David honked as he pulled into the agency parking lot to let Jimmy know they were ready to go. David followed the teen’s car, hoping they would find his dad before it was too late.
Chapter 15
“What do you think the mom will want to do?” Elizabeth asked. They’d turned off onto a dirt road a ways back; the Jeep bumped along behind Jimmy’s car.
“You know it had to have been a shock to her to hear that her son had turned her husband. She needs to process the information. Maybe they’ll work it out as a family, maybe not. The thing I worry about is that she might have met a wolf and wants to be with him, and she has been pushing her human husband into wanting a divorce so that she can mate the wolf.”
“Why not just divorce him first?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because whatever made her care about him in the first place, and the fact he had helped her raise her kids all these years, probably influenced her not to just divorce him.”
“It’s so sad.”
“Yeah. I guess she wasn’t interested enough in him to turn him. Or maybe she felt it would be too much of a disservice to him and she truly does love him.” David glanced at Elizabeth. “You and Sheri are just what we needed in our lives, by the way.”
She laughed. “Nice segue.”
It took them a good hour to reach the cabin in the woods. The one-story home featured a lovely wraparound deck with big rocking chairs and small round tables that overlooked a pristine lake. David was thinking it was a really nice place to be a wolf, so at least the dad had that.
They saw a red Dodge Neon sitting next to the cabin. Jimmy called David on his phone and said, “That’s Dad’s car.”
“Good.” David hoped Mel was in human form and wouldn’t run away from them as a wolf. He watched for any movement at the house or surrounding area but didn’t see any.
“Look,” Elizabeth said. “The door to the cabin is wide open. I don’t see a doggy door. He would have had to leave the door open as a wolf.”
They left their vehicle and Jimmy rushed into the cabin, calling, “Dad! Dad, it’s me, Jimmy!”
“Hold on.” David glanced down at a flannel shirt and jeans lying on the wooden floor. “Are these his? Looks like he’s out running.”
“Yeah, they’re his.” Jimmy began stripping, dropping his shirt right next to the pile of clothes David had just pointed out.
“No, you need to stay in your human form so you can reason with him. He won’t know it’s you, otherwise. His sense of smell might not be developed enough yet to recognize your scent. Elizabeth and I will run as wolves to try and track him down. We’ll howl when we find him, so you’ll know he’s safe.”
“All right.” Jimmy pulled his T-shirt back over his head.
Elizabeth and David stripped and shifted. After using the clothes to get his scent, they shot out the door and started tracking him. Mel had marked the area with his scent, whether he meant to or not. His paws left a scent, and he’d peed in a couple of locations, the instinctive urge to mark his territory coming into play.
They kept running, noses to the ground, then up in the air, twitching, recalibrating, losing him, then finding him again. Finally, they spied the wolf standing next to the lake about two miles east of the cabin. He hadn’t seen them yet, but David knew it was him. He was a gray wolf, his fur all blacks and grays and tans. Though the Arctic wolf was a subspecies of gray wolf, their coloring was nothing alike.
David shifted. “Mr. Warner, your son, Jimmy, is here. We’re all wolf shifters, here to help you through this.” Then David shifted back into his wolf form.
Mel just stared at them, not moving an inch in any direction, not that David blamed him. The whole business could be such a shock to the system that he could understand the dad’s reluctance to go with them.
David shifted again so he could speak with him further. “Mel, we need you to come to the cabin with us. Your son is waiting for us to tell him we found you. He’s worried about you. We’ll explain more there.” Then he shifted back to his wolf. Elizabeth shifted next to him, then back again, to show Mel that David was telling the truth.
They waited. They weren’t returning without him. David howled then, calling for Jimmy, hoping he could convince his dad to return with them. It would take a while for his son to reach them, but like earlier in the day with the car, Jimmy had already been on his way. He raced into the clearing, skidding on his hind paws as he spotted them.
So much for listening when David told him to stay put. Not that he blamed the teen.
He woofed at his dad as if Mel would understand him, and then, after the barest of hesitations, Jimmy shifted into his human form. He walked toward his father, who took a step back.
It was one thing to realize his son was a wolf, another to accept the reality. And to accept his son was the one who had done this to him.
“I want you to come home. I’m sorry I bit you. I didn’t want Mom to divorce you. You’ve been the best thing for me, keeping me in line, just like a wolf father would have done, had I known my own. But I realize now how wrong I was to do this, to turn you without giving you a choice. I told Mom. She’s furious with me, understandably. Please come back with us to the cabin so we can talk.” Jimmy shifted again, the blur between forms so fast that even his father, who hadn’t once looked away, would have difficulty believing what he had seen.
Jimmy approached his father slowly and rubbed against him, nuzzling his face when he didn’t back away. Then, he gave him a quick lick. His dad looked like he was either shocked by the wolf affection or just didn’t know what to do about it. David felt for him, recalling just how hard it had been for him and his friends when they had first been turned.
Then Jimmy moved away, and his dad still stood there as if he couldn’t decide if he wanted their help or wanted to be by himself to figure this out. But David knew that with friends and family, he would adjust much better than being a lone wolf on his own. Candice could attest to that.
Mr. Warner finally began to follow Jimmy, his tail down, looking like a beta wolf. Jimmy’s tail was straight out, confident, glad his dad was coming with them.
David and Elizabeth brought up the rear. When they finally reached the cabin, they waited for Jimmy and his dad to enter the house. Elizabeth and David followed.
Jimmy shifted and began getting dressed. Elizabeth and David shifted, too, so they could talk to Mel. He probably didn’t have any ability to shift back at will right now. He was lucky he hadn’t shifted while he was driving the car to the cabin.
“Sorry, Dad,” Jimmy said, giving him a hug and burying his face in his dad’s neck. “I just wanted to stay with you.”