I kept looking back the way I’d come—expecting to see Mr.Wolf Man skulking about a block or so behind me—but there was never anybody there. It wasn’t until I was on my own block and almost home that I saw the dog. Some kind of big husky, it seemed, from the glance I got before it slipped behind a parked car. Except its tail didn’t go up in that trademark curl.
I kept walking toward my door, backward, so that I could look down the street. The dog stuck its head out twice, ducking back when it saw me watching. The second time I bolted for my apartment, charged up the steps and onto the porch. I had my keys out, but I was so rattled, it took me a few moments to get the proper one in the lock. It didn’t help that I spent more time staring down the street than at what I was doing. But I finally got the key in, unlocked the door, and was inside, closing and locking the door quickly behind me.
I leaned against the wall to catch my breath, positioned so that my gaze could go down the street. I didn’t see the dog. But I did see a man, standing there in the general area of where the dog had been. He was looking down the street in my direction and I ducked back from the window. It was too far away to make out his features, but I could guess who he was.
This was what I’d been afraid of when I’d first seen the dog: that it wasn’t a dog. That it was a wolf. That Mr. Wolf Man really could become a wolf and now he’d turned into Stalker Freak Man.
I was thinking in capitals like my superhero character Rocket Grrl always did when she was confronting evildoers like Can’t Commit Man. Except I wasn’t likely to go out and fight the good fight like she always was. I was more the hide-under-the-bed kind of person.
But I was kind of mad now.
I watched until the man turned away, then hurried up the stairs to my apartment. Once I was inside, I made sure the deadbolt was engaged. Ditto the lock on the window that led out onto the fire escape. I peered down at the street from behind the safety of the curtains in my living room, but saw no one out there.
I changed and paced around the apartment for a while before I finally went into the kitchen and punched in Mr. Wolf Man’s phone number. I lit into him the minute he answered.
“Maybe you think it’s a big joke, following me home like that, but I didn’t appreciate it.”
“But I—” he started.
“And maybe you can turn into a wolf or a dog or whatever, or maybe you just have one trained to follow people, but I think it’s horrible either way, and I just want you to know that we have an anti-stalking law in this city, and if I ever see you hanging around again, I’m going to phone the police.”
Then I hung up.
I was hoping I’d feel better, but I just felt horrible instead. The thing is, I’d found myself sort of liking him before he got all rude and then did the stalking bit.
I guess I should have called Sue at this point, but it was still too freshly depressing to talk about. Instead I made myself some toast and tea, then went and sat in the living room, peeking through the curtains every couple of minutes to make sure there was no one out there. It was a miserable way to spend an evening that had held the potential of being so much more.
Lyle
I hung up the phone feeling totally confused. What had she been talking about? But by the time Tyrone got home, I thought I had a clue.
“Did you follow her home?” I asked.
He just looked confused. “Follow who home?”
“My date.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because we got into a fight and you’re always stepping in to protect me or set people straight when you think they’ve treated me badly.”
I could see that look come into his eyes—confirming my feelings, I thought, until he spoke.
“Your date went bad?” he asked.
“It went horribly—but you already know that.”
Tyrone sighed. “I was nowhere near the Café, or wherever you guys went after.”
“We didn’t have time to go anywhere after,” I said, and then I told him about how the evening had gone.
“Let’s see if I’ve got this straight,” Tyrone said. “She tells you she likes to dress casually and draws comics for a living, so you tell her you’re a skinwalker.”
“We were sharing intimacies.”
“Sounds more like lunacies on your part. What were you think-ing?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I liked her. I liked the fact that she didn’t want to start off with any B.S.”
Tyrone shook his head. “Well, it’s done now, I guess. With any luck she’ll just think you’re a little weird and leave it at that.” He paused and fixed with me with a considering look. “Tell me you didn’t shift in front of her.”
“No. But from this phone call …”
“Right. The phone call. I forgot. You don’t think you put that idea into her head?”
“She sounded a little scared as well as pissed off. But if it wasn’t you and it wasn’t me, I guess her imagination must have been working overtime.”
Tyrone shrugged. “Maybe. Except… did you touch her at all?”
“Not really. We just shook hands and I grabbed her shoulders when I stumbled and lost my balance.”
“So your scent was on her.”
I nodded. “I suppose.”
I saw where he was going. We don’t actually go out marking territory anymore—at least most of us don’t. But if another wolf had caught my scent on her it might intrigue him enough to follow her. And if he was one of the old school, he might think it fun to do a little more than that.
“I’ve got to go to her place and check it out,” I said.
“And you’ll find it how?” Tyrone asked.
He was right. I didn’t even know her phone number.
“That we can deal with,” Tyrone said.
I’d forgotten what we can do with phones these days. Tyrone had gotten all the bells and whistles for ours and in moments he’d called up the digits of the last incoming call on the liquid crystal display.
“It still doesn’t tell us where she lives,” I said. “And I doubt she’d appreciate a call from me right now. If ever.”
“I can handle that as well,” Tyrone told me and he went over to the computer.
I hadn’t lied to Mona. I did deal with investments—on-line. I was on the computer for a few hours every day, but I wasn’t the hacker Tyrone was. I watched as he hacked into the telephone company’s billing database. Within minutes, he had an address match for the phone number. He wrote it down on a scrap of paper and stood up.
“This is my mess,” I told him. “So I’ll clean it up.”
“You’re sure?”
When I nodded, he handed me the address.
“Don’t kill anybody unless you have to,” he said. “But if you do, do it clean.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant Mona or her stalker and I didn’t want to ask.
Mona
After I finished my toast and tea, I decided to go to bed. I wasn’t really tired, but maybe I’d get lucky and fall asleep and when I woke up, it would be a whole new day. And it would sure beat sitting around feeling miserable tonight.
I washed up my dishes, then took one last look out the window. And froze. There wasn’t one dog out there, but a half-dozen, lounging on the sidewalk across the street like they hadn’t a care in the world. And they weren’t dogs. I’ve seen enough nature specials on PBS to know a wolf when I see one.
As I started to let the curtain drop, all their heads lifted and turned in my direction. One got to its feet and began to trot across the street, pausing halfway to look down the block. Its companions turned their gazes in that direction as well and I followed suit.
He was dressed more casually now—jeans and a windbreaker— but I had no trouble recognizing him. My date. Mr. Stalker Man. Oh, where was Rocket Grrl when you needed her?
I knew what I should be doing. Finding something to use as a weapon in case they got in. Dialing 911 for sure. Instead, all I could do was slide down to my k
nees by the window and stare down at the street.
Lyle
It was worse than I’d thought. A pack of cousins had gathered outside the address I had for Mona. From the smell in the air, I knew they were out for fun. The trouble is, skinwalker fun invariably results in somebody getting hurt. We’re the reason true wolves get such a bad rap. Whenever we’re around, trouble follows.
The alpha male rose up into a man shape at my approach. His pack formed a half-circle at his back, a couple more of them taking human shape. I could tell from the dark humor in their eyes that I’d just raised the ante on their night of fun. I realized I shouldn’t have turned down Tyrone’s offer to help, but it was too late now. I had to brave it out on my own.
“Thanks for the show of force,” I said with way more confidence than I was feeling, “but I don’t really need any help to see my girlfriend.”
“She’s not your girlfriend,” the alpha male said.
“Sure, she is.”
“Bullshit. That little chickadee’s so scared you can smell her fear a block away.”
“Well, you’re not exactly helping matters,” I told him.
He gave me a toothy grin, dark humor flicking in his eyes.
“I was walking by the Café when she dumped you,” he said.
I shrugged. “We had a little tiff, no big deal. That’s why I’m here now—to make it up with her.”
He shook his head. “She’s as scared of you as she is of us. But tell you what, back off and you can have whatever’s left over.”
Some of us fit in as we can, some of us live a footloose life. Then there are the ones like these that went feral in the long ago and just stayed that way. Some are lone wolves, the others run in packs.Mostly they haunt the big cities now because in places this large, who’s going to notice the odd missing person? People disappear every day.
“Time was,” I said, “when we respected each other’s territories. When we put someone under our protection, they stayed that way.”
It was a long shot, but I had this going for me: We’re a prideful people. And honor’s a big thing between us. It has to be, or we’d have wiped each other out a long time ago.
He didn’t like it. I don’t know if I spoke to his honor, or whether it was because he couldn’t place my clan affiliation and didn’t know how big a pack he’d be calling down upon himself if he cut me down and went ahead and had his fun.
“You’re saying she’s your girlfriend?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Okay. Let’s go up and ask her. If she lets you in, we’ll back off. But if she doesn’t …”
He let me fill in the blank for myself.
“No problem,” I said.
Not like I had a choice in the matter. This was a win-win situation for him. If she let me in, he could back off without losing face. And if she didn’t, no one in the clans would take my side because it would just look like I was homing in on their claim.
He stepped back and I walked toward Mona’s building. The pack fell in behind me, all of them in human shape now. I glanced up and caught a glimpse of Mona’s terrified face in the window. I tried to look as harmless as possible.
Trust me, I told her, willing the thought up to her. It’s your life that’s hanging in the balance here.
But she only looked more scared.
Then we were on the stairs and I couldn’t see her anymore.
“Don’t even think about trying to warn her,” the alpha male said from behind me. “She’s got to accept you without a word from you or all bets are off.”
The door to the front hall was locked when I tried it. The alpha male reached past me and grabbed the knob, giving it a sharp twist. I heard the lock break, then the door swung open and we were moving inside.
Did I mention that we’re stronger than we look?
Mona
I was still trying to adjust to the fact that the wolves really had turned into people, when my stalker led them into the apartment building. He looked up at me just before they reached the stairs, his face all pretend sweethess and light, but it didn’t fool me. I knew they were going to tear me to pieces.
Get up, get up, I told myself. Call the police. Sneak out onto the fire escape and run for it.
But all I could do was sit on the floor with my back to the window and stare at my front door, listening to their footsteps as they came up the stairs. When they stopped outside my door, I held my breath. Somebody knocked and I just about jumped out of my skin. This uncontrollable urge to laugh rose up in me. Here they were, planning to kill me, yet they were just knocking politely on the door. I was hysterical.
“We can smell you in there.”
That wasn’t Lyle, but one of his friends.
I shivered and pressed up against the wall behind me.
“Come see us through the peephole,” the voice went on. “Your boyfriend wants to know if you’ll let him in. Or are you still too mad at him?”
I didn’t want to move, but I slowly got to my feet.
“If you don’t come soon, we’ll huff and we’ll puff, just see if we won’t.”
I stood swaying in the middle of my living room, hugging myself. Wishing so desperately that I’d never left the apartment this evening.
“Or maybe,” the mocking voice went on, “we’ll go chew off the faces of the nice couple living below you. They do smell good.”
I was moving again, shuffling forward, away from the phone, toward the door. It was too late to call for help anyway. Nobody was going to get here in time. If they didn’t just smash through my door, maybe they really would go kill the Andersons who had the downstairs apartment. And this wasn’t their fault. I was the one stupid enough to go out on a blind date with a werewolf.
“That’s it,” the voice told me. “I can hear you coming. Show us what a good hostess you are. What a forgiving girlfriend.”
I was close enough now to hear the chorus of sniggers and giggles that echoed on after the voice had finished. When I reached the door, I rose slowly up on my tiptoes and looked through the peephole.
They were all out there in the hall, my stalker and his pack of werewolf friends.
God, I thought, looking at Lyle, trying to read his face, to understand why he was doing this. How could I ever have thought that I liked him?
Lyle
I knew it was over now. There was no way Mona was going to open the door—not if she had an ounce of sense in her—but at least I’d gotten the pack into a confined space. I couldn’t take them all down, but maybe I could manage a few.
I could smell Mona the same as the pack did—smell her fear. She was numbed by it. But maybe once I set on the pack, it’d snap her out of her paralysis long enough to flee out onto the fire escape I’d noticed running up the side of the building. Or perhaps the noise would be enough for the neighbors to call the police. If they could get here before the pack battered down the door, there was still a chance she could survive.
She was on the other side of the door now. Looking out of the peephole. I tried to compose myself, to give her a look that she might read as hope. To convey that I meant her no harm.
But then the alpha male gave me a shove. Without thinking, I snarled at him, face partially shifting, jaws snapping. He darted back, laughter triumphant in his eyes, and I knew what he’d done. He’d shown Mona that I was no different from them. Just another skinwalker. Another inhuman creature, hungry for her blood.
“All you have to do is answer a couple of questions,” the alpha male said, facing the door. “Do you forgive your boyfriend? Will you invite him in?”
There was a long silence.
“Why … why are you doing this?” Mona finally said, her voice muffled by the door. But we all had a wolf’s hearing.
“Tut, tut,” the alpha male said. “You’re not playing by the rules. You’re not supposed to ask a question, only answer ours.”
I knew she was still looking from the peephole.
“I’m sorry, Mona,” I
said. “For everything.”
The alpha male turned on me with a snarl. I drew him aside before he could speak, my back to the door.
“Come on,” I told him, my voice pitched low. “You know we had a quarrel. How’s this supposed to be fair with you scaring the crap out of her and here I haven’t even apologized to her? I mean, take a vote on it or something.”
He turned to his companions. I could see they didn’t like it, but my argument made sense.
“Fine,” he said. “You’ve made your apology.”
He turned to the door and let his face go animal.
“Well?” he snarled. “What’s your answer, little chickadee? Your boyfriend says he’s sorry so can he come in and play now?”
Mona
I almost died when Lyle’s face did its half-transformation. The wolfish features disappeared as fast as they had appeared. He turned to me with those beautiful dark eyes of his, and I couldn’t see the same meanness and hunger in them that were in the eyes of the others. And I was looking for it, believe me. Then, while I was still caught in his gaze, he went and apologized to me, like none of this was his doing. Like he was sorry for everything, the same as I was. Not just for what he’d said to me in the Café, but because we’d liked each other and then we’d let it all fell apart before we ever gave it a chance to be more.
Call me naive, or maybe even stupider still, but I believed that apology of his was genuine. It was something he needed to say, or that I needed to hear. Maybe both.
I was so caught up in the thought of that, that I didn’t even start when the other guy did his half-wolf face thing and began snarling at me. Instead, I flashed on something Lyle had said to me earlier in the evening, back at the Café.
These days most of us just like to fit in, he’d told me. Live a bit in your world, a bit in the animal world. But it wasn’t always like that. There have always been those among us who considered everyone else in the world their private prey.