Omega Blues (Gay Romance)

Chapter Twenty-One: Howl

Matt

I fired off a message to Will as a I left the river. Not that I expected him to reply—he wouldn't have his phone with him, because he was out being a wolf with the rest of my so-called friends.

I couldn't tell if Bren was following me. I wished I had his super-hearing. All I had was my puny human ears, probably a little blown from band practice and gigs even though I always wore earplugs. I knew how to move quietly in the forest and how to listen intently, but if I'd had Will or Connor's sense of hearing than I'd probably be able to tell exactly what Bren was doing, maybe even tell from his heartbeat whether he was sad or angry or what.

Part of me wanted to turn right around and go back to him. But he was out of line to make decisions about me—my body, my life, my future—without even talking to me about it. It didn't matter how much I liked him, he'd still gone too far.

I jogged through the forest, back the way we'd come even though that meant going to Bren's house. I wasn't going to risk getting lost in the woods.

I could get back to Bren's, then walk to Will's old house to wait. But who knew, maybe the pack would be gone all night, and I'd be left waiting and stewing.

So I did the one thing I knew to help me get in contact with a pack of wolves in the wild: I howled.

I only knew how to howl the way Will had taught me. I could remember our whole band laughing as Will showed us the howl, getting us to practice again and again like we were learning a foreign language. It was a language, really, and the one phrase I knew was to say that I belonged to Will's pack.

I didn't know how to ask Will to come see me. We'd always figured we'd become werewolves and pick up on the howl naturally. Or at least I had.

So the pack howl would have to do. I just tried to sound as miserable as possible while I howled it, which wasn't hard.

But it wasn't long before I wasn't alone. Another wolf picked up the howl, a mournful melody filtering through the forest. For a moment I thought it was Will, until I realized it was coming from behind me. No way would Will have come down the mountain and gotten behind me already.

That's when I realized: I wouldn't need wolf ears to know where Bren was, because that was his howl. He must still be back in the tunnel like I'd asked, but helping me out with a howl of his own. I stopped howling and concentrated on just getting out of the forest, while Bren's sad wolf-music rang out behind me.

I hadn't even made it to Bren's house when I heard the answering howl from up the mountain. Many wolf voices raised together. It must be the band, though I had no idea what they were saying.

I lifted an old dirt bike from Bren's to ride up to Will's. Unsurprisingly, the place was locked and silent.

I couldn't keep my mind on track.

I was too miserable to even take the bike out for a spin behind Will's house. I just paced to the edge of the woods and back, stopping to give a howl every so often, and listening to the response from further up the mountain. The wolf howls were getting closer each time, meaning my band were on their way down to me. That made me feel good despite myself.

After operating on high-alert for so long, I was still surprised when four massive wolves emerged from the trees and walked toward me. The two in front shifted seamlessly into Will and Connor werewolves—humans wearing long-furred bodysuits. The other two were obviously less practiced and more clumsy, but still neither of them broke their stride as they transformed from wolf to werewolf.

Except Chop still had a tail. It tangled between her legs and she nearly tripped, stopping to glare down at it.

I wish I hadn't noticed that. It was kinda adorable, and I didn't want to be thinking nice things about Chop when she might have been keeping secrets from me to try and ruin my life, just like the rest.