hair to the side. "This is au naturel."
"Whatever you say, Wolf." With that, the vampire moves on.
Howleen continues down the hallway and as soon as she rounds the corner, something jumped out of the shadows. Before the wolf could scream, grey hands covered her mouth.
"Sorry," Twyla says.
"Twyla? What were you trying to do? Give me a heart attack," Howleen rests a hand over her chest, attempting to slow her rushing heart.
"Again. Sorry," the boogie ghoul repeats as the two walk together. "I'm sorry for avoiding you all day. But I had to wait until most everyone is gone. I was afraid you'd cause a scene."
"Why would I cause a scene?"
"Spectra was at the party."
The wolf stops in her tracks and her eyes widen. "What!? How!? What does she know!?"
"Not much, really," pale ghoul shrugs. "Just like you and everyone else, she remembers nothing about the party. And when I asked, she doesn't seem to have been aware the party happened."
At that, Howleen sighs in relief. "Thank, Ghoul!" only to freeze at what she was told next.
"But she took pictures. Lots of pictures."
"I'm afraid to ask."
"I found several with you, several with him, and plenty of you and him. Most of which has you two getting pretty close."
Images starts flooding through Howleen's mind. Spectra on her vlog announcing her great secret. Only for it to come to a stop at Twyla said next.
"Just be glad that I was the only one to have seen them."
"Wha…"
"I deleted the ones that had you in it and I'm certain that I found them all."
"Really?" the pink haired ghoul receives a nod and tightly hugs the green haired ghoul. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Twyla, you're the best!"
"I know," the boogey ghoul lets out a chuckle. "But that's not all I found." Her best friend breaks away and worriedly looks at her. "There was one picture that had neither of you, but I thought you should see it. I sent it to my phone before deleting Spectra's copy," she hands her iCoffin to the wolf.
Howleen hesitantly takes the iCoffin, fearing at what she might see. Her eyes widen and she realizes that she had every right to be afraid.
.oOo.
Toralei and her fellow werecat friends, Purrsephone and Meowlody were making their way pass the school fountain when a familiar voice shouts.
"TORALEI!"
Turning, they find the youngest wolf sibling storming up to them with the boogie ghoul trying to keep up.
"Kitten!" Toralei greets. The twins go to step in front of her, prepared to protect their best friend. Only to be stopped by said friend. "Settle down ghouls. She's harmless," she informs them, but is soon proven wrong by the stinging sensation sent across her cheek.
Howleen smacked her. "How could you!?" she shouts. "I thought you were my friend!" she shoves the orange furred cat. The twins tried stepping in, only to be stopped yet again by Toralei. "I actually believed you cared about me!"
"Hey! I do care about you!" Stripe shouts back.
The wolf shoves an iCoffin into Toralei's face. "Then explain this!"
The iCoffin was showing a picture of Toralei and the twins standing over a punch bowl, pouring something into the drink.
Toralei closes her eyes tightly, doing her best to keep herself emotionally in check as she is found out. "Howleen," she looks the wolf in the eyes. "I'm so sorry. It was a joke."
"You think this is a joke!?" the pink haired ghoul places her hands on her abdomen. "I'm going through all this because of a stupid prank!"
During this time, the twins were looking between Howleen and Toralei while glancing at each other, confused about what's going on.
"Kitten, I—"
"Don't you dare call me that!" Howleen screams as she is crying now. "Was anything you told me the truth? What about your son?" The Twin's eyes widen at this piece of information and stare at their best friend. "How much of that was a lie? You know what? It's a good thing he was taken away. I would hate for him to turn out just like you." She does not wait for a response and just turns to walk away. "I don't want you near me or my pups!"
The Twin's eyes widen once again as they realized what they're talking about. They had no time think much more about it as they catch Toralei who was about fall.
Up until now, Twyla had remained a spectator. She takes a glance at the werecats and can easily see the hurt in Toralei's eyes. She then ran to catch up to Howleen.
"Wasn't that a little harsh?"
Howleen turns to glare at her friend as she returns the iCoffin. "You think I should have gone easy on her!? She deserved it."
The boogie ghoul worriedly glances back at her phone. "You want me to send this back to Spectra? I'm sure Toralei would get into a lot of trouble for it."
The wolf honestly thought about the proposal. "No! Besides. If we did that she might rat me out to get back at me. Just delete it," Howleen then walks ahead.
Twyla just watches her friend retreat before looking back at her iCoffin. Her hand hovered over the save button. Thinking that perhaps they could use it later, then quickly hits the delete button before she could think about it any further.
.oOo.
Later
Howleen sits on her bed, crying in her arms.
Just then the door opens as Clawdeen walks in, "Howleen?" the older Wolf sibling goes to sit next the younger sibling. "Hey, Sis. What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Howleen sniffles as she wipes away her tears.
The Fashion ghoul worriedly looks at her baby sister before stroking her hair. "I heard you told Toralei off."
That got the younger ghoul's attention. "W-what else did you hear about that?"
Clawdeen shrugs. "Nothing really. Someone just saw you shouting at her. But they didn't get close enough to hear. They were apparently afraid you'd turn on them. Wanna talk about it?"
"No," the pink haired ghoul turns away from her sister.
"C'mon! If you tell me, you might feel better. Whatever it is, I will understand."
"No, you won't!" Howleen shouts. "There was only one person that could possibly understand and she—" the younger sister stopped herself. "Just go away. I want to be alone."
"Fine!" Clawdeen growls as she gets up. "Dinner is ready."
"I'm not hungry."
"Whatever!" With that, the older sister leaves the room.
Howleen honestly did not want to go down and eat, but her pups are saying otherwise. So, she went down to eat enough to get by, with plans to come back down when everyone's asleep to satisfy the little ones.
.oOo.
Spectra is going back through her files, determined to find something juicy. She eventually comes across the photos of the party she had no idea she attended. "I suppose I could run a story about this. But I doubt many would be interested."
The ghost stops as she came across one photo. It seemed just like any of the others. Bunch of random monsters having seemingly too much fun. But it was what she saw in the corner of the background. Zooming in she sees a familiar pink haired wolf ghoul. "Is that Howleen?" in the image, the Wolf is heading up a set of stairs dragging someone with her. Though, Spectra could not make out who the other monster is as only a hand can be seen in the image. "This could be a story. I'll need to do some more digging before anything else." She had learned a lot from the Haunted High incident.
End