Sleepwalker Wolf

Family Dinner

Travis

Val has been struggling since finding her mom on Facebook. There's this anxious quietness she falls into, especially at night, where she just lays against me with a hand pressed against her abdomen. I leave her to it, usually just playing with her hair or writing stupid shit on her back with my fingers.

As soon as I agreed that we'd look for her mom after we told everyone she was pregnant, she was preparing to have Carry over for dinner the next weekend to meet everyone. Carry was obviously very cautious about it but got along with my sister well enough to feel comfortable coming for dinner. Val plans to tell everyone in one go, though it's pretty obvious my parents know already. The glint in Mom's eyes is enough to tell me that.

The pregnancy hormones are hitting hard and fast, though Val adamantly denies it. The nausea hit the same day she found her mom, spending a good portion of the evening locked in the bathroom, threatening me with bodily harm if I so much as knocked on the door. Then she whined about wanting me to rub her back while still refusing to let me in. She admitted the vomiting was the pregnancy but won't admit that she's been acting a little crazy. Even though she told me this morning the shower was making her angry and couldn't explain why, just that it was.

Carry was due to arrive any minute and Val's brain was short circuiting. She was staring up at the sky from the front window like she was expecting Carry to descend from the heavens on a cloud. I watched her without touching because she's been in a very hands-off mood today, so I've been trying my hardest to keep my hands to myself.

"Val, sweetie, are you okay?" Mom asks from my right, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, an apron cinched tight around her waist. Why she always wore an apron even though it remained pristine at all times is beyond me.

"Yeah, just excited to see Carry after so long," Val answers with a soft smile aimed towards my mother.

It's total bullshit. I know Val is worried Carry's going to flip her shit when she finds out about the pregnancy. Not that I would blame her, regular humans rarely understand the dynamic werewolf relationships. Being so much more animalistic and relying more heavily on instinct and our biological drive means that when we find a partner, we settle very quickly. And our slightly shortened life spans and window of fertility means we start young and fast. If we wait too long, the chances of a successful gestation drop drastically.

Just as Mom hums and purses her lips in that mom way that you know she knows your bullshitting her but is being nice enough not to call you out on it, a car round the trees blocking the driveway. It's a silver SUV, bumping up the gravel drive. When it stops, there's no movement while Val starts toward the front door. As soon as she opens the door, Carry steps out of her car and looks around like she's expecting there to be a sex swing hanging on the front porch.

There's this tense moment when they lock eyes and neither move until Val takes a single step down the porch. Suddenly Carry's resolve crumbles. She flies up the short gravel walkway to the porch and throws her arms around Val, who sags visibly with relief. I smile watching them, knowing this will be one worry off of Val's mind, not the biggest, but definitely substantial.

After a few words are exchanged and the long hug is broken, the pair trudge back into the house. When Carry's eyes land on me and my gimp cane, she looks like she wants to be mad, so I exaggerate a few limps when I walk up to offer her my hand. Val notices and rolls her eyes, but has to bite her lip to hide a soft smile.

"Nice to see you again, Carry," I say as she takes my hand.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," she mutters, using my hand to tug me forward into a, only mildly awkward, hug. "If things are going the way I assume, we're going to be stuck with each other for a while."