The Golden Wolf

Twilight

 Sometimes you put a bunch of misfits together and get a family.

Sometimes you get a bunch of assholes.

Knocking at the door wakes me up. Sun shines through the window, and I stretch. I am so not in the mood to go to class today. I feel like I was hit by a truck.

"Hey, you awake? Abarron told me to come get you. We're having a meeting."

Abarron?

Everything hits me like a ton of bricks. I don't have to go to class. I've been kidnapped. Locked in a dungeon. Giant wolves are a thing.

I hear myself groan and my eyes open slightly to see Petra standing in the doorway.

"I heard you tried to protect Fen. Thanks for that." She says, approaching the bed. "Do you need help getting up?"

I sit up, stretching my arms out in front of me. "I'm okay; thanks."

Getting up from the bed, I follow her from the bedroom. My knees pop with every step I take, and when I roll my shoulders, they make alarming popping noises as well.

"You sound like you're shifting." Petra comments and gives a slight laugh before cutting herself off, going silent.

"Shifting?" I ask, "Like the werewolves in Twilight? I didn't take you for a Twilight fan." I grin.

"Ha, yeah." She says, dropping the subject.

"Don't worry, I won't tell your friends. I used to love Twilight." We make our way down the stairs into the living room, my knee joints finally deciding to shut up.

The living room is all cleaned up, short for the hole in the wall where the front door used to be and one broken window now covered by thick plastic. To my right, the men sit on the couches and chairs, giant pieces of ornate furniture that take up the entire side of the room. The chairs and couches all face the large fireplace. Fen sits on the rough stone base of the fireplace. We enter the room, and all eyes are on us. Well, they're on me.

"Dude, your joints are messed up." Ciprian says, chuckling.

What? "How could you hear them?"

"Uh-" he starts

"They're ridiculously loud." Aurellius says, cutting him off. "Why are they like that?"

"I was super athletic growing up." I say, following Petra toward the couch.

"Sports?" Ciprian asks.

"Yeah." I lie. I sit at the end of the couch. Petra is next to me and the twins are on the other side of her. Abarron is sitting in the chair directly in front of me and Dragomir is in the chair opposite Abarron. Fen doesn't stop staring at me from his seat at the fireplace, directly across from the couch.

"So, Kaliya." Abarron starts. "How... What do you... er, how would you explain what happened this morning, from your point of view? What did you see as happening earlier today?"

All eyes are on me. Is this a trick question? I had no idea what happened today. My brain had stopped trying to make everything make sense. My brain had essentially said, fuck it, you're on your own. "Uhm, to be totally honest I'm not quite sure what happened. Why were there wolves? Was all of that my fault? I screamed for help. I thought they were here to rescue me. But there were wolves. A man came-." I stopped myself. I wasn't about to tell them what that man knew about me. "A man tried to attack me but a big ass wolf tore him off me. That's when I grabbed Fen and tried to get him out." The arm. "There-there was an arm in the living room." I feel bile rise to my throat and tears spring to my eyes. "I tried to get Fen outside to my car, but a huge wolf was in the way, so I dropped Fen and tried to defend him with my razor but the wolf jumped over me and Fen was gone and then two more wolves jumped over my car and started attacking the wolves and how did wolves get to be that big? And where did you go?" I blabber, looking up at Fen for the last question. "And why were you all naked?" My head swivels around to all of them. My hands grasp at the sides of my neck. "I just- it's like, I don't even know what it's like. I'm crazy. Those wolves were huge." I lean back in the couch, letting my head hit back against the ornate wood bordering the couch cushions. I'm tired; I don't understand what's happening; I just want to go home. "I want to sleep for three days."

Abarron bites his lip. "Well, you're not crazy, I guess. That's probably the only good news you're about to hear from me though."

"Not crazy, my ass." I grumble.

Abarron leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him. "There isn't really an easy way to tell you what's going on. I could tell you a couple legends, but I don't think that would change very much. Well, you're religious right? You have the cross on your keychain."

I nod.

"Okay so, you're familiar with the 12 tribes of Israel?"

I nod, looking at him. Where is this going?

"So in Genesis, it says that God gave the tribe of Benjamin the symbol of the wolf. The verse is something like, 'Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil'."

I nod again. "I'm familiar with that verse. That was one that was drilled into our heads pretty hardcore back whe-." I stop myself again. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to spill that secret right now. "Back when I was in church." I finish, lamely.

Abarron gives me a look, but continues. "So what if God gave the tribe of Benjamin more than just the symbol of the wolf? What if he actually made them wolves?"

"Well that couldn't be possible because the Bible still speaks of the tribe as being human, not wolves. Wolves don't rule over land."

Abarron tilts his head. "Well that's not particularly true considering wolves are territorial, but beside that point, the tribe of Benjamin were still people, they could just... change. Into wolves."

The pieces click together in my head and I look up at Petra. "Uhm, I hate to break it to you, but I think they found out about your fascination with Twilight." I look back to Abarron, a slight smirk on my face. "Twilight is a good series, and making fun of us for liking it isn't going to make me feel any shame at all."

Abarron sighs and Petra stands up, frustrated. "They aren't making fun of Twilight. I don't even like Twilight. It's hugely unrealistic." She stands behind the couch, and to my shock, begins stripping out of the shorts and tanktop she's wearing.

"What are you-." I stop myself in shock. A hand rests itself upon the small of my back, and I turn to see Abarron crouching next to me. "What is-."

"Shh." He says, cutting me off. "You're going to want to watch this."

I turn back toward Petra, now completely naked, her body tall and slender, slightly brown skin completely smooth, except for the zebra-like stretch marks covering her back. Her long black hair flows down her shoulders, and suddenly shakes violently. I hear popping, and Petra's body contorts. The popping continues and before hair sprouts from her body as her skin convulses, something moving violently underneath. My brain refuses to put together the picture unfolding in front of me, until suddenly I'm staring directly into the eyes of a black wolf, taller than me. 

We carry pieces of all those who have built and broken us.

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Emily