After a brief pause, I slumped forward.
“I really don’t like you,” I whispered, barely audible. “You’re such a manipulative shit. No wonder you have Austin as a kuu mate.”
“What was that?”
“Fine,” I said. “It’s going to be cramped with two werewolves, and I don’t know what this place is gonna look like.”
Adam looked around. “Dude, you’re living in an unairconditioned shack with no rooms and two werewolves. I’m sure whatever they give us will be bigger than this.”
“Yeah, but at least I can sit on the porch or on the beach, which makes it bearable. What am I going to do in Norwich?”
“Walk in the woods.”
“You mean the supposedly haunted woods?”
Adam rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they’re not really haunted.”
“I’m being facetious. If you and Austin end up arguing all the time, take that shit outside. I don’t want to listen to it.”
The half-turn flinched before looking down at the floor. “We don’t really argue. I usually just end up agreeing to anything, and Austin knows what he’s doing to get his way. He’s been getting me to do some weird shit, but every time he starts, I just let him do whatever he wants.”
“That’s really awful, man. Why the hell did you choose that guy anyway?”
“It’s not like it’ll last forever,” Adam said. “And to answer your last question, let me show you something.” He paced through the room and snatched his backpack from the corner, unzipped one of the front compartments, then pulled out a dirty, folded envelope. “I keep this to remind myself that he used to be kind of cute… and he played the dumb blond card really well.” He pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from the envelope and handed it to me. “Recognize this?”
“Oh lord.” I began reading Austin’s sex resume. “‘Ex military can protect, am better than otherwerewolfs. Just look at me.’” We both broke into laughing fits. “Oh my God, it looks like a twelve-year-old wrote this.”
“It gets better.”
“‘Can fuck you til you cum, ask fordemonstrashon.’” I wiped a tear from my eye. “This poor guy.”
“Read the bottom.”
“‘I’m a loner, have a past, don’t ask about it.’”
Adam gave me a sad smile, and the atmosphere of the room turned somber. “He wanted me to ask about it.” He grabbed the resume and held it up. “I don’t know if it was a cry for some kind of attention, but I picked up on it. Maybe I shouldn’t have. They really fucked him up in the marines, but I think there’s more.”
“What happened?”
“Werewolf things. Same story, just a different set of circumstances. They heal really fast, but they aren’t immortal. Those evil assholes used Austin as a crash-test dummy, testing the effects of dirty IEDs, chemical attacks, you name it. The poor guy was so toxic and radioactive sometimes that they’d have to put him in solitary confinement until they could decontaminate him.
“There aren’t that many werewolves in the military, and the ones that are there usually join out of desperation and stick together like family. He was really close with the only other werewolves on base, but they disappeared one day. Austin doesn’t know the details—or he doesn’t want to tell them, but there were rumors of a new nerve agent that could kill werewolves and not humans. I guess they wanted to be prepared if a rogue country decided to weaponize us. He’s convinced that’s what happened to them.”
“I’m surprised more countries aren’t using werewolves as weapons.”
“I’m not. They’re dangerous and hard to control, and the world obviously thinks it’s a terrible idea, hence the Petrone treaty. Austin was never going to war, and he kind of knew what he was getting himself into. He must have had a really fucked up past to think the marines was a good idea. But yeah, after his pack went missing, he packed a bag of stuff and peaced out. I don’t think the government has actually been looking for him, because they would have found him by now. But Austin’s always been really paranoid, and I don’t blame him. So, I accepted his kuu more out of pity than anything, and the rest is history.”
I gave him a doubtful stare.
“I have a thing for big hot blonds, okay?”
“Well, now I feel terrible for calling him a piece of shit.”
“Don’t. He’s not a likeable person, but I thought I’d give you some context for the next time he does something shitty to me.”
“That’s not really an excuse,” I said, sitting down on the couch a few steps from the hammock. “Just because he had something bad happen to him doesn’t mean he gets a pass to make someone else’s life miserable.”
“I’ll hold out until I turn, and then we’ll both be free.”
