Page 18 of Bred By the Wolfman

I can’t tell if I like him, or if I like that he likes me. We exchange numbers anyway, and then with another kiss, he’s gone.

But I still feel empty inside, like I found a band-aid to cover a wound that will never heal.

RUSS

I sit on my couch, my head in my hands, listening to the television blare.

I lost the trail.

The scent of her arousal still hangs in my nose, but it’s fading slowly. I hope I don’t forget it.

No. I’ll never forget it. Not as long as I live.

I haven’t even caught a whiff of Dee since I went to that empty apartment. Maybe she moved away. What if she left the state completely? How would I find her then?

Damn. I need a drink.

All it takes is a text message to my friend Caleb to get me out of the house. He’s barbecuing, he says. He has some cold ones and hot dogs if I come over now.

A few of our friends have gathered in Caleb’s backyard, and they all raise their beers when I arrive. I wonder if any of them had planned to invite me.

Marlene trots over with her drink clasped in her claws. She extends her huge, feathery wings, then parks them again against her back.

“Good to see you up and about,” she says, welcoming me into the grassy backyard.

“Up and about?” I ask. “I’m always up and about. I work in a hospital.”

“Yeah,” chimes in Caleb, “but besides that, you just mope around.”

Is that why they’re all meeting up without me? Because I’m a bummer?

“Wow, guys,” I say, tossing back some beer. “Good to know I have my friends’ support.”

Caleb blinks his huge, single eye at me. “Of course you have our support. But you didn’t really want it, friend. Every time we asked you to come out with us, you said no.”

I guess that’s true. I just didn’t... feel like it.

Maybe it was better to sit around and mope, wondering what Dee was doing out in the world. How is our cub growing? Early pregnancy can be unpleasant and uncomfortable—as can the rest of the process of creating another person—and I want more than anything to be there with her.

“Just hand me a beer,” I say instead, holding out one paw. Caleb rolls his eye and heads for the cooler, grabbing a bottle and tossing it to me. I snap the lid off with my claw, then throw it back.

Ah, that’s good. Just what I needed: a beer and some sunshine. Now, if only it were a raw deer instead of a hot dog...

I haven’t gone hunting in a long time. Maybe I should rectify that. Some blood on my face and a still-beating heart in my mouth might just be exactly what the doctor ordered.

A different doctor. I just do babies.

“I guess you didn’t have any luck tracking her down?” asks Marlene, pushing back some of the feathers on her head.

“Dead end,” I say. “Now I have no idea where to look.”

“Well, you know her name. Just scope her out on social media.”

“I did that.” She didn’t have much of a presence, all be told. Some old photos from college, and a professional profile that was wildly out of date. I get the sense she tried to find a good job after graduating, but didn’t have any luck and ended up at McFlips. “Not enough to go on. No friends in common.”

Marlene hmms. “You could do it the old-fashioned way and hire a PI.”

I stare at her. “A private investigator? Really?”

---