Enter the Wolf King

Chapter Eight

        Adam continued to strum his guitar quietly by the fire while Simon observed him as inconspicuously as he could. Simon thought he looked completely at ease sitting there by the fire, like this was exactly where he was meant to be or something.

        "Do you need anymore to eat tonight?" Adam asked suddenly, Simon startled, then felt himself flush just a little at having been caught staring while his thoughts wandered.

        "W-what?" he stammered out before he processed the question. "No, I should be good until morning now." He started fidgeted as Adam studied him intently, it was bad enough when Derek badgered him about eating, it was a little more embarrassing for a complete stranger to be paying so much attention to his health, but with a nod, Adam seemed content to leave it at that, and focused once more on his guitar, it wasn't anything recognizable, just a gentle melody that made a person think of warmer climates.

        "A werewolf who plays guitar," Simon mused, his eyes drawn to the way Adam's fingers brushed against the strings. "Derek can't even keep rhythm."

        "I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who can play an instrument," Adam said with a chuckle. "But I admit that I am one of a kind."

        "I think so," Simon agreed. "Thanks again for the save by the way."

        "You're welcome," Adam replied.

.................

        A day or two later saw Derek and Adam practicing in another clearing.

        "I think I saw your claws flash that time," Adam said. "That's amazing progress compared to yesterday."

        "Not . . . enough," Derek huffed out through ragged breaths.

        "Are you kidding?" Adam asked with an incredulous stare. "It took me months to be able to do that, you're insanely advanced . . . I don't know if I should be jealous, or impressed with my own teaching skills." Derek scoffed a little and rolled his eyes.

        "I think we should call it good for the day," Adam continued. "Pushing too hard can have negative consequences, and you probably want to press on a little farther while it's still daylight right?"

        "Yeah," Derek agreed, and the two of them walked back to the camp spot to get the others. "What consequences?"

        "Try pushing too hard and you could accidentally force a change," Adam explained. "Forced changes from stress, and overexertion can be dangerous because it increases the risk of getting stuck."

        "Stuck," Derek shuddered. "Have you ever seen it happen?"

        "It's the worst thing that could happen to a werewolf I think," Adam replied. "Your body forgets which way it's turning, so it's basically trapped tearing itself apart. The pain is even worse than the first turn . . ." Derek stared at him as he trailed off, and after a moment Adam snapped back to earth and cleared his throat. "I imagine anyway."

        As the walked the rest of the day Adam seemed to keep to himself a little more than he had before. By the time the group stopped for the night his unusually quiet demeanor had everyone else feeling a bit awkward. Derek insisted, upon being asked repeatedly that he didn't think he'd done anything to upset him, and refused when Chloe suggested he speak to him.

        "It's none of our business," Derek said stubbornly. "We should leave him alone." The two argued, and Tori surprisingly agreed with Derek.

        "We're literally just keeping him around so Derek can learn wolf-mojo, she chimed in. "Why should we have to deal with his sob-story?"

        "Don't call it that," Derek muttered darkly. Tori responded with an eye-roll which nearly launched the two of them into an entirely different argument before Chloe interrupted them both.

        "Well we should at least make sure it wasn't something we did," she countered. They continued like that for a few moments more until Simon with a sigh, and an eye-roll of his own went over to where Adam was sitting, effectively ending the argument entirely.

        "You would think that as a werewolf himself, he would know not to be so loud when discussing someone secretly," Adam commented without looking up when Simon was at his shoulder. Simon didn't say anything, just looked down at him, he wasn't even sure why he decided to just come over. They didn't know each other that well to begin with, and he didn't want to potentially pry into something personal. Even if he did kind of want to know more about him.

        "I'm alright," Adam said softly turning to look back at him.

        "Are you?" Simon heard himself ask, the two of them held gazes and Adam smiled gently.

        "Yeah," he answered. "Today's lesson just had me remembering some things I'd rather forget, I promise I'll go back to annoying your brother tomorrow."

        "You're almost as good at doing that as Tori is," Simon said with a grin.

        "I heard that!" Tori called from the fire. Adam watched them with a twinkle of amusement as they made faces at each other.

        "Irritating people is one of my many talents," he said as Simon rolled his eyes again, and sat down beside him. "Just ask my sister."

        There was a collective silence as the eavesdroppers sharpened their attention on the conversation, and if Derek had been in wolf form his ears probably would have visibly pricked at the sudden new information. Simon too looked at Adam with surprise.

        "You . . ." he started to say as he tried to wrap his head around this newest revelation. "You have a sister? I thought werewolves were only born male." Adam looked back at Simon suddenly startled, like he hadn't meant to mention that last bit.

        "Ah," he looked a little sheepish. "Heh, she will probably kill me if she finds out I've been talking about her."

        "It's a little late to take it back now," Simon said. "Since you already brought her up, you might as well continue, and I mean . . ." Simon looked back at the others who all tried to unconvincingly look like they weren't hanging on every word now. Adam followed Simon's gaze and let out a little laugh.

        "Right," he looked down at his hands. "Well, to answer the more pressing question that hasn't technically been asked . . . there are female werewolves, but if you were to ask the Syracuse Pack they would tell you that the only one in existence is their pack member Elena Michaels, and they would definitely kill me if they knew I was talking about her . . . so let's pretend I didn't just use her name." Adam paused in his explanation to rub his hands over his face. 

        "It's not true of course," he said. "It's ridiculous how little they actually know about their own race for a group that's supposed to be policing our every move. Anyway, I couldn't tell you how many there are, aside from Michaels, I only know three others."

        "So . . ." Simon frowned. "Does that mean female werewolves can be born then?"

        "Normally no," Adam continued to explain. "You were right before, normally the werewolf gene is only passed father to son. So normally the only way for there to be a female werewolf would be for a woman to survive the bite. But let me ask you this, what happens if the bitten woman has children?"