Mother Wolf Ch. 10
After a couple weeks, things have fallen into a relative normal style. As soon as Howleen returned to school, she was greeted by many students congratulating her. The Wolf thought for sure she'd be met with some sort of ridicule. However, she believes that a certain trio of werecats have something to do with that.
It's amazing how Toralei wasn't expelled after what she did to Nefera. Perhaps the situation was considered, and she was just given a warning. However, the message the werecat left is clear. Nobody messes with her Kitten.
Another fine change that Howleen is enjoying is no more heavy clothing or unnecessary amount of layers. She ditched the heavy jacket and has gone down to a more comfortable fitting top. And to top it off, not once has anyone mentioned her weight.
Howleen and Twyla were walking together to their next class when they hear the voice of a former Belfry Prep student.
"Hey, Howleen!" Gory calls out and both ghouls turn to her. The vampire walks up to them. "Natural glow, huh?"
At the comment, werewolf shrugs. "It's not like I lied."
"I guess you didn't," Gory shakes her head. "Well, congrats, Wolf. Wish you the best of luck," she tells them before taking off.
Twyla turns to her friend with a raised brow. "Was Gory just nice to you?"
Howleen shrugs. "I like to think that Toralei got to her." the two smirk at one another before continuing down the hall to the class.
Once everyone is seated in the room and prepares for the class, the iCoffins give off an alert before the final bell.
"Oh!?" Draculaura pulls out her iCoffin. "It's Spectra's vlog. Wonder what's today's story."
Everyone else does the same and immediately a video starts playing.
"This is Spectra Vondergeist, reporting directly from Monster High," the ghost flies around her desk. "As you ghouls and mansters know," the screen behind her flickers on to show an image of a certain pink haired ghoul. "After a certain incident with former Fear Captain, Nefera de Nile, It has recently been revealed that our very own Howleen Wolf is an expecting mother," the image then goes through different picture of the said ghoul talking to different students welcoming her back from her hospital stay. "Everyone has accepted the ghoul and seems to be wiling to help her through these trying times. But there is one question left unanswered," the screen then shows an image of a big question mark. "Who is the father?"
At that, everyone murmurs among one another and a few briefly glances at the ghoul who is the subject of their whispers. The students have been asking that question, but after the incident with Nefera, no one wanted to pressure the poor ghoul.
Spectra continues. "An anonymous source has delivered a small piece of evidence that could give hint to that very question." The ghost reveals an image of a non-pregnant Howleen going up a set of stairs while grabbing a hold of a hand. "This picture was taken at a party. A party that many of the students who have been confirmed to be of attendance and have little to no memory. With the revelation of how far our young Howleen is, the timeline matches up with the party," the reporter flies in front of the screen. "Could the owner of this hand be the father? This is Spectra Vondergeist. Signing off." with that the video ends.
Howleen soon finds herself bombarded with questions from the surrounding monsters. Oh, how the werewolf wished she had more classes with Toralei.
.oOo.
Gory rewatches the vlog on her iCoffin and pauses once it gets to the picture of Howleen heading up stairs. The vampire squints at the hand, before zooming in. Something about it caught the vampire's eyes. Something particular on the sleeve of the hand the youngest of the Wolf siblings is dragging with her. On the sleeve of the red jacket is a cuff depicting a crest. A crest that the Fangtell is quite familiar with.
At the end of the class, the former Belfry Prep student walks through the halls of the school in search of someone. Once they were found, Gory approaches them and says, "We need to talk."
.oOo.
Both Clawd and Clawdeen storms through the halls of Monster High, heading straight to Spectra's personalized office. The two overprotective siblings plan on tearing into the ghost ghoul. However, they found that someone even more protective of Howleen already there.
"Get down here!" Toralei jumps, trying to reach the floating ghost.
"I-I think I'm good up here," the reporter tells the werecat as she dodges another pounce.
"Spectra!" Clawdeen shouts. "You have some explaining to do!"
Clawd growls, "What were you thinking running that story on our sister?"
"I've been sitting on it for a while and I thought since everyone knows now it would be a good time," the ghost still refuses to come any lower than from where she is. Even with Toralei calming down somewhat.
"Wait!" Clawdeen raises a brow at Spectra. "How long have you been preparing for this story."
"Why, for a couple months I suppose."
"You knew all this time!? Why didn't you say anything?"
"Well, when I ran the Ghostly Gossip, I ended up hurting so many monsters," Spectra admits. "I did not want to do that anymore. With everyone so accepting with Howleen and her situation, I didn't think it be harmful."
"Yeah, well you were wrong!" Toralei snaps at the phantom. "Because of you, my Kitten is being hounded about the father by everyone in the entire school."
"Oh, my! I'm so sorry. I truly didn't mean to cause trouble for her. I hate to know what I would have done if I ran the story on you," the ghost gasps and covers her mouth.
"Oh, please! What on Earth could you have found on me that everyone else doesn't already know?"
Spectra is hesitant to answer, unsure of what to do exactly. She then flies through a nearby wall. The other monsters in the room are then startled as the ghost floats up out of the floor, carrying a picture. With a sigh, the reporter passes it to the werecat who then falls to her knees.
Clawdeen and Clawd run up to Toralei and sees the image contained in the photo.
It's of Toralei in a hospital bed with messy hair and tired eyes. She's holding a baby bundled up in a blue blanket. Not much can be made out about the baby other than them having round ears on the top of their head and three stripes on their cheek. Despite how exhausted the werecat looks, she is still smiling at the camera.
Toralei starts crying. This image is of the last time she remembers being genuinely happy.
"Other than the fact I went through the experience," the werecat looks up at the ghost with teary eyes. "I had no evidence of him existing. There were even moments I actually thought I might have made him up," she hugs the picture. "C-can, can I keep this?" Toralei pleads.
Spectra gives a sad smile and tells her. "As far as I'm concerned, Toralei, it was yours to begin with."
The werecat wipes away the tears. "Thanks, Spectra. You have no idea what this means to me."
.oOo.
Howleen finds herself hiding in the Student Lounge, deep in the Catacombs. The young werewolf is hiding from, well, everyone. Her family and friends had respected her wishes to leave her alone about the father of her pups and anyone who seemed like they're going to cause trouble were chased away by Toralei. But since Spectra's vlog went up, she started to get hounded by almost everyone asking about the mysterious manster.
The werewolf is technically skipping class as the only time the Student Lounge is empty is during classes. But the ghoul had to get away from that one question.
Howleen lays down on the couch, planning to take a well needed nap. But her eyes shot open once she heard the voice of the last person she wanted to bring into this.
"Howleen?"
"Bram?" she looks over to see the blond vampire standing at the entrance to the Lounge. "What are you doing here?" the Wolf struggles to sit back up.
Bram goes over to the couch to assist the ghoul. "I came to see how you were doing."
"Oh? Well, I'm doing just swell," the pink haired ghoul tries waving him off. "So, what brings you down here? Shouldn't you be in class?"
The vampire remains quiet as he takes a seat next to her. After a few moments, he finally spoke. "Much of it is fuzzy, but I have the faintest memory of being with this cute ghoul at the party. We hit it off and she was fun. The last bit of memory is of her leading me to my room. Given that I awoke by myself and no matter what, I could not remember her face. I thought it was a dream," Bram faces her and asks. "How come I you never said anything?"
Howleen looks down at her stomach and sighs. "My own life is already screwed up because of my mistake. I didn't want to screw up yours as well. I thought that at least one of us could still have a normal life."
Bram sighs. "What's the saying? It takes two to tango. I screwed up as much as you did, Howleen," he goes to put a hand over her should but stopped, feeling that he might overstep his boundaries. "I'll need some time to figure out how to explain this to my parents. But either way. I insist on helping out any way I can."
"No, Bram. I can't expect you to do that."
"You don't have to expect me to do anything. Just know that I will do everything in my power to assist you with anything that you need," he looks her in the eyes. "And I mean anything, Howleen."
The sincerity in his eyes. Howleen doesn't know what about it, but it made her heart skip a beat. "So…" she looks away hoping to cover hide her blush. "Do you really mean it? That you would assist with anything I need?"
"I truly mean that, Howleen," Bram answers and before he knew it, Howleen has kicked her shoes off and swing her feet into the vampire's lap as she lays back down.
"Good! Cause carrying this extra weight has been leaving my feet sore and I could use a rub," she explains. "I'd take my socks off myself, but it's getting harder to reach."
Bram stares at the feet for a moment before shrugging and removes the ghoul's socks to message the feet.
Howleen release a sigh. "That feels nice. Thanks, Bram."
"You are welcome, Howleen," he smiles at her.
The Wolf's ears then twitched. "What was that?" she sits up with some assistance from Bram and starts looking around.
"What was what?"
"I'm not sure," Howleen sighs. "It's either stress or the pregnancy, but I think my mind is playing tricks on me," then her stomach growls and places her hands over it. The ghoul's face reddens as she glances at Bram. "You wouldn't happen to know if there's any fish sticks in the lounge's fridge?"
The vampire gives the werewolf an amused look. "I guess our kid is hungry?" he removes Howleen's feet.
"Kids."
"Sorry. Kids," Bram corrects himself as he stands. But then turns to the ghoul with wide eyes. "Kids?"
To answer the vampire's question, Howleen holds up three fingers. In response to this, Bram's eyes rolled into his head as he faints.
"Oh, my ghoul!" Howleen shouts as she kneels next to him, "Bram! Bram! Are you alright? Wake up!"
From the other side of the room, Twyla steps out of the shadows. She glances at her iCoffin that she had immediately put on silent when Howleen almost caught her. The screen is opened to a group chat titled HPS or the Howleen Protection Society that was started by Clawdeen and Clawd soon after the incident with Nefera.
HPS
Clawdeen: Has anyone seen my sister?
Clawdeen: She apparently skipped her last three classes.
Toralei: What!?
Toralei: Howleen Protection Society! Sound off!
Frankie: Haven't seen her since Spectra's vlog.
Abbey: Not in Creepateria.
Lagoona: I'm in the pool room. She's not here either.
Draculaura: Anyone check the Mad Science room?
Heath: She's not in the locker room.
Clawd: Why would she be in the boy's locker room?
Heath: Um…
Cleo: Oh, my Ra!
Clawdeen: Heath! You didn't, did you?
Abbey: I dragged him there.
Heath: What?
Heath: I mean.
Heath: Yeah! Abbey dragged me into the ghoul's locker room.
Draculaura: I thought you were in the Creepateria, Abbey?
Abbey: I was. Then ran into Heath and dragged him to ghoul's locker room.
Toralei: Anyone hear from Twyla?
Toralei: If anyone has any idea where Kitten went, it's her.
Twyla looks back up at Howleen and the recovering Bram. The Wolf ghoul gives him a reassuring pat on his shoulder.
Twyla: The Student Lounge is empty.
Clawdeen: Really?
Clawdeen: Okay then. We'll just double back around if we have to.
The boogie ghoul then melts back into the shadows.
.oOo.
Spectra floats into Headmistress Bloodgood's office, carrying a folder. "I ended up telling Toralei that I started a story on her."
Bloodgood looks up from her desk. "How much did you tell her?"
"Nothing in too much detail," the ghost shakes her head. "But I did give her the picture."
"And how did she take it?"
"She broke down crying, but relieved to have something physical."
The woman sighs. "I guess she really needed that?"
"That's not all," Spectra reveals, capturing the Headmistress' attention. "I found more information of what went down," she hands Bloodgood the folder. "I thought about showing Toralei, but I figured you should see it first."
Bloodgood takes the folder and opens it. She examines the contents before her eyes widen at what is before her. "This, this changes everything," the woman closes the folder and places it in a drawer of her desk. "Tell nobody of this! If you happen to come across anything else, please come to me first, Spectra."
"Very well, Headmistress Bloodgood." With that, the ghost descends through the floor of the office.
The woman sighs and leans back in her seat. "No wonder you were so upset, Toralei. I'm sorry for not looking into this from the very beginning."
End