I recognized that look.
He was a teenager.
“You aren’t fully grown, are you?” His snort and the way he looked away from me said I was right on the money.
Please God let all teenagers work the same way across different species.
“You’re impressive now but your paws are huge. I bet you’re going to be massive when you’re fully grown.” Bingo. His gaze shifted back in my direction and he didn’t growl that time. “Managing to keep them all away from you is impressive too.”
Thank God.
He was still doing his relaxed and bored of life routine, but he at least turned his head in my direction again. “I’m going to need your help to figure out the best way to help you. I don’t know anything about your world except some people set off some kind of internal radar like…it’s like having really good gaydar but less useful.”
Oops.
Should I have mentioned that?
He laughed.
Teenagers were a pain in the ass.
“Ignore that. It was inappropriate.” I needed to shift into teaching mode but it was hard. “But yes, I have no idea how to get you out of here. They know I can’t adopt a pet because of my rental agreement. So I can’t pretend to adopt you.”
That would’ve been the easiest option, but we were going to have to think outside the box. My new friend seemed to agree that life was being difficult based on the almost-sigh he let out. It looked as if I’d gotten through to him, though, because his body language changed to show he was more engaged with what I was saying.
“The cameras will show some of your movements. Anything that happens in about the first third of the space if I’m remembering them correctly.” I’d seen them a few times, but I’d never needed to remember the details. “So you’re going to haveto be subtle while we’re figuring things out, but I know you’re going to be able to do that.”
Playing up his smarts again seemed to help the situation because he went still and I could almost see the wheels in his head spinning. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but not being a pain in the ass meant I had to be patient.
Oh.
His front feet shifted back and forth slightly.
His ears flicked one at a time.
His tail went side to side slowly.
He was figuring out how he could communicate…thank God…he wasn’t going to be stubborn just to drive me insane.
“The ears were subtle and wouldn’t stand out on camera. Your tail going back and forth so deliberately might draw more attention but I really don’t think she’ll be able to see it from the position you’re in.” Should we make sure, though? “Um, why don’t you stand up and do a slow circle like you’re thinking and trying to decide if you’re going to ignore me.”
His ears flicked in a deliberate motion that made me want to smile. “Then when you settle back down, you’ll want to be about a foot deeper in the…the room.”
Space?
Kennel?
Cage?
No…not cage.
Thankfully my slightly attitude-inclined new friend didn’t notice my word issue as he stood up and did a very dog-likestretch before doing a wonderful job of shifting back in the kennel. When he settled down again, lower half well out of range of the camera, there was no question in my mind that I was right about him being a werewolf.
But we still needed to figure out what to do next…I was a math teacher, not the James Bond of the paranormal world.
“Wonderful.” Trying not to look too excited, I started talking through my thoughts. “How about something like right tail or ear twitch for yes and left for no?”
He twitched everything.
