A Hellhound in Manhattan: Part 1

Chapter 16

Brooklyn and Loona had to take the bus back to her neighborhood. She shivered inside her coat as she watched the streets and buildings pass by.

Of course he didn't want her, she thought. Why would he? Why should she be more important to him than his family? A family who neglected and underestimated him so? Why should he leave them and run away with her?

Meanwhile Brooklyn leaned towards the aisle, knowing she wanted her space. He really did blow it.

They got off the bus and said nothing as they walked down the street. They had a couple blocks before they came to the abandoned church, not realizing that they were being followed.

Something barked from several feet behind them.

Brooklyn lifted his head. "Bronx...?"

He turned around and there was the clan's hound bounding towards them excitedly, having finally found their missing brother.

"Bronx!" Brooklyn knelt down and gave him a hug as the dog happily licked his cheek.

"Brooklyn!"

From above them glided down Broadway and Lexington, in disbelief that Bronx followed Brooklyn's scent to this blonde-haired human.

Broadway took Brooklyn's wrist, as if to confirm that the skin was real. "No way..."

"Is that really you, Brooklyn?" Lex asked.

"Yeah, it's me..." Brooklyn sheepishly confirmed.

"How did this happen?"

"We were so worried, buddy!"

Lex spotted Loona, who eyed them in alarm. "Who's this...?"

"I— um, this is..." Brooklyn wasn't sure where to start, given everything that had happened.

Loona glared at his brothers. So this was the family he chose over her.

Loona flinched as Bronx furiously sniffed at her coat. She shrank back and Bronx growled at her. He knew that scent.

"Hey, Bronx? What's the matter, buddy?" Lex asked.

Bronx let out a confirming bark. He found their werewolf.

Loona screamed and stumbled backwards, scrambling to her feet and running away as she would with the other hunting dogs she had faced.

"Loona!"

She made some distance between them when she turned a corner and a familiar stink filled her own nostrils. The reason she had come to Manhattan in the first place.

She froze in her tracks. No... Not now...!

"Loona!" Brooklyn called.

Standing in front of her was a bespectacled man in a pressed suit underneath his heavy coat. Hardly the attire for someone casually strolling in this part of town.

"There you are, kiddo," he greeted. "Y'know you really had me worried all these years..."

Loona glared at him, her fists tightening.

Brooklyn turned the corner and finally caught up with her. "Loona! Loona, are you okay?"

"'Loona?'" the man repeated. "So that's what you go by as these days. That's a nice name."

"As if you ever gave me a name, you bastard," Loona growled.

"Loona, now that's no way to talk to your dear old dad..." Victor Parker grinned.

Brooklyn glared at him. If this was the deadbeat dad Loona had been searching for then it couldn't have been good.

He took Loona by the shoulders and said, "Loona, I don't know what's going on but we should go."