for me personally.
It wasn’t that my parents had a problem with homosexuality. They just had a problem with my homosexuality. Pack women had babies, it was our duty. No excuses accepted. Mum and Dad had freaked when I came out to them, Mum especially. She was a throwback, my mother. A Stepford Wolf. It was incomprehensible to her that I might not want to get married and start pumping out pups.
For a couple of tense years they tried to persuade me I was just going through a phase, and I tried to convince them I wasn’t. The first time I brought a girl home, for my seventeenth birthday party, all hell broke loose. I’d hopped on the first plane out of the city the next morning and never been back. Now, watching the ground dwindle away beneath the rising plane, the clouds drifting in to mask the earth below, my stomach churned with more than just travel sickness.
My wolf raised its hackles, the beast within feeding on my gnawing tension. I wanted my parents to be happy to see me. I wanted them to accept Shannon. I wanted this to be happening under different circumstances.
D
espite everything, I felt a little rush of excitement as the captain told us to buckle up for landing. The city looked just as I remembered. A sprawling glitter of high-rise glass buildings, interspersed with lush green parks. Clean and modern, it was a testimony to the partnership between Pack and humans. In other parts of the country relationships were less cordial, and Pack members were treated like freaks, monsters, something I’d experienced firsthand when I first struck out on my own. They lived in ghettos, cut off from the pure humans and existing in an uneasy balance between superior strength and superior numbers. But here the humans had been quick to seize upon the advantages offered by a Pack alliance. Why not use the wolves’ strength and heightened senses to benefit everyone? The Pack controlled the construction industry in the city, as well as a lot of the ‘green’ businesses, taking care of all those beautiful parks. The humans held most of the power in terms of politics and legislation, whereas in law enforcement it was pretty even. The humans liked the security that a werewolf police officer brought to their neighborhood. Not many people were stupid enough totake on a wolf in uniform. I smiled wryly.
My smile faded as I thought of Adam. He’d been eight when I last saw him and pretty into cops and robbers. He’d had a toy gun and plastic badge, the works. I wondered if he’d wanted to become a police officer, if he’d harbored ambitions of protecting this city and its people. I chewed my lip, twisting the hoop piercing my lower lip into my mouth to suck on the cool metal.
Shannon nudged me. “You look pale. Need the sick bag?” she asked lightly, trying to rouse me from my mopey silence.
I shook her off with an irritable snarl and turned back to the window, watching the city grow steadily larger as we landed.
W
hatever apprehension I had about seeing my parents again was swept away when I caught sight of Vince in the airport car park. Losing all sense of dignity, I dropped my suitcase and flung myself into his arms with a squeal. He laughed and swung me up easily, his warm, earthy scent enveloping me. Beneath that was a baser, sharper musk that was pure Pack. It had been years since I’d smelled it and it brought tears to my eyes now.
“Oh Vince,” I muttered into his hair.
“ Ayla , God, it’s good to see you.” He set me down, held me at arm’s length to study me with a crooked smile. “Loving the hair, girlfriend.” He ran his hand over my shaggy black spikes. “Makes you look so cute.”
I glowered. I was short for a wolf, with an angelic countenance I’d desperately tried to combat with piercings and a punky haircut. Apparently it hadn’t worked. “You look exactly the same,” I told him. “Still lanky and skinny.”
He opened his mouth to retort but Shannon interrupted him by dumping my
It wasn’t that my parents had a problem with homosexuality. They just had a problem with my homosexuality. Pack women had babies, it was our duty. No excuses accepted. Mum and Dad had freaked when I came out to them, Mum especially. She was a throwback, my mother. A Stepford Wolf. It was incomprehensible to her that I might not want to get married and start pumping out pups.
For a couple of tense years they tried to persuade me I was just going through a phase, and I tried to convince them I wasn’t. The first time I brought a girl home, for my seventeenth birthday party, all hell broke loose. I’d hopped on the first plane out of the city the next morning and never been back. Now, watching the ground dwindle away beneath the rising plane, the clouds drifting in to mask the earth below, my stomach churned with more than just travel sickness.
My wolf raised its hackles, the beast within feeding on my gnawing tension. I wanted my parents to be happy to see me. I wanted them to accept Shannon. I wanted this to be happening under different circumstances.
D
espite everything, I felt a little rush of excitement as the captain told us to buckle up for landing. The city looked just as I remembered. A sprawling glitter of high-rise glass buildings, interspersed with lush green parks. Clean and modern, it was a testimony to the partnership between Pack and humans. In other parts of the country relationships were less cordial, and Pack members were treated like freaks, monsters, something I’d experienced firsthand when I first struck out on my own. They lived in ghettos, cut off from the pure humans and existing in an uneasy balance between superior strength and superior numbers. But here the humans had been quick to seize upon the advantages offered by a Pack alliance. Why not use the wolves’ strength and heightened senses to benefit everyone? The Pack controlled the construction industry in the city, as well as a lot of the ‘green’ businesses, taking care of all those beautiful parks. The humans held most of the power in terms of politics and legislation, whereas in law enforcement it was pretty even. The humans liked the security that a werewolf police officer brought to their neighborhood. Not many people were stupid enough totake on a wolf in uniform. I smiled wryly.
My smile faded as I thought of Adam. He’d been eight when I last saw him and pretty into cops and robbers. He’d had a toy gun and plastic badge, the works. I wondered if he’d wanted to become a police officer, if he’d harbored ambitions of protecting this city and its people. I chewed my lip, twisting the hoop piercing my lower lip into my mouth to suck on the cool metal.
Shannon nudged me. “You look pale. Need the sick bag?” she asked lightly, trying to rouse me from my mopey silence.
I shook her off with an irritable snarl and turned back to the window, watching the city grow steadily larger as we landed.
W
hatever apprehension I had about seeing my parents again was swept away when I caught sight of Vince in the airport car park. Losing all sense of dignity, I dropped my suitcase and flung myself into his arms with a squeal. He laughed and swung me up easily, his warm, earthy scent enveloping me. Beneath that was a baser, sharper musk that was pure Pack. It had been years since I’d smelled it and it brought tears to my eyes now.
“Oh Vince,” I muttered into his hair.
“ Ayla , God, it’s good to see you.” He set me down, held me at arm’s length to study me with a crooked smile. “Loving the hair, girlfriend.” He ran his hand over my shaggy black spikes. “Makes you look so cute.”
I glowered. I was short for a wolf, with an angelic countenance I’d desperately tried to combat with piercings and a punky haircut. Apparently it hadn’t worked. “You look exactly the same,” I told him. “Still lanky and skinny.”
He opened his mouth to retort but Shannon interrupted him by dumping my
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