Mother Wolf Ch. 09

Hours later Howleen lies in a hospital bed in silence with a brace on her left leg. Her brother and sister are present, worried about their little sister.

"Howleen?" Clawdeen runs a hand through the youngest Wolf sibling's hair. There is no response as the ghoul stares blankly at her belly with her hands resting on it.

The door opens, and the for the first time since coming to the hospital Howleen reacts as her doctor walks in and sits up. "Dr. Feathery! Please just tell me the bad news!" she cries. "I-I can't stand not knowing my pups…" Howleen places her face in her hands as the tears come pouring out as her sister hugs her.

"The babies are fine, Howleen," the harpy woman tells her young mother to be.

"What?"

"The only bad news is that you have sprung your ankle, which will take care of itself in a week."

With a sigh of relief Howleen falls back into the bed. "Thank, ghoul! I thought I lost them," she starts stroking her stomach. "I don't know what I would have done if that happened."

"You're a lucky ghoul, Howleen," her doctor said. "You have so many monsters in the waiting room to support you."

"Huh? There can't be that many," Howleen turns to her brother and sister. "Who's all here?"

"Oh, no one," Clawd waves it off. "Just nearly the entire school."

"That's right," she looks down at her stomach. "They all know now."

"Now then," Feathery speaks up again. "We may be in the clear, but I want to keep you overnight just to be safe."

"Very well, Dr. Feathery."

Before anything else is said, the door to the room opens again, to reveal a cyclops nurse. "There's a Toralei Stripe here. She's rather insistent on seeing the patient."

The Doctor was about to say that she needs rest. But Howleen spoke before her.

"Let her in."

Haven been with this ghoul at the start of the journey, the harpy woman understands that there's some sort of bond between the werewolf and the werecat. She nods to the nurse, saying that it's okay before turning back to the patient. "We'll leave you alone for now. Page the nurse if there's anything you need."

"Thank you, Dr. Feathery."

The doctor and nurse left and soon the orange furred ghoul walks in and nervously looks up at the bedridden Howleen. "Hey, Kitten."

"Hey, Toralei," Howleen smiles at the werecat. "Heard you ripped Nefera a new one?"

At that, Toralei shrugs. "Nah! But I was about to. If only the teachers didn't get in the way," she growls before sadly looking back at the younger teen. "I'm sorry that I ended up blabbing to the whole school about this," and gestures to the bump. "I know you wanted to be normal."

Howleen looks at her stomach, lovingly stroking it. "It's alright Toralei. You were too worried about me to even think. I was afraid of everyone finding out. But you know what was scarier? The thought of never being able to meet my pups," she starts tearing up. "Perhaps if I told people sooner, this all could've been avoided. I've never been so terrified in my whole life. I would never wish any ghoul to go through that."

"Oh, Kitten," Toralei hugs her to help calm her down.

The peaceful moment got interrupted, by some shouting. "You can't go in there!"

The door opens to reveal Ramses de Nile followed by Nefera with some extra bandages and two jackal servants.

"There they are, Daddy!" Nefera points an accusatory finger at Howleen and Toralei. "That's them!"

Ramses walks up to Howleen with a pointed glare. Then, to the shock of everyone present, he gets down on his knees and takes the ghoul's hand in his own. "My humblest apologies on behalf of the entire de Nile family for my daughter's actions."

Howleen asks, "What?"

Nefera shouts, "What!?"

Clawdeen, Clawd, and Toralei in unison. "What!?"

"I will do what I must to make things right," Ramses insists.

"But, Daddy," Nefera walks up to him as her father gets back up. "Look what they did to me!" she gestures to her face that has remnants of scratches and cuts.

"Cuts can heal!" the older mummy snaps at his daughter. "Scars will fade! Anything left can be taken care of either via magic relics or surgery if necessary," he steps up to his daughter, who shrinks under the man's gaze. "But what you did was bring harm to a mother to be," Ramses gestures to Howleen. "A life yet lived is a most precious thing and those who carry them should be treated as goddesses."

"Whatever!" Nefera scoffed. "She seems fine to me. They still owe me a new top."

"Enough!" Ramses slams his cane on the ground, silencing his eldest. "I had always admired your ambition, Nefera and I saw a successor in you. But now? Perhaps I've coddled you too much and had forgotten to teach you about respect, integrity, and humility. And for that, I only have myself to blame. I'm sending you to your Aunt's for the time being."

"Fine! Aunt Nefertiti loves me."

"Not that aunt."

Nefera gains a look of horror. "No! Not Aunt Hathor!" the servants grab her by the arms. "She'll make me work the farm!"

"That's precisely why you're going," the businessman reveals. "Perhaps she can make a decent monster out of you."

"You can't do this to me! I won't go!" the young mummy starts kicking.

"You will go. Otherwise, I'll disinherit you completely."

Nefera lets out one last "No!" when being dragged out of the room shortly before the Wolf's parents walked in.

Harry turns to Ramses. "What's going on here, Mr. de Nile?"

With a tired sigh, the mummy tells them, "Something that I should have done a long time ago," he then straightens his posture. "I came to apologies personally for my daughter's behavior and I've seen to that she receives the proper punishment. I've also taken the liberty to pay the medical bills upfront."

"That's not really necessary, Mr. de Nile," Harriet insists. "We have insurance."

"You know as well as I that insurance does not cover everything," Ramses notes before bowing. "Until we meet again, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf. Hopefully under better circumstances." With that, the mummy leaves them to their own.

Harriet immediately runs up to her youngest. "Are you alright, Howleen?" she runs her fingers through her daughter's hair.

"I'm fine, Mom," Howleen tells her before patting her stomach. "So are the pups," she turns to the werecat. "Thankfully, Toralei was there to help."

Harriet looks over at the werecat, stands, walks over to her, and gives the ghoul a hug. "Thank you for doing what you can for my daughter," the woman breaks away to go back over to her recovering daughter.

"It was nothing," Toralei waves off. "Though, I may have gone a little overboard with Nefera."

Clawd huffs and crosses his arms. "Didn't do enough if you ask me."

"Clawd!" Harriet snaps. "You don't wish harm upon your enemies. No matter how much you'd want to imagine them being hanged by their intestines," the Mother said sweetly causing everyone to stare wide eyed at her. "Now, Howleen," she turns back to her expecting daughter. "Everyone knows about the pups. Are you sure about staying in school?"

"No point in not going," Howleen shrugs. "The option for not going would have been to keep everyone from finding out. Now they know. If I don't go to school, then I'll just be stuck at home when my friends are stuck at school. I wouldn't be able to see them until the end of day," she then glances at the werecat. "Except Toralei. She'd find a way to skip classes just to see me."

Toralei just shrugs. "I totally would."

"So, if it's okay with you guys, I'd like to stay in school," she looks up at her family. "At least until, you know," the ghoul gestures to back to her stomach.

"Of course, it okay, hun," Harriet hugs her youngest. Clawdeen hugs her as well and is soon joined by Clawd and Harry.

Toralei is just standing awkwardly to the side.

"Well?" Harriet looks over at the cat ghoul. "Aren't you joining us?"

"I really shouldn't. This is more of a family thing."

"Nonsense!" Harriet didn't give Toralei any time to react as the wolf woman grabs her by the wrist and pulls her into the group hug. "After everything you've done for my daughter, you're practically family."

The werecat looks among the Wolf family who all smiled back. The ghoul accepts the family's embrace.

End

NOTE: I'm going to ask this question again. Who do you think the father is? I want to know how many readers can guess right.