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23

Alice

It wasn’t so much as disbelief as it was relief that I was feeling. Hearing those words coming from Dad’s mouth suddenly put everything in perspective. Mom and Elma, however, were having a hard time coming to grips with this revelation.

“Excuse me. You expect me to believe that the reason you ditched me and your kids was that you were a creature from some high-fantasy novel? And a werewolf at that?” Mom said incredulously. Her voice was raised. “Are you literally kidding me? Is that how little you think of me? That you can’t even tell me the truth?”

Dad looked at me and chuckled. “Oh, I think I’m telling the truth. What do you think, Alice?”

“Alice? You knew?” Elma asked weakly.

“Remember that day when I came in and we had a fight?” I asked. “I’d known for some time now that one of you had to be a werewolf, because, well, I am one, too.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mom grabbed her head. “Why are you playing along with your father’s delusions? He clearly doesn’t give a shit. What’s wrong with you?”

“Perhaps, honey, it would be better if I showed instead of told?” Dad said, getting up from the dinner table. “I warn you, you might faint. I might break a couple of vases. It’s been some time since I shifted.”

Was this really happening or was I having an elaborate hallucination? Dad was going to shift in front of me? This I had to see.

Dad headed to the middle of the living room.

“Promise me you won’t scream?” he asked mom.

“I’ll probably need years of therapy after this, but sure, go ahead, show us what you are about to do,” Mom said. Elma hugged Mom from behind, peeking from under her arms.

As Dad shifted, something clicked inside my head. I could not believe it had taken me this long to connect the dots that had been right in front of me all this time. Briar Hawkins. Briar Wolf.

I gasped.

In front of me, stood the tallest and broadest werewolf I had ever seen. He was so huge that his head touched the chandelier hanging from the roof. I heard a loud thud behind me and saw that both Mom and Elma had practically fainted.

Dad shifted back and came running to my side.

“Are they hurt?” he asked, bent over my mom.

“No. Give them some time. They just saw a very close family member shapeshift into a terrible beast,” I said. “Dad. Are you the Briar Wolf?”

“Who calls me that? Do people know me? How do you know that?”

“Well, Dad, I shifted some time ago. You might not know this, considering that you’ve been gone for a century, but this place is a werewolf hotbed. I’ve been with them. In fact, my mate is the alpha of a pack. And I can shift, too,” I said, really wanting to show off.

I shifted in front of him, although, I was nowhere near as big as he was when he had turned.

Mom and Elma came to, but when they saw me, they both screamed and comically fainted yet again.

Dad threw his head back and laughed. “We have got to stop doing this.”

Once I’d shifted back, we put mom and Elma on the sofa and waited for them to regain consciousness. Dad was beaming at me the entire time, unable to help himself from smiling.

“You look just like me,” he said.

“Dad, I’m your flesh and blood,” I rolled my eyes and replied.

“I meant your wolf form.”

“Oh.”

Mom woke up and noticing that she was on the sofa instead of on the floor, she shot a look around. She saw me and Dad sitting across from her, and then issued another scream.

“I did not just see that!” she yelled. “Stay back, the both of you.”

“Honey. Calm down. There’s a rational explanation for all of this,” he said, lifting Elma in his arms and trying to get her to wake up.

“I’m sorry, Briar, but I’ve just spent the entire morning coming to terms with the fact that my missing husband has reappeared magically. Please give me like five seconds to grasp this new reality that you both are werewolves!” she yelled. “And you! When did you turn into this thing?”

“Mom. I’ve known for a while. I shifted for the first time yesterday. It’s a long story, but I’d rather listen to Dad’s first. Don’t you think?” I asked.

Mom wiped away tears from her eyes and then nodded.

Dad sat down with Elma in his arms.

“It started right after I married you, dear,” Dad said. “I never knew my family. Raised in an orphanage, moving from foster home to foster home, I always believed that I was different on account of my rage issues. I never knew that I was a wolf. Still, when I turned eighteen, I planned for college, where I met you. I forgot about the hardships that I had to bear when I was growing up in the system. For a few years, life was amazing. I had you, and soon after, we had Alice,” he said.

“I remember that, Briar! I was there! Get to the point!” Mom said hysterically.

“After you gave birth to Alice, there was this accident. I cannot exactly recall how or what, but when I rose from my crashed car, I was not a human any longer. I took to the forests and braved it out in my new form, unable to understand what had happened. After a while, I learned how to control myself. I could shift on command. But by then, I was so disillusioned and lost that I had no idea what I was going to do. I was not raised with a pack. I was not told that I was a wolf. I had accidentally come across it. I could have spent my entire life without knowing. This new knowledge made me want to find out who my real family was. I needed answers as to why I was this monstrosity,” he said.