Omega Blues (Gay Romance)

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Wolf who Laughs

Matt

The predator hides, perfectly blending into the landscape. In the fork of a tree he's completely invisible... until it's too late.

Below him the wolf walks, unsuspecting. The wolf will never know that terror lurks above, that the tables are about to turn and the hunter will become the hunted.

As the wolf passes below, the predator lunges...

I landed hard in the snow, in the empty spot where Will should have been. "Hey!"

"You call that hunting?" He was beside me now, sticking his muzzle into my ear and blowing warm steam. "Really, in a tree? Are you a wolf or an owl?"

"It's genius, no one ever thinks to look up," I said. "Like in the movies."

"Maybe it would have worked if you'd picked a taller tree."

"The taller ones are hard to climb." Will didn't look impressed. I stuck out my tongue, which was much more effective in my wolf shape. I could have eaten an entire ice cream with one lick of my huge tongue. "I'm the apex predator, the terror of the woods!"

"Your parents would be ashamed." Laughing now as he tried to pull me along by my ear. I doggy paddled through the snow, letting him take some of my weight. When he'd let go of me I'd pretend I couldn't walk and bury myself in the snow behind him. "They raised you to be a hunter! You know Matt, I think you were better at camouflage when you were a human."

I'm not human any more. The thought still gave me a kick. After all those months trying to haggle and bribe and beg my way into the cool werewolf club, I was finally in. And hours of guitar practice were paying off as I got my omega-wolf fingers used to being people fingers again. I pretended I was in a bass guitar rehab, and Liv and Chop and Rebel were my therapists - with extra emotional support from the others. I was almost back to feeling as in-control as I had before the bite.

Will stopped and nodded his head. "Look at that. I can see your house from here, and Connor's."

We'd walked into a rocky clearing surrounded by squat trees. For a change it wasn't raining or snowing and the air was fresh and clear. It was true, we could see all the way down the mountainside to the town of Layton. I could see the high school we'd all gone to together, the hall we'd played a few of our first gigs in, my favorite diner and the roads and stores we'd mooched around after school. Even though I wasn't born here, almost all of my life had happened in Layton. It was my home.

"That's the best town in the world," I said.

"Yeah." Will was perched on a rock, looking very dignified and regal, the king of wolves. Until he scratched his ear with a hind paw and looked more like a huge friendly dog.

I loped over to him and shoved with my shoulder until he budged up and gave me space on the rock. "We'll still visit Layton, right? I mean, we don't have to just live in the forest all the time?"

"Of course not. It'll be just like now. You can hang out with your parents whenever. We can even go on road trips, like to visit college friends or for gigs. We can tour with the band again, like we did over Summer, if that's what you all want."

"Yeah." But I felt a huge difference than I had over the summer. I'd never really wanted to travel much, but now I felt so much love toward my home town that I didn't want to leave. Not like it sucked to go to college and hang out in bigger cities with the band, but home was nicer. Maybe that was me becoming a werewolf and getting territorial. Or maybe it was just seeing enough of the world to know Layton and the Jagged Rock Mountains were special to me.

I hoped all the others felt the same. Not chained to Jagged Rock like Chop had been worried, but more like we could travel but it was way better to stay here.