White as Snow | Paul Lahote

13. The Werewolf in the Room

While Sarah heated up the food for the two of them, Charlie flipped through the tv channels until he found one playing Bride and Prejudice, one of Sarah's favourites, it was a Bollywood twist on a classic, featuring loud Indian women and every colour on the spectrum. They watched and ate until they were full of laughter and Aish's amazing chicken pulao. Then Sarah got up to do the dishes. Now is as good a time as any to ask him, she thought."Hey dad, can I ask you something?" Sarah mustered up the courage to say the words. 

"Of course you can! What's up?" Charlie looked up at her, almost worried as to what she was going to say. "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Paul, Sam, Jared, and a bunch of other guys are part of a pack... a pack of werewolves who protect our area... they call themselves the Quileute pack" Sarah began to explain. "How do you know all of this?" Charlie looked genuinely concerned. "Paul told me" she explained. "What... why would... oh... Oh..." Charlie finally seemed to understand. It seemed as if he had an epiphany of his own... "What do you mean 'Oh'?" Sarah was now the one who was confused.

"Paul must've imprinted on you, it's the only thing that makes sense... of course... why hadn't I thought of it sooner" Charlie muttered to himself, "Imprint? What does that mean?" Sarah's eyes grew big as she desperately wanted to know what the word meant. "Nothing... I mean... Paul will tell you, once he's ready to" Sarah was annoyed, she had a feeling Paul would never tell her. "Dad I needed to ask you something" Sarah reminded him, "Oh right... I bet you I know what it is... you wanted to know if I too am one, right?" Sarah gulped. "Yeah, I do" Sarah admitted.

"Well, the truth is... I am . Or at least I was. When I was younger" he explained. "What do you mean 'were'?" Sarah asked.

"I phased when I was roughly 15... I was the beta of my pack. Second in command. I followed the alpha's orders and made sure they were being obeyed accordingly. It was what I knew, and understood. I loved being in a pack and having that sense of family. It felt great, especially when I was growing up. But by the time I was nineteen, I was sick of it. I wanted to be able to think and make decisions for myself. When I turned twenty, I packed my bags and decided to leave. Not just the pack, but La Push. When I told your grandmother, she was hurt. The wolf blood runs through our veins. She felt as if I was letting her, and our ancestors down. But she eventually agreed, only on the condition that I take her with me. So we left. Left La Push, the Pack, the only sense of family I had ever known, to journey to New York. I applied to Columbia University, and because of how well I had done in school, I was accepted right away. That was where I met your mother. We fell in love almost instantly, because I had imprinted on her the moment I laid eyes on her. Because the wolf blood was still heavily running through my veins, I knew I had imprinted on her. She had dreams of travelling across the country, teaching music at elementary schools while painting on the side. I loved her sense of adventure and her need for change. I followed her. Taking your Nana with me. Nana loved your mom right away. Even though she knew that she was the one responsible for me changing. She was just glad that I was happy. That's when I stopped phasing. You see, when a wolf has been away from his pack for a long time and has not phased for a long time, he loses his powers slowly. He begins to age normally. Think freely. Be his own person. When I met your mother, I stopped phasing, knowing that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, following her wherever her next adventure took her. I stopped phasing completely by the time you were born. I had lost the magic in me to do so. I became human again. And I could not be gladder" Charlie explained.

"Does it only pass on to the male relatives?" Sarah asked.

"What? The genes?" Charlie asked Sarah nodded sheepishly. "No, no, no! Of course not! Women also inherit the genes! Many of your grandmother's ancestors were spirit warriors, as was..." his voice trailed off into the distance, "forget it..." Charlie stopped speaking briefly. "Your grandmother's family was the first where both females and males carried the wolf gene in their blood. But was certainly not the last" Charlie said. "Do you think I could have it?" Sarah asked."That is very possible. Although, you haven't begun to show any signs of it, so who knows?" Charlie said.