The wolf growled ferociously, showing his teeth and I began to shiver. It was Sharpfang. My brother. His eyes looked into mine and they were as cold as February ice.
I wanted to tell him who I was but of course I couldn’t. As a monster I couldn’t make wolfspeak any more than I could humanspeak. Then I had a horrible thought. Maybe Sharpfang already knew who I was. Maybe it didn’t matter to him anymore.
Sharpfang growled again and tensed himself to spring at my throat. I couldn’t move a muscle.
Chapter 47
I closed my eyes and scrunched them tight.
Waiting seemed to take forever. Then something big landed softly beside me and I heard the click of wolf claws on the metal of the bus roof.
Startled, I opened my eyes. Wolfmother stood beside me, bristling at Sharpfang. She barked sharply and my wolfbrother dropped out of his attack stance. But he wasn’t happy about it. He glared at me and backed up without taking his eyes off mine.
Wolfmother came close and made a small sound in her throat. She looked into my eyes and I saw sadness there. She knew who I really was!
I was so happy to see her and I’d missed her so much. Without thinking I reached out to touch her. Sharpfang growled a warning but Wolfmother ignored him and took another step toward me. She shivered as my claws brushed her fur but didn’t move away.
I settled my hand on her back. My heart bubbled over with love. But I could feel her trembling under my monstrous paw. She knew I wouldn’t hurt her but it was against all her instincts to let a monster like me touch her.
Something seemed to break in my chest and flood my insides with warm liquid. I felt the muscles of my hideous face tighten and stretch. What was happening to me?
Liquid fogged my keen eyes and splashed down my hairy cheeks. I was crying! Great monster tears rolled down my face. Wolfmother raised her head and licked the tears from my cheeks.
I’d never be a wolf and maybe I’d never be a real boy. But I was human enough to cry.
Sharpfang barked softly. The moon was setting and there was a hint of dawn light in the sky.
I watched the wolves until the last tail disappeared silently into the swamp. Then I slipped off the roof of the bus and, slinking under the windows so none of the kids would see me, I went back to Mr. Clawson’s car where, somehow, despite everything that had happened, I fell deeply asleep.
Chapter 48
I couldn’t have slept long. When I woke the sun was just beginning to rise over the trees. Birds sang in the woods once again and my terrible hunger was gone.
I was a boy again. A boy with no clothes!
I jumped up. My clothes were in the woods where they’d fallen from me when I changed into a werewolf. Well, I couldn’t go back and get them, that was for sure.
Luckily Mr. Clawson kept an extra set of clothes in his trunk—probably for emergencies just like this one. His pants were miles too big but I tied his shirt around me like a loin cloth, just like I used to do with animal skins when I was a wolf-boy.
The bus was still closed up tight, except for the smashed windshield. I walked over to it and knocked on the door.
It opened instantly. “Gruff!” Paul pulled me in and slapped me five. “We thought you were okay locked in Mr. Clawson’s car, but there was no way to check. You sure were right about those monsters. How did you know?”
I shrugged, then Kim ran up and hugged me and I didn’t have to answer. “It’s so good to see you,” said Kim. “We were so scared. But you’re all scratched and bloody! And what happened to your clothes?”
My heart sank. I didn’t want to lie. But I couldn’t tell the truth.
“Wow, those horrible things must have got you after all,” said Paul, going pale. “Was that when you howled for the wolves? When those things pulled you out of the car and ripped off your clothes?”
I nodded, unable to speak. But I noticed Big Rick giving me the fish eye. He was suspicious.
“We must go,” I said, trying to change the subject. My throat felt raw and my tongue seemed even more awkward than usual. “Come. It’s a long way. We must be out of woods by dark. Not safe after dark.”
“How do we know it’s safe now?” demanded Big Rick, frowning. “How do we know you won’t lead us right to those—things—whatever they are?”
“Gruff tried to warn us,” Kim said, going right up to Rick. “We were the ones who wouldn’t listen. He knew about the werewolves from living in the swamp with the wolves, right Gruff?”
I nodded. “Yes,” I said, grateful I didn’t have to try and explain it myself. “Come. We must leave here.”
“But what if they get us while we’re in the woods?” cried a girl I didn’t know.
“Daylight safe,” I told her. “Night is dangerous.”
“Our parents are never going to believe any of this,” muttered another kid.
“They’re going to be really worried by now,” said someone else. “We better get going like Gruff says.”
“But what about Mr. Clawson and Mr. Grunter?” said another. “They never came back.”
“They both werewolves,” I said.
The kids stared. But none of them seemed all that surprised. After that they followed me out of the bus although I could tell some of them were still afraid to leave.
“The wolves were so beautiful,” said Kim in a wondering voice as we started down the path toward the road. “That was your old family, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice thick.
“They rescued us because you called them, didn’t they?”
I nodded.
Kim bit her lip and looked at me sympathetically. “And they left
