Animal Nature

Chapter 26

Martha called Shy's father after the ambulance took Dr. Fleiss away, even though Shy would have been fine. She knew David was safe. He would find his way to her. She wasn't worried about walking home alone, because she knew David would never attack her.

Mr. Brown arrived and Martha pulled him into the office to speak with him privately while Shy played with some of the cats. Martha had called in two of the other shelter staff to help clean up and calm the animals, and Shy couldn't listen at the door of the office to hear them, but when Mr. Brown emerged and he and Shy got into the car, Shy could feel the tension in the air.

At first Mr. Brown turned the radio down, then back up again, and finally off. "So, uh, Martha says you're having a hard time because of David?"

Shy tried to stop herself from laughing. "I'm fine, Dad."

"She told me you had named one of the dogs David. And you freaked out when you found out they had to euthanize it?"

"Yeah." Shy wondered how she could play along with this conversation and not come off as crazy. "But he escaped."

"The dog?"

"Yeah."

The silence yawned open again. Mr. Brown tapped on the steering wheel. Finally he said, "I'm not so sure you should keep working at the shelter."

"What?" Shy stared at her father. "Everything's fine, Dad. I wasn't hurt or anything when the wolfhound escaped. I'm perfectly safe."

"Your mother and I agreed that it's not the best idea for you. We should have put our foot down after the last time, when Billy was involved."

Shy sighed.

She couldn't imagine how she would occupy her time without her job at the shelter. It was the only thing keeping her sane with all this werewolf stuff going on. She had been counting on that job to earn money for college.

David was gone, and she didn't know if he would stick with his plan to go to Maine, or if he would return and try to talk to her. She would need to prepare herself either way. She needed a cure by the Halloween dance on Friday.

Her mother didn't let her escape to her room once she got home, either. "Can you start the laundry? Can you set the table for dinner?" Never mind that Billy was sitting in the other room watching TV, cleaning his rifle.

She could barely eat with her parents exchanging glances at every forkful of chicken pilaf she tried to swallow, and then Billy had to go and make everything worse.

"Me and a bunch of my friends are gonna go hunting tonight," Billy announced. "We're gonna get that wolf that attacked us at the shelter."

Mr. Brown cleared his throat. "Billy, perhaps we could—"

"Those protesters can suck it. That wolf is a killer. And if those animal control people can't get their shit together, I know me and Chris and Andy can get him."

"—talk about something else."

Billy and Mr. Brown looked at each other.

Shy pushed her food around. She was sure Billy and his hunting buddies didn't have a chance against a werewolf. At the same time, she wanted her parents to forbid him to go, just in case.

"Maybe we should talk about it," Billy said loudly. "What, you're cool with a killer wolf on the loose that's tried to attack Shy twice?"

Shy looked up. "Twice?"

"Okay, so not you, personally, but you were there, right? When the wolf attacked that doctor at the shelter today?" Billy said.

"I wasn't in the same room," she started to say, but her brother cut her off.