WOLFVILLE

3.3: Something Something Personal Privacy

The woman crouched and examined Timmory as she drank. She kept her distance and Timmory stayed wary, flicking eyes up at the woman every now and then. Once Timmory drank her fill, she stepped back and curled her lip, the hairs along her spine rising.

"You don't have to worry about me," said the woman, smiling.

The blond man bunched up the paper towels and shoved them in a small garbage container he brought in. "Yeah, Mum's the least of your worries. Donnie, though, kid's clumsier than a fawn. I'd watch my tail around him if I were you," he said.

Timmory scrutinized them. She could make out the family resemblance—the low, sturdy cheekbones, the dark yellow hair.

"I'm Nathaniel Winters, but you can call me Nate," he said humbly, and then gestured to the woman. "This is my Mum, Deirdre. She's a nurse, she's here to make sure you transformed safely. We're all werewolves. You, us, Donnie too."

Her eyes narrowed. She could barely even believe that werewolves were a real thing. She wanted to call him a liar. How could it be possible that such myths lived without their existences getting caught and blown out into the world?

"We make up a pack," Nate continued, "there's a bunch of us that live around town. Werewolves in Wolfville, what a coincidence, hey?" he laughed.

Timmory rolled her eyes, worsening the throb in her head.

"Anyway, you should probably stay here until your body recovers from the change. It's very exhausting to make the first transformation, and you've only slept a day. You should be resting for a couple days at least, especially after being sick."

Stay? Here? She didn't like the sound of that. Especially when he said she slept a whole day. A day since when? Since the attack? Since they found her? That was Saturday, that meant she would have been away from home for an entire day. It meant that today was Sunday and tomorrow she had class. Worst of all, she didn't know if her parents or Julia even knew where she was, or if she was safe. How was she going to deal with all that if they were going to keep her here for a few days? What if she said no? As if she could say anything at all...! Timmory rumbled and shook her head side to side, disagreeing, uttering a wail of protest.

Nate rubbed his chin. "You can't do anything else. Your body is still healing. You nearly lost your arm!"

She examined her arm, recalling the snap of her bone in the wolf's teeth. The numbness of it hid well among her other aches. But regardless, there was no way Timmory could stay locked up here. Her body changed from human to wolf. Couldn't it change back?

"We know you have people worried about you. But I promise, we've let them know you're safe," Deirdre said as she reached out a hand to Timmory.

Timmory jerked back, clicking teeth at the woman.

Exchanging a look with Nate, Deirdre simply went to the door. "She's going to be a handful," she said softly, as if Timmory wouldn't be able to hear it. But Timmory could hear everything. The growl bubbled. "I'll tell your father she changed with no issue. See if you can't convince her to stay."

She knew exactly what they were trying to do. This was her anger; at the forest, at the wolf, at anyone who contained her! They had no right! Timmory was obliged to no one; not to die, not to stay! Timmory met his stare with challenge to try something. She had teeth and he didn't, and she already escaped death once. Who said she couldn't do it again?

He didn't approach. Nate leaned against the door, looking pensive, then crossed his legs on the floor. His said nothing as he reached behind his head, pulling his hair out of its messy bun. Meticulously he reworked his hair, gathering up all those loose strands before tucking it back into a fresh, tighter bun. She'd watched with admiration of his handiwork, but it didn't attenuate any part of her fury. "Okay, I get you don't want to stay," he sighed.

Timmory wailed loudly at him.

"This whole thing's gotta be a little scary," Nate leaned back, propping his elbows up on his knees. "I mean, you don't even know us. This terrifying thing just happened to you and we're trying to keep you from going home. I get it, really. This is even new to me. We don't really know how to handle it."

Her noises dwindled to a defiant whine.

"We just don't know if it's safe for you to leave. You have to understand you're in a lot of danger. New werewolves are clumsy and there's a lot of threats out there. People get scared when they see a wolf. They could shoot you or call animal control. Not to mention if you were exposed, you'd be killed. There's people out there that know about us and they hate us. They'd snap you up in an instant."

His worry sounded sincere, so she could give him points for that, but that was it. Timmory already made up her mind. There was no way she was going to stress out her parents or Julia by disappearing on them, nor was she about to miss classes that she paid way too much money for. Besides, she wouldn't be exposed if she could just change back into a human.

Nate looked hopeful for her understanding. Then Timmory's phone buzzed with a text and she glimpsed the message from her mother: Are you coming home for dinner?

Timmory locked eyes with Nate and barked.

He groaned. "You really want to leave?"

She thumped her tail on the floorboards.

"Then you'll have to shift back. It's going to take a huge toll on your body and be very painful," he warned her.

Timmory didn't care. It was the wolf's fault this happened. It was their fault she was here. Sure she was still alive, but as long as she was still alive, she still had homework and social affairs and a whole life that dragged by, but dammit, it was hers and she had to carry on with it. So she lifted up on her shaky paws, imploring Nate to undo this.

"You have to just kinda... force your body back to the way it was."

Timmory took his instruction and closed her eyes. Pain burned under her skin, deep in her bones, through every inch of her. She didn't know if it was working. Her head cocked down, and she couldn't feel anything yet—it just encouraged her to push further, sheer determination ignoring the warnings and resistance of her body. But she couldn't live like this; as a wolf, locked up in some cabin in the woods! Then sharp agony in her spine twisted her, and the sudden movement kickstarted the transformation that she summoned. A strangled yelp escaped as her vision blurred. The same agony that consumed her during the attack washed over her again, dizziness and nausea, the snapping of bones. All at once she was expelled from her body. The force of it suffocated her, and within seconds, Timmory fell unconscious.

Her body lost control. She was a cacophony of guttural howls, skin tearing and resealing, muscles ripping, bones twisting. Nate leaped up to help any way he could, but Timmory's determination set her on a course too fast to mitigate. He could only support her as she writhed and changed, swallowed again.