Page 52 of Bred By the Wolfman

“What’s wrong?” I ask. “Really. You seemed upset in there.”

Dee furrows her brow. “Nothing’s wrong,” she says, her voice a tad defensive. “Just pregnancy hormones.”

“Hormones or not, your feelings still matter,” I say. “I just want to make sure that you’re all right, Dee. Is Robbie...” His name comes out of my mouth like a curse, because I don’t even want to acknowledge that someone else is tending to her needs. “...is he taking good care of you?”

And like that, her eyes well up with tears again, and this time they all burst free.

“No!” she cries, rubbing her eyes and trying to whisk them away.

“No?” I feel my lips curl to expose all of my fangs. “Has he done something to you? I’ll?—”

“I dumped him, okay?” she says through what have quickly become sobs. “So no. Robbie is not taking care of me.”

I blanch. She left the human man? “Why?” I ask rather stupidly. I should be over the moon, but I want to know why she’s crying when she’s the one who dumped him.

“Because I fucked you, that’s why!” She collapses against her car, using the hood to hold herself up. Someone stares at us as they walk from the parking lot up to the front door of the building. That’s how she sees it. And, I suppose, fucking is what we did out in the woods that day.

“It wasn’t right to stay in a relationship with him after screwing him over like that,” she says between sniffles.

I want to be pleased that Robbie is now done and over with, but I can tell that it hurts Dee immensely.

“Would you...” I begin slowly. “Would you like an iced coffee?” We’re reaching the tail end of summer now, but it’s still quite hot out today. “I can just listen. I know that without him, you’re home alone a lot.”

She frowns at this reminder that I watched her when I shouldn’t have, but I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen.

“Yeah,” she admits through her tears, sniffling. “I am. Even with Boomer around, it’s not the same.”

I nod in understanding. I’ve lived alone for a long time, but I’m always socializing with the other staff at the hospital. Now Dee is home alone all day when her friends are at work, and they can’t meet with her every single night of the week. She went out of her way to adopt Boomer. There’s something in her life she wants, but doesn’t have yet.

“We’ll just talk, okay?” I say, opening the passenger door of my car for her. As if on autopilot, the weeping Dee steps in, then I close it behind her.

I drive us both carefully over to the same coffee spot as the last two times we met. She laughs through her tears as we pull in.

“You really like this place. We were in a totally different part of town and now you’ll have to take me back to get my car.”

I shrug. “Worth it for the croissants here.”

When we get our drinks, we sit outside, and at last Dee’s crying has abated. Her face is an adorable flushed pink, though her eyes are still red. I wait for her to speak first, so I don’t crowd her.

“Russ,” she says finally after a few minutes of silence. “What do you really want?”

I turn and blink at her. The words that almost come out of my mouth are, you. But I don’t want to come on so strong.

“What do you mean by ‘want’?” I ask. “I want a more peaceful world. I want food to cost less. I want more people to be healthy.”

She shakes her head. “For yourself. Why did you do DreamTogether in the first place?”

Oh. I stare at her for a moment, trying to remember what I came into this hoping to achieve, because what I’ve found in the meantime is so far beyond what I imagined.

“A family,” I say finally. “I’ve seen so many people find joy in it. I’ve probably wanted a cub of my own since I was... well, a cub myself. I want a child to play games with, to watch them grow, to teach them sports and help them go into the world on their own and spread their wings. And to know that I was a part of it.”

Dee is watching me, not speaking, as I finish. Her lips are slightly parted, and her brows are drawn together in sympathy.

“That’s the whole reason?” she asks. “Nothing like carrying on your family name or whatever?”

I furrow my brow in confusion. “What? No.” I sigh and lean my head on my hand, elbow propped on the table. “My parents were... fine. I came out all right. But that’s not why. I want to be there for all the firsts. I can’t wait to teach her how to hunt, and see the first time she tastes fresh prey. I want to be there when she gets her first good grades, and when she gets her first pet. I want to teach her to swim.” Dee arches an eyebrow. “Swimming is an important skill,” I say, holding up one clawed finger. “You never know when you might fall in a river.”

She laughs at this, and it feels so good to make her laugh after watching her cry. “I never thought to be prepared for surprise rivers.”

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