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Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Moon Phase - New

Alex second-guessed his choice of answer for a few seconds after hearing that; Shane's forceful stare soon broke him away from where he felt safest, and he followed them towards the hallway on the left side of the living room.

"Since you'll be here for a while, there's an empty guest room you can stay and change back in." Shane's father said, gesturing towards the room that, by location, was closest to the front of the house. Though the door was closed, Alex recalled some kind of blinds blocking outside views in.

"Not a hundred percent empty." Shane stated after a moment.

"No, but empty enough. Here." Alex watched from a distance as the door was opened, revealing a wooden armoire, a rolled up rug and musty looking brown carpet. An onrush of air by his face confirmed the last part. "It smells funny in there, I know, but you'll have the space to change back when that time comes."

After the door was closed again, Shane's father gestured towards the room whose door Shane was leaning on. "That's his room." Alex immediately pictured Shane sneaking out of his room the same way he had before, and some of the things he'd potentially brought back. "Ours is down there, and the bathroom's right next to you."

Alex nodded.

"Now, just in case this has crossed your mind, when it comes to the meat we get, we don't get it until the very day we need it." Alex's raised an eyebrow at that. "There is a reason for that, that being it ensures there's no risk of us being left hungry."

"You want to know why I got on you before?" Shane said. "That's why."

"I...don't quite..."

Shane's father took over. "The sooner you deal with that hunger, the less you'll need in the end."

"See?" Shane said.

Sensing the smugness in Shane's tone, Alex replied, "I wouldn't have eaten Bailey or my family."

"Alex, please. Shane, don't." Shane's father then waited a few seconds. "It's not about whether you would or would not do something like that. You very easily could, as could Shane or I, so every chance you get, keep yourself from doing it."

Alex felt a question form, but didn't act on it.

"On that, how did you lose your last catch?"

After a glance at Shane's father, then at Shane himself, who simply thrust a hand out, Alex answered. "Its hooves kept striking my wrists."

"I see."

"And the police being right there...I couldn't help it. I panicked."

"I don't blame you." Shane's father turned his attention towards his son for a moment, his expression shifting to disappointment.

"How was I to know it would bother him that much?" Shane retorted.

Instead of verbally responding to his son, Shane's father gave a lengthy sigh, and then returned his attention to Alex. "What was it about the animal that made you hesitate?"

Alex felt his pulse rise a few beats as he thought back to why. "The whole thing."

"No specifics?"

Alex shook his head. "Too many things about it."

"Hmm." Shane's father rubbed his chin for a moment. "I know this may not sound reasonable, but have you hunted before, with a gun?"

Not reasonable? "Once, years ago."

"Okay. I ask because the animals you hunt will always make noise, but if you've hunted and feel more comfortable with a weapon..." Shane's father paused.

"Carry a gun while I'm a werewolf?" Although Alex now understood what Shane's father had meant, when he gave the idea a few seconds to stew, he began seeing merits to the idea.

"We can just as easily show him how to do it right." Shane said.

"Given what he's told you, not for a while."

"How long could that be?" Alex asked.

"To be frank, I don't know. I've never had to deal with canine police, and I doubt you're in any position to get information concerning their length of need."

For a moment, Alex saw an opportunity; Shane jumped in before he could act on it. "Dad, he shouldn't be dependent on us."

Alex silently told Shane to stuff it before realizing his opportunity hadn't been lost. "If it bothers you, I could always buy my own meat, the same way you do."

Shane's father was quick to respond. "No, you couldn't." When Alex looked towards him again, eyebrows raised, he continued. "I get the meat my son and I need through a longtime friend of mine. I know his supply works for us, but I had to figure out the circumstances to ensure that, and talk him into helping us. You don't want to juggle the figuring out of all of that this close to the full moon, especially with what you told my son."

"Then, can you help me get a handle on this?"

"As best I can, but not right now."

_Damnit. _

"My son means well, trust me."

_He hasn't proven it very well, though. _

"But I wouldn't call this circumstance dependency, by any stretch. For now, we have to stay quiet and let things die down," his gaze shifted to Shane, "and this is the best way to do it."

Alex snuck a look at Shane, who seemed unmoved by his father's implications, before speaking again. "Have there been issues?"

"Yes, many."

Despite the implication of those words, the quick, and oddly even-toned, response relaxed Alex's nerves a bit.

"There's always a chance of it, and Shane and I have had to do last-minute hunts in the past because of them."

"Meaning several years ago." Shane said as his father paused.

Alex strained in vain to recall anything from during high school that sounded like a werewolf could've been responsible as Shane's father resumed. "Yes. We haven't had any such issues for a long while, and shouldn't have any this time."

If that's true... Alex could feel his next sentence taking form, but questioned if now was the best time to ask. Another glance at Shane told him it wasn't.

"Speaking of issues, how did your folks respond?" Shane asked.

"Begrudgingly." Alex said, his gaze not trained on either Shane or his father.

"I'm not surprised."

"Even so," Shane's father began, "you're here, so I think they understood enough."

Alex felt his watch pocket at that, ready to hand over the money he needed. "Mmm. They really want me to find an alternative of some kind, though."

"To us?" Shane asked.

"To that animal hunger." Alex said.

Things went quiet for a moment. "I can sympathize." Shane's father said. "But, from experience, there isn't one."

Alex sighed quietly at that.

"That you want to consider." Shane added, to which his father hummed.

"That's not an admission of defeat, though. Just of what it is."

Alex didn't respond. The forming lump in his throat wouldn't let him.

"If it helps, look at it this way: it's a once-a-month situation that you can plan around, and if you're not keen on killing with your own hands, the meat you'll receive from us gets around that as well."

"Yeah." Alex said after a delay and a breath; neither Shane nor his father made an attempt to push him to speak, even after he produced the seventy-five dollars from his watch pocket and handed it over.

"The realization wasn't pleasant for me either," Shane's father said, "but I grew used to it and this set-up has helped us a lot in the end."

As Alex began wondering how many homes Shane's family had been in and out of up to now, another part of him was readying to bring what he was told to his folks and being torn on how they would react. With an offer of a drink following the last response from Shane' father, he refused in favor of the one he'd brought; Bailey's scent from the air in his pack helped quell some of the lump in his throat.

* * *

That night, Alex didn't wait for dinner before speaking up; judging strictly from the initial expressions of his folks, he was correct on at least one assumption: his father was begrudged by the news. "How certain are you that what they told you was true?" he asked.

"Very." Alex said. "The slab Shane gave me was still warm, like it had been freshly cut."

As his father sighed and propped his forehead against a free hand, his mother spoke. "They're not going to have any issues with that, are they?"

Alex shook his head. "They shouldn't."

"What if they do?"

"Then, we'll have to wait an extra hour or so." When his folks stayed quiet, Alex continued. "If that wasn't reliable, their house wouldn't be so lived-in."

"How could you tell that?"

"It smelled like it, among other things."

"Are they willing to let you buy meat from them beyond this one time?"

"Yeah."

"You're sure?"

Alex nodded. "That was what I was told before." His parents then exchanged glances instead of saying a word.

"Do you trust them with that?" His father asked.

"So far."

Another pause. "Then, if you feel that's the best option, keep your mother and I up to date on things, and your options open."

At that, Alex's mother closed the distance and hugged him, his father doing the same only once she'd let go of him. "I will."