Page 10 of In This Iron Ground
“Dolls,” Hakan smirked automatically, causing Koko to glare at him.
“They’re figurines! See what I mean?” Koko asked Damien imperiously. Damien smiled slightly, but the prospect of dinner hung over his head. He didn’t want to push his luck with the McKenzies.
“I, um, that sounds nice but, like, the McKenzies…” he mumbled. Nadie put a hand on his arm and Damien realized how touchy-feely they all were. Damien didn’t think he’d had this much human contact in…longer than he wanted to even think about.
“Mom has their number now, don’t worry. We’ll call, okay? Dad said he’d drive you back,” Nadie assured. Damien bit his lip but nodded, making Nadie’s smile return. “Cool,” she said, ruffling his hair for a moment before walking away.
Damien glared automatically, trying to flatten his brown hair.
“Urgh, she’s always like that. Come on, let’s go to my room. I don’t normally let people in there but, like, you smell like pack so bad, dude,” she said in a way that obviously sounded completely normal to her, but insane to Damien.
“I smell? Likewhat?” Damien said, trying to sniff his arm. Koko rolled her eyes.
“It’s good! I don’t know, it kinda…I don’t know. Fits? I don’t know just, stop talking. Let’s go,” she ordered, leaving Damien little option but to follow.
Damien hadn’t known what to expect when arriving at the Salgados’, but this certainly wasn’t it.
To Damien’s amazement and trepidation, the McKenzies agreed to allow Damien to stay for dinner. It was hard to remain drawn into himself, however, in the face of Koko’s powerful personality. Koko’s version of friendly and welcoming was a lot more abrasive than the norm, but Damien could barely reconcile the Koko that chatted excitedly with him about her figurines to the one that seemed to resent every moment of Damien’s presence in her home a few hours ago. Damien suspected that it was a rare sight to witness an outsider in the Salgado household. He felt warm that he was allowed the privilege even though he hadn’t earned it—had won it on a wrong-time, wrong-place mistake. It was nice to pretend, however.
Damien wondered if he smelt like pack because he didn’t have one of his own.
*****
Dinner was an intimidating and overwhelming affair.
As soon as they were called downstairs to eat, Damien was introduced to Cameron, Koko’s dad. He looked even bigger in person, more like a bear than a wolf. His animated face shone a welcoming smile at Damien which almost had him freezing in place.
Damien nodded dumbly as Cameron apologized for not meeting him sooner, having spent the full moon with a neighbouring pack. As they sat down at the table, he went into an abrupt but riveting monologue about the eggplant and its seeming enemy, the flea beetle.
Damien was seated in between Koko and Hakan, the latter of which stood out in how much he didn’t stand out. Whilst the rest of his family exuded, Hakan seemed to absorb, a still piece of land amidst a sea storm. Though he seemed used to the chaos and the noise, Damien wondered if Hakan ever felt overshadowed by the vast power of his family’s energy.
People started grabbing food as soon as it was all set on the table in a strange synchronicity that was entropic to Damien but had obvious rhythm and order for the Salgados.
Damien served himself tentatively only when Hakan nudged one of the serving dishes at him with a raised eyebrow. The food was delicious, although disproportionate in the amount of meat there seemed to be. There was only one large plate of mixed vegetables and another of salad, compared to the three massive dishes of different kinds of meat, each cooked with their own delicious and complimentary set of spices.
“Do you guys need to eat more meat than humans?” Damien wondered out loud, tensing a moment later. He had no idea if the whole werewolf thing was supposed to be an unspoken subject or if was rude to pry. Mia didn’t seem fazed, however, smiling at Damien.
“Yeah, we need more iron,” she replied, looking at Koko with exasperated fondness as she tried and failed to close her fajita around the mountain of meat and sauces she had piled into the wrap. “Some more than others,” she added dryly. Damien nodded, but the answer had only made him more curious.
“Why do you need more iron?” he asked.
“Well, we need to eat more of everything in general, but our abilities mean a quicker use of oxygen. Iron’s main role is to help oxygen move around the body, so we need more of that as well,” Mia explained.
“I didn’t know that,” Hakan said.
“Well, most humans don’t know exactly how their bodies work either, so…” Koko said.
“So…what are your abilities?” Damien hedged. There was a moment of silence, and he knew instantly he’d crossed a line. “You don’t have to—I mean, obviously you don’t have to tell me anything, I was just won—”
“No, Damien, it’s okay,” Mia said. She shared a look with Cameron before smiling at Damien. “We’re not used to having people outside the pack know about us, that’s all. To answer your question, our abilities compared to humans are varied. We have enhanced strength and a quicker rate of healing, although these things vary with the person’s level of fitness. We also have enhanced senses, such as hearing and smell. We see better in the dark and are more perceptive to small movements,” Mia explained. Damien sat there a moment, processing.
“Are your senses affected negatively? Like…wolves don’t see as good in colour, so…”
“No. If you think in terms of evolution, it wouldn’t make sense to have lost qualities that are useful, regardless of if they are typically found in humans or in wolves.”
“Oh, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And you can shift into wolves, right? Can you like…semi-shift?”
“Yes. We call the shift you saw the ‘full-moon shift’. We can also change some of our features, such as claws and fangs, which is our ‘half-moon shift’. It doesn’t mean these shifts are only possible on these moons. Generally, shifts are easier the closer to the full moon you are, and a full-moon shift takes a lot more energy, so some people can only do it when it’s very close, or the night of, the full moon.”
